Excise tax in the United States

Excise tax in the United States is an indirect tax on listed items. Excise taxes can be and are made by federal, state and local governments and are not uniform throughout the United States. Some excise taxes are collected from the producer or retailer and not paid directly by the consumer, and as such often remain "hidden" in the price of a product or service, rather than being listed separately.
Federal excise taxes and revenues.
Federal excise taxes raised $98.3 billion in fiscal year 2015 or 3% of total federal tax revenue.
Fuel.
Excise taxes on fuel raised $37.4 billion in fiscal year 2015. These fuel taxes raised 90% of the Highway Trust Fund (18.4¢ for gasoline and 24.4¢ for diesel fuel per gallon).
Airport & airway trust fund.
Excise taxes dedicated to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund raised $14.3 billion in fiscal year 2015. 90% of the excise tax revenue comes from taxing passenger air fares and the remaining 10% comes from air cargo and aviation fuel taxes.
Affordable Care Act excise taxes.
Excise taxes for the Affordable Care Act raised $16.3 billion in fiscal year 2015. $11.3 billion was an excise tax placed directly on health insurers based on their market share. The ACA was going to impose a 40% "Cadillac tax" on expensive employer sponsored health insurance but that was postponed until 2018, and later further postponed and eventually repealed before its rollout on December 20, 2019. Annual excise taxes totaling $3 billion were levied on importers and manufacturers of prescription drugs. An excise tax of 2.32% on medical devices and a 10% excise tax on indoor tanning services are applied as well. The same budget bill that repealed the Cadillac tax also repealed the medical device tax for all sales occurring after December 31.
Tobacco.
Excise taxes on tobacco raised $14.5 billion in fiscal year 2015. The tax equals about $1 per 20 pack of cigarettes.
Alcohol.
Excise taxes on alcoholic beverages raised $9.6 billion in fiscal year 2015.
Constitutional law.
The U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1789, gave the federal government authority to tax, stating that Congress has the power to
... lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States;
Tariffs between states are prohibited by the U.S. Constitution and all domestically made products can be imported or shipped to another state tax free. In the U.S. constitutional law sense, an excise tax is usually an "event" tax (as opposed to a "state of being" tax). A recent exception to this "state of being" principle is the "minimum essential coverage" tax under Internal Revenue Code section 5000A as enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111–148), whereby a tax penalty is imposed as an indirect tax on the condition of not having health insurance coverage; as reasoned by Chief Justice Roberts: "it is triggered by specific circumstances."
Federal excise taxes are also required by the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 8) to be uniform throughout the United States:
...all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.
Historical background.
Federal excise taxes have a storied background in the United States. Responding to an urgent need for revenue following the American Revolutionary War, after the U.S. Constitution was ratified by the ninth state in 1788 the newly elected First United States Congress passed, and President George Washington, signed the Tariff Act of July 4, 1789, which authorized the collection of tariff duties (customs) on imported goods. Tariffs and excise taxes were authorized by the United States Constitution and recommended by the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, in 1789, to tax foreign imports. Hamilton thought it was important to start the U.S. federal government out on a sound financial basis with good credit and a regular, easily collected source of income. Customs duties (tariffs) on imported goods, as set by tariff rates, were the source of about 80–95% of all federal revenue up to 1860. Having just fought a war over taxation (among other things) the U.S. Congress wanted a reliable source of income that was relatively unobtrusive, brought in enough money to pay off the debt and pay for the relatively low cost federal government (at the time) and be relatively easy to collect. Tariffs met all these criteria.
In addition to tariffs, low excise taxes were imposed to provide the federal government with some additional money to pay part of its operating expenses and to help redeem at full value U.S. federal debts and the debts the states had accumulated during the American Revolutionary War.
The first federal budget was about $4.6 million and the population in the 1790 U.S. Census was about four million, so that the average federal tax was about $1/person per year. At that time, tradesmen earned about $0.25 a day for a 10- to 12-hour day so federal taxes could be paid with about four days work. Paying even this was usually optional, as taxed imports listed on the tariff lists could usually be avoided by buying domestic products if desired.
Congress set low excise taxes on only a few goods, such as whiskey, rum, tobacco, snuff and refined sugar. These low excise taxes accounted for only a small percentage of the federal income (see table on U.S. Historical Taxes). Tariffs (custom duties) were initially by far the largest source of federal income. The excise tax on whiskey was so despised by western farmers who had no easy way to transport their bulky grain harvests to market without converting them into alcohol that it led to the Whiskey Rebellion, which had to be quelled by Washington calling up the militia and suppressing the rebellious farmers, all of whom were later pardoned. In the days before steamboats, canals, railroads, etc. bulky cargo could not economically be shipped far. The whiskey excise tax collected so little and was so despised that it was abolished by President Thomas Jefferson in 1802.
In the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 the imports and tariff taxes in the United States plummeted and Congress in 1812 brought back the excise tax on whiskey to partially compensate for the loss of customs/tariff revenue. Within a few years customs duties brought in enough federal income to abolish again nearly all federal taxes except tariffs. When the United States public debt was finally paid off in 1834, President Andrew Jackson abolished the excise taxes and reduced the customs duties (tariffs) in half.
Excise taxes stayed essentially zero until the American Civil War brought a need for much more federal revenue. Excise taxes were reintroduced on a wider range of items and income taxes were introduced.
By about 1916, the loans taken out during the Civil War were all paid off and the excise taxes were again set very low. On January 16, 1919 the 18th Amendment was passed and alcohol production, sale and transport were essentially prohibited. Taxing alcohol products would have produced almost no income, given that alcohol sales and production had gone underground. All federal excise taxes remained essentially zero for the next ten years.
During the Great Depression (1929–1939) President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress started reintroducing excise taxes to increase federal income which had dropped because of the much lower incomes and the resulting lower income tax collections. On December 5, 1933 the 21st Amendment was ratified and alcohol production became legal again. The healthy excise tax on now-legal alcoholic beverages paid about one third of all federal taxes during the Great Depression.
Excise taxes now have become an established part of the general budget as well as the source of funds for various trusts. The U.S. has expanded the definition of items on the excise tax lists as trusts for highways, airports, vaccines, black lung, oil spills, etc. have been set up. These are financed by excise taxes on fuels, tickets, vaccines, coal, oil, etc.
Excise tax types.
For purposes of the U.S. Constitution, an excise tax can be broadly defined as any indirect tax (usually, a tax on an event). In this sense, an excise means any tax "other than": (1) a property tax or ad valorem tax by reason of its ownership; (2) a tax per head tax or capitation tax by being present (very rare in the United States).
In this broad sense, income taxes, value added taxes (VATs), sales taxes, and transfer taxes are examples of other excise taxes, but are typically not called excise taxes (in the United States) because of the different ways they are imposed. In the United States, essentially the only taxes called excise taxes are the taxes on quantities of enumerated items (whiskey, wine, tobacco, gasoline, tires, etc.). Other taxes on certain events may technically be considered excise taxes in the broad sense, but may or may not be collected under the name "excise tax" where the term is used in a different, more narrow sense.
In the more narrow sense, taxes denominated as "excise" taxes are usually taxes on events, such as the purchase of a quantity of a particular item like gasoline, diesel fuel, beer, liquor, wine, cigarettes, airline tickets, tires, trucks, etc. These taxes are usually included in the price of the item—not listed separately like sales taxes usually are. To minimize tax accounting complications, the excise tax is usually imposed on quantities like gallons of fuel, gallons of wine or drinking alcohol, packets of cigarettes, etc. and are usually paid initially by the manufacturer or retailer.
The burdens of excise taxes are often passed on to the consumer who eventually "consumes" the product. The price for which the item is eventually sold is not generally considered in calculating the amount of the excise tax.
An example of a "state of being" tax is an ad valorem property tax—which is not an excise. Customs or tariffs are based on the property (usually imported goods) as a "state of being" or ad valorem taxes and are also typically not called excise taxes. Excise taxes are collected by producers and retailers and paid to the Internal Revenue Service or other state and/or local government tax collection agency. Historical federal excise tax collections to 1945 are listed in the "Historical Statistics of the United States" and more recent federal excise tax data is listed in the White House historical tables.
An excise is imposed on listed specific taxable events or products and is usually not collected or paid directly by the consumer. Excise taxes are collected by the producer or retailer and paid to the Internal Revenue Service, state or local tax agency. The producer can usually pass at least some of the burden of the excise tax to the consumer, the amount of which is added to the price of the product when it is sold. The degree to which consumers and producers will share the burden, called tax incidence, depends upon the price elasticities of supply and demand. Often sales taxes are collected as a percentage of the cost of the product including its excise tax—a tax on a tax.
Traditionally the federal government has left property taxes and sales taxes to the states and local governments for their revenue. Tariffs or customs duties on imported goods are essentially the only property taxes imposed by the U.S. federal government. Tariffs can be set only by the federal government, not by any state or local jurisdiction. For U.S. constitutional law purposes, a customs duty or tariff is nominally in a separate category from an excise tax. Excise taxes can be (and are) set by federal, state and local jurisdictions.
Many taxes are simply called an excise tax in the statute imposing that tax (an excise in the "statutory law" sense) even though they could more accurately be called some other kind of tax. A collection of different taxes has accumulated over the years under the excise tax classification.
Often trust funds do not collect enough taxes because of assumptions that the politicians made in setting the excise tax rates and allowable trust fund projects result in underfunding. Changing consumer purchases have made the original assumptions wrong which may also result in underfunding. Because many of the funds are allocated to repay bonds and other long term projects, they often require an infusion of general funds to stay solvent. Long term adjustments of tax rates or a less extensive list of allowable trust fund projects to keep the funds solvent require bi-partisan agreements, which are obviously rare.
The excise taxes on alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and firearms are administered under the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) in the United States Department of the Treasury. The total excise taxes on gasoline, diesel etc. for each state have been calculated.
Federal Trust Fund excise tax collections are often remitted to each state by complicated allocation plans. The Highway Trust fund moneys are split between highways and transit systems. The Highway Account normally receives about 85% of all highway trust fund taxes, and the Mass Transit Account receives about 15% of all Highway Trust Fund excise tax collections.
The Highway Trust Fund may well require tax rate adjustments to stay solvent and make up for the increased car mileage dictated by the EPA or the increased use of untaxed electric vehicles. As fuel prices increase, there is a slow decrease in gallons of fuel bought as vehicles are made more efficient and/or travel smaller distances all of which reduce Highway Trust Fund collections. Federal funding of the Highway Trust Fund is restricted for use on capital expenditures, such as construction and reconstruction of roads, bridges or tunnels, or payment of bonds sold to finance the work.
The bulk of funding is for specific programs set up to channel aid to the states for a variety of uses, such as providing capital funding for the nation's most heavily used roads, maintaining interstates, and fixing bridges. Regular maintenance on non-interstate roads, including pothole patching and snowplowing, must be funded through other sources. Funding often requires a partial dollar match by the states. The Mass Transit Account which gets its funding from a fraction of the excise taxes imposed on fuels, etc. has similar restrictions.
Statutory law.
The term "excise" also has a statutory law meaning. Generally, in the United States any statute that imposes a tax specifically denominated as an "excise" is an excise tax law. U.S. federal statutory excises are (or have been) imposed under Subtitle D ("miscellaneous excise taxes") and Subtitle E ("Alcohol, Tobacco, and Certain Other Excise Taxes") of the Internal Revenue Code, through , relating to such things as luxury passenger automobiles, heavy trucks and trailers, "gas guzzler" vehicles, tires, petroleum products, coal, vaccines, recreational equipment, firearms (see National Firearms Act), communications services (see telephone federal excise tax), air transportation, policies issued by foreign insurance companies, wagering, water transportation, removal of hard mineral resources from deep seabeds, chemicals, certain imported substances, non-deductible contributions to certain employer plans, and many other subjects. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts charges what it calls an "excise tax" on all vehicles, even though this is, in fact, an ad valorem tax.
Excise duties usually have one or two purposes: to raise revenue and to discourage particular behavior or purchase of particular items. Taxes such as those on sales of fuel, alcohol and tobacco are often "justified" on both grounds. Some economists suggest that the optimal revenue raising taxes should be levied on sales of items having an inelastic demand, while behavior altering taxes should be levied where demand is elastic. Most items on the excise tax lists are relatively inelastic "addictions" with only long term elasticity.
One of the most common excises in the United States is the cigarette tax imposed by both the federal and state governments. This tax is simply an excise tax applied to each pack of cigarettes. Specifically, the federal government uniformly charges an excise tax of $1.01 for a standard pack of 20 cigarettes. On top of the federal tax, all 50 states levy a different cigarette tax that ranges from $0.17 per pack in Missouri to $4.35 per pack in New York. Overall, the excise taxes constitute most of the retail cost of cigarettes. Cigarette taxes can be avoided in some jurisdictions if the consumer purchases loose tobacco and cigarette paper separately or by purchase of cigarettes from lower taxed states.
Excise taxes can be imposed and collected at the point of production or importation, or at the point of sale and then remitted to the Internal Revenue Service or state or local taxing agency. Often some excise taxes are collected by the federal government and then remitted to the states on a partially matching basis to pay for particular items like interstate highway construction, airport construction or bridge repairs. Excise taxes are usually waived or refunded on goods being exported, so as to encourage exports. Smugglers and other tax evaders will often seek to obtain items at a point at which they are not taxed or taxed much lower and then later sell or use them at a price lower than the post-tax price in their jurisdiction.
For similar items, excise duties are the same for imported and domestically produced goods; if the tax is different, then there is an explicit or implicit customs duty or tariff.
An unusual example of a state "excise" tax is found in the State of Hawaii. In lieu of a sales tax, the State of Hawaii imposes a tax called a General Excise Tax, or GET, on all business activity in the State. The GET is charged at a rate of 4% for most businesses and 0.5% for wholesalers. The tax is imposed on all business entities, so in essence, the tax is collected at every level of production (material supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer.) The GET is also charged on all business service activity such as real estate agent commissions, lawyer fees and the like. A more accurate tax term would be a value added tax or VAT.
With Hawaii's industry heavily dependent on tourism and tourist spending, the state regularly raises nearly half its government revenues through the imposition of the GET. Hawaii's GET has been criticized for having a disproportionate impact on low-income families because of the fact it is charged on intermediary transactions (such as those between wholesaler and retailer) as well as services, resulting in a pyramiding effect as costs rise in relation to final retail prices.
Excise tax enforcement.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), formed in 1886, is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevention of federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms and explosives; acts of arson and bombings; and illegal manufacturing and trafficking of alcohol and tobacco products that avoid paying the federal excise taxes on these products.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) within the United States Department of the Treasury is responsible for collecting the over one million excise tax returns that collects almost $70 billion in excise taxes. IRS publication 510 lists all the forms, rates, rules etc. on federal excise tax collection. The IRS is authorized to sue people who violate the excise tax rules and have them incarcerated.
Commentary on excises.
Samuel Johnson's "A Dictionary of the English Language" defined "excise" in 1755, as "A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid."


Knut Getz Wold

Knut Getz Wold (3 August 1915 – 9 October 1987) was a Norwegian economist and civil servant, who served as the governor of the Central Bank of Norway from 1970 to 1985.
He was born in Verdal in Nord-Trøndelag, as a son of district physician Trygve Wold (1879–1939) and Anna Ella Getz (1893–1960). He graduated from the University of Oslo with cand.oecon. degree in 1939. As a young man he became a member of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights. He lost his brother Torolf during the Norwegian Campaign on 4 May 1940.
He started working with research at the university, and studied further at Stockholm College in 1940. In 1941 he started working for the Ministry of Finance-in-exile in the United Kingdom. From July 1947 to March 1948 he served as a State Secretary in the Ministry of Social Affairs. Wold represented the Liberal Party, and Gerhardsen's Second Cabinet in which he was appointed was a Labour cabinet. This discrepancy is very uncommon in Norwegian history.
In 1948 he returned to the civil servant role when he became deputy under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Trade. In his diaries he described the Ministry of Trade as "not [...] a ministry, but a Brain Trust of young economists". He remained there until 1958, when former Minister of Trade Erik Brofoss, who now had become governor of the Central Bank of Norway, appointed Wold as deputy governor. Wold was the unquestionable successor as governor when Brofoss withdrew in 1970. In 1985, the year of his seventieth birthday, Wold stepped down and was succeeded by Hermod Skånland.
Wold was also a consultant for the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 1946 to 1958, financial commentator in Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation radio from 1948 to 1970, chairman of Statsøkonomisk Forening from 1963 to 1968, board chairman of "Dagbladet" from 1970 to 1974 and board member of Alcan Aluminium from 1967 to 1971. He was appointed a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1975, a Commander of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog and a Grand Knight of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon. He died in October 1987 in Oslo.


Sharmistha Mukherjee

Sharmistha Mukherjee (born 30 October 1965) is an Indian Kathak dancer, choreographer and politician of the Indian National Congress.
Early life and education.
Born in West Bengal, Mukherjee grew up in Delhi. Her father was Pranab Mukherjee, who was the 13th President of the Republic of India.
Dance career.
Mukherjee began formal dance training at age 12. Her teachers included Pandit Durgalal, Vidushi Uma Sharma and Rajendra Gangani. "The Hindu" called her performances "accomplished" and lauded her precise footwork.
Politics.
Sharmistha joined the INC in July 2014. Since then she has been actively participating in rallies organized by the party and working at the grass root level with the party workers in her area. She contested the Delhi Assembly election in February 2015 from the Greater Kailash constituency but lost, coming third with 6,102 votes after Saurabh Bharadwaj (AAP, 57,589 votes) and Rakesh Gullaiya (BJP, 43,006 votes).


Maybe Baby (film)

Maybe Baby is a 2000 British comedy film starring Hugh Laurie and Joely Richardson. It was written and directed by Ben Elton, with Laurie directing some scenes in an uncredited role, and based upon Elton's 1999 novel, "Inconceivable". The film was a critical failure, and did not do well at the box office, despite a cast including many of the best-known names within comedy in Britain.
Plot.
Sam Bell (Hugh Laurie) and his wife Lucy (Joely Richardson) are a married couple struggling for a baby, having tried everything they can think of to improve their chances of conceiving. At the same time, Sam begins to find his job (as a commissioning editor of drama at the BBC) increasingly unfulfilling. While he resolves to write his own screenplay, he begins to suffer writer's block.
The idea dawns upon him to write about his own predicament, something to which Lucy objects strongly. He uses her diary entries to help him achieve authenticity, and the film is a success. Lucy finds out about the film and, shocked, leaves Sam. Eventually they reconcile, and at the end of the story are still trying for a baby.
It marks the second time Laurie and Richardson have starred in the same film; the first was "101 Dalmatians" (although in that film they shared no scenes).
Soundtrack.
The title song "Maybe Baby" is performed by Paul McCartney and co-produced by McCartney and Jeff Lynne. "I Don't Wanna Fight", a song from Westlife's self-titled debut album, is played in the last part of the movie. Melanie C's song "Suddenly Monday" also appears on the soundtrack, alongside tracks by Roxy Music, Lene Marlin, Atomic Kitten, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, George Michael and Madness.
Laurie co-wrote and performed the humorous blues song "Sperm Test in the Morning".
Reception.
Rotten Tomatoes reported a 46% approval rating, with an average rating of 5.1/10 based on 28 reviews. When the film was released in the United Kingdom it opened at No. 3, behind "Gladiator" and "Final Destination".


Khorshed Alam

Khorshed Alam served as the fifth Governor of Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh during 1992–1996.
Alam has served as the chairman of the board of trustees of University of Asia Pacific. Currently he is a UAP Foundation member and trustee member.


Gabriel Ntisezerana

Gabriel Ntisezerana is a Burundian politician who was Vice-President of Burundi from February 2007 to August 2010. Subsequently, he was President of the Senate of Burundi from August 2010 to August 2015. He is also a trained economist and banker. He previously served as governor of the central bank, Bank of the Republic of Burundi, from 2006 to 2007.


Greek nationality law

Nationality law of Greece is based on the principle of "jus sanguinis". Greek citizenship may be acquired by descent or through naturalization. Greek law permits dual citizenship. A Greek national is a citizen of the European Union, and therefore entitled to the same rights as other EU citizens.
Descent.
A child of a Greek citizen acquires Greek nationality automatically at birth. The same applies to children born in Greece whose parents have lived legally and permanently in Greece for five years. Children born abroad and whose parents have lived legally and permanently in Greece for five years become Greek citizens upon successful completion of elementary education (six years). Greeks born abroad may transmit citizenship to their children from generation to generation indefinitely.
A child born out of wedlock is automatically Greek if the mother is Greek (see matrilineality). If the father is Greek and paternity can be proven (for example, through a paternity test), the child will become Greek when an application is submitted for the child to become a Greek citizen, providing the child has not yet reached the age of 18. An alien who is over 18 may become Greek by naturalization.
A child over 18 of a Greek father does not require naturalization if they can establish a chain of Greek citizenship through properly recorded birth and marriage certificates.
An ethnic Greek born outside of Greece may acquire Greek citizenship by naturalization if they fail to qualify for simple registration as the child of a Greek citizen. (This provision excludes Greek Cypriots, who may seek Cypriot citizenship instead.) The applicant must prove that at least one parent or grandparent was born a Greek national.
Naturalization.
Naturalization requirements are different for ethnic Greek and non-ethnic Greek aliens:
Children of a naturalized alien become Greeks if, at the time of completion of the naturalization proceedings, they are not married and are less than 18 years old.
A panel of Council of State (Supreme Court) judges has ruled that the citizenship law as described above, which allows foreigners who legally reside in Greece to vote and stand in local elections, is unconstitutional as only Greeks should be allowed this right.
Marriage.
At present, marriage does not entail the acquisition or loss of Greek nationality. Before 1984, a woman marrying a Greek national became Greek automatically.
Naturalization by military service or monasticism in Mount Athos.
Ethnic Greeks accepted to the military academies for officers or non-commissioned officers of the Greek armed forces (according to the special law governing each school) or who enlist in the armed forces as volunteers (according to the law governing each branch) acquire Greek nationality automatically from the time they enter the academies or are enlisted. Moreover, according to the Greek constitution, aliens admitted as monks in one of the monasteries of Mount Athos, become Greek automatically.
Loss of citizenship.
A Greek national does not usually lose their Greek citizenship when they obtain another nationality unless they specifically request it or in the rare case where a permit for citizenship was granted for by the Greek government to that citizen and they subsequently obtain the citizenship of another country. A Greek citizen may voluntarily renounce citizenship by submitting an application to the Ministry of Interior in Athens. For male Greek nationals, renunciation of citizenship is subject to the completion of their military duties.
Dual citizenship.
Greece allows its citizens to hold foreign citizenship in addition to their Greek citizenship. Some countries, however, do not permit multiple citizenship e.g. adults who acquired Greek and Japanese citizenship by birth must declare, to the latter's Ministry of Justice, before turning 22, which citizenship they want to keep.
Citizenship of the European Union.
Because Greece forms part of the European Union, Greek citizens are also citizens of the European Union under European Union law and thus enjoy rights of free movement and have the right to vote in elections for the European Parliament. When in a non-EU country where there is no Greek embassy, Greek citizens have the right to get consular protection from the embassy of any other EU country present in that country. Greek citizens can live and work in any country within the EU as a result of the right of free movement and residence granted in Article 21 of the EU Treaty.
Travel freedom of Greek citizens.
Visa requirements for Greek citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Greece. In 2017, Greek citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 171 countries and territories, ranking the Greek passport 6th in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.
In 2017, the Greek nationality is ranked twenty-first in Nationality Index (QNI). This index differs from the Visa Restrictions Index, which focuses on external factors including travel freedom. The QNI considers, in addition, to travel freedom on internal factors such as peace & stability, economic strength, and human development as well.


Paul v. Virginia

Paul v. Virginia, 75 U.S. (8 Wall.) 168 (1869), is a U.S. corporate law decision by the United States Supreme Court. It held that a corporation is not a citizen within the meaning of the Privileges and Immunities Clause. Of greater consequence, the Court further held that "issuing a policy of insurance is not a transaction of commerce," effectively removing the business of insurance beyond the United States Congress's legislative reach.
Facts.
In the 19th century, the insurance business was exclusively regulated by the states, individually. As a result, a patchwork of separate regulations proliferated to the dismay of insurance companies which sought uniform regulation across states. In an effort to promote federal regulation of the insurance industry, a number of New York insurance companies orchestrated a test case to try to invalidate state regulation. On February 3, 1866, the legislature of Virginia had passed a statute provided that an insurance company not incorporated under the laws of the state should not carry on its business within the State without previously obtaining a license for that purpose and that it should not receive such license until it had deposited with the treasurer of the state bonds in an amount varying from thirty to fifty thousand dollars.
In May 1866, Samuel Paul, a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia, was appointed the agent of the New York insurance companies, to carry on the general business of insurance against fire. He then applied for a license to act as such agent within the state, offering at the time to comply with all the requirements of the statute with the exception of the provision requiring a deposit of bonds with the treasurer of the state. Based on his failure to comply with the requirements of the statute, the license was refused. Notwithstanding this refusal he undertook to act in the State as agent for the New York companies without any license.
Paul sold a fire insurance policy to a citizen of Virginia. He was then indicted and convicted in the Circuit Court of the city of Petersburg, and was sentenced to pay a fine of $50. Paul claimed that the statute was invalid.
Judgment.
Supreme Court of Virginia.
The Supreme Court of Appeals of the State, the judgment was affirmed, and the case was then appealed to the Supreme Court. Paul claimed that the writ of error on the judgment in the lower court violated Privileges and Immunities Clause, which provides that "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States" and the Commerce Clause, which empowers Congress "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States."
Supreme Court of the United States.
The US Supreme Court held that a corporation is not a citizen within the meaning of the Privileges and Immunities Clause. It also held that "issuing a policy of insurance is not a transaction of commerce," effectively removing the business of insurance beyond the United States Congress's legislative reach.
Significance.
In 1944, the Supreme Court overturned the holding of "Paul v. Virginia" in "United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Association", finding that insurance transactions were subject to federal regulation under the Commerce Clause.


Francis Gwyn

Francis Gwyn PC (1648 – 14 June 1734), of Llansannor Court, was a Welsh Tory politician who sat in the English and House of Commons at various times between 1673 and 1727.
Background.
Gwyn was the son and heir of Edward Gwyn of Llansannor, Glamorganshire, who married Eleanor, youngest daughter of Sir Francis Popham of Littlecott, Wiltshire. He was born at Combe Florey in Somerset about 1648. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 1 June 1666, aged 17 and was admitted at Middle Temple in 1667. Although he trained as a lawyer, he had ample means and went into politics.
Member of Parliament.
Gwyn was elected as Member of Parliament for Chippenham at the general election of 1673 and although his election was voided on 6 February, he was returned at a by-election on 11 February 1673. He was defeated at Chippenham at the 1679 general election and remained outside the House of Commons discharging his official duties. At the 1685 general election he was returned unopposed as MP for Cardiff. He was returned unopposed as MP for Christchurch on the recommendation of Lord Clarendon in 1689 and sat in the Convention Parliament of 1689 to 1690 and in its successor from 1690 to 1695.
At the 1695 general election, Gwyn was returned unopposed as MP for Callington. He was returned unopposed as MP for Totnes at a by-election on 11 January 1699 and at the first general election of 1701. He was then returned unopposed for Christchurch at the second general election of 1701, in 1702, 1705 and in 1708. At the 1710 general election he was elected MP for Totnes and was returned unopposed in 1713.
Gwyn was a Tory, and lost his seat at 1715 general election after the accession of George I. He was returned unopposed as MP for Christchurch at a by-election on 9 March 1717. At the general election in 1722 he was returned unopposed for both Christchurch and elected in a contest at Wells and chose to sit for Wells. At the dissolution in 1727 he retired from parliamentary life.
Official.
In return for the sum of £2,500 Sir Robert Southwell vacated for Gwyn the post of clerk of the council, and he was sworn in on 5 December 1679, holding the office until January 1685. Until the death of Charles II he was a Groom of the Bedchamber, and he was twice under-secretary of state, from February 1681 to January 1683, under his cousin, Edward, Earl of Conway, and from Christmas 1688 to Michaelmas 1689.
When Lord Rochester was lord high treasurer under James II, Gwyn was joint secretary to the treasury with Henry Guy, and when Rochester was made lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1701 Gwyn was his chief secretary, and a privy councillor. At one time he served as a commissioner of public accounts. From June 1711 to August 1713 he was a commissioner of the board of trade, and he was then secretary at war until 24 September 1714, when he received a letter of dismissal from Lord Townshend. He was recorder of Totnes and steward of Brecknock.
Works and correspondence.
The minutes of the business which he transacted during his periods of office were sold with the effects of Ford Abbey in 1846. He accompanied James on his expedition to the west in November 1688, and his diary of the journey was printed by C. T. Gatty in the "Fortnightly Review", xlvi. 358–64 (1886). When the House of Lords met at the Guildhall, London, in December 1688, he acted as their secretary, and kept a journal of the proceedings.
Several letters by Gwyn dated 1686 and 1687, one of which was written when he was setting out with Lord Rochester and James Kendall on a visit to Spa, are printed in the 'Ellis Correspondence' (ed. by Lord Dover), i. 170–171, 202–3, 253–4, 314–15. In 'Notes and Queries,' 2nd ser. xii. 44 (1861), is inserted a letter from him to Harley, introducing Narcissus Luttrell the diarist, and many other communications to and from him are referred to in the Historical MSS. Commission's reports. The constancy of his friendship with Rochester was so notorious that in the 'Wentworth Papers,' p. 163, occurs the sentence 'Frank Gwin, Lord Rotchester's gwine as they call him.'
Family.
In 1690 Gwyn married his cousin Margaret Prideaux, third daughter of Edmund Prideaux, and his wife Amy Fraunceis, coheiress of John Fraunceis of Combe Florey, and granddaughter of Edmund Prideaux, attorney-general of Cornwall. They had four sons and three daughters, besides others who died young, and their issue is set out in the pedigree in John Hutchins's "History of Dorset". He was succeeded in turn by his son Edward and William who were also Members of Parliament.
By his marriage Gwyn eventually became owner of the property of that branch of the Prideaux family, including Forde Abbey. The property passed from the family on the death of J. F. Gwyn in 1846, when there was an eight days' sale of the abbey's contents. The sale of the plate, some of which had belonged to Francis Gwyn, occupied almost the whole of the first day. The family portraits, collected by him and his father-in-law, were also sold. In the grand saloon was hung the tapestry said to have been wrought at Arras, and given to Gwyn by Queen Anne, depicting the cartoons of Raphael, for which Catharine of Russia, through Count Orloff, offered £30,000; and this was sold to the new proprietor for £2,200. One room at Ford Abbey was called 'Queen Anne's,' for whom it was fitted up when its owner was secretary at war; and the walls were adorned with tapestry representing a Welsh wedding; the furniture and tapestry were also purchased for preservation with the house.
Gwyn died at Forde Abbey on 2 June 1734, aged 86, and was buried in its chapel.


Hafren Dyfrdwy

Hafren Dyfrdwy is a water company providing water and wastewater services, operating in north east and mid Wales. It provides water only in Wrexham and parts of Denbighshire and Flintshire and both water and wastewater in northern Powys. It previously served north east Wales and parts of North West England as Dee Valley Water until June 2018. Its parent entity, Dee Valley Group PLC had shares listed on the FTSE Fledgling Index on the London Stock Exchange, but was purchased by Severn Trent in February 2017.
The company is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991.
On 1 July 2018, all of the water service area of Dee Valley Water and Severn Trent lying in Wales became part of the Dee Valley Water company, which was granted a new wastewater appointment and renamed as Hafren Dyfrdwy, Welsh for 'Severn Dee'. The residue of Dee Valley Water lying in England (at Chester) was taken over by sister company Severn Trent Water.
History.
Wrexham Waterworks Company.
After Wrexham achieved its Charter of Incorporation in 1857, attentions turned to a proper water supply for the town, as residents relied on wells and the River Gwenfro for their water supply, which contained trade effluence from the many breweries, leatherworks and brickworks present. In 1863, the Wrexham Waterworks Company was first established with the aim of pumping water from nearby Pentrebychan, West enough of the town to not be influenced by pollution. The first works, opened in the same year, were primitive, with only a reservoir and slow sand filter for water treatment, these were made obsolete by the construction of an impounding reservoir further upstream in 1878, this reservoir, named Cae Llwyd, has a capacity of .
In 1904, demand had again increased, and the company now supplied parts of Cheshire as well as Wrexham. To meet this increased demand, a new, larger reservoir was built, named Ty Mawr, which opened in 1907. The same Act of Parliament that allowed the construction also authorised the name change of Wrexham Waterworks Company to the Wrexham and East Denbighshire Water Company. The construction of these works also enabled the construction and expansion of the treatment works at Legacy in 1921, as well as the construction of legacy water tower by 1934. Pumps had also been installed at disused mines, notably at Minera Lead Mines, to extract water in times of drought.
 During the 1950s, there was a period of consolidation. The company acquired several other local water supply companies, including those at nearby Ruabon and Brymbo, as well as undertakings previously run by district councils. The company also took possession of the large water extraction works at Sesswick built by the Ministry of Works to supply ROF Wrexham during World War II. In 1983, the expansion of the company dictated that larger offices were required. The headquarters at Egerton Street were sold and the company moved to new, purpose built offices at Packsaddle, Rhostyllen.
Chester Waterworks Company.
A water supply system has been present in Chester since Roman times with water taken from the River Dee and small local sources. There certainly appears to have been a well at Christleton to the east of the city in the 14th century and by 1537 records reveal a conduit being built from Broughton to convey water into the city. In 1838 the City of Chester Waterworks Company was established inheriting an intake at the causeway – now called Chester Weir. The Chester Weir intake remains in use.
Merger.
In 1994, the Wrexham and East Denbighshire Water Company was re-organised into a PLC, known as Wrexham Water, and the new parent company Dee Valley Group was established to act as a holding company to the new company. In 1997, the group purchased Chester Waterworks, and over the next year, combined operations from both entities into Dee Valley Water. In 2002, Dee Valley Group was listed on the London Stock Exchange with the ticker code DVW.
Montgomeryshire area.
In 1974 the functions of Montgomeryshire Water Board and local authority wastewater functions in Montgomeryshire became part of Severn Trent Water Authority. Upon privatisation in 1989 these were transferred to the licensed water and sewerage company Severn Trent Water. This area is now part of Powys.
2016 takeover bids.
In October 2016 the board of Dee Valley Water announced that they had agreed a takeover of the company by Ancala Fornia Limited. This offer would have allowed the company to remain as an independent water company. Three weeks later the board announced that they were now recommending a 10% higher offer from Severn Trent Water. Several local MPs expressed concern about the potential impact on jobs and local services arising from the proposed Severn Trent takeover. Ancala subsequently increased their offer to 1p per share above Severn Trent, and two days later Severn Trent further increased their offer by a further 7.3%. The takeover by Severn Trent was completed in February 2017.


Rate schedule (federal income tax)

A rate schedule is a chart that helps United States taxpayers determine their federal income tax for a particular year. Another name for "rate schedule" is "rate table".
Origin.
The origin of the current rate schedules is the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (IRC), which is separately published as Title 26 of the United States Code. With that law, the U.S. Congress created four types of rate tables, all of which are based on a taxpayer's filing status (e.g., "married individuals filing joint returns," "heads of households").
Each year the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) updates rate schedules in accordance with guidelines that Congress established in the IRC. In general, the IRS bases such adjustments on inflation and cost of living increases in the previous year.
Application.
The tax rate schedules give tax rates for given levels of taxable income. There is a complex relationship between taxable income and actual income, making it difficult to draw conclusions from the tables. Even the marginal tax rates are misleading because there are various laws that relate taxable income to actual income such that an increase of a dollar of actual income results in an increase of more or less than a dollar in taxable income depending on the circumstances surrounding the increase, thus making the marginal tax rate dependent on an individual taxpayer's personal situation.
These schedules apply only to regular US income tax, whereas there is a second income tax, the Alternative Minimum Tax, that uses a different schedule. A taxpayer's tax obligation is the higher of those two income taxes, which makes drawing conclusions from the table even more difficult.
Format.
All rate schedules have an identical format, containing four columns and seven rows (called "brackets"). The first two columns indicate the range of taxable income that a taxpayer must have to qualify for a particular tax rate. The third column indicates the tax rate itself. The fourth column gives the range of income to which the current marginal rate applies.
Given that Congress has prescribed a system of progressive taxation, all but the lowest-earning taxpayers pay distinct rates for different parts of their income.
The following are the IRS rate schedules for 2014:
Schedule X — Single
Schedule Y-1 — Married filing jointly or qualifying widow(er)
Schedule Y-2 — Married filing separately
Schedule Z — Head of household
Caution: These tables shown above are accurate for 2014 only and do not apply for any other year.
For 2013 and 2015.
Use of rate schedules.
To use a rate schedule, a taxpayer must know their filing status and amount of taxable income. Definitions related to one's filing status can be found in IRC § A.2(a-b), and general guidelines regarding taxable income are described in IRC § A.63(a-b). Once a taxpayer has made these determinations, he (1) references the pertinent rate schedule, (2) finds the appropriate bracket (based on her taxable income), and (3) uses the formula described in the third column to determine his federal income tax.
Assume, for example, that Taxpayer A is single and has a taxable income of $175,000 in 2014. The following steps apply the procedure outlined above:
 (1) Because he is single, the pertinent rate table is Schedule X.
 (2) Given that his income falls between $89,350 and $186,350, he uses the fourth bracket in Schedule X.
 (3) His federal income tax will be "$18,193.75 plus 28% of the amount over
 $89,350." Applying this formula to Taxpayer A, one arrives at the
 following result:
 $18,193.75 + (0.28 * ($175,000 - $89,350)) =
 $18,193.75 + (0.28 * $85,650) =
 $18,193.75 + $23,982 = $42,175.75.
Accordingly, Taxpayer A must pay $42,175.75 in federal income taxes for 2014. Since his income is in the fourth bracket, his marginal tax rate for each additional dollar he earns is 28%, but his effective tax rate is 24% ($42,175.75/$175,000 is .241).
See also.
General:


Virgilio Barco Isakson

Virgilio Barco Isakson (born 1965) is a Colombian economist and political scientist. Barco Isakson is currently Latin America Director at Acumen, a leading impact investing fund that focuses on tackling global poverty.
Career.
Barco Isakson holds a Bachelor of Arts in government from Harvard University (1987), a Master of Science in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Master of Arts in economics from New York University. During his freshman year of college, he lived in Thayer Hall with Eric Prenowitz.
Barco Isakson served as executive director of the Banca de Inversión Social, a nonprofit organization that is at the forefront of impact investing in Colombia. From 2006 to 2010, he led Invest in Bogota, a public-private partnership that promotes foreign direct investment to the Greater Bogotá region. Barco Isakson also headed the privatization unit at the Colombian Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and was an advisor on local economic development for the country's planning department. He has also worked as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in Brazil and as a financial analyst at Citibank in Spain.
Barco Isakson is co-founder and board president of Colombia Diversa, a Bogotá-based nonprofit organization that advocates for LGBT rights in Colombia. He also sat on the board of Instiglio, a nonprofit that is promoting the use of impact bonds to address social and environmental challenges in developing countries.
Personal life.
Barco Isakson was born to former Colombian president Virgilio Barco Vargas and Carolina Isakson Proctor. Barco Isakson is the youngest of four: Carolina, Julia, and Diana. He lives in Bogotá with his partner, Andrew Dier, with whom he has been together since 1998.


Murray Bourchier (diplomat)

Murray Goulburn Madden Bourchier (28 March 19253 July 1981) was an Australian public servant and diplomat.
Life and career.
Bourchier joined the Commonwealth Public Service in 1951 as a cadet in the Department of External Affairs.
In August 1971 Bourchier's appointment as Australian Ambassador to the Republic of Korea was announced. He took up his appointment as head of mission in November 1971.
From 1977 to 1980 Bourchier was Australian Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Relationships between the two countries were tense during the period. In 1979 Bourchier was medically evacuated from Moscow to London where he was diagnosed with a cerebral tumour. He stepped down from his post in August 1980.
In June 1981, Bouchier was appointed an Officer in the general division of the Order of Australia in recognition of his services as a diplomatic representative.
Bourchier died at home in Deakin, Canberra, on Friday 3 July 1981.


Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal

Louis of Hesse-Philippsthal (German: "Ludwig von Hessen-Philippsthal"; 8 October 1766 – 15 February 1816) was a German nobleman and a general. He fought for the Kingdom of Naples (later Kingdom of the Two Sicilies). From 1813 until his death, he was the ruling Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal.
Biography.
Louis was born at Philippsthal as the son of William, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal and his wife Princess Ulrike Eleonora of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld.
A prince of the family of the Landgraves of Hesse-Philippsthal, he fought for the Kingdom of Naples during the Napoleonic Wars. In the course of the War of the Third Coalition, he commanded the garrison of the fortress of Gaeta in the siege laid by the French in 1806, refusing to obey the order of the Neapolitan government to surrender it. His troops resisted for six months, until 18 July after Louis, while leading his men on the bastions, was wounded on 10 July and had to leave the fortress.
Later, together with colonel Nunziante and lieutenant colonel Bardot, an expedition of 4,000 men who, in 1807, left Sicily to attempt the reconquest of the mainland of Naples. They were however defeated in the Battle of Mileto of 28 May 1807.
After the death of his brother Charles in the siege of Frankfurt in 1793, Louis succeeded him as hereditary prince of the langraviate of Hesse-Philippsthal. When Louis died childless at Naples in 1816 (his only son had died in 1802, aged four), the title went to his brother Ernst Konstantin.
Marriage and issue.
Louis married on 21 January 1791 in Susteren to Countess Marie Franziska (1771-1805), daughter of Count Franz Adolph (1732-1799) and Eleonore Kunigunde von (1747-1783). His parents were unaware of this marriage and didn't recognize when they learned about it. Moreover, he had to resign from the Dutch army, as officers were not allowed to marry Catholics. Marie Franziska had connections, and managed to get her husband a position in the army of the Kingdom of Naples. She served as Mistress of the Robes at the court of Queen Maria Carolina.
Louis and Marie Franziska had two children:


Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is an Emirati businessman and managing director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. He is a member of the Al Nahyan, ruling family of Abu Dhabi.
Early life and education.
Sheikh Hamed is the son of late Emir (ruler) of Abu Dhabi, the founder and first president of UAE. His mother is Sheikha Mouza. He has four full-brothers, including late Sheikh Ahmed and Sheikh Saif. Current emir of Abu Dhabi, UAE President, Sheikh Khalifa is his half-brother. Hamed holds an economics degree, which he received from Emirates University, and a master's degree in petroleum economics, which he obtained from the University of Wales.
Career.
Sheikh Hamed is the chairman of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court and the member of Executive Council of Abu Dhabi. He is the deputy chairman of Khalifa University's board of trustees. Sheik Hamad is the chairman of the board of directors of Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi government-owned airlines.
On 14 April 2010, he replaced his deceased brother Sheikh Ahmed as the managing director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the three largest sovereign wealth fund.
Influence.
In 2012, he was included in the 50 Most Influential list of "Bloomberg Markets" magazine. He is the 12th in the list. In July 2013, Sheikh Hamed was ranked #1 on the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute's Public Investor 100 ranking.


Eric Holland

Eric Sidney Fostyn Holland (28 June 1921 – 1 July 1989) was a New Zealand politician who served as Shadow Minister of Energy under Robert Muldoon and was an elected member of the House of Representatives from 1967 to 1981 for the National Party.
Biography.
Early life and career.
Holland was born in 1921; he was the son of former prime minister and National Party leader Sir Sidney Holland. He received his education at Elmwood School and St. Andrew's College in Christchurch. Holland fought in WW2 in the Pacific and in Italy. He was president of the Canterbury Savings Bank in 1965 and 1966, and president of the Associated Trustee Savings Banks of New Zealand in 1966 and 1967.
In 1944, Holland married Janet Mary Wills, the daughter of Wilfrid John Wills. They had one son and two daughters, and divorced in 1970. In 1972, he married Nancy Mary Nilner.
Political career.
Holland was involved in the National Party and became chairman of the Fendalton Electorate Committee and deputy-chairman National's Canterbury-Westland division.
The death of Harry Lake in early 1967 caused the 15 April 1967 by-election in the Fendalton electorate. Holland entered contention and won the National Party nomination. He defeated Labour's Bruce Barclay in the election. The Fendalton electorate was abolished in , and Holland won election in the Riccarton electorate. He represented this electorate for three parliamentary terms until 1978, when Riccarton was in turn abolished. In the , he returned to the reinstated Fendalton constituency for the 1978–1981 period, following which he retired. Under Jack Marshall, Holland was appointed Minister of Housing (9 February – 8 December 1972). Under Robert Muldoon, Holland was appointed Minister of Energy Resources, Minister of Electricity, and Minister of Mines (all 12 December 1975 – 8 March 1977), and then Minister of Housing (8 March 1977 – 13 December 1978).
Later life and death.
Holland died on 1 July 1989.


Duvvuri Subbarao

Duvvuri Subbarao (born 11 August 1949), is an Indian economist, Central Banker, and retired IAS officer. He was the 22nd Governor of Reserve Bank of India, served under Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh. He lives in Singapore and is a distinguished visiting faculty at National University of Singapore.
Subbarao is a 1972 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre. He was appointed the 22nd Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 5 September 2008, with an extension in 2011 till 4 September 2013.
Early life.
Subbarao's hometown is Eluru in West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. He did his schooling from the Sainik School in Korukonda, Andhra Pradesh. He graduated in Physics B.Sc Hons. from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (class of 1969).
He received a M.Sc degree also in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Subbarao topped the Civil Services Examination in 1972 and was assigned the Andhra Pradesh cadre.
In 1978, he did a master's degree in economics from Ohio State University, United States. After a few years, Subbarao joined the Humphrey Fellowship program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study Quantitative Economic Modelling. He became a Humphrey Fellow at MIT in 1982. He later received a Ph.D. in Economics from Andhra University. His doctoral thesis was titled "Fiscal reforms at the sub-national level" (1998)
Career.
Subbarao, a well known economist is equally well studied in Physics. He had taken physics during his Masters at Indian Institute of Technology as well as for his Civil Services examination. He was the first person to have reviewed Stephen Hawkings's "Brief history of time" in Illustrated weekly, under the title "from here to eternity".
Subbarao worked as the joint secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India between 1988 and 1993. Subsequently, he became the Finance Secretary to the Government of Andhra Pradesh between 1993 and 1998. On completion of his term, he was deputed as lead economist in the World Bank from 1999 to 2004. On completion of his term, he was appointed to the Prime Ministers’ Economic Advisory Council from 2005 to 2007 before he was elevated as the Finance Secretary in 2007. On 5 September 2008, he was appointed the twenty-second Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Arun Ramanathan was appointed as Finance Secretary on 21 September 2008 in his vacancy. His term was extended for two more years in 2011.
Subbarao was involved in the initiation of fiscal reforms at the state level and had managed a flagship study on decentralisation across major countries of East Asia including China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Cambodia.He is credited with financial turnaround of Andhra Pradesh in late nineties when the state had slipped into an unprecedented fiscal crisis
Achievements.
During his tenure as Governor of RBI, Dr Subbarao took initiatives for demystification of the Central Bank, including lucid presentation of terse macro economic concepts in the RBI publications and grassroots level interaction with the masses through various financial inclusion, financial literacy and village outreach programmes. He was instrumental in ensuring 100% meaningful financial inclusion in Ernakulam district of Kerala. In February 2012, Subbarao expounded his world-famous theory on the New Trilemma of Central Bankers, which he named as the "Holy Trinity" of "price stability", "financial stability" and "sovereign debt sustainability" as against Mundell's well known "Impossible Trinity" of "fixed exchange rate", "free capital flows" and "independent monetary policy". Subbarao's erudite exposition on "holy trinity" firmly established the Indian perspective in the scholastic debate on the global central banking trilemma.
Dr Subbarao's taking charge as RBI Governor in 2008 was coincident with the outbreak of the Global Financial Crisis. Subbarao is generally credited as having safely stewarded Indian economy through the financial crisis. However, it was during Subbarao's tenure that the value of Indian Rupee tumbled spectacularly, with USD/INR exchange rate for the first time breaching the psychological barrier of 60, and even hitting a new low of 69.
Controversies.
Subbarao is known to have a mind of his own and frequently vetoes / overrides the opinion of his fellow members in the Technical Advisory Group on Monetary Policy. He is criticized as lacking "democratic spirit" by regularly going against majority opinion of fellow experts in the apex level committee.
During Subbarao's last days at the helm of RBI, the banking industry in India was rocked by the infamous Cobra Post expose of money laundering by leading Indian banks through violation of RBI's KYC guidelines, which pointed to the slackness and loopholes in the supervisory role of RBI. Dr Subbarao was also drawn into controversy when a whistleblowing complaint written to him in October 2012 by the noted activist Devidas Tuljapurkar against fraudulent activities of Bank of Maharashtra, was routinely and unthinkingly forwarded by the RBI Governor to the very organisation against which the complaint had been made. This led to alleged and massive harassment of Tuljapurkar (an ex-Director of Bank of Maharashtra) by the bank management, undermining the abject failure of whistle-blowing policy in both RBI and BoM.
Personal life.
He is married to Urmila Subbarao. They have two sons, Mallik and Raghav, who are both IIT graduates like their father.
Selected works.
Subbarao's book, "Who Moved My Interest Rate?: Leading the Reserve Bank of India Through Five Turbulent Years", was published in July 2016.
References.


Turkmenfilm

Turkmenfilm () is the largest and oldest film studio in Turkmenistan. It was established in 1926.
History.
Established in 1926 in Poltoratsk (now Ashgabat), as the Ashgabat Kinofabrica. In 1938 it was renamed to "Ashgabat studio". Since 1958 - Turkmenfilm.
In 1948, an earthquake building Turkmenfilm fallen. A few years later it was restored.
For a long time the studio was named Alty Karliev.
In 2007, the decree of the president of Turkmenistan association "Turkmentelekinofilm" was derived from the General Directorate of Turkmen TV studio, it was named after the legendary ancestor of the Turkmens - Oghuz Khagan. Oversee the work of the new association entrusted to the Ministry of culture and TV & radio broadcasting of Turkmenistan.
In August 2010, the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said at a workshop on Culture and the media said that the union "Turkmenfilm" named Oguzkhan should establish cooperation with major film companies of the world, to create a new movie about the history and present-day Turkmenistan.


Valabh Committee

The Valabh Committee, named after its Chair Arthur Valabh, was a New Zealand government appointed committee tasked with reviewing various aspects of the income tax system in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Although originally convened to review proposals for a capital gains tax, the Committee ended up making a number of recommendations for fundamental reform of the scheme and structure of the New Zealand tax legislation, most of which were implemented.
The Committee had a lasting impact on the direction of tax reform, including the style and drafting of the income tax legislation, as well as numerous specific recommendations for the tax treatment of, for example, depreciation and partnerships.
Committee members.
The formal name of the Valabh Committee was the “Consultative Committee on the Taxation of Income from Capital”. The Committee comprised:
It was supported by a secretary (Greg Cole) as well as by officials from both the Inland Revenue Department and the Treasury.
Background.
The 1980s were a period of considerable economic and tax reform in New Zealand. New Zealand had never had a formal capital gains tax system (unlike virtually every other OECD nation. The government was considering implementing a capital gains tax and issued a consultative document as part of the (then) process of tax reform.
The Committee appointed to review submissions, in response to the Consultative Document, instead reported to government that it did not consider the state of the tax system at that time sufficiently robust enough to support additional reform of this nature. The government accepted this recommendation and re-tasked the Committee to advise it on the structural reforms required.
Key proposals.
The Committee subsequently published 5 discussion papers:
In addition the Committee separately reported to government on the reform of the tax depreciation rules.
Core provisions and scheme.
The thrust of the Core Provisions and Key Reforms Papers was to ensure that the income tax legislation was appropriately structured and ordered to facilitate the understanding of the rules as well as to allow for further reform to be implemented effectively.
This work lead directly to the Working Party on the Reorganisation of the Income Tax Act 1976 and the complete rewrite of the legislation.
Company taxation and dividends.
The proposals made in the Company Distribution Paper led to a revised definition of what constituted a dividend under New Zealand tax law as well as the introduction of a small company taxation regime (“qualifying company” regime).
Depreciation.
The Committee’s recommendations resulted in a new tax depreciation regime introduced in 1993.
Interest deductibility.
The government accepted the Committee’s recommendation for a significantly more liberal regime for the deduction of interest for tax purposes.
Partnerships.
Recommendations for the reform of the tax treatment of partnerships was finally implemented by government in 2007


John Erskine, Lord Erskine

John Francis Ashley Erskine, Lord Erskine GCSI, GCIE (12 April 1895 – 3 May 1953) was a British soldier, Conservative Party politician and administrator who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Weston-super-Mare and Brighton. Erskine also served as the Governor of Madras Presidency from 1934 to 1940.
Erskine was born to Walter Erskine, 12th Earl of Mar on 12 April 1895 and had his education at Eton and Oxford University. On graduation, Erskine served in the British army and rose to become a major before entering politics. Erskine was elected to the House of Commons as a candidate of the Conservative Party from Weston-super-Mare and served as MP from 1922 to 1923 and from 1924 to 1934. He also served as Assistant Government Whip from 1930 to 1934. In 1934, Erskine was appointed Governor of Madras Presidency, British India.
Erskine served as the Governor of Madras Presidency from 1934 to 1940. He was a close friend of Indian politician Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari though he disagreed with some of his policies. On the conclusion of his term, Erskine returned to the United Kingdom and served as the Member of Parliament for Brighton from 1940 to 1941. Erskine retired from politics in his later life. He died on 3 May 1953 at the age of 58.
Family and early life.
John Erskine was born on 12 April 1895 to Walter Erskine, 12th Earl of Mar and his wife Lady Violet Ashley Cooper(1868–1938). He was the eldest of their two sons and had his education at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford University.
John Erskine married Lady Marjorie Hervey, the elder daughter of the 4th Marquess of Bristol, on 2 December 1919 and had four sons.
Military career.
On outbreak of the First World War, Erskine enlisted in the Scots Guards. By the end of the war he was a Major in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Politics.
With an interest in politics and an allegiance to the Conservative Party, Erskine was appointed Assistant Private Secretary to Viscount Long in 1920. At the 1922 general election, Erskine was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Weston-super-Mare. He lost his seat to a Liberal in the 1923 general election but easily regained it in 1924 and did not face a serious challenge there again.
William Joynson-Hicks, then a rapidly rising Conservative Minister, appointed Erskine as his Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1922, which gave him considerable interesting work to do. Joynson-Hicks was among the more controversial Ministers and had especial need to know that he had the support of Conservative backbenchers, and this Erskine was able to arrange.
After the 1931 general election, Erskine was named as an unpaid Assistant Government whip on 12 November 1931. This appointment effectively silenced Erskine in the Chamber of the House of Commons due to the tradition that Whips do not make speeches. Previously Erskine had been an effective and confident speaker who had taken a close interest in the affairs of India (although he admitted never to having visited it). He followed the 'Round Table Conferences' of the early 1930s closely.
In his later years, Erskine served as a member of Parliament for the two-member Brighton constituency. However Erskine's public support for native rule in India counted against him with Winston Churchill who had led the opposition to the Government of India Act 1935. Although hopeful of appointment to government office, Erskine was given nothing.
As Governor of Madras Presidency.
On 22 May 1934 Erskine was appointed the new Governor of Madras. Although his appointment commenced in November, Erskine resigned his seat through appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds at the beginning of June.
In 1934, Erskine succeeded George Frederick Stanley as the Governor of Madras Presidency and served from 1934 to 1940. Erskine was a supporter of the Justice Party and wanted the party to capture power in the Presidency during the 1937 elections. However, to his disappointment, the Indian National Congress won by a huge margin. Despite being the majority party in the Assembly and the Council, the Congress refused to form the government. Their objections stemmed from the special powers given to the Governor by the Government of India Act of 1935. Erskine decided to form an interim provisional Government with non-members and opposition members of the Legislative Assembly. He first offered the Prime Minister post in the interim government to V. S. Srinivasa Sastri but Shastri refused to accept it. Then Erskine formed the interim Government with Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu of the Justice Party as premier on 1 April 1937. He also used the Minister for Public Health R. M. Palat to try and entice Congress legislators into supporting the government. Wary of his tactics, Congress leaders like S. Satyamurti started a campaign to convince Congress High Command (Gandhi and Nehru) to accept power within the limitations set by the Government of India Act. They also appealed to the British Government to give assurances that the Governor's special powers will not be misused. On 22 June, Viceroy Linlithgow issued a statement expressing the British Government's desire to work with the Congress in implementing the 1935 Act. On 1 July, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) agreed to form Governments in the provinces they had won. On 14 July, Erskine had to swear in the Congress leader Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari as the Premier.
Erskine had a cordial personal relationship with Rajagopalachari though they disagreed over some issues. When Rajagopalachari took a month's leave, he requested Erskine to look after most of his duties. It is also alleged that Rajagopalachari suggested knighthoods for some his friends. However, there were disagreements over the constitution of the ministry. Erskine also opposed Rajagopalachari's usage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1932 during the 1938 Anti-Hindi agitations:"..[Rajagopalachari] was too much of a Tory for me, for though I may want to go back twenty years, he wishes to go back two thousand and to run India as it was run in the time of King Ashoka".
Erskine was also a regular visitor to the Nilgiri Hills. On a public reception accorded to him by the Kotagiri Panchayat Board in 1935, he gave Kotagiri town the sobriquet, "Princess among Hill Stations". The first regular radio service in the Madras Presidency commenced in 1938 when the All India Radio established its station in Madras.
The Congress ministry resigned on 9 October 1939 over the outbreak of Second World War. Erskine declared an emergency and took over the reins of the administration. Rajagopalachari and other ministers were arrested as per Defence of India Act rules. On 21 February 1940, Erskine repealed the unpopular law imposing compulsory study of Hindi in the Madras Presidency.
Later life.
With no hope of continuing a political career, and finding that representing the seat was very expensive, Erskine resigned his seat and went to live in his house at Ickworth near Bury St Edmunds. He continued to comment on Indian affairs, bemoaning the influence of Gandhi. His second son was killed in action in 1945.
Active in voluntary work locally, Erskine was appointed President of the Navy League. A major operation in the early 1950s damaged his health, and he died in 1953 during the lifetime of his father.


Vega flight VV06

Vega flight VV06 is the Vega space launch of the LISA Pathfinder satellite.
Payload.
The flight was a single-payload mission that deployed the LISA Pathfinder scientific satellite into orbit. It had a total payload mass of about , including the satellite and its adapter, which is the Vega launcher's record ().
LISA Pathfinder.
The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, a technology validation for the LISA mission, had a lift-off mass of approximately , and a design lifetime of 1 year. It was developed by Airbus Defence and Space for the European Space Agency's science directorate.
It is Airbus's spacecraft launched by Arianespace.
Mission description.
Launch date.
The successful Vega flight took place on at 04:04UTC ( at 01:04 local time) from the ELV launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana.
Timeline and trajectory.
The mission was planned to last 1 hour, 45 minutes and 33 seconds from lift-off until separation, placing its payload into a low Earth parking orbit with a perigee of about , an apogee of about , and an inclination of about 5.96°, from which the spacecraft autonomously reached its L1 Lissajous orbit.
Statistics.
The launch was the Arianespace mission (the in ). LISA Pathfinder was the spacecraft to be put in orbit by Arianespace.


Outline of Suriname

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Suriname:
Suriname – sovereign state on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America, and the smallest country on that continent. It was long inhabited by indigenous tribal peoples with diverse cultures, before being explored and contested by European powers from the 16th century, and eventually coming under Dutch rule in the late 17th century. In 1954, the country became one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On 25 November 1975, the country of Suriname left the Kingdom of the Netherlands to become an independent state, while maintaining close economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties to its former colonizer. Suriname is the only sovereign nation outside Europe where Dutch is spoken by a majority of the population.
Geography of Suriname.
Geography of Suriname
Regions of Suriname.
Regions of Suriname
Ecoregions of Suriname.
List of ecoregions in Suriname
Administrative divisions of Suriname.
Administrative divisions of Suriname
Districts of Suriname.
Districts of Suriname
Demography of Suriname.
Demographics of Suriname
Government and politics of Suriname.
Politics of Suriname
Branches of the government of Suriname.
Government of Suriname
Judicial branch of the government of Suriname.
Court system of Suriname
Foreign relations of Suriname.
Foreign relations of Suriname
International organization membership.
The Republic of Suriname is a member of:
Law and order in Suriname.
Law of Suriname
Military of Suriname.
Military of Suriname
Local government in Suriname.
Local government in Suriname
History of Suriname.
History of Suriname
Culture of Suriname.
Culture of Suriname
Sports in Suriname.
Sports in Suriname
Economy and infrastructure of Suriname.
Economy of Suriname
Education in Suriname.
Education in Suriname
See also.
Suriname


Michael Scanlan (diplomat)

Michael Scanlan is an American diplomat who is the Head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Moldova. He was appointed to that position and as the OSCE mediator to the Transdniestrian settlement process in July 2014 (one source says August 2014 – August 2018). His posts immediately prior were as Director of the Office of Eastern European Affairs in Washington, D.C., and Chargé d'Affaires to the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, Belarus.
According to the Security and Human Rights Monitor: The protracted conflict between Moldova and Transdniestria dates back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when the region of Transdniestria broke away from Moldova in a brief war in 1992, claiming over 1000 lives. Despite a ceasefire brokered by Russia, the underlying political conflict was not settled. Transdniestria turned into a de facto state but has never been recognized as a sovereign and independent country by the international community.<br>The OSCE chairs the negotiations between Moldova and Transdniestria aimed at achieving a final settlement to the conflict that affirms the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova, with a special status for Transdniestria within Moldova. Since 2005 this process, which has a three-tiered negotiating format, has been officially known as the 5+2 format, which includes Moldova and Transdniestria as the sides, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE as mediators, and the USA and the EU as observers.


Nederlandse Waterschapsbank

The Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB Bank) () is a Dutch specialist financial institution that providing funding for water boards and local government organisations in the Netherlands. It is a Local Government Funding Agency owned by the Dutch Water boards and provinces. It has been using the trading name NWB Bank since 2009.
Although a registered bank, it only lends to Dutch government entities and does not provide any services to individuals or companies.
History.
Starting in the 1950s the water board union regularly lent money to the individual Water Boards. However the union was not well equipped to handle the banking and lending activities and so on December 19, 1952 it decided to set up a separate water board bank to handle this task. The bank would raise risk less capital from the water boards and later other government organisations and lend this out to the water boards as required. The main aim was to provide the cheapest possible source of funding for the government entities.
The disaster caused by the North Sea flood of 1953 sped up the development of the bank and on May 5, 1954 the bank was established as Limited company by the 142 water boards of the Netherlands.
The bank is wholly owned by a diverse set of Dutch government entities and only the Dutch state and local entities may be shareholders in the bank. Based on 2013 data, 81% is held by the Dutch water boards, 17% by the Dutch government and 2% by the provinces.
Activities.
The NWB Bank provides credit to local authorities, provinces, public institutions in the area of public housing, public health services and education and for water and environmental projects.
The bank raises funds on the international money and capital markets on the basis of a very strong balance sheet and high credit rating. The Nederlandse Waterschapsbank has a Triple A rating from Moody's and Standard & Poor's (January 2012) and was placed 6th in the Global Finance's worlds 50th safest banks in 2013.
As the banks customers are government entities with very high credit ratings the risk of default is very low, as of 2011 it had a very high Basel tier 1 ratio of 90%.


Ibercaja Banco

Ibercaja Banco, S.A., stylised as iberCaja, is a Spanish financial services company based in Zaragoza. It was created by the Caja de Ahorros and Monte de Piedad of Zaragoza, Aragón and Rioja (Ibercaja) in 2011, to develop its financial activity, being initially the shareholder of 100% of the bank. After the acquisition of Caja3 by Ibercaja Banco, in the process of banking restructuring in Spain, 87.8% was owned by Ibercaja and 12.2% by the three Caja3 shareholders (Caja de Badajoz, Caja Inmaculada and Caja Círculo).
Together with the General Deputation of Aragon, owns the company "Montañas de Aragón" which controls the ski resort Aramón.


Monongahela Railway

The Monongahela Railway was a coal-hauling short line railroad in Pennsylvania and West Virginia in the United States. It was jointly controlled originally by the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central subsidiary Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, with NYC and PRR later succeeded by Penn Central Transportation. The company operated its own line until it was merged into Conrail on May 1, 1993.
The primary connection to both controlling systems was at Brownsville, Pennsylvania - with the south end of the P&LE's Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad and with the PRR's ex-Brownsville Railway. The PRR also interchanged traffic at Hoover, Pennsylvania, the end of its Coal Lick Run Branch. The B&O Railroad interchanged at Leckrone, Pennsylvania, and Rivesville, West Virginia.
At the end of 1970 it operated 193 miles of road on 281 miles of track; that year it reported 446 million ton-miles of revenue freight.
History.
The Monongahela Railroad's headquarters and base of operations was Brownsville, Pennsylvania. "As early as 1883, the Pittsburgh, Virginia & Charleston Railway served Brownsville as evidenced by an old lithograph of the Three Towns showing a diamond stacked locomotive coupled to four passenger cars, ready for a northward move, sitting on the track close to the Snowden House and the United States Post Office. However, the June, 1893, Official Guide (page 324), does not indicate any passenger service to Brownsville off the Redstone Branch."
The Monongahela Railroad was a joint venture of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE), both of which had plans to extend their lines in the area. Each company appointed four of their members to the board of directors, who held their first meeting in January 1901. The newly formed Monongahela Railroad acquired many lines in the area from the PV&C as well as the Southwest Pennsylvania Railway Company, as well as the 19 mile (30 km) right of way from Brownsville to Adah from the PRR, for the sum of $519,696.13.
In 1905 the Dunlap Creek branch opened, serving several mines and coke works and also connecting with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The last move on this line was on November 6, 1975; the track was removed and the real estate disposed.
In 1909 the Rush Run branch was constructed, and a patch town (Sarah, Pennsylvania) was constructed to house the workers at what was to have been a coal mine. It was later determined that the coal did not belong to the mine developer, and the line was abandoned, the town was scrapped. Only four trains ever ran on this line, those carrying the ballast to complete the track.
In 1910 the federal government condemned the low-clearance covered bridge in Bridgeport (now South Brownsville), and the Monongahela Railroad bought the bridge company and removed the bridge. In the same year they installed a 10-stall roundhouse in Bridgeport. This was to be the main yard for the railroad throughout its history.
In 1911 the railroad served seven mines and fifty one coke works (with 34 coke works and 1 mine being on the Dunlap Creek Division) The daily rated output was 1,395 cars of coke and 280 cars of coal. In 1911-1912 the big push was the state line extension, to make a connection with the Buckhannon and Northern Railway (B&N). It involved a major river crossing and two large creek crossings.
On July 1, 1915 the Monongahela Railroad consolidated with the Buckhannon and Northern Railway to form the Monongahela Railway Company (MRY), still under the control of the parent companies (PRR and P&LE).
In 1927 the Baltimore and Ohio railroad acquired 1/3 (1/6 from each the PRR and P&LE) of the capital stock of the Monongahela Railway, securing their interests in the coal-producing area it served.
On January 1, 1930 the Ten Mile Run branch opened. This branch still serves one major coal mine, the Emerald Mine in Waynesburg, as of 2015.
On October 21, 1950 the Monongahela Railway discontinued passenger service.
On November 25, 1952 the Monongahela Railway ran its first Baldwin S-12 diesel locomotive. This marked the beginning of the end of their fleet of steam locomotives, the last one of which being used on May 26, 1954.
In June 1968 the Waynesburg Southern Railroad Company (organized in the interest of the PRR) opened a line from Waynesburg to Consolidated Coal Company's Blacksville No. 1 mine and Eastern Gas & Fuel Company's Federal No. 2 mine. This line is still in service as of 2015, although Blacksville No. 1 has closed while a third mine in the same area, Blacksville No. 2, is active.
On May 1, 1993 the Monongahela Railway was merged into the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), which had previously bought out the shares of B&O successor CSX Transportation and Pittsburgh & Lake Erie. Conrail would be bought in 1998 by Norfolk Southern and CSX. Eleven GE Class B23-7Rs (sometimes referred to as Super 7s), the Monongahela's final locomotive fleet numbered 2300–2310, were renumbered 2030-2040 by Conrail, then divided between NS and CSX when they operationally took over Conrail operations in 1999.
Heritage Unit.
In 2012, Norfolk Southern celebrated 30 years of being formed, and painted 20 new locomotives in predecessor schemes to honor its heritage. GE ES44AC #8025 was painted into the Monongahela scheme.


Cao Juru

Cao Juru () (May 1901 – January 1981) was the 2nd governor of the People's Bank of China (1954–1964). He was born in Longyan, Fujian Province. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1930.


Marianne Koberwein

Anna Maria "Marianne" Charlotta Koberwein née "Rutenskiöld" (Stockholm, 15 December 1791 - Pushkin, Saint Petersburg, August 2, 1856) was a Swedish and later Russian Empire courtier. She is known for her affair with Nicholas I of Russia.
She was the daughter of the Swedish nobleman Gustavus Adolphus Rutenskiöld (1758-1802) and Ulrika Charlotta Stenborg. She served as a lady-in-waiting to the Swedish queen Frederica of Baden, who was married to Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, and when Gustav IV Adolf was deposed in 1809, she continued her service to Frederica in Karlsruhe. She was subsequently employed by Frederica's sister Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden), empress of Russia. At the Russian court, she became acquainted with Nicholas I of Russia, with whom she had a daughter, Joséphine Koberwein: in parallel, she married (Joseph) Vassiliévitch Koberwein (1789-1854), from whom she divorced soon after.


James Rudolph Garfield

James Rudolph Garfield (October 17, 1865 – March 24, 1950) was an American politician and lawyer. Garfield was a son of President James A. Garfield and First Lady Lucretia Garfield. He served as Secretary of the Interior during President Theodore Roosevelt's administration.
Early life.
Garfield was born in Hiram, Ohio, the third of seven children born to James Abram and Lucretia Rudolph Garfield. For a year prior to his father's presidency, he studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. On July 2, 1881, at the age of 15, he and his 17-year-old brother, Harry Augustus Garfield, witnessed the shooting of their father by disgruntled office-seeker Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac railroad station in Washington. The President and his sons were waiting for a train en route to Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where young James had been recently accepted, when the shooting took place.
College and early career.
Following his father's death on September 19, 1881, he studied at Williams College. He received his A.B. degree in 1885, and then attended Columbia Law School. In 1888, he was admitted to the Ohio bar and established the Cleveland, Ohio-based law firm of Garfield and Garfield, with his brother Harry Augustus Garfield. From 1890 until her death in 1930, he was married to Helen Newell. They had four sons, John, James, Newell, and Rudolph. Their grandson, Newell Garfield, later married Jane Harrison Walker, a granddaughter of President Benjamin Harrison and Harrison's second wife, Mary Dimmick Harrison, as well as the great-grandniece of James G. Blaine.
Political career.
From 1896 to 1899, he served in the Ohio State Senate. He was an influential advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt, serving as a Member of the United States Civil Service Commission from 1902 to 1903. From 1903 to 1907, he served as Commissioner of Corporations at the Department of Commerce and Labor, where he conducted investigations of the meat-packing, petroleum, steel, and railroad industries. From 1907 to 1909, he served in Roosevelt's Cabinet as Secretary of the Interior, where he advocated for the conservation of natural resources. He left this post on March 4, 1909, and returned to his law practice in Cleveland. In 1909, he received an honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Garfield was a contender for the Ohio Republican gubernatorial nomination in the 1910 election but withdrew from the convention when it endorsed the Taft Administration; the convention went on to nominate future president Warren G. Harding in the third round of balloting. During the 1912 presidential election, he was a key supporter of Roosevelt's bid for a third term. In the 1914 election, he made an unsuccessful bid for Governor of Ohio on the Progressive Party ticket.
World War I.
Former President Theodore Roosevelt selected Garfield as one of eighteen officers including Seth Bullock, Frederick Russell Burnham, and John M. Parker to raise a volunteer infantry division, Roosevelt's World War I volunteers, for service in France in 1917. The United States Congress gave Roosevelt the authority to raise up to four divisions similar to the "Rough Riders" of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment and to the British Army 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers; however, as Commander-in-chief, President Woodrow Wilson refused to make use of the volunteers and the unit disbanded.
Death.
Garfield died in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 24, 1950, and was the last surviving member of President Theodore Roosevelt's cabinet. He had survived his father by 68½ years. He was interred in Mentor Municipal Cemetery in Mentor, Ohio, beside his wife Helen.


Socorro, Texas

Socorro is a city in El Paso County, Texas, United States. It is located on the north bank of the Rio Grande southeast of El Paso, and on the border of Mexico. El Paso adjoins it on the west and the smaller city of San Elizario on the southeast; small unincorporated areas of El Paso County separate it from the nearby municipalities of Horizon City to the north and Clint to the east. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 27,152. By the 2010 census, the number had grown to 32,013. As of July 1, 2019, the population estimate for the city from the U.S. Census was 34,370. It is part of the El Paso Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is El Paso County's second-largest municipality, after El Paso. It has a council-manager type of government with five city council members. Socorro is the 93rd largest community in the state of Texas.
Geography.
Socorro is located at (31.641340, −106.274756).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.10%, is water.
History.
Socorro was established in 1680 by local Manso and Piro Indians fleeing the Pueblo Revolt in northern New Mexico. It took its name from Socorro, the town in central New Mexico from which the Piros had originated, which had been given the name Socorro (Spanish for "aid" or "succor") by the Spaniards due to the helpful attitude of the Piro toward the Spaniards at the time of first contact. The probable date of a Mass celebrated in the mission church of Nuestra Señora de la Limpia Concepción del Socorro, October 13, 1680, is regarded as the founding date of the city in Texas, called Socorro, established by the Spaniards and the Piro they brought south with them from New Mexico during the Pueblo Revolt. Socorro was first incorporated in 1871 and was re-incorporated in 1985 in response to an annexation attempt from neighboring El Paso.
Demographics.
The city of Socorro population was 32,013 in the 2010 census which made it the 95th-largest city in Texas, or bigger than 94% of all Texas cities. From 2000 to 2010, the Socorro city population growth percentage was 17.9% (or from 27,152 people to 32,013 people).
As of the census of 2010, there were 8,792 households and 7,703 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,453.2 people per square mile (560.9/km). There were 9,313 housing units at an average density of 422.7/sq mi (163.2/km). The racial makeup of the city was 94.3% White, 0.2% African American, 1.6% Native American, 0.1% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 2.9% some other race, and 0.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 96.7% of the population.
There were 8,792 households, out of which 56.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.4% were headed by married couples living together, 19.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.4% were non-families. 10.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.5% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.64 and the average family size was 3.93.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 32.5% under the age of 18, 11.4% from 18 to 24, 25.3% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 8.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.7 males.
For the period 2009–2011, the estimated median annual income for a household in the city was $30,014, and the median income for a family was $30,998. Males had a median income of $26,239 versus $20,189 for females. The per capita income for the city was $11,455. About 29.3% of families and 32.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 44.4% of those under age 18 and 29.2% of those age 65 or over.
Economy.
Socorro is a city of sales and office employees, construction workers, builders, and service providers.
Points of interest.
Bulldog Championship Park includes a splash park, an amphitheater, walking trails, and a pond.
Socorro Mission is a Franciscan mission built around 1840 to serve the Native American population in the area. The white adobe mission is a registered Texas historic landmark and one of three missions on the historic Mission Trail. In the mission stands a $300,000 replica of the Pieta. It is one of only 112 authorized replicas of the Pieta, finished by artist Michelangelo in 1499, which can be found in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.
Socorro Entertainment Center is a Native American entertainment and concert venue. Past and upcoming concerts include national acts such as Counting Crows, Gipsy Kings, KC and the Sunshine Band, BB King, Everclear, Soul Asylum, and Toad the Wet Sprocket.
The city of Socorro was ranked the 22nd most exciting city in Texas by Movoto in 2014.
Parks.
Bulldog Championship Park, the newest park in El Paso County, contains approximately 6.25 acres, and is located in the City of Socorro. Park amenities include an amphitheater, pavilions, a splash playground, playgrounds, detention pond, walking trails and over 90 parking spaces.
Other parks include:
Politics.
The city of Socorro operates under a council–manager government form of government. Citizens are represented on the city council by six elected members – the mayor and five city council members. The city council is responsible for setting policy and enacting ordinances for the benefit of the residents and businesses in Socorro. The city manager is responsible for the strategic management of the operating and administrative services and for executing the policies and laws of the council. The city manager oversees the provision of services including police, public works, human resources, accounting/purchasing, and planning and zoning.
Current City Council members are;
Council members are elected to a four-year term and are on staggered terms.
The city maintains a police department of about 27 officers and a dozen civilian employees.
Sports.
Socorro High School won the 5A Texas State Baseball Championship in 2009.
Schools.
Most of Socorro lies within the Socorro Independent School District, with northeast Socorro, including recently annexed areas north of Interstate 10 and between Interstate 10 and Clint, lying within the Clint Independent School District. The following schools, all in the Socorro Independent School District, are located in the city of Socorro:
The part of Socorro within the Clint Independent School District is zoned to Clint High School, Clint Junior High School, and Surratt Elementary School, all in Clint.