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Jerry Brown

Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of State of California in 1970; Brown later served as Mayor of Oakland from 1999 to 2007 and Attorney General of California from 2007 to 2011. He was both the oldest and sixth-youngest governor of California due to the 28-year gap between his second and third terms. Upon completing his fourth term in office, Brown became the fourth longest-serving governor in U.S. history, serving 16 years and 5 days in office.

Born in San Francisco, he is the son of Bernice Layne Brown and Pat Brown, who was the 32nd Governor of California (1959–1967). After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, and Yale Law School, he practiced law and began his political career as a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees (1969–1971). He was elected to serve as the 23rd Secretary of State of California from 1971 to 1975. At 36, Brown was elected to his first term as governor in 1974, making him the youngest California Governor in 111 years. In 1978, he won his second term. During his governorship, Brown ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and 1980. He declined to pursue a third term as governor in 1982, instead making an unsuccessful run for the United States Senate that same year, losing to San Diego Mayor and future Governor Pete Wilson.

After traveling abroad, he returned to California and served as the sixth Chairman of the California Democratic Party (1989–1991), attempting to run for U.S. president once more in 1992 but losing the Democratic primary to Bill Clinton. He then moved to Oakland, where he hosted a talk radio show; Brown soon returned to public life, serving as Mayor of Oakland (1999–2007) and Attorney General of California (2007–2011). He ran for his third and fourth terms as governor in 2010 and 2014, his eligibility to do so having stemmed from California's constitutional grandfather clause. On October 7, 2013, he became the longest-serving governor in the history of California, surpassing Earl Warren.

Early life, education, and private career
Brown was born in San Francisco, California, the only son of four children born to District Attorney of San Francisco and later Governor of California, Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr., and his wife, Bernice Layne. Brown's father was of half Irish and half German descent. His great-grandfather August Schuckman, a German immigrant, settled in California in 1852 during the California Gold Rush.

Brown was a member of the California Cadet Corps at St. Ignatius High School, where he graduated in 1955. In 1955, Brown entered Santa Clara University for a year and left to attend Sacred Heart Novitiate, a Jesuit novice house in Los Gatos, intent on becoming a Catholic priest. Brown resided at the novitiate from August 1956 to January 1960 before enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics in 1961. With his tuition paid for by the Louis Lurie Foundation, including a $675 scholarship in 1963, Brown went on to Yale Law School and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1964. After law school, Brown worked as a law clerk for California Supreme Court Justice Mathew Tobriner.

Returning to California, Brown took the state bar exam and passed on his second attempt. He then settled in Los Angeles and joined the law firm of Tuttle & Taylor. In 1969, Brown ran for the newly created Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, which oversaw community colleges in the city; he placed first in a field of 124 and served until 1971.

California Secretary of State (1971–1975)
In 1970, Brown was elected California Secretary of State. Brown argued before the California Supreme Court and won cases against Standard Oil of California, International Telephone and Telegraph, Gulf Oil, and Mobil for election law violations. In addition, he forced legislators to comply with campaign disclosure laws. Brown also drafted and helped to pass the California Political Reform Act of 1974, Proposition 9, passed by 70% of California's voters in June 1974. Among other provisions, it established the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

First term
In 1974, Brown ran in a highly contested Democratic primary for Governor of California against Speaker of the California Assembly Bob Moretti, San Francisco Mayor Joseph L. Alioto, Representative Jerome R. Waldie, and others. Brown won the primary with the name recognition of his father, Pat Brown, whom many people admired for his progressive administration. In the General Election on November 5, 1974, Brown was elected Governor of California over California State Controller Houston I. Flournoy; Republicans ascribed the loss to anti-Republican feelings from Watergate, the election being held only ninety days after President Richard Nixon resigned from office. Brown succeeded Republican Governor Ronald Reagan, who retired after two terms.

After taking office, Brown gained a reputation as a fiscal conservative. The American Conservative later noted he was "much more of a fiscal conservative than Governor Reagan". His fiscal restraint resulted in one of the biggest budget surpluses in state history, roughly $5 billion. For his personal life, Brown refused many of the privileges and perks of the office, forgoing the newly constructed 20,000 square-foot governor's residence in the suburb of Carmichael and instead renting a $275-per-month apartment at 1228 N Street, adjacent to Capitol Park in downtown Sacramento. Rather than riding as a passenger in a chauffeured limousine as previous governors had done, Brown walked to work and drove in a Plymouth Satellite sedan. When Gray Davis, who was chief of staff to Governor Brown, suggested that a hole in the rug in the governor's office be fixed, Brown responded: “That hole will save the state at least $500 million, because legislators cannot come down and pound on my desk demanding lots of money for their pet programs while looking at a hole in my rug!”

As governor, Brown held a strong interest in environmental issues. He appointed J. Baldwin to work in the newly created California Office of Appropriate Technology, Sim Van der Ryn as State Architect, Stewart Brand as Special Advisor, John Bryson as chairman of the California State Water Board. Brown also reorganized the California Arts Council, boosting its funding by 1300 percent and appointing artists to the council, and appointed more women and minorities to office than any other previous California governor. In 1977, he sponsored the "first-ever tax incentive for rooftop solar", among many environmental initiatives. In 1975, Brown obtained the repeal of the "depletion allowance", a tax break for the state's oil industry, despite the efforts of lobbyist Joe Shell, a former intraparty rival to Richard M. Nixon.

In 1975, Brown opposed Vietnamese immigration to California, saying that the state had enough poor people. He added, “There is something a little strange about saying ‘Let's bring in 500,000 more people’ when we can't take care of the 1 million (Californians) out of work.”

Brown strongly opposed the death penalty and vetoed it as governor, which the legislature overrode in 1977. He also appointed judges who opposed capital punishment. One of these appointments, Rose Bird as the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, was voted out in 1987 after a strong campaign financed by business interests upset by her "pro-labor" and "pro-free speech" rulings. The death penalty was only "a trumped-up excuse" to use against her, even though the Bird Court consistently upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty. In 1960, he lobbied his father, then governor, to spare the life of Caryl Chessman and reportedly won a 60-day stay for him.

Brown was both in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment and opposed to Proposition 13, the latter of which would decrease property taxes and greatly reduce revenue to cities and counties. When Proposition 13 passed in June 1978, he heavily cut state spending, and along with the Legislature, spent much of the $5 billion surplus to meet the proposition's requirements and help offset the revenue losses which made cities, counties, and schools more dependent on the state. His actions in response to the proposition earned him praise from Proposition 13 author Howard Jarvis who went as far as to make a television commercial for Brown just before his successful re-election bid in 1978. The controversial proposition immediately cut tax revenues and required a two-thirds supermajority to raise taxes. Max Neiman, a professor at the Institute of Governmental Studies at University of California, Berkeley, credited Brown for "bailing out local government and school districts", but felt it was harmful "because it made it easier for people to believe that Proposition 13 wasn't harmful". In an interview in 2014, Brown indicated that a "war chest" would have helped his campaign for an alternative to Proposition 13.

1976 presidential election
Brown began his first campaign for the Democratic nomination for president on March 16, 1976, late in the primary season and over a year after some candidates had started campaigning. Brown declared: "The country is rich, but not so rich as we have been led to believe. The choice to do one thing may preclude another. In short, we are entering an era of limits."

Brown's name began appearing on primary ballots in May and he won in Maryland, Nevada, and his home state of California. He missed the deadline in Oregon, but he ran as a write-in candidate and finished in third behind Jimmy Carter and Senator Frank Church of Idaho. Brown is often credited with winning the New Jersey and Rhode Island primaries, but in reality, uncommitted slates of delegates that Brown advocated in those states finished first. With support from Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, Brown won a majority of delegates at the Louisiana delegate selection convention; thus, Louisiana was the only southern state to not support Southerners Carter or Alabama Governor George Wallace. Despite this success, he was unable to stall Carter's momentum, and his rival was nominated on the first ballot at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Brown finished third with roughly 300 delegate votes, narrowly behind Congressman Morris Udall and Carter.

Second term
Brown won re-election in 1978 against Republican state Attorney General Evelle J. Younger. Brown appointed the first openly gay judge in the United States when he named Stephen Lachs to serve on the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1979. In 1981, he also appointed the first openly lesbian judge in the United States, Mary C. Morgan, to the San Francisco Municipal Court. Brown completed his second term having appointed a total of five gay judges, including Rand Schrader and Jerold Krieger. Through his first term as governor, Brown had not appointed any openly gay people to any position, but he cited the failed 1978 Briggs Initiative, which sought to ban homosexuals from working in California's public schools, for his increased support of gay rights. The Governor also signed AB 489, The Consenting Adult Sex Act, which decriminalized homosexual behavior between adults, adding to this reputation. He also signed AB 607, which banned homosexual couples from receiving civil marriage licenses, in 1977.

Brown championed the Peripheral Canal project to transport water from near Sacramento around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the Central Valley Project and export it to southern California. It was submitted to the voters for approval as a ballot proposition in 1982, but was turned down.

In 1981, Brown, who had established a reputation as a strong environmentalist, was confronted with a serious medfly infestation in the San Francisco Bay Area. The state's agricultural industry advised him, and the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), to authorize airborne spraying of the region. Initially, in accordance with his environmental protection stance, he chose to authorize ground-level spraying only. Unfortunately, the infestation spread as the medfly reproductive cycle out-paced the spraying. After more than a month, millions of dollars of crops had been destroyed, and billions of dollars more were threatened. Governor Brown then authorized a massive response to the infestation. Fleets of helicopters sprayed malathion at night, and the California National Guard set up highway checkpoints and collected many tons of local fruit; in the final stage of the campaign, entomologists released millions of sterile male medflies in an attempt to disrupt the insects' reproductive cycle.

Ultimately, the infestation was eradicated, but both the Governor's delay and the scale of the action have remained controversial ever since. Some people claimed that malathion was toxic to humans, as well as insects. In response to such concerns, Brown's chief of staff, B. T. Collins, staged a news conference during which he publicly drank a glass of malathion. Many people complained that, while the malathion may not have been very toxic to humans, the aerosol spray containing it was corrosive to car paint.

Brown proposed the establishment of a state space academy and the purchasing of a satellite that would be launched into orbit to provide emergency communications for the state—a proposal similar to one that was indeed eventually adopted. In 1979, an out-of-state columnist, Mike Royko, at the Chicago Sun-Times, picked up on the nickname from Brown's girlfriend at the time, Linda Ronstadt, who was quoted in a 1978 Rolling Stone magazine interview humorously calling him "Moonbeam". A year later, Royko expressed his regret for publicizing the nickname, and in 1991 Royko disavowed it entirely, proclaiming Brown to be just as serious as any other politician.

Some notable figures were given priority correspondence access to him in either advisory or personal roles. These included United Farm Workers of America founder Cesar Chavez, Hewlett-Packard co-founder David Packard, labor leader Jack Henning, and Charles Manatt, then-Chairman of the California State Democratic Party. Mail was routed as VIP to be delivered directly to the governor. However, it is unclear as to exactly how long this may have occurred.

In 1978, San Francisco punk band the Dead Kennedys' first single, "California über alles", from the album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, was released; it was performed from the perspective of then-governor Brown painting a picture of a hippie-fascist state, satirizing what they considered his mandating of liberal ideas in a fascist manner, commenting on what lyricist Jello Biafra saw as the corrosive nature of power. The imaginary Brown had become President Brown presiding over secret police and gas chambers. Biafra later said in an interview with Nardwuar that he now feels differently about Brown; as it turned out, Brown was not as bad as Biafra thought he would be, and subsequent songs have been written about other politicians deemed worse.

Brown chose not to run for a third term in 1982, and instead ran for the United States Senate, but lost to San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson. He was succeeded as governor by George Deukmejian, then state attorney general, on January 3, 1983.

1980 presidential election
In 1980, Brown challenged Carter for renomination. The press had anticipated his candidacy ever since he won re-election as governor in 1978 over the Republican Evelle Younger by 1.3 million votes, the largest margin in California history. But Brown had trouble gaining traction in both fundraising and polling for the presidential nomination. This was widely believed to be because of the more prominent candidate Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. Brown's 1980 platform, which he declared to be the natural result of combining Buckminster Fuller's visions of the future and E. F. Schumacher's theory of "Buddhist economics", was much expanded from 1976. His "era of limits" slogan was replaced by a promise to, in his words, "Protect the Earth, serve the people, and explore the universe".

Three main planks of his platform were a call for a constitutional convention to ratify the Balanced Budget Amendment; a promise to increase funds for the space program as a "first step in bringing us toward a solar-powered space satellite to provide solar energy for this planet"; and, in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, opposition to nuclear power. On the subject of the 1979 energy crisis, Brown decried the "Faustian bargain" that he claimed Carter had entered into with the oil industry, and declared that he would greatly increase federal funding of research into solar power. He endorsed the idea of mandatory non-military national service for the nation's youth. He suggested that the Defense Department cut back on support troops while beefing up the number of combat troops.

Brown opposed Kennedy's call for universal national health insurance and opposed Carter's call for an employer mandate to provide catastrophic private health insurance labeling it socialist. As an alternative, he suggested a program of tax credits for those who do not smoke or otherwise damage their health, saying: "Those who abuse their bodies should not abuse the rest of us by taking our tax dollars." Brown also called for expanding the use of acupuncture and midwifery.

As Brown's campaign began to attract more members of what some more conservative commentators described as "the fringe", including activists like Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, and Jesse Jackson, his polling numbers began to suffer. Brown received only 10 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, and he was soon forced to announce that his decision to remain in the race would depend on a good showing in the Wisconsin primary. Although he had polled well there throughout the primary season, an attempt to film a live speech in Madison, the state's capital, into a special effects-filled, 30-minute commercial (produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola) was disastrous.

Senate defeat and public life
In 1982, Brown chose not to seek a third term as governor; instead, he ran for the United States Senate for the seat being vacated by Republican S. I. Hayakawa. He was defeated by Republican San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson by a margin of 52% to 45%. After his Senate defeat, Brown was left with few political options. Republican George Deukmejian, a Brown critic, narrowly won the governorship in 1982, succeeding Brown, and was re-elected overwhelmingly in 1986. After his Senate defeat in 1982, many considered Brown's political career to be over.

Brown traveled to Japan to study Buddhism, studying with Christian/Zen practitioner Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle under Yamada Koun-roshi. In an interview, he explained, "Since politics is based on illusions, zazen definitely provides new insights for a politician. I then come back into the world of California and politics, with critical distance from some of my more comfortable assumptions." He also visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, where he ministered to the sick in one of her hospices. He explained, "Politics is a power struggle to get to the top of the heap. Calcutta and Mother Teresa are about working with those who are at the bottom of the heap. And to see them as no different from yourself, and their needs as important as your needs. And you're there to serve them, and doing that you are attaining as great a state of being as you can."

Upon his return from abroad in 1988, Brown announced that he would stand as a candidate to become chairman of the California Democratic Party, and won against investment banker Steve Westly. Although Brown greatly expanded the party's donor base and enlarged its coffers, with a focus on grassroots organizing and get out the vote drives, he was criticized for not spending enough money on TV ads, which was felt to have contributed to Democratic losses in several close races in 1990, such as Dianne Feinstein's attempt to become the first female governor of California. In early 1991, Brown abruptly resigned his post and announced that he would run for the Senate seat held by the retiring Alan Cranston. Although Brown consistently led in the polls for both the nomination and the general election, he abandoned the campaign, deciding instead to run for the presidency for the third time.

1992 presidential election
When Brown announced his intention to run for president against President George H. W. Bush, many in the media and his own party dismissed his campaign as having little chance of gaining significant support. Ignoring them, Brown embarked on a grassroots campaign to, in his own words, "take back America from the confederacy of corruption, careerism, and campaign consulting in Washington". In his stump speech, first used while officially announcing his candidacy on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Brown told listeners that he would be accepting campaign contributions from individuals only and that he would not accept more than $100. Continuing with his populist reform theme, he assailed what he dubbed "the bipartisan Incumbent Party in Washington" and called for term limits for members of Congress. Citing various recent scandals on Capitol Hill, particularly the recent House banking scandal and the large congressional pay-raises from 1990, he promised to put an end to Congress being a "Stop-and-Shop for the moneyed special interests".

As Brown campaigned in various primary states, he would eventually expand his platform beyond a policy of strict campaign finance reform. Although he focused on a variety of issues throughout the campaign, he highlighted his endorsement of living wage laws and opposition to free trade agreements such as NAFTA; he mostly concentrated on his tax policy, which had been created specifically for him by Arthur Laffer, the famous supporter of supply-side economics who created the Laffer curve. This plan, which called for the replacement of the progressive income tax with a flat tax and a value added tax, both at a fixed 13-percent rate, was decried by his opponents as regressive. Nevertheless, it was endorsed by The New York Times, The New Republic, and Forbes, and its raising of taxes on corporations and elimination of various loopholes which tended to favor the very wealthy proved to be popular with voters. Various opinion polls taken at the time found that as many as three-quarters of all Americans believed the current tax code to be unfairly biased toward the wealthy. Jesse Walker wrote in The American Conservative that he "seemed to be the most left-wing and right-wing man in the field ... [calling] for term limits, a flat tax, reforming social security, and the abolition of the Department of Education". Brown scored surprising wins in Connecticut and Colorado and seemed poised to overtake Clinton.

Due to his limited budget, Brown began to use a mixture of alternative media and unusual fundraising techniques. Unable to pay for actual commercials, he frequently used cable television and talk radio interviews as a form of free media to get his message to voters. In order to raise funds, he purchased a toll-free telephone number, which adorned all of his campaign stances. During the campaign, Brown's repetition of this number combined with the moralistic language used, led some to describe him as a "political televangelist" with an "anti-politics gospel".

Despite poor showings in the Iowa caucus (1.6%) and the New Hampshire primary (8%), Brown soon managed to win narrow victories in Maine, Colorado, Nevada, and Vermont, but he continued to be considered a small threat for much of the campaign. It was not until shortly after Super Tuesday, when the field had been narrowed to Brown, former Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and front-runner then-Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, that Brown began to emerge as a major contender in the eyes of the press. On March 17, Brown received a strong third-place showing in the Illinois and Michigan primaries, and Tsongas dropped out of the race. Exactly one week later, he cemented his position as a major threat to Clinton when he eked out a narrow win in the bitterly fought Connecticut primary. As the press focused on the primaries in New York and Wisconsin, which were both to be held on the same day, Brown, who had taken the lead in polls in both states, made a gaffe: He announced to an audience of various leaders of New York City's Jewish community that, if nominated, he would consider the Reverend Jesse Jackson as a vice-presidential candidate. Jackson, who had made a pair of anti-semitic comments about Jews in general, and New York City's Jews in particular, while running for president in 1984, was still mistrusted within the Jewish community. Jackson also had ties to Louis Farrakhan, infamous for his own anti-semitic statements, and with Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Brown's polling numbers suffered. On April 7, he lost narrowly to Bill Clinton in Wisconsin (37%–34%), and dramatically in New York (41%–26%).

Although Brown continued to campaign in a number of states, he won no further primaries. Despite being overwhelmingly outspent, Brown won upset victories in seven states and his "votes won to the money raised ratio" was by far the best of any candidate in the race. He still had a sizable number of delegates, and a big win in his home state of California would deprive Clinton of sufficient support to win the Democratic nomination, possibly bringing about a brokered convention. After nearly a month of intense campaigning and multiple debates between the two candidates, Clinton managed to defeat Brown in this final primary by a margin of 48% to 41%. Although Brown did not win the nomination, he was able to boast of one accomplishment: at the following month's Democratic National Convention, he received the votes of 596 delegates on the first ballot, more than any other candidate but Clinton. He spoke at the convention, and to the national viewing audience, yet without endorsing Clinton, through the device of seconding his own nomination. There was animosity between the Brown and Clinton campaigns, and Brown was the first political figure to criticize Bill Clinton over what became known as the Whitewater controversy.

Move to Oakland
After his 1992 presidential bid, Brown had moved from the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco to the Jack London District neighborhood of Oakland, California, an "overwhelmingly minority city of 400,000". He constructed a multi-million dollar work-live complex, serving both as his residence and as a workspace. Among other features, it included a broadcast studio and a 400-seat auditorium.

Brown launched a national talk radio show from his Oakland complex, which he would continue to produce until October 1997.

In 1995, with Brown's political career at a low point, in the motion picture Jade, the fictional Governor of California tells an assistant district attorney to drop a case, "unless you want as much of a future in this state as Jerry Brown". The assistant DA responds, "Who's Jerry Brown?"

In Oakland, Brown became involved as an activist in local political matters, including bay-front development and campaign finance reform. In 1996, Brown unsuccessfully urged Oakland mayor Elihu Harris to appoint him to a seat on the Oakland Port Commission.

Mayor of Oakland (1999–2007)
After Oakland mayor Elihu Harris decided against seeking reelection, Brown ran in the city's 1998 mayoral election as an independent "having left the Democratic Party, blasting what he called the 'deeply corrupted' two-party system". He won with 59% of the vote in a field of ten candidates.

Prior to taking office, Brown campaigned to get the approval of the electorate to convert Oakland's "weak mayor" political structure, which structured the mayor as chairman of the city council and official greeter, to a "strong mayor" structure, where the mayor would act as chief executive over the nonpolitical and thus the various city departments, and break tie votes on the Oakland City Council. In November 1998, Oakland's electorate voted by a landslide margin of 3 to 1 in support of Measure X, which would shift the city government to the strong mayor model for a period of six years. A referendum permanently extending Measure X later passed in 2004, after failing to pass in 2002, thus making permanent the city's shift to the strong mayor model of governance.

The political left had hoped for some of the more progressive politics from Brown's earlier governorship, but found Brown, as mayor, to be "more pragmatic than progressive, more interested in downtown redevelopment and economic growth than political ideology". As mayor, he invited the U.S. Marine Corps to use Oakland harbor lands for mock military exercises as part of Operation Urban Warrior.

The city was rapidly losing residents and businesses, and Brown is credited with starting the revitalization of the city using his connections and experience to lessen the economic downturn while attracting $1 billion of investments, including refurbishing the Fox Theatre, the Port of Oakland, and Jack London Square. The downtown district was losing retailers, restaurateurs and residential developers, and Brown sought to attract thousands of new residents with disposable income to revitalize the area. Brown continued his predecessor Elihu Harris's public policy of supporting downtown housing development in the area defined as the Central Business District in Oakland's 1998 General Plan. Since Brown worked toward the stated goal of bringing an additional 10,000 residents to Downtown Oakland, his plan was known as the "10k Plan". It has resulted in redevelopment projects in the Jack London District, where Brown himself had earlier purchased and later sold an industrial warehouse which he used as a personal residence, and in the Lakeside Apartments District near Lake Merritt. The 10K plan has touched the historic Old Oakland district, the Chinatown district, the Uptown district, and Downtown. Brown surpassed the stated goal of attracting 10,000 residents according to city records, and built more affordable housing than previous mayoral administrations.

Brown had campaigned on fixing Oakland's schools, but "bureaucratic battles" dampened his efforts. He concedes he never had control of the schools, and his reform efforts were "largely a bust". He focused instead on the creation of two charter schools, the Oakland School for the Arts and the Oakland Military Institute. Defending his support of a military charter school in Oakland, Brown once told KQED reporter Stephen Talbot, "I believe that had I been sent to the military academy, as my mother and father threatened, I would have been president a long time ago."

Brown sponsored nearly two dozen crime initiatives to reduce the crime rate, although crime decreased by 13 percent overall, the city still suffered a "57 percent spike in homicides his final year in office, to 148 overall".

Brown's largely successful first term as mayor of Oakland was documented in a one-hour KQED documentary, "The Celebrity and the City" (2001) that evaluated his record in dealing with his four stated goals: reducing crime, improving education, attracting 10,000 new residents to a resurgent downtown, and encouraging the arts.

Brown was reelected as mayor in 2002.

Attorney General of California (2007–2011)
In 2004, Brown expressed interest to be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of California in the 2006 election, and in May 2004, he formally filed to run. He defeated his Democratic primary opponent, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, 63% to 37%. In the general election, Brown defeated Republican State Senator Charles Poochigian 56.3% to 38.2%, one of the largest margins of victory in any statewide California race. In the final weeks leading up to Election Day, Brown's eligibility to run for attorney general was challenged in what Brown called a "political stunt by a Republican office seeker" (Contra Costa County Republican Central Committee chairman and state GOP vice-chair candidate Tom Del Beccaro). Plaintiffs claimed Brown did not meet eligibility according to California Government Code §12503, "No person shall be eligible to the office of Attorney General unless he shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the state for a period of at least five years immediately preceding his election or appointment to such office." Legal analysts called the lawsuit frivolous because Brown was admitted to practice law in the State of California on June 14, 1965, and had been so admitted to practice ever since. Although ineligible to practice law because of his voluntary inactive status in the State Bar of California from January 1, 1997, to May 1, 2003, he was nevertheless still admitted to practice. Because of this distinction the case was eventually thrown out.

Death penalty
As attorney general, Brown represented the state in fighting death-penalty appeals and stated that he would follow the law, regardless of his personal beliefs against capital punishment. Capital punishment by lethal injection was halted in California by federal judge Jeremy D. Fogel until new facilities and procedures were put into place. Brown moved to resume capital punishment in 2010 with the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown after the lifting of a statewide moratorium by a California court. Brown's Democratic campaign, which pledged to "enforce the laws" of California, denied any connection between the case and the gubernatorial election. Prosecutor Rod Pacheco, who supported Republican opponent Meg Whitman, said that it would be unfair to accuse Brown of using the execution for political gain as they never discussed the case.

Mortgage fraud lawsuit
In June 2008, Brown filed a fraud lawsuit claiming mortgage lender Countrywide Financial engaged in "unfair and deceptive" practices to get homeowners to apply for risky mortgages far beyond their means. Brown accused the lender of breaking the state's laws against false advertising and unfair business practices. The lawsuit also claimed the defendant misled many consumers by misinforming them about the workings of certain mortgages such as adjustable-rate mortgages, interest-only loans, low-documentation loans and home-equity loans while telling borrowers they would be able to refinance before the interest rate on their loans adjusted. The suit was settled in October 2008 after Bank of America acquired Countrywide. The settlement involved the modifying of troubled 'predatory loans' up to $8.4 billion.

Proposition 8
Proposition 8, a contentious voter-approved amendment to the state constitution that banned same-sex marriage was upheld in May 2009 by the California Supreme Court. In August 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Proposition 8 violated the Due Process and the Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Brown and then Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger both declined to appeal the ruling. The state appeals court declined to order the governor or Attorney-General Brown to defend the proposition.

Third term
Brown announced his candidacy for governor on March 2, 2010. First indicating his interest in early 2008, Brown formed an exploratory committee in order to seek a third term as governor in 2010, following the expiration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's term.

Brown's Republican opponent in the election was former eBay president Meg Whitman. Brown was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, The Sacramento Bee, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Service Employees International Union.

Both Whitman and Brown were criticized for negative campaigning during the election. During their final debate at the 2010 Women's Conference a week before the election, moderator Matt Lauer asked both candidates to pull attack ads for the rest of the election, which elicited loud cheers from the audience. Brown agreed and picked one ad each of his and Whitman's that he thought, if Whitman would agree, should be the only ones run, but Whitman, who had been loudly cheered earlier as the prospective first woman governor of the state, was booed when she stated that she would keep "the ads that talk about where Gov. Brown stands on the issues".

The Los Angeles Times reported that nearly $250 million was spent on the Governor's race. At least two spending records were broken during the campaign. Whitman broke personal spending records by spending $140 million of her own money on the campaign, and independent expenditures exceeded $31.7 million, with almost $25 million of that spent in support of Brown. Despite being significantly outspent by Whitman, Brown won the gubernatorial race 53.8% to Whitman's 40.9%.

Brown was sworn in for his third term as governor on January 3, 2011, succeeding Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger who had been officially term-limited. Brown was working on a budget that would shift many government programs from the state to the local level, a reversal of trends from his first tenure as governor.

On June 28, 2012, Brown signed a budget that made deep cuts to social services with the assumption that voters would pass $8 billion in tax increases in November 2012 to close California's $15.7-billion budget deficit. Brown stated: "We need budget cuts. We need the continued growth of the economy for a long period of time. We're suffering from the mortgage meltdown that killed 600,000 jobs in the construction industry. ... We're recovering from a national recession slowly—over 300,000 jobs [gained] since the recession. We've got a million to go. That needs to continue, but that depends not only on Barack Obama and the Congress and the Federal Reserve, but also on [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, China, the European Union, and the self-organizing quality of the world economy."

In September 2012, Brown signed legislation sponsored by California State Senator Ted Lieu that prohibits protesters at funerals within 300 feet, with convicted violators punishable with fines and jail time; the legislation was in response to protests conducted by the Westboro Baptist Church.

In the November 2012 general elections, voters approved Brown's proposed tax increases in the form of Proposition 30. Prop 30 raised the state personal income tax increase for seven years among California residents with an annual income over US$250,000 and increased in the state sales tax by 0.25 percent over four years. It allowed the state to avoid nearly $6 billion in cuts to public education.

In 2013, Brown proposed a large, $25 billion Bay Delta Conservation Plan (later renamed the California Water Fix and Eco Restore project) to build two large, four-story tall, 30 mile long tunnels to carry fresh water from the Sacramento River under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta toward the intake stations for the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. Unlike his earlier Peripheral Canal project, the two tunnels are to be funded by the agencies and users receiving benefit from the project and do not require voter approval.

In July 2014, Brown traveled to Mexico to hold meetings with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Central American leaders about the ongoing children's immigration crisis.

On September 16, 2014, Gov. Brown signed a historic package of groundwater legislation. The plan will regulate local agencies and also implement management plans to achieve water sustainability within 20 years.

Fourth term
Brown announced his bid for another re-election on February 27, 2014. On June 3, he came in first place in the primary election by over 1.5 million votes. He received 54.3% of the vote and advanced to the general election with Republican Neel Kashkari, who took 19.38% of the vote.

There was only one gubernatorial debate. When asked to schedule another, Brown ultimately declined. During the debate in Sacramento on September 4, 2014, Kashkari accused Brown of failing to improve California's business climate. His leading example was the Tesla Motors factory investment, creating 6,500 manufacturing jobs, going to Nevada rather than California. Brown responded that the cash payment upfront required by the investment would have been unfair to California taxpayers. A range of issues were debated, including recent legislation for a ban on plastic bags at grocery stores that Brown promised to sign and Kashkari thought unimportant.

Brown said that if he were elected to a fourth and final term, he would continue transferring power to local authorities, particularly over education and criminal justice policy, and would resist fellow Democrats' "gold rush for new programs and spending".

In the general election, Brown was re-elected with 4,388,368 votes (60.0%) to Kashkari’s 3,645,835. He was sworn in for a final term specifically on January Monday 5, 2015. His stated goals for his unprecedented fourth term in office were to construct the California High-Speed Rail, to create tunnels to shore up the state's water system and to curb carbon dioxide emissions. He still had $20 million in campaign funds to advance his ballot measures in case the legislature didn't support his plans.

In October 2015, Brown signed off the California End of Life Option Act allowing residents of California who fulfilled strict criteria to exercise the right to die by accessing medical aid in dying. During the sign off he took the unusual step of adding a personal message indicating his dilemma regarding the consideration of the ethical issues involved and stating that he felt unable to deny the right of choice to others.

On December 18, 2015, Brown moved into the Historic Governor's Mansion, now part of Governor's Mansion State Historic Park.

In 2016, Brown vetoed a bill to exempt feminine hygiene products from state sales taxes, at the same time that he vetoed other bills which would also have exempted diapers, saying that collectively, these exemptions would have reduced state revenues by $300 million annually, and stated “As I said last year, tax breaks are the same as new spending – they both cost the general fund money.”

In the 2018–2019 budget plan that Brown released on January 10, 2018, the Governor proposed spending $120 million to establish California's first fully online community college by fall 2019.

Legislative accomplishments in Brown's final term include passing California Sanctuary Law SB 54, which prevents police from complying with most requests by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold illegal immigrants for deportation; California Senate Bill 32, which requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, extending the state's cap and trade system (which had originally been outlined by the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006) to achieve this goal; and passing the Road Repair and Accountability Act. Brown has opposed the Proposition 6 ballot measure to repeal the Road Repair and Accountability Act, and endorsed Gavin Newsom to eventually succeed him.

Brown has been criticized for his links to the oil and gas industry, notably for contributions from, and his family ties to, Sempra Energy.

By September 2018, Brown had granted more than 1,100 pardons since returning to office in 2011; more pardons than any California governor in recent history. Brown commuted more than 82 sentences, the highest number since at least the 1940s.

Post-public office
Following the conclusion of his career in public office, Brown has become increasingly involved with climate cooperation between United States non-state entities (including Michael Bloomberg and the Bloomberg Foundation) and China. Brown has also worked with former Chinese climate minister Xie Zhenhua to establish a new center for California-China climate cooperation at University of California, Berkeley.

Brown lives on a mountain ranch in California that he allows researchers including the California Native Plant Society to use as a meeting point. In 2023 a beetle in the genus Bembidium was named B. brownorum after Brown and his wife, after it was discovered on the ranch.

Personal life
A bachelor in his first term as governor and as mayor of Oakland, Brown attracted attention for dating famous women, the most notable of whom was singer Linda Ronstadt. In March 2005, Brown announced his engagement to his girlfriend since 1990, Anne Gust, former chief administrative officer for The Gap. They were married on June 18, 2005, in a ceremony officiated by Senator Dianne Feinstein in the Rotunda Building in downtown Oakland. They had a second, religious ceremony later in the day in the Roman Catholic Church in San Francisco where Brown's parents had been married. Brown and Gust lived in the Oakland Hills in a home purchased for $1.8 million. , they live on a ranch in Colusa County.

Beginning in 1995, Brown hosted a daily call-in talk show on the local Pacifica Radio station, KPFA-FM, in Berkeley broadcast to major U.S. markets. Both the radio program and Brown's political action organization, based in Oakland, were called We the People. His programs, usually featuring invited guests, generally explored alternative views on a wide range of social and political issues, from education and health care to spirituality and the death penalty.

The official gubernatorial portrait of Jerry Brown, commemorating his first period as Governor of California, was painted by Don Bachardy and unveiled in 1984. The painting has long been controversial due to its departure from the traditional norms of portraiture.

Brown had a long-term friendship with his aide Jacques Barzaghi, whom he met in the early 1970s and put on his payroll. Author Roger Rapaport wrote in his 1982 Brown biography California Dreaming: The Political Odyssey of Pat & Jerry Brown, "This combination clerk, chauffeur, fashion consultant, decorator, and trusted friend had no discernible powers. Yet, late at night, after everyone had gone home to their families and TV consoles, it was Jacques who lingered in the Secretary (of state's) office." Barzaghi and his sixth spouse Aisha lived with Brown in the warehouse in Jack London Square; Barzaghi was brought into Oakland city government upon Brown's election as mayor, where Barzaghi first acted as the mayor's armed bodyguard. Barzaghi left Brown's staff in July 2004, six days after police had responded to his residence over a complaint of domestic violence, and later moved to Morocco and then Normandy. Barzaghi died in 2021.

In April 2011, Brown had surgery to remove a basal-cell carcinoma from the right side of his nose. In December 2012, media outlets reported that Brown was being treated for early stage (the precise stage and grade was not stated) localized prostate cancer with a very good prognosis.

In 2011, Jerry and Anne Gust Brown acquired a Pembroke Welsh corgi, Sutter Brown, dubbed the "first dog" of California. Sutter was frequently seen in the company of the governor, accompanying him to political events and softening the governor's cerebral image. In 2015, the couple obtained a second dog, Colusa "Lucy" Brown, a Pembroke Welsh corgi/border collie mix. Sutter had emergency surgery in October 2016 to remove cancerous tissue. Sutter died in December 2016 from cancer at the age of 13.

In 2019, Brown was appointed to be a visiting professor at Berkeley.

Brown's accent has been described as reminiscent of the "Mission Brogue", particularly with his non-rhoticity.

title: Jerry Brown


text:
DX encoding

DX (Digital indeX) encoding is an ANSI and I3A standard, originally introduced by Kodak in March 1983, for marking 135 and APS photographic film and film cartridges. It consists of several parts, a latent image DX film edge barcode on the film below the sprocket holes, a code on the cartridge used by automatic cameras, and a barcode on the cartridge read by photo-finishing machines.

History
In order to simplify the handling of 35 mm film in 135 format Kodak introduced the DX encoding method on 3 January 1983. In contrast to former solutions like Fuji's film speed encoding method in 1977, which was already using electrical contacts for film speed detection on 135 format cartridges, Kodak's later DX code system immediately met success in the marketplace.

The first DX encoded film was the color negative film Kodacolor VR-1000 in March 1983.

The first cameras to use the technology was the Konica TC-X SLR (1985), as well as the compact cameras Pentax Super Sport 35 / PC 35AF-M and Minolta AF-E / Freedom II in 1984. Pentax instead claimed the A3 / A3000 was the first DX-enabled SLR in 1985. Other DX-enabled SLRs were introduced in 1985 as well: Minolta 7000 (February 1985) and 9000 (September 1985), as well as the Nikon F-301 / N2000.

DX-iX (data exchange - information exchange) is an expanded DX encoding system introduced in 1996 to be used in conjunction with the Advanced Photo System (APS). It is only used on APS films format IX240, also known as Advantix.

In 1998, Fujifilm introduced a film identification system for 120 and 220 format roll film called Barcode System (with logo "|||B"). The barcode encoding the film format and length as well as the film speed and type is located on the sticker between the emulsion carrying film and the backing paper. This 13-bit barcode    is optically scanned by newer medium format cameras like the Fujifilm GA645i Professional, GA645Wi Professional, GA645Zi Professional, GX645AF Professional, GX680III Professional, GX680IIIS Professional, Hasselblad H1, H2, H2F and H3D Model I with HM 16-32 as well as by the Contax 645 AF.

DX cartridge barcode
Next to the film exit lip is an Interleaved 2 of 5 barcode and a printed number. The six digits represent the I3A assigned DX number (middle four digits), the number of exposures (last digit) and a proprietary manufacturer's code (first digit). The DX number identifies the manufacturer, film type, and by inference, the necessary developing process type. This is used by automatic photo-finishing machines to correctly process the exposed film.

DX film edge barcode
Below the sprockets under each frame of 135 film is the DX film edge barcode. The barcode is invisible until the film has been developed. It is optically imprinted as a latent image during manufacturing. The barcode is used by photo finishers to identify each frame for printing. It consists of two parallel linear barcodes, one for a synchronizing clock called the "clock track", and the other encoding film data such as type, manufacturer and frame number, called the "data track". The barcode nearest the film edge (away from the sprocket holes) contains the data track. The data track sequence repeats every half frame, beginning with six start bits, followed by seven bits of DX Number Part 1, one unassigned bit, four bits of DX Number Part 2, a seven-bit frame/half-frame number, one unassigned bit, one parity bit, and finishes with four stop bits. The seven-bit frame/half-frame number is called the "DXN" number (different than the "DX Number Part 1" and "DX Number Part 2"), and is an extension on the original DX edge code, patented by Eastman Kodak in 1990.

Some image processing software utilized by film scanners allow selection of film manufacturer and type to provide automatic color correction. Interpreting the DX film edge barcode may provide this information, permitting accurate color correction to be applied.

DX Camera Auto Sensing
The outside of film cartridges are marked with a DX Camera Auto Sensing (CAS) code readable by many cameras. Cameras can then automatically determine the film speed, number of exposures and exposure tolerance.

The DX Camera Auto Sensing code takes the form of a grid of contact points on the side of the metal cartridge surface that are either conductive or non-conductive. Electrical contacts in the camera read the bit pattern. Most cameras read only part of the code; typically, only the film speed is read, and some cameras aimed at the consumer market only read enough bits to tell apart the most common film speeds. For example, 100, 200, 400, and 800 can be detected by reading only S1 and S2 and ground.

Electrical contacts
On 35mm film cartridges there are two rows of six rectangular areas. The two left-most areas (with the spool post on the left) are both common (ground) and are thus always bare metal. The remaining five bits in the top row represent 32 possible film speeds. But only the 24 speeds representing the 1/3 stops from ISO 25/15° to 5000/38° are used. The codes are not in strict binary order.

In the second row, the first three bits represent eight possible film lengths, although in practice only 12, 20, 24 and 36 exposures are encoded. The remaining two bits of the second row give four ranges of exposure tolerance, or latitude.

Most cameras read the film speed only (first row).

Diagramatically (with spool post to the left):

Where "G" are the two common-ground contacts, "S" is the film speed, "L" the film length, and "T" the exposure tolerance.

Reading DX Camera Auto Sensing codes
The encoding scheme is illustrated in the truth table below using letters and color. Where "G" is ground, "T" represents the connection to ground and "F" for the lack of connection.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: DX encoding


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Aiseau-Presles

Aiseau-Presles (Åjhô-Préle) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

On 1 January 2018 Aiseau-Presles had a total population of 10,788. The total area is 22.19 km2 which gives a population density of 486 inhabitants per km2. It is located in the arrondissement of Charleroi. Its postal area is: 6250.

Cities and municipalities bordering: Châtelet - Farciennes - Fosses-la-Ville - Gerpinnes - Sambreville.

Districts

 * Aiseau
 * Pont-de-Loup
 * Presles
 * Roselies

Landmarks

 * Oignies Abbey

Demographics
Historical population:
 * 1977: 10,969
 * 1994: 10,912

title: Aiseau-Presles


text:
Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont

Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont (El Tchapele) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

On January 1, 2018, Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont had a total population of 14,900. The total area is 18.10 km² which gives a population density of 820 inhabitants per km².

The municipality consists of the following districts: Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont, Godarville, and Piéton.

Famous inhabitants

 * Alphonse Briart, geologist

title: Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont


text:
Charleroi

Charleroi (,, ; Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not far from the border with France. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1462 km² with a total population of 522,522 by 1 January 2008, ranking it as the 5th most populous in Belgium after Brussels, Antwerp, Liège, and Ghent. The inhabitants are called Carolorégiens or simply Carolos.

History

The Charleroi area was already settled in the prehistoric period, with traces of metallurgical and commercial activities along the Sambre. Several public buildings, temples and villas were built in the area in the Roman period. Burial places, with jewels and weapons, have been found. The first written mention of a place called Charnoy dates from a 9th-century offering in the Lobbes abbey, which lists various neighboring towns and related tithe duties. During the Middle Ages, Charnoy was one of the many small hamlets in the area, with no more than about 50 inhabitants, part of the County of Namur.

Foundation
Spanish territorial losses in the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees left a gap between the key fortresses of Mons and Namur; to fill this, Francisco Castel Rodrigo, then Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, expropriated land around Charnoy to build a fortress near the Sambre. In September 1666, it was renamed Charle-roi, or King Charles, in honour of five-year-old Charles II of Spain; the chronogram FVNDATVR CAROLOREGIVM (MDCLVVVI) can be found in the register of the parish of Charnoy.

Construction had only just begun when the War of Devolution with France began in 1667, and the Spanish withdrew. France retained the town under the 1668 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and its fortifications were completed by Vauban. A bridge was built over the Sambre, connecting the Ville Haute and Ville Basse, with incentives offered to persuade people to settle there. The French relinquished control in 1678, and although it changed hands several times over the next 50 years, the town remained part of the Netherlands until the foundation of modern Belgium.

1666–1830
Shortly after its foundation, the new city was in turn besieged by the Dutch, ceded to the Spanish in 1678 (Treaty of Nijmegen), taken by the French in 1693, ceded again to the Spanish in 1698 (Treaty of Rijswijk), then taken by the French, the Dutch and the Austrians in 1714 (Treaty of Baden). The French Prince of Conti took the city again in 1745, but it was ceded back to Austria in 1748, beginning a period of prosperity under Joseph II. Glass, steel and coal industries, which had already sprung up a century earlier, could now flourish.

Trouble began again in 1790, the year of the civil uprising that eventually led to the United States of Belgium. The Austrians occupied the city, were forced out by the French after the Battle of Jemappes on 6 November 1792, and took it back again four months later. On 12 June 1794, the French revolutionary Army of Sambre-et-Meuse under the command of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, invested Charleroi and won a decisive victory in the ensuing Battle of Fleurus. The city took the revolutionary name of Libre-sur-Sambre until 1800. After France's defeat in 1814, the whole area was annexed to the Netherlands, and new walls were built around the city. Napoleon stayed in Charleroi for a couple of days in June 1815, just before the Battle of Waterloo.

1830 to present
The Belgian Revolution of 1830 gave the area its freedom from the Netherlands and ushered in a new era of prosperity, still based mostly on glass, metallurgy and coal, hence the area's name, Pays Noir ("Black Country"). After the Industrial Revolution, Charleroi benefited from the increased use of coke in the metallurgical industry. People from across Europe were attracted by the economic opportunities, and the population grew rapidly.

Following the Industrial revolution in Wallonia, Charleroi from the 1850s–1860s became one of the most important places where labor strikes broke out. In 1886, 12 strikers were killed by the Belgian army in Roux. In the 1880s, miners in Hainaut were recruited by the Dominion Coal Company in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. These miners were anxious to flee the repression following bloody strikes and riots in Liège and Charleroi during the Walloon Jacquerie of 1886. Walloon miners from Charleroi also emigrated to Alberta, Canada. The working men of Charleroi always played an important role in Belgian general strikes and particularly during the Belgian general strike of 1936, the general strike against Leopold III of Belgium, and the 1960–1961 winter general strike.

By 1871, the fortified walls around the city were completely torn down.

Heavy fighting took place during World War I due to the city's strategic location on the Sambre. The city was badly damaged with further destruction only being prevented by the Couillet Treaty agreed with the German forces which required the payment of 10 million Belgian Francs, foodstuffs, vehicles and armaments. The magazine Spirou, which featured the popular cartoon characters Lucky Luke and the Smurfs, was launched by the publishing company Éditions Dupuis in 1938. After World War II, Charleroi witnessed a general decline of its heavy industry. Following the merger with several surrounding municipalities in 1977, the city ranks as the largest city in Wallonia and the 4th largest in Belgium.

Logotype
As part of the effort to improve its identity, the city adopted a new logo and graphic charter in early 2015, designed by the Brussels studio Pam and Jenny.

The crown of three triangles above the C has several meanings:

 * The triangular shape evokes the slag heaps, yesterday black and today green, which symbolise the city's industrial past and its factories.
 * It also recalls the crest of the cockerel designed by Pierre Paulus and symbol of Wallonia.
 * The crown refers to King Charles II who gave his name to the city at the time of its foundation.
 * The typography used is also very similar to that used in the logo of ACEC, a historic company founded, developed and finally closed down in Charleroi in 1989 after more than a century of existence.

Geography

The municipality of Charleroi straddles both banks of the river Sambre in an area marked by industrial activities (coal mining and steel industry), which has been nicknamed the Pays Noir ("Black Country"), part of the larger sillon industriel. Even though most of the factories have closed since the 1950s, the landscape remains dotted with spoil tips and old industrial buildings.

Charleroi lies around 50 km south of Brussels.

The municipality comprises:
 * I. the central district of Charleroi

and the following former municipalities, now sections, merged into Charleroi in 1977:

 * II. Dampremy
 * III. Lodelinsart
 * IV. Gilly
 * V. Montignies-sur-Sambre
 * VI. Couillet
 * VII. Marcinelle
 * VIII. Mont-sur-Marchienne
 * IX. Marchienne-au-Pont
 * X. Monceau-sur-Sambre
 * XI. Goutroux
 * XII. Roux
 * XIII. Jumet
 * XIV. Gosselies
 * XV. Ransart

Neighboring municipalities:

 * a. Les Bons Villers
 * b. Fleurus
 * c. Châtelet
 * d. Gerpinnes
 * e. Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes
 * f. Montigny-le-Tilleul
 * g. Fontaine-l'Évêque
 * h. Courcelles
 * i. Pont-à-Celles

Topography and hydrography
The topography of Charleroi is influenced by the valley of the river Sambre, which flows from west to east before joining the Meuse at Namur. The Piéton river flows from north to south to join the Sambre at Dampremy. The Charleroi-Brussels canal is dug in the valley of this stream. The Eau d'Heure river comes from the south and also flows into the Sambre at Marchienne-au-Pont. About twenty streams run through the territory of the municipality.

The altitude ranges from 100 metres (Sambre and Piéton valleys) to over 220 metres at the Bois du Prince in Marcinelle. The level is 132 metres on the Place Charles II. The height of the slag heaps often exceeds 200 metres, the Saint-Charles slag heap in the Bois du Cazier reaches 241 metres.

Biodiversity
The six slag heaps in the Pays Noir are reservoirs of biodiversity that should be preserved.

Like the calcareous grassland, the slag heaps are habitats created by human activity that are home to many very specific and often threatened animal and plant species. The rarity of these species depends on the rarity of the environment itself (the biotope). Biodiversity is also present in other environments: in a wasteland, a body of water, a meadow, etc. In terms of biodiversity, it is therefore preferable to maintain a mosaic of habitats, hence the interest in preserving different types of environments on the slag heaps.

The Viviers site, for example, is an old mining site located in the east of Charleroi (Gilly). This site has a small conical slag heap and large open areas consisting mainly of pioneer grassland and wasteland. It also includes a small body of water as well as temporary ponds, and some wooded areas on the western and northern edges. This particular biotope is of great biological interest and acts as a refuge for a diverse fauna. The vast reed bed surrounding the pond is home to the red warbler, a passerine bird specific to this type of vegetation. Several species of amphibians can be seen here, including a population of the natterjack toad, as well as certain insects, such as the magnificent blue-winged grasshopper.

The Martinet site, a former colliery on the boundary of the Monceau-sur-Sambre and Roux sections, is in the process of being rehabilitated and reallocated. Like the Viviers slag heap in Gilly, this vast site is of great biological interest.

Climate
Similar to the rest of Belgium Charleroi has an oceanic climate as a result of the Gulf Stream influence warming winters, while also moderating summer warmth in spite of its inland position.

Politics
Before the merger of municipalities, from Belgian independence in 1830 until 1 January 1977 (with the exception of the period linked to the Second World War), Charleroi only experienced liberal mayors and majorities. The municipal elections in 1976, just before the merger of municipalities, brought an absolute majority for the Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), and Lucien Harmegnies, previous minister and until then mayor of Marcinelle, became the first socialist mayor of the new entity. Since 1977, the Socialist Party has constantly been part of the political majority within the municipal council, either holding an absolute majority or being in coalition with other parties.

In 2005, numerous judicial affairs put into question Charleroi's elected socialist municipal councillors. The media resonance and the impact were significant at local, regional and even national level. At local level, the PS lost its absolute majority as a result of the municipality elections of 8 October 2006.

At the elections of October 2012, the PS, under the leadership of Paul Magnette, regained the absolute majority at the municipal council. Mayor Paul Magnette chose, however, to open the socialist majority and to reconduct the coalition of socialists, liberals and centrists. At the municipal elections of 2018, Magnette, re-elected mayor, opened the socialist city majority to ecologists and centrists (C+).

Municipal elections
(*)Under the local list name "C+" (**)Under alternative name

Landmarks

 * The belfry, part of the City Hall, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France site.
 * The Maison Dorée was built in 1899 by Art Nouveau architect Alfred Frère. Its name is derived from the golden sgraffiti that adorn the façade.
 * The city is home to several museums of fine art, glass and other disciplines, as well as a significant one specializing in photography, in the Mont-sur-Marchienne district.
 * Castle of Monceau-sur-Sambre : set into a large English style park, high building flanked by circular towers, dating mainly from the seventeenth and eighteenth century.
 * Church Saint-Christophe (Charleroi Ville-Haute) : construction started in 1667 under the reign of Louis XIV. The church has been several times restored and transformed in a modern-style architecture in 1956.
 * Former hôtel des Postes (Charleroi Ville-Basse) : building with a belfry in Flemish neo-renaissance style on the place Verte constructed in 1907.
 * In remembrance to the Jews of Charleroi being murdered by the Nazi regime, the German artist Gunter Demnig has collocated nine Stolpersteine in Charleroi.
 * Bois du Cazier (Marcinelle) : coal mining dating from the nineteenth century inscribed in 2012 on the UNESCO World Heritage List. A museum of industry and glassware is located in the buildings of the industrial era.
 * The Tour Bleue ("Blue Tower"), located in the centre of Charleroi and 75 m high. Realised in 2015 by Jean Nouvel, it is the headquarters of the Police.

Economy
Charleroi was in the center of a coal basin as well as steel and glass industries. Even so, due to the widespread loss in industrial power in the area since the 1970s, the coal and steel areas experienced a significant decline for most of the 1980s and 1990s.

From these industrial activities, the region of Charleroi has inherited a wide industrial area for electrical engineering and production of iron, steel, glass and chemicals. The conglomerate ArcelorMittal subdivided its Industeel unit to encompass the Charleroi steelworks.

Moreover, from the early 2000s, the overall economy of the area has diversified to include health care, logistics, biotechnologies, energy (Suez), railway transportation (Alstom) and telecommunications (Alcatel).

More recently, other sectors have developed, mainly civil and military aeronautics (SABCA, SONACA), logistics, printing and biotechnology. The aeronautics and space industry is developing rapidly around Charleroi-Brussels-South airport with the foundation of two university research centres: the Center of Excellence in Information Technologies (CETIC) serving as a center of expertise for the development of Walloon companies and founded by UCLouvain with the universities of Namur and Mons, as well as the Cenaero (Centre for research in aeronautics) of the University of Liège (ULiège), the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) and the University of Brussels (ULB).

Likewise, the Brussels South Charleroi Airport has evolved in a major commercial success with a grow of passengers from 210.000 in 1998 to 8.3 millions passengers in 2023. Therefore, it has become the second airport of Belgium for passenger transport which is a substantial asset for the economical and commercial development of the region of Charleroi. The activity of the airport thus generates numerous direct and indirect jobs.

The Intercommunale Igretec is the official body of the region of Charleroi giving assistance and support for the installation and development of high-tech companies around the airport and in the region of Charleroi.

Charleroi is also connected through highways with all the major cities of Belgium and the French border. It has also a port ("Port autonome de Charleroi") and a river network giving access to three major ports (Dunkirk, Antwerp and Rotterdam).

From the 1990s, two big shopping malls (Ville 2 and Rive Gauche), cinemas and even a local craft brewery have been created in and around the city center also bringing back shops and customers downtown.

Education
Charleroi is Belgium's biggest city without having its own university. In 1966 the University of Louvain began operations in Charleroi with three faculties on its UCLouvain Charleroi campus based in the city center and in Montignies-sur-Sambre, including the Louvain School of Management and, more recently, the Louvain School of Engineering, issuing Bachelor's and Master's degrees and conducting research. Other universities have since started operations in Charleroi, including the Universities of Namur, Mons and the Université libre de Bruxelles.

Thanks to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union, a Campus of Sciences, Art and Trade is currently developed downtown Charleroi. This Campus, located on the site of the University of Labor, will constitute a real center of excellence for training - teaching - research in the city center equipped with a Cité des Métiers, a University Center, a Center for Technological Higher Education, a “Design – Innovation” Competence Center.

Primary and secondary schools
Secondary schools include: The catholic secondary schools include:
 * Athénée Royal Jules Destrée
 * Athénée Royal Orsini Dewerpe
 * Athénée Royal de Gilly
 * Athénée Royal Les Marlaires
 * Athénée Royal Ernest Solvay
 * Athénée Royal Vauban
 * Athénée Royal Yvonne Vieslet
 * Centre Educatif Communal Secondaire — La Garenne
 * Institut d'Enseignement Technique Secondaire de l’UT
 * Institut Jean Jaurès de l’UT
 * Centre Educatif Communal Secondaire de Couillet-Marcinelle
 * Institut Provincial d’Enseignement Secondaire Paramédical La Samaritaine
 * Institut Saint-Joseph (ISJ);
 * Institut Saint-André (ISA);
 * Institut Notre-Dame (IND) ;
 * IET Notre-Dame (IETND);
 * Collège du Sacré-Cœur (jesuits);
 * Collège Technique Aumôniers du Travail de Charleroi (ATC).

Air
The Brussels South Charleroi Airport in Gosselies, 7 km north of the centre, opened in 1919 as a flight school. Later, it housed the Fairey aircraft-factory building.

Gosselies is now used as an alternate airport for Brussels. Low-cost carrier Ryanair is the largest airline to provide service there; others include Wizz Air, Jetairfly. Seasonal holiday charters also use the airport.

A new terminal opened in January 2008, replacing a much smaller building which had exceeded capacity.

Brussels is 47 km north of Charleroi Airport.

In October 2021, the 650m extension of the runway was officially opened, bringing it to a total length of 3200m.

Rail
Charleroi is connected by train to other Belgian major cities through the main Charleroi-South railway station. The city also has a secondary railway station, Charleroi-West, on the Charleroi-to-Ottignies line.

River transport
The Port autonome de Charleroi gives access through the Belgian, Dutch and French canal and river network to three major ports (Dunkirk, Antwerp and Rotterdam). Il is composed of twenty-nine ports in the region of Charleroi distributed along the river Sambre and the Brussels-Charleroi canal. It has 8 km of embankments, 5 million tons of goods transported each year, 10.000 containers and a trimodal platform for the containers; 100 companies have a concession and there are 1700 direct and 1000 indirect jobs associated.

Public transport
Public transport is provided by TEC (Transport En Commun), the Walloon public transport service. The greater Charleroi region is served by bus lines and a light-rail Metro system, (Métro Léger de Charleroi). Part of the latter is famous for incorporating one of the few remnants of the Vicinal, the former Belgian national tramway network. Charleroi also has a planned four-line S-bahn type suburban rail system, the (Réseau S).

Charleroi Metro
The Charleroi Metro is equally famous for the parts of the system which were never built, partially built or fully completed but not opened. It was planned in the 1960s as a 48 km (30 mi.) light-rail network, operating on the heavy rail metro infrastructure, consisting of eight branch lines radiating from a central loop downtown. However, only one line (to Petria), part of another line (to Gilly) and three-quarters of the loop were actually built and opened to traffic, all from 1976 to 1996. Another branch line toward the suburb of Châtelet (Châtelineau) was almost fully built, to the extent of installing power cables, escalators and still-working electric signals in the first three stations but was never opened as passenger numbers would be too low to economically justify the extra staff. The high costs of construction, a decline in Charleroi's traditional "smokestack" industries and questioning of the scope of the whole project in proportion to the actual demand for it are cited as reasons for the original plan's becoming unfulfilled.

The central loop and the Gilly branch as far as Soleilmont were completed in 2012, with funds from the European Investment Bank. The Gosselies branch opened as a street-level tramline in 2013. In June 2021 it was announced that €60m will be allocated to refurbish and open the long-ago completed but never served inner section of the Châtelet "ghost" line, and extend it to the new hospital development in the area.

in June 2021, the new look of the first renovated tram is presented. This fleet-wide renovation of 22 million euro will end in 2026.

Museums

 * Musée de la photographie, in Mont-sur-Marchienne
 * BPS22, art Museum of the Province of Hainaut
 * Bois du Cazier, in Marcinelle
 * Musée des Beaux-Arts ("Museum of Fine Arts")

Theatres and dance hall

 * Charleroi Danses
 * Théâtre de l'Ancre

Performance halls and cultural centers

 * Rockerill, alternative concert hall, exhibition space and performances located in Marchienne-au-Pont
 * Vecteur, multidisciplinary cultural platform
 * Eden, performance hall

Media

 * Éditions Dupuis, comic and magazines publisher located in Marcinelle
 * Telesambre, regional television channel
 * La Nouvelle Gazette, a Belgian French-language daily newspaper

Folklore events

 * The Marches of Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse : every year, from May to October, the Marches of Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse, both a religious procession and a folk march, take place in Jumet (Tour de la Madeleine) and in the region south of Charleroi, which bring together many walkers parading in costumes of First Empire and Third Empire uniform. In 2012, fifteen of these marches were recognised as masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.
 * The Mardi Gras carnival with the release of the giants puppets and the parade of the Climbias, a folk and charity club in Lodelinsart.
 * The Easter and August fairs.
 * The Sunday market.

Itineraries, tours

 * Boucle Noire ("Black Loop"), a 26 km walk between the industrial and natural landscape of Charleroi
 * Grande dérive ("Big Drift") : this path forms a 54 km loop surrounding the greater Charleroi. La Grande Dérive, passes through the green margins of Charleroi, on marked trails, climbing on the slag heaps and crossing public parks, woods, agricultural areas and wasteland.
 * Eurovelo 3 pilgrims' route : Charleroi is located on the EuroVelo3 route. It is a 5,122 km long road that connects Trondheim in Norway to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The route thus crosses seven countries, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France and Spain.
 * In the Charleroi region, the RAVeL network (in French Réseau Autonome des Voies Lentes and in English autonomous network of slow ways) allows cycling for sports and tourism purposes on protected routes. The routes take the towpaths along the river Sambre and the Charleroi-Brussels canal and on disused railway lines.

Sports
Charleroi is home to a number of champion teams in various sports. Spirou Charleroi in basketball has been an eight-times winner in the Basketball League Belgium. La Villette Charleroi in table tennis is the most successful club in the Champions League with five titles and has been the Belgian champion multiple times. Action 21 Charleroi in futsal has won one UEFA Futsal Cup and nine titles in the Belgian Division 1. In football, Royal Charleroi SC and ROC Charleroi have finished second in the Belgian Pro League. The 30,000-capacity Stade du Pays de Charleroi was a venue at UEFA Euro 2000.

Born in Charleroi

 * Léon Rosenfeld (1904–1974), physicist
 * Jean-Marie André, scientist
 * Alexandre Czerniatynski, football player, winner of the UEFA cup
 * Jules Delhaize, 19th-century grocer and businessman, founder of what would become the Delhaize Group
 * Louis Delhaize, founder of the Louis Delhaize Group
 * Jules Destrée, lawyer and politician, born in Marcinelle, 19th century
 * Karl Erjavec, Slovenian lawyer and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs, born in Aiseau
 * Paul Finet (1897–1965), Belgian politician, born in Montignies-sur-Sambre
 * Albert Frère, businessman and the richest person in Belgium
 * Régis Genaux, football player
 * Emile Grumieaux, painter, born in Gosselies
 * Paul-François Huart-Chapel, industrialist, 19th century
 * Jean-Pierre Lecocq (1947–1992), molecular biologist and entrepreneur
 * Georges Lemaître (1894–1966), priest and astronomer, 20th century
 * Fabrice Lig, music producer, 20th century
 * Loïc Nottet, musician
 * Jean Dupuis, printer and editor, founder of the Dupuis editions
 * Pierre Marcolini, chocolatier
 * Joseph Maréchal, Jesuit priest and philosopher, 20th century
 * Didier Matrige, painter and draughtsman, 20th century
 * Joëlle Milquet, politician, 20th century
 * Chantal Mouffe, political theorist, 20th century
 * François-Joseph Navez, painter, 18th century
 * Paul Pastur, lawyer and politician
 * Gaston Salmon (1878–1917), épée fencer, Olympic champion
 * Marcel Thiry, poet, 19th century
 * Jeanne Toussaint (1887–1976), jeweller
 * Raymond Troye, wartime writer, 20th century
 * Annette Vande Gorne, composer
 * Fernand Verhaegen, painter and etcher, born in Marchienne-au-Pont, 19th century

Resided in Charleroi

 * Robert Arcq, writer
 * Paul Cuvelier, painter and comics artist
 * Arthur Grumiaux, violinist
 * Ernest Solvay, Belgian chemist, industrialist and philanthropist
 * Paul Magnette, Belgian politician (Socialist Party), current mayor of Charleroi, former political science professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Minister-President of Wallonia from 2014 to 2017
 * René Magritte, painter
 * Pierre Paulus, Expressionist painter of industrial landschapes of Charleroi
 * Johan Nunez, drummer for Nightrage/Firewind
 * Arthur Rimbaud, poet
 * Paul Verlaine, poet

Twin cities
Charleroi is twinned with the following places:
 * 🇫🇷 Hirson, France
 * 🇫🇷 Saint-Junien, France
 * 🇫🇷 Sélestat, France
 * 🇩🇪 Schramberg, Germany
 * 🇩🇪 Waldkirch, Germany
 * 🇮🇹 Manoppello, Italy
 * 🇮🇹 Casarano, Italy
 * 🇮🇹 Follonica, Italy
 * 🇯🇵 Himeji, Japan (since 1965)
 * 🇺🇦 Donetsk, Ukraine (since 1983)
 * 🇺🇸 Pittsburgh, US

title: Charleroi


text:
Châtelet, Belgium

Châtelet (Tcheslet) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies on the river Sambre.

As of January 1, 2018, Châtelet had a total population of 36,101. The total area of the municipality is 27.03 km2 which gives a population density of 1,336 inhabitants per km2.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Bouffioulx, Châtelet, and Châtelineau. Châtelet was a long established independent city prior to its fusion with the other entities.

Origins and Middle Ages
The first settlers of the site of Châtelet, dating from paleolithic times, were attracted by the ford on the river, the nearby wooded areas and flint-rich highlands. This region was continuously populated, first by Celtic, then Gallo-Roman peoples, until the Germanic invasions of the 4th and 5th century. In the 9th century, the land was likely part of emperor Louis the Pious’s estate. The first occurrence of the name Châtelet appears in a text dating from the time when its territory was given to the chapter of the Liège cathedral in the 12th century. Châtelet obtained its charter of rights in 1220, symbolized by the perron. The protection later afforded by the Prince-Bishopric of Liège made the city into an important administrative, cultural, and economic centre, which could boast four annual trade fairs and a weekly cattle market. It became one of the 23 bonne villes (main cities) of the prince-bishopric in 1655. While Châtelet's economy was dominated by artisanal guilds and trade, that of its neighbours, including Châtelineau and Bouffioulx, remained mostly agricultural.

18th century until now
The 18th century first witnessed the gradual shift of the regional economic power from Châtelet to the newly founded neighbouring city of Charleroi. This was also a time of political instability as the various powers of the day (Spain, France, Austria) fought for supremacy in this region. By the end of the century, the main economic drivers of the whole Sambre valley had become coal and heavy industry. The prosperity that came with the industrial revolution accounts for much of the population growth of the 1800s: Châtelet grew by a factor 5 in less than a century; Châtelineau grew by a factor 20 between 1811 and 1950 to more than 18,000 inhabitants. Many of the current city streets can be dated from that period. Cultural activities and artistic talent flourished as well.

Chatelet, and, in particular, Bouffioux, became well known for the production of its potteries. Originally formed in coal-fired kilns, the works from the region became internationally sought after. Three major producers still exist in the region and continue to produce artistic, as well as useful, pottery, but on a much smaller scale. The 20th century was not kind to the region but despite having witnessed two world wars and the decline of most of its industries, Châtelet is now again a regional center for trade, culture, and educational services.

Sights

 * The Saint Roch chapel, built in the Baroque style, dates from 1626. The so-called Spanish House dates from the same period.
 * The Magritte walk in the center of the city features various surrealistic representations, including street lights capped with bowler hats in homage to the artist.
 * Châtelet also boasts several green areas, including the Sebastopol reservation, which contains old quarries and an extensive bird population, the municipal woods (Bois Communal), with a bat-filled cave, and the municipal park, located at the heart of the city.
 * On the Town Hall Square is the Church of S.S. Peter and Paul. The new S.S. Pierre et Paul church was built from 1867 to 1871, according to the plans of the architect E. Carpentier de Beloeil. The fire, which occurred on the night of February 19 to 20, 1937, completely destroyed the decanal church. The religious building was identically rebuilt to the original church.
 * At the Grand-Rue is the Château Pirmez, a neo-classical mansion built in 1833 by Victor Pirmez. The building became an orphanage in 1903 and a reception and vocational training center in 1997.
 * The Church of the Immaculate Conception is located in the Faubourg district on the Place Franco-Belge, it was built in 1878–1879 in neo-Romanesque style by the architect Elie Pierard.
 * The chapel of Calvary, which is located at the corner of rue de la Praye, replaces an old oratory from 1730, a neo-classical chapel in brick and limestone from 1888.

Events

 * Cavalcade, Palm Sunday.
 * Since 1961, a folkloric march starting at the Saint-Roch chapel takes place every year on the Sunday following the feast of the Ascension.

Famous inhabitants

 * Claude Barzotti, Belgian singer of Italian origin
 * Fernand Deschamps (1868-1957), Belgian intellectual
 * Claire Kerwin (1919-2005), artist who was born in Châtelet
 * René Magritte (1898-1967), surrealist painter, spent his youth in Châtelet
 * Louis Mottiat, (1889-1972), belgian cyclist
 * Pierre Paulus (1881-1959), expressionist painter and designer of the rooster of the Walloon flag, was born in Châtelet
 * Octave Pirmez (1832-1883), author, was born in Châtelineau
 * Joel Robert, six-time motocross world champion

Twin cities

 * 🇫🇷: Vimoutiers
 * 🇮🇹: Casteltermini

title: Châtelet, Belgium


text:
Courcelles, Belgium

Courcelles (Courcele) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

As of January 1, 2006, Courcelles had a total population of 29,626. The total area is 44.24 km2 which gives a population density of 670 inhabitants per km2.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Courcelles, Gouy-lez-Piéton, Souvret, and Trazegnies.

In 1944, the town was the site of the Courcelles Massacre of 20 civilians by Belgian collaborators. The event is commemorated by a plaque at the site.

The mining
In 1853, a company, called Société Anonyme des Charbonnages du Nord de Charleroi, was formed to bring together the various concessions located in Courcelles. The mining capacity was 19,000 tons in 1854. It reached 500,000 tons in 1930. The shafts were closed one by one and currently, no extraction shaft is in operation on the territory of Courcelles, but we can still see a lot of spoil tips which are now nice places for walking.

Notable people

 * Loïc Nottet, singer who finished second in the third season of The Voice Belgique in 2014 and represented Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 which was held in Vienna, Austria

title: Courcelles, Belgium


text:
Farciennes

Farciennes (Fårcene) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

On January 1, 2018, Farciennes had a total population of 11,247. The total area is 10.39 km2 which gives a population density of 1,083 inhabitants per km2. It is located on the entre-Sambre-et-Meuse in the periphery of Charleroi.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Farciennes and Pironchamps. The boroughs of Wainage, Wairchat and Tergnée are part of the district of Farciennes.

In the past, Farciennes was an industrial city. It declined with the closure of the last Walloon coal mine, namely the Sainte-Catherine shaft of the Roton company, and the fall of the iron and steel industries, formerly large employers in the area between Liège and Charleroi. Today, the site of Roton, of which only the tower and the cloakroom remain, has been developed to accommodate small and medium-sized businesses.

Notable people

 * Olivier Carette, footballer
 * Laurent Ciman, footballer

title: Farciennes


text:
Fleurus

Fleurus (Fleuru) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It has been the site of four major battles.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Brye, Heppignies, Fleurus, Lambusart, Saint-Amand, Wagnelée, Wanfercée-Baulet (wa: Wanfercêye-Bålet), and Wangenies.

History
Traces of agriculture dating back to the Neolithic Age were found in area known as Fleurjoux and Neuve Baraque. Later the site saw the construction of the Chaussée Brunehaut, a road network of uncertain origin, perhaps attributable to the Roman Empire.

In October 1155, Henry IV of Luxembourg, also Count of Namur enfranchised the municipality which became the city of Fleurus. Henry IV had a castle in Heppignies.

The town has given its name to three battles fought in the area :

 * The Battle of Fleurus (1622) in the Thirty Years' War.
 * The Battle of Fleurus (1690) in the Nine Years' War.
 * The Battle of Fleurus (1794) in the French Revolutionary Wars.

Two days before the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 Napoleon I defeated the Prussians in what is known as the Battle of Ligny, although the pivotal action took place just north of Fleurus.

The battles have been commemorated in ship names of the countries involved, which in turn has led to Fleurus Island in Antarctica being named after SS Fleurus, a Norwegian trawler operated between the Falkland Islands and the whaling station on South Georgia in the 1920s. The "Rue de Fleurus" is on the Left Bank in Paris.

In World War II, the only fighting near Fleurus was a tank battle southwest of the town at Vieux Campinaire in September 1944.

0.1 km² was added to the municipality's area in the early 2000s.

Economy
Children's publisher Proost is a major local employer. The Institut national des radioéléments produces radioactive isotopes for medical use.

title: Fleurus


text:
Praemunire

In English history, praemunire or praemunire facias refers to a 14th-century law that prohibited the assertion or maintenance of papal jurisdiction, or any other foreign jurisdiction or claim of supremacy in England, against the supremacy of the monarch. This law was enforced by the writ of praemunire facias, a writ of summons from which the law takes its name.

The name praemunire may denote the statute, the writ, or the offence.

Praemunire in classical Latin means to fortify and also to safeguard or to uphold (munire) in advance or in preference (prae). From antiquity, munire was also connected, by mistaken etymology, with munera, "duties," "civic obligations." In medieval Latin, praemunire was confused with and used for praemonere, to forewarn, as the writ commanded that the sheriff do (facias) warn (praemunire) the summoned person to appear before the Court. Another way of understanding the term, more revealing of its sense, and based on its proper meaning, is "to supply support for (munire) something instead of, sooner than or before (prae) its proper object, as someone, for instance, affording support and obedience to the papacy sooner than to the monarchy.

Background
A controversy arose between the English kings and the Court of Rome concerning the filling of ecclesiastical benefices by means of papal provisions "by which the Pope, suspending for the time the right of the patron, nominated of his own authority, to the vacant benefice" the papal nominee being called a provisor. Pope Gregory IX (1227–1241) pronounced against the propriety of such provisions as interfering with the rights of lay patrons; and Pope Innocent IV expressed, in 1253, general disapprobation of these nominations.

The Statute of Provisors (1306) (25 Edw. 3. Stat. 4), passed in the reign of Edward I, was, according to Sir Edward Coke, the foundation of all subsequent statutes of praemunire. This statute enacted "that no tax imposed by any religious persons should be sent out of the country whether under the name of a rent, tallage, tribute or any kind of imposition". A much greater check on the freedom of action of the popes was imposed by the Statute of Provisors (1351) and the Statute of Praemunire passed in the reign of Edward III.

The former of these, after premising "that the Pope of Rome, accroaching to him the seignories of possession and benefices of the holy Church of the realm of England doth give and grant the same benefices to aliens which did never dwell in England, and to cardinals, which might not dwell here, and to others as well aliens as denizens, as if he had been patron or advowee of the said dignities and benefices, as he was not of right by the laws of England", ordained the free election of all dignities and benefices elective in the manner as they were granted by the king's progenitors.

Origin
The Statute of Praemunire (16 Ric. 2. c. 5) was passed by the Parliament of England during the reign of Richard II, who purchased various loans from foreign creditors and rulers as well as bulls from Rome in 1392. It was only one of numerous stringent measures passed for the purpose of restraining the Holy See and all forms of papal authority in England and of eliminating in general the influence of foreign powers, especially creditors and the Holy Roman Emperor. Because the Papacy had long claimed a form of temporal supremacy over England and Ireland, from the beginning of the 14th century, papal intervention had been particularly active, more especially in two forms. The one, the disposal of ecclesiastical benefices, before the same became vacant, to men of the pope's own choosing; the other, the encouragement of resort to himself and his curia, rather than to the courts of the country, for legal justice.

Later developments
The Statute of Praemunire (the first statute so called) (1353), though especially levelled at the pretensions of the Roman Curia, was also levelled against the pretensions of any foreign power and therefore was created to maintain the independence of the crown against all pretensions against it. By it, the king "at the grievous and clamorous complaints of the great men and commons of the realm of England" enacts "that all the people of the king's ligeance of what condition that they be, which shall draw any out of the realm in plea" or any matter of which the cognizance properly belongs to the king's court shall be allowed two months in which to answer for their contempt of the king's rights in transferring their pleas abroad. The penalties which were attached to the offence under this statute involved the loss of all civil rights, forfeiture of lands, goods and chattels, and imprisonment during the royal pleasure.

Many other statutes followed that of 1353, but that which was passed in the sixteenth year of Richard II's reign is, as mentioned before, usually referred to as the Statute of Praemunire. This statute, after first stating "that the right of recovering the presentments to churches, prebends, and other benefices ... belongeth only to the king’s court of the old right of his crown, used and approved in the time of all his progenitors kings of England", proceeds to condemn the practice of papal translation, and after rehearsing the promise of the three estates of the realm to stand with the king in all cases touching his crown and his regality, enacts "that if any purchase or pursue, or cause to be purchased or pursued in the court of Rome, or elsewhere, any such translations, processes, and sentences of excommunications, bulls, instruments or any other things whatsoever ... he and his notaries, abettors and counsellors" shall be put out of the king's protection, and their lands escheat.

Praemunire declined in importance, but experienced a resurgence under Henry VIII as the Protestant Reformation unfolded. First individuals were indicted for praemunire, then groups of clergy, and lastly the entire English clergy was accused of being agents of a foreign power (the Pope). The fall of both Lord Chancellor Thomas Cardinal Wolsey and Lord Great Chamberlain Thomas Cromwell was precipitated by a charge of praemunire. William Barlow was pardoned by the crown for the crime in 1550 when he made a visitation at Wells deanery. In time, Henry asserted himself as "of the Church of England in Earth under Jesus Christ Supreme Head", and the clergy of the Church of England no longer answered to a foreign power.

During the 19th century the Camerlengo of the time would on occasion communicate the death of a Pope to the British monarch (along with other rulers), and made occasional other communications. There was some discussion as to whether the Statute of Praemunire meant that no response could be made: the compromises reached included conveying messages on a 'private' rather than 'official' level, or going via the Hanoverian minister at London (responding as King of Hanover). Eventually it was decided that there was no legal obstacle to establishing formal diplomatic relations.

The abolition in 1870 of forfeiture as a penalty for treason and felony did not apply to praemunire because it was a misdemeanour.

As of the Criminal Law Act 1967 coming into effect, praemunire facias is no longer an offence in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. Afterwards, the European Communities Act 1972 extended the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice to the United Kingdom, putting a final end to praemunire. Nevertheless, in a speech at the 2018 Conservative Party Conference, during the political controversies associated with the Brexit negotiations, Boris Johnson claimed that the authors of the Chequers plan risked prosecution for Praemunire. The Times, in a fact-check of Johnson's speech, noted that Praemunire had been repealed 51 years previously.

Acts concerning praemunire

 * Suffragan Bishops Act 1534,
 * Act of Supremacy (Ireland) 1560,
 * Habeas Corpus Act 1679,
 * Criminal Law Act 1967,

title: Praemunire


text:
Fontaine-l'Évêque

Fontaine-l'Évêque (Fontinne-l'-Eveke) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

On January 1, 2006, Fontaine-l'Évêque had a total population of 16,687. The total area is 28.41 km2 which gives a population density of 587 inhabitants per km2.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Fontaine-l'Évêque, Forchies-la-Marche, and Leernes.

title: Fontaine-l'Évêque