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Carol Moseley Braun

Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun, also sometimes Moseley-Braun (born August 16, 1947), is an American diplomat, politician, and lawyer who represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 1993 to 1999. Prior to her Senate tenure, Moseley Braun was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1979 to 1988 and served as Cook County Recorder of Deeds from 1988 to 1992. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 after defeating Senator Alan J. Dixon in a Democratic primary. Moseley Braun served one term in the Senate and was defeated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald in 1998.

Following her Senate tenure, Moseley Braun served as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa from 1999 to 2001. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2004 U.S. presidential election; she withdrew from the race prior to the Iowa caucuses. In November 2010, Moseley Braun began a campaign for mayor of Chicago to replace retiring incumbent Richard M. Daley. She placed fourth in a field of six candidates, losing the 2011 election to Rahm Emanuel.

Moseley Braun was the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, the first African-American U.S. Senator from the Democratic Party, the first woman to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in the primaries for the nomination by a major party, and the first female U.S. Senator from Illinois.

In January 2023, she was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve a member and chair of the board of directors for the United States African Development Foundation. She began her tenure in April 2024.

Early life, education, family, and early career
Carol Elizabeth Moseley was born in Chicago. She attended public and parochial schools. She attended Ruggles School for elementary school, and she attended Parker High School (now the site of Paul Robeson High School) in Chicago. Her father, Joseph J. Moseley, was a Chicago police officer and jail guard and her mother, Edna A. (Davie), was a medical technician in a hospital. Both her parents were Catholic, and Moseley was raised in the faith.

The family lived in a segregated middle-class neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Her parents divorced when she was in her teens, and she lived with her grandmother.

Moseley began her undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, but dropped out after four months. She then majored in political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, graduating in 1969. Moseley earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1972.

In 1973, Moseley married Michael Braun, whom she had met in law school. The couple had one son, Matthew, in 1977. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1986.

Moseley Braun worked as a prosecutor in the United States Attorney's office in Chicago from 1973 to 1977. As an assistant United States Attorney, she worked primarily in the civil and appellate law areas. Her work in housing, health policy, and environmental law won her the Attorney General's Special Achievement Award. She stopped working as a prosecutor after her son's birth, and briefly became a homemaker before being persuaded to run for the Illinois state legislature.

Early political career
Moseley Braun was first elected to public office in 1978, when she was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. She became the first African-American woman to serve as assistant majority leader in that body. As a state representative, she became recognized as a champion for liberal social causes. As early as 1984, she proposed a moratorium on the application of the death penalty in Illinois. In what became a landmark reapportionment case, Crosby v. State Board of Elections, she successfully sued her own party and the state of Illinois on behalf of African-American and Hispanic citizens. When she left the state legislature, her colleagues recognized her in a resolution as "the conscience of the House." In 1988, she was elected Cook County Recorder of Deeds, a post she held for four years.

Elections
In 1992, angered by incumbent Democratic senator Alan Dixon's vote to confirm Clarence Thomas, Moseley Braun challenged Dixon in the primary election for U.S. Senate. She was backed by the political coalition from the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago that had previously backed the campaigns of Harold Washington and Jesse Jackson. Democratic candidate Albert Hofeld's campaign ran many anti-Dixon ads, and Moseley Braun won the Democratic primary. On November 3, 1992, Moseley Braun became the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Senate, defeating Republican Richard S. Williamson. Moseley Braun was also the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois and the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat.

Moseley Braun was a one-term Senator, losing to Republican Peter Fitzgerald in her re-election bid in 1998.

Tenure
Moseley Braun is the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. Along with Republican Edward Brooke, she was one of two African Americans to serve in the Senate in the 20th century. Moseley Braun was the sole African American in the Senate during her tenure. She was also the first woman to serve on the Senate Finance Committee.

Despite her reputation as a liberal Democrat, Moseley Braun possessed something of a centrist record on economic issues. She voted for the 1993 budget package and against the welfare reform laws passed in 1996, but on many other matters she was more conservative. Moseley Braun voted in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and lawsuit reform measures like the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (she was also among the minority of Democrats to support the even more controversial Common Sense Product Liability and Legal Reform Act of 1995). She also voted contrary to the interests of the more populist wing of the party by voting for the Freedom to Farm Act and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Like her Illinois colleague, fellow Democrat Paul Simon, she voted in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution. Moseley Braun also voted to place a nuclear spent fuel storage facility in Nevada; this move was strongly opposed by many Democrats, especially future Majority Leader Harry Reid.

On social issues, however, Moseley Braun was significantly more liberal than many of her fellow senators. She was strongly pro-choice, voting against the ban on partial-birth abortions and the restrictions on funding in military bases for abortions. She also voted against the death penalty and in favor of gun control measures. Moseley Braun was one of only sixteen senators to vote against the Communications Decency Act and one of only fourteen to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act. She delivered a eulogy for Thurgood Marshall in January 1993.

Moseley Braun was the subject of a 1993 Federal Election Commission investigation over $249,000 in unaccounted-for campaign funds. The agency found some small violations, but took no action against Moseley Braun, citing a lack of resources. Moseley Braun only admitted to bookkeeping errors. The Justice Department turned down two requests for investigations from the IRS.

Women were not allowed to wear pants on the U.S. Senate floor until 1993. In 1993, Senators Moseley Braun and Barbara Mikulski wore pants onto the floor in defiance of the rule. Soon after, female support staff followed their example. Later that year, the rule was amended by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Martha Pope to allow women to wear pants on the floor so long as they also wore jackets.

In 1993, Moseley Braun made headlines when she convinced the Senate Judiciary Committee not to renew a design patent for the United Daughters of the Confederacy because it contained the Confederate flag. The patent had been routinely renewed for nearly a century, and despite the Judiciary Committee's disapproval, the Senate was poised to pass a resolution sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina that included a provision to authorize the extension of the federal patent. Moseley Braun threatened to filibuster the legislation "until this room freezes over." She also made a plea to her colleagues about the symbolism of the Confederate flag, declaring, "It has no place in our modern times, place in this body, place in our society". Swayed by Moseley Braun's argument, the Senate rejected the UDC's application to renew its patent.

In 1996, Moseley Braun made a private trip to Nigeria, where she met with dictator Sani Abacha. Despite U.S. sanctions against that country due to Abacha's actions, the Senator neither notified nor registered her trip with the State Department. She subsequently defended Abacha's human rights record in Congress. Her former fiancé Kgosie Matthews, who also served on her campaign staff in violation of U.S. immigration regulations, had been a lobbyist for the Nigerian government; Matthews would later leave the country. She paid Matthews, a native of South Africa, a salary of $15,000 a month during the campaign.

In 1998, after George Will wrote a column reviewing the allegations of corruption against her, Moseley Braun responded to Will's comments, saying that "I think because he couldn't say nigger, he said corrupt". She also compared Will to a Ku Klux Klansman, saying: "I mean this very sincerely from the bottom of my heart: He can take his hood and put it back on again, as far as I'm concerned". Later, Moseley Braun apologized for her remarks.

U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa
On October 8, 1999, President Clinton nominated Moseley Braun to be the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Although her nomination ran into token opposition from her old adversary, Jesse Helms, and from the senator who defeated her, Peter Fitzgerald, the Senate confirmed her on November 10, 1999, in a 96–2 vote. She served in these roles until 2001.

Exploratory committee and campaign launch
Analysts had speculated that Moseley Braun was preparing for a potential run to reclaim her former Senate seat in the 2004 United States Senate election in Illinois. However, in January 2003, Braun decided against running for the U.S. Senate again. On February 18, 2003 she announced her intention to run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, doing so in a speech delivered at the University of Chicago Law School. Braun thereafter launched an exploratory committee for a presidential campaign. She had, in the days leading up to this announcement, made her first campaign-season visits to the early primary and caucus states of New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina. In her announcement speech she declared, "It's time to take the 'men only' sign off the White House door." She joined an already sizable field of candidates for the Democratic nomination.

When asked about her prospects of winning at the launch of her exploratory committee, Moseley Braun declared "I have every hope and every expectation that this will be a successful effort. I'm running for president. I'm not running just to be another pretty face." Many, however, regarded her campaign to be a long shot, with many also regarding it as more of a vanity campaign then a serious effort for the presidency. Some speculation even existed that she was running to siphon black voters away from Al Sharpton's candidacy. Other speculation existed that she was running in an effort to redeem her image after her scandals as a senator and 1998 reelection defeat.

After this exploratory phase, Braun formally launched her candidacy on September 23, 2003. Moseley Braun's campaign operation was initially based between to headquarters, one in Chicago and one in Washington, D.C.. They were later consolidated to a single headquarters in Chicago.

Positions on issues
By July 2003, Moseley Braun had failed to release any detailed policy papers. Eric Slater of the Los Angeles Times wrote that, during the debates and forums, rather than focusing on policy, Moseley Braun largely partook in jockeying against candidates such as Sharpton and Howard Dean to appear like the candidate who stood in greatest contrast to incumbent Republican George W. Bush. Despite her lack of policy papers, Braun did voice her positions on a number of issues.

Moseley Braun made her support for a single-payer healthcare system a signature issue of her candidacy. Her proposal was for such a system to be paid for by direct income tax. She also proposed merging Medicare and Medicaid into a unified health program. When she launched her exploratory campaign, she positioned herself in opposition to a potential war with the country of Iraq, which would ultimately materialize months later as the Iraq War. After that war began, she would criticize president George W. Bush for how he proceeding in going to war with what she considers disregard for the United Nations, and would criticize the United States Congress for "abdicating its constitutional role" in allowing Bush to go to war. She also raised concerns about the rising national budget deficit. She described herself as a "budget hawk peace dove", and called for the national budget to be balanced. She ran in general opposition to the measures implemented by the Bush administration in the aftermath of 9/11, arguing that their policies were exploiting Americans' fear after the attacks to put in place "an extreme agenda, dangerous and divisive" and to take away civil liberties. She was particularly critical of United States attorney general John Ashcroft's expansion law enforcement powers. She argued that the United States should combat terrorism by addressing underlying causes of it, such as by fostering "stability and opportunity" within failed states that might otherwise "provide fertile recruiting grounds for terrorists and extremists." She pledged to regain global goodwill for the United States and restore international cooperation that she argued had dissipated due to Bush's post-9/11 actions.

Moseley Braun also called for a reversal to childcare and education funding cuts, proposing funding the reinstatement of previous funding by eliminating the Bush tax cuts, simplifying the tax process, and eliminating any corporate loopholes that incentivize the offshoring of corporate operations. She opposed school voucher programs, asserting her belief that they deprived public schools of resources. She argued that state and federal funding for public schools needed to be increased to decrease the burden carried by local taxes, arguing that there was a "disproportionate burden property tax payers carry to fund America's public schools."

Moseley Braun argued that the United States should position itself as a leading force in achieving the environmental goals of the Kyoto Protocol, and should invest in environmental technologies with the goal of eliminating the United States' reliance on fossil fuels (including foreign oil). She also opposed extracting oil in protected areas, especially pointing to locations in Alaska. She also called for the United States to pressure international free trade organizations such as the World Trade Organization to make the protection of labor rights, human rights, and environmental standards prerequisites for countries to involve themselves in international trade.

Moseley Braun also opposed any privatization of Social Security, and voiced support for increasing the availability Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and pensions to low-income workers and women in order to remove inequity in retirement security.

Campaign operations
Moseley Braun's campaign strategy had placed an emphasis on hopes of performing well in the South Carolina primary. With that primary's traditionally sizable black electorate, it was seen to be a likely test of black enthusiasm for her candidacy. Moseley Braun was one of only two major black contenders for the Democratic nomination in 2004, with the other being Al Sharpton. Moseley Braun was also the only significant female candidate running in the 2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Moseley Braun's campaign would ultimately end up focusing their efforts on the African-American and female vote, which they regarded to be her base of support.

Moseley Braun's campaign struggled to raise funds. In the first three months of 2003, she raised only $72,450 for her candidacy, less than any other notable contenders in the Democratic primary. As a consequence, she had very few professional campaign staffers. Her campaign was instead largely run by a small number of volunteers. It took until July 1, 2003, for her campaign to hire a formal campaign manager. As the race developed, she continued to trail the other candidates in terms of fundraising. By July 2003, she had only raised $214,000, continuing to be lowest-performing of the nine major Democratic contenders in terms of fundraising. By November 2003, she had only raised $342,518. In total, her campaign would ultimately raise just under $600,000.

In mid-November 2003, Moseley Braun hired Patricia Ireland to serve as her campaign's new manager.

Moseley Braun never performed higher than single-digit numbers in polls for the primaries. Moseley Braun also failed to qualify for the ballot in a number of the scheduled state primaries and caucuses. On January 15, 2004, two days after a disappointing third place showing in the D.C. primary and four days before the Iowa caucuses, Moseley Braun dropped out of the race and endorsed Howard Dean's candidacy. Shortly before Moseley Braun withdrew, her own campaign manager, Patricia Ireland, had publicly conceded that she no longer believed Moseley Braun stood any chance of capturing the Democratic nomination. Upon her departure from the race, Ron Fournier of the Associated Press wrote that, "she leaves the race after having made no impact on it, except for some bright moments in the presidential debates".

2011 campaign for mayor of Chicago
In November 2010, after Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley announced that he would not seek re-election, Moseley Braun announced she would run for mayor of Chicago in 2011. In early 2011, two potentially strong African-American candidates—U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and State Sen. James Meeks—left the race and endorsed Moseley Braun, making her the so-called consensus black candidate. This came after a discussions between Moseley Braun and the other two candidates where it was decided that Moseley Braun, with her profile as a former US Senator, ambassador, and presidential candidate, would be the strongest of the three candidates. These discussions had occurred with the involvement of Chicago African American figures such Jesse Jackson and Walter Burnett Jr.

Moseley Braun appeared likely to be a strong contender for the mayoralty. However, a series of scandals and blunders would result in her finishing fourth in the election.

Moseley Braun had several difficulties with her candidacy, including a lack of funding. She raised approximately $705,000, while Rahm Emanuel raised over $15 million. While referred to as the "consensus" African American candidate, she was not receiving much financial backing or from African American politicians and community leaders, many of whom instead backed Rahm Emanuel. Only a few of the city's African-American business leaders (including Elzie Higginbottom and John W. Rogers Jr.) contributed to her campaign. She also received $25,000 from congressman Bobby Rush. With a lack of funds, Moseley Braun only was able to air a single television ad, which she ran late in the campaign. African American politicians and community leaders also did not provide non-financial assistance to Moseley Brown's campaign effort. Moseley Braun's campaign also received no support from trade unions. Moseley Braun encountered criticism for accepting donations from individuals who had already donated the $5,000 maximum (which was instituted January 1, 2011 when the Illinois Campaign Disclosure Act went into effect).

Additionally, Moseley Braun suffered from a poorly run campaign. There was internal conflict within Moseley Braun's campaign organization. Her candidacy was also plagued by gaffes, including missed interviews and an inability to provide a sufficient explanation for her past financial problems. However, the most serious debacle came in a debate on January 30, 2011, when Moseley Braun accused another candidate, Patricia Van-Pelt Watkins, of "being strung out on crack" for 20 years. Van-Pelt Watkins had once been addicted to cocaine, but had been clean for 30 years. This attack on Van-Pelt Watkins backfired and was detrimental to Moseley Braun's own candidacy. Braun's campaign, which had never gained much traction, began to bleed what support it had after she made this attack, with many former supporters fleeing to support Emanuel instead.

As a candidate, Moseley Braun opposed moving the city to having an elected school board. Moseley Braun also criticized frontrunner Rahm Emanuel's tax proposals, arguing that they would fail to assist poorer Chicagoans. She also accused Emanuel of having numerous times voted against Congressional Black Caucus proposals that would have assisted lower-income families. As a candidate, Braun also placed an emphasis on her governmental experience and her ties to the city's black community.

On February 22, 2011, Moseley Braun came in fourth in the field of six, receiving about nine percent of the vote. In her concession speech, she remarked that her young niece could become the first female mayor of Chicago, despite the fact that Jane Byrne had already served as Chicago's first female mayor.

Later political activities
In the 2016 Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Maryland, Moseley Braun endorsed Donna Edwards. In the 2019 Chicago mayoral election runoff, Moseley Braun endorsed Toni Preckwinkle. In the 2023 Chicago mayoral election runoff, Moseley Braun endorsed Brandon Johnson.

In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Moseley Braun endorsed Joe Biden. During the November 2019 Democratic presidential debate, Biden mentioned her endorsement, misspeaking and mistakenly referring to her as "the only African-American woman who's ever been elected to the United States Senate", only to be quickly corrected by his opponents, including Kamala Harris, who herself happened to be the second (and only other) African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. This gaffe of Biden's attracted significant media attention. Moseley Braun traveled to various states to campaign on Biden's behalf. At the 2020 Democratic National Convention, she was responsible for announcing Illinois' votes in the roll call. After Biden's victory in the general election (with Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate), Moseley Braun made it publicly known that she was interested in being his Secretary of the Interior. She also expressed interest in holding some other role in his administration. Biden opted to nominate Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior.

United States African Development Foundation
In January 2023, Biden nominated Moseley Braun to be member and chair of the board of directors of the United States African Development Foundation. In January 2024, Biden again put forth the nomination. The nomination to serve on the board was confirmed on March 8, 2024. Her term on the board will extend until September 22, 2029. She was sworn in as board member and chair in April 2024.

Work outside government and politics
In 2005, Moseley Braun founded an organic products company known as Good Food Organics. Good Food Organics was the parent company of Ambassador Organics. As of 2019, the company was defunct.

Moseley Braun became a visiting professor of political science at Northwestern University in November 2016.

Trailblazer: Perseverance in Life and Politics, a memoir authored by Moseley Braun, is scheduled to be published on January 21, 2026 by Hanover Square Press.

Personal life
In September 1998, Lauryn Kaye Valentine applied for permission to change her name to Carol Moseley Braun. Valentine cited the former senator as her hero and promised not to "dishonor [the] name". The change was made official. That December, however, Valentine put her name forward as a candidate for alderman of Chicago's 37th Ward. Before the election, a Circuit Court judge rescinded the name change, forcing Valentine to revert to her original name. Valentine was later ruled ineligible to run, as she was not a registered voter at the time because of her name changes.

In April 2007, Braun suffered a broken wrist when a mugger emerged from bushes near her front door to steal her purse. Braun resisted and fell during the struggle, fracturing her left wrist. The mugger was chased off by a University of Chicago student while his girlfriend called 911. Braun was later treated at a hospital and released. A man was later charged with the crime and was sentenced to 20 years in prison on July 11, 2008.

Braun's financial problems made headlines in October 2012 when it was revealed that her home was in foreclosure and that she had not made any mortgage payments for over a year. Before she was evicted, she sold her house for approximately $200,000 less than the amount she still owed on her mortgage loan.

Electoral history

 * 1988 Cook County Recorder of Deeds

 * 1992 United States Senate election in Illinois

 * 1998 United States Senate election in Illinois

 * 2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries

 * 2011 Chicago mayoral election

Op-eds authored

 * 70 Former U.S. senators: The Senate is Failing to Perform its Constitutional Duties (co-signed with 69 other former U.S. senators) –published by The Washington Post on February 25, 2020
 * Democrats Aren’t Just Celebrating Black History. We’re Making It. –published by the Chicago Tribune on February 23, 2024

title: Carol Moseley Braun


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Talk:Multi-user dungeon

Question: Add MUD Tree diagram?
In Talk:MUD_trees I suggested that the HTML table based design of the MUD family history could better be replaced with an image generated from GraphViz or PlantUML.

To offer a clear overview, this example combines ALL trees but they could just as easily be split out (as is currently the case)

Is this something that could be interesting to add to the current page (which the MUD Tree article has been merged into)?

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

title: Talk:Multi-user dungeon


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Talk:Complex geometry

I am tempted to redirect this to complex plane. The fundamental theorem has nothing to do with geometry, and Gauss' ruler-and-compass constructions were not proved using complex numbers to my knowledge. If those to items are removed from the article, there's really nothing much left. The geometry of complex numbers is already explained in complex number. AxelBoldt 19:47 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC)

 * Well, it sounds like a good idea... but we'd need an actual article at Complex plane instead of a redirect to complex number! -- Tarquin 21:47 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC)

If this is supposed to be about the geometry of the complex plane, then perhaps prominence should be given to the fact that the only holomorphic bijections of complex projective 1-space to itself are linear fractional transformations, which preserve circles (a straight line being regarded as a circle that passes through the point at infinity). Michael Hardy 21:50 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC)

Actually, in mathematics proper, "complex geometry" is the study of complex manifolds and functions of many complex variables. Every year, there are tens (I would estimate as about 50) conferences on "complex geometry" (please check the Google).

The definition "application of complex numbers to plane geometry" is useless, misleading and should be removed somewhere - to "complex plane" for instance. A quick search in Google shows that everywhere (except Wikipedia) complex geometry means "study of complex manifolds and functions of many complex variables". It's hard to guess where the authors of the article as it is now came at their definiton, Google does not find anything similar.

Unless there are reasonable objections, I remove the present content to "complex plane". Tiphareth 15:08, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Removed former content to Complex analytic geometry. Compare with French and Italian pages (inter-wikied), it's clear that "complex geometry" is geometry of complex manifolds and not application of complex numbers to secondary school plane geometry. Tiphareth 16:47, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

On confusing and unclearness
I'd described something about the notations in this article. For the reason to describe holomorphic bundles it may be something unavoidable　to describe the definitions of line bundles and divisors. However, the other things may be required to be described in this article, for example, complex deformations, harmonic analysis, and Hodge theory. I think.--Enyokoyama (talk) 08:11, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

Vast room for improvement in this article
Most of this article is written as though the writer has no interest in whether the writing is understood by anyone other than a specialist in a nearby field to complex geometry.

There are so many places where the addition of just a few more words would greatly improve the clarity. (For just one obvious example: How about telling readers what the group operation is in the Picard group?)

Terrible writing like this does not help many readers.128.119.202.144 (talk) 18:00, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

 * That’s a very fair critique. I tend to view the article at the current status to be a very early draft. Material-wise, there are still SO much more to cover, in addition to the writing quality. — Taku (talk) 23:22, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

 * I have made some effort to improve the page by adding plenty of discussion about the ideas behind complex geometry and the actual definitions of objects studied in the area. The sections on line bundles and divisors, and complex vector bundles have been removed, as this is not the right page for that content, and it was not up to scratch in any case. The page could do with a history of the theory of complex geometry, but it is in significantly better shape now than before.Tazerenix (talk) 23:26, 7 January 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Complex geometry


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Ron "Pigpen" McKernan

Ronald Charles McKernan (September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973), known as Pigpen, was an American musician. He was a founding member of the San Francisco band the Grateful Dead and played in the group from 1965 to 1972.

McKernan grew up heavily influenced by African-American music, particularly the blues, and enjoyed listening to his father's collection of records and taught himself how to play harmonica and piano. He began socializing around the San Francisco Bay Area, becoming friends with Jerry Garcia. After the pair had played in various folk and jug bands, McKernan suggested they form an electric group, which became the Grateful Dead. He was the band's original frontman and played harmonica and electric organ, but Garcia and bassist Phil Lesh's influences on the band became increasingly stronger as they embraced psychedelic rock. McKernan struggled to keep up with the changing music, causing the group to hire keyboardist Tom Constanten, with McKernan's contributions essentially limited to vocals, harmonica, and percussion from November 1968 to January 1970. He continued to be a frontman in concert for some numbers, including his interpretations of Bobby Bland's "Turn On Your Love Light" and the Rascals' "Good Lovin'.

Unlike the other members of the Grateful Dead, McKernan avoided psychedelic drugs, preferring to drink alcohol (namely whiskey and flavored fortified wine). By 1971, his health had been affected by alcoholism and liver damage and doctors advised him to stop touring. Following a hiatus, he resumed touring with the group in December 1971 but was forced to retire from touring altogether in June 1972. McKernan was found dead of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage on March 8, 1973, aged 27, and is buried at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto.

Early life
Ronald Charles McKernan was born on September 8, 1945, in San Bruno, California. He came from Irish ancestry, and his father, Phil McKernan, was an R&B and blues disc jockey, who has been reported to have been one of the first white DJs on KDIA (later renamed KMKY), then a black radio station, by several sources. Other sources place him at Berkeley station, KRE (later renamed KBLX-FM). Ronald grew up with African American friends and enjoyed black music and culture. As a youth, he taught himself blues piano, guitar and harmonica and developed a biker culture image. McKernan moved to Palo Alto, California, with his family, where he became friends with musician Jerry Garcia at the age of 14. He built up a substantial collection of old blues 78s from labels such as Kent and Chess.

McKernan began spending time around coffeehouses and music stores, and worked at Dana Morgan's Music Store in Palo Alto with Garcia. One night Garcia invited McKernan on stage to play harmonica and sing the blues. Garcia was impressed and McKernan became the blues singer in local jam sessions. He was initially nicknamed "Blue Ron" before settling on "Pigpen". Onomastician Adrian Room has suggested McKernan was given the name due to his untidy and unclean habits and band biographies say he got the nickname owing to his similarity to Pig-Pen, the permanently-dirty character in the comic-strip Peanuts.

Grateful Dead
Along with Garcia and second guitarist Bob Weir, McKernan was a participant in the predecessor groups leading to the formation of the Grateful Dead, beginning with the Zodiacs and Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann was added and the band evolved into the Warlocks. Around 1965, McKernan urged the rest of the Warlocks to switch to electric instruments. Bassist Phil Lesh joined soon after, and they became the Grateful Dead. The group were keen to involve McKernan in the band, as he was the group's original leader and was considered the best singer and frontman.

The Dead's early sets centered around blues and R&B songs chosen by McKernan. By the end of 1966, Garcia had improved his musical skills, changing the band's direction and reducing McKernan's contributions. In 1967, drummer Mickey Hart joined the Grateful Dead, followed by classically trained keyboardist Tom Constanten in 1968, further changing the group's style. Constanten often replaced McKernan on keyboards in the studio, as McKernan found it difficult to adapt to the new material that Garcia and Lesh composed for the band.

In October 1968, McKernan and Weir were nearly fired from the band after Garcia and Lesh believed their playing was holding the band back from lengthy and experimental jamming. Garcia delegated the task of firing them to Rock Scully, who said that McKernan "took it hard." Weir promised to improve, but McKernan was more stubborn. According to Garcia biographer Blair Jackson, McKernan missed three Dead shows before vowing not to "be lazy" any more and rejoining, while Kreutzmann objected to replacing McKernan and said the event never happened. Following his discharge from the United States Air Force in November 1968, Constanten officially joined the band, having only worked in the studio while on leave up to that point. Road manager Jon McIntire commented that "Pigpen was relegated to the congas at that point and it was really humiliating and he was really hurt, but he couldn't show it, couldn't talk about it." He began to take Hammond organ lessons and learned how to use the various drawbars and controls.

After Constanten's departure in January 1970 over musical and lifestyle differences, McKernan nominally resumed keyboard duties. He played an instrument on two tracks only (Hammond organ on "Black Peter" and harmonica on "Easy Wind", on which he also sang lead) on Workingman's Dead (1970), the band's breakthrough studio release. On the follow-up album American Beauty, keyboard parts were handled by Garcia and Lesh, along with session musicians Howard Wales and Ned Lagin. The 1971 live album Grateful Dead featured three overdubbed organ parts from Merl Saunders in addition to McKernan's contributions on "Big Railroad Blues", "The Other One", and "Me & Bobby McGee". While Garcia expressed frustration at McKernan's missed rehearsals and his inability to keep up with new material, Lesh was more forgiving, maintaining that "it was okay for Pigpen to lay out ... we kept wanting Pigpen to be there because he was 'one of us.' "

Musical style and influences
While in the Grateful Dead, McKernan sang and played blues-influenced organ and harmonica. He initially played a Lowrey T1 (often confused for a Farfisa combo organ ) before switching to the more elaborate Vox Continental in 1966. He began to alternate between the Vox Continental and the Hammond B-3 in June 1967, usually reserving the former instrument for outdoor and impromptu concerts, including the band's performance at the Columbia University protests of 1968. During Tom Constanten's tenure with the group, McKernan occasionally played his bandmate's double-manual Vox Super Continental on some songs (most notably "Death Don't Have No Mercy") through May 1969. With the exception of select acoustic sets in 1970 in which he played upright piano, he used the Hammond exclusively thereafter.

McKernan sang lead on several standards he wanted the Dead to record, such as Otis Redding's "Pain in My Heart" and Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour", with the latter serving as one of the band's main improvisatory vehicles from 1966 to 1968. Unlike fellow vocalists Garcia and Weir, he sang lead without playing any instrument except harmonica and actively interacted with the audience, occasionally walking out into the crowd. During the band's first year when they played straightforward blues, McKernan performed the majority of lead vocals, attracting an early audience that came specifically to see him sing and play harmonica. He took on early management duties in the band, ensuring they would be paid and promoted properly for gigs.

Though McKernan's garage rock style was appropriate for their early recordings, it was less suited to the group's later psychedelic and jamming styles. He went from contributing to every song and singing lead on all of side two of 1968's Anthem of the Sun to little more than sporadic appearances on the following year's Aoxomoxoa. He continued to front the band for long stretches during their live performances and suggested new material for the Dead's concert repertoire, including Redding's "Hard to Handle" and James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World".

McKernan achieved a new prominence in 1969 singing "Turn On Your Love Light"; initially introduced in 1967, the song gradually evolved into the band's show-stopping finale, often taking fifteen to thirty minutes to complete. He improvised lyrics over the band's accompaniment, using phrases he had heard from African American friends, such as "rider" (slang for "lover"), "she's got box-back nitties" (referring to female underwear) and "boar hog's eye". When the Grateful Dead appeared at Woodstock, the band's set (which was marred by technical problems and general chaos and described as one of their worst shows) ended with "Turn On Your Love Light". Even as his instrumental contributions waned, McKernan's vocal performances remained an integral part of the band's live set; by early 1971, their cover of the Rascals' "Good Lovin (initially performed by the group as early as 1966 and featured at shows at the Fillmore East later released as Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead) began to emerge as a secondary showcase of his improvisatory talents alongside "Love Light".

McKernan was not a prolific songwriter, preferring to concentrate on blues covers and improvised lyrics. He composed the infrequently performed "Operator" for 1970's American Beauty. Several new songs emerged from a creatively fecund period coinciding with his health problems in 1971, most notably "Mr. Charlie", a collaboration with Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. The song appeared on the live album Europe '72, his last with the group.

Tony Sclafani has compared McKernan's role in the band, initially strong and pivotal but gradually declining, to that of Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones, particularly since both men were primarily influenced by the blues over rock 'n' roll and died aged 27. In contrast, though, McKernan was always encouraged to sing material live and left the group due to ill health, while Jones was fired.

After McKernan's death, a number of recordings were found in his apartment, which have appeared as the bootleg recording The Apartment Tapes. This included two songs recorded in 1964 with future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. On the bootleg, McKernan played acoustic guitar and piano, instruments he seldom used with the Dead.

Personal life
McKernan was close friends with American singer-songwriter Janis Joplin due to common musical influences and lifestyles, particularly a shared love of alcohol over other drugs; a poster from the early 1970s showed them together at 710 Ashbury Street, the Grateful Dead's communal home from 1966 to 1968. Joplin joined McKernan on stage at the Fillmore West on June 7, 1969, with the Grateful Dead to sing his signature "Turn On Your Love Light", reprising this duet on July 16, 1970, at the Euphoria Ballroom in San Rafael, California.

He developed a close friendship with fellow keyboardist Tom Constanten based on their mutual aversion to psychedelics and eventually served as best man at Constanten's first wedding. While his bandmates and friends were using cannabis, LSD, and other hallucinogenic drugs, McKernan preferred alcoholic beverages such as Thunderbird and Southern Comfort. Ironically, McKernan was arrested and fined after the cannabis bust on November 9, 1967, at 710 Ashbury Street, even though he did not use the drug. The event was covered in the first issue of Rolling Stone, where the reporter noted McKernan had a substantial rifle collection and McKernan's picture appeared on a contemporary report in the San Francisco Chronicle. Because neither took illegal drugs, McKernan and Constanten were the only members of the band not arrested in the January 31, 1970, police raid that inspired the lyrics of the band's song "Truckin'".

In the early years of the Grateful Dead, McKernan was easily recognisable by his biker image, making him a minor celebrity. In 1969, the band's record company, Warner Bros., ran a "Pigpen Look-Alike Contest".

Health and death
McKernan's alcohol abuse had begun to affect his health by his mid twenties. By the early 1970s, he also began to experience symptoms of primary biliary cholangitis, an autoimmune disease that was unrelated to his use of alcohol. After he was hospitalized in August 1971, doctors requested that he stop touring indefinitely. Pianist Keith Godchaux was subsequently hired and remained a regular member of the Grateful Dead until 1979. McKernan rejoined the band in December 1971 to supplement Godchaux on harmonica, percussion, and organ. Although manager Rock Scully alleged that McKernan passed out in front of his Hammond organ at one show during this period, Garcia biographer Blair Jackson has lauded the quality and frequency of his instrumental contributions on the Europe '72 tour. Once again, however, his health deteriorated to the point where he could no longer perform. On June 17, 1972, at the Hollywood Bowl, he made his final concert appearance. He subsequently broke off all personal relationships with the band, explaining "I don't want you around when I die."

While Jackson has asserted that McKernan "didn't drink for the last 17 months of his life" in conjunction with an effort to ameliorate his health, Grateful Dead tour manager Sam Cutler later maintained that he "[made] sure [McKernan] had booze" on the Europe '72 tour. According to David Browne, McKernan "[lived] on sunflower seeds and alcohol" in the final months of his life.

On March 8, 1973, aged 27, he was found dead of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at his home in Corte Madera, California, by his landlady. Though his contributions to the band had slowly diminished over the years, the other members were devastated at his death. McKernan was buried at the Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto, California. Garcia spoke at his funeral, saying "After Pigpen's death we all knew this was the end of the original Grateful Dead".

Legacy
Despite his outward image, friends and band biographers have described McKernan as a quiet, kind, and introspective person. Hart later said "Pigpen was the musician in the Grateful Dead." Kreutzmann said McKernan was "the sweetest guy anybody had ever met."

Weir later became influenced by McKernan's ability to work a crowd and improvise lyrics. He took over de facto frontman duties in concert and began to reintroduce material originally chosen by McKernan into the Dead's live set after his death. Weir began singing "Good Lovin with the Dead in 1974, and the group recorded the song on 1978's Shakedown Street. "Turn On Your Love Light" was revived in 1981, with Weir singing lead. He also revived the 1960s standard "Big Boy Pete", originally sung by McKernan, as a one-off in 1985. Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man", recorded by the group on Grateful Dead (Skull and Roses) with McKernan singing lead, was revived by Garcia and performed occasionally through the 1980s and 90s.

"He's Gone", originally appearing on the live album Europe '72, subsequently became a eulogy to McKernan by his former bandmates. Hunter said "it became an anthem for Pigpen".

McKernan was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Discography

 * The Grateful Dead (1967)
 * Anthem of the Sun (1968)
 * Aoxomoxoa (1969)
 * Live/Dead (1969)
 * Workingman's Dead (1970)
 * American Beauty (1970)
 * Grateful Dead (1971)
 * Europe '72 (1972)
 * History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice) (1973)
 * Two from the Vault (1992)
 * Grayfolded (1994)
 * Hundred Year Hall (1995)
 * Dick's Picks Volume 4 (1996)
 * Dick's Picks Volume 8 (1997)
 * Live at the Fillmore East 2-11-69 (1997)
 * Fallout from the Phil Zone (1997)
 * So Many Roads (1965–1995) (1999)
 * So Many Roads (1965–1995) Sampler (1999)
 * Dick's Picks Volume 16 (2000)
 * Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead (2000)
 * Dick's Picks Volume 22 (2001)
 * Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72 (2002)
 * Dick's Picks Volume 26 (2002)
 * Dick's Picks Volume 30 (2003)
 * Birth of the Dead (2003)
 * Rockin' the Rhein with the Grateful Dead (2004)
 * Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966 (2005)
 * Dick's Picks Volume 35 (2005)
 * Grateful Dead Download Series Volume 6 (2005)
 * Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings (2005)
 * Fillmore West 1969 (2005)
 * Three from the Vault (2007)
 * Road Trips Volume 1 Number 3 (2008)
 * Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2 (2009)
 * Road Trips Volume 3 Number 3 (2010)
 * Road Trips Volume 4 Number 1 (2010)
 * Europe '72: The Complete Recordings (2011)
 * Europe '72 Volume 2 (2011)
 * Winterland: May 30th 1971 (2012)
 * Dave's Picks Volume 6 (2013)
 * Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA 4/18/70 (2013)
 * Dave's Picks Volume 10 (2014)
 * 30 Trips Around the Sun: The Definitive Live Story 1965–1995 (2015)
 * 30 Trips Around the Sun (2015)
 * Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA 11/10/1967 (2016)
 * Dave's Picks Volume 19 (2016)
 * Dave's Picks Volume 22 (2017)
 * Fillmore West 1969: February 27th (2018)
 * Dave's Picks Volume 26 (2018)
 * Dave's Picks Volume 30 (2019)
 * Grateful Dead Origins (2021)
 * Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO 12-10-71 (2021)
 * Listen to the River: St. Louis '71 '72 '73 (2021)
 * Lyceum '72: The Complete Recordings (2022)
 * Lyceum Theatre, London, England 5/26/72 (2022)
 * Dave's Picks Volume 43 (2022)
 * Dave's Picks Volume 48 (2023)
 * Dave's Picks Volume 51 (2024)

title: Ron "Pigpen" McKernan


text:
USS Liberty

USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was a Belmont-class technical research ship (i.e. an electronic spying ship) that was attacked by Israel Defense Forces during the 1967 Six-Day War. She was originally built and served in World War II as a VC2-S-AP3 type Victory cargo ship named SS Simmons Victory. Her keel was laid down on 23 February 1945, under a Maritime Commission contract at Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Oregon.

In 1967, Israeli air force and naval units attacked the research ship during the Six-Day War. Israel later apologized for the attack, stating it had mistaken Liberty for an Egyptian ship, although the reason for the attack has been disputed. USS Liberty would eventually be decommissioned some time after the attack, was sold for scrapping in 1973 as it had been damaged beyond feasible repair.

Early years
The ship was delivered to the War Shipping Administration on 4 May 1945. The next day, she was transferred to the "Coastwise -Pacific Far East Line" and designated as a "Fleet Issue Ship". Her complement included a 17-man Navy Armed Guard detachment to operate the ship's gun battery; a three- or four-man communication liaison detachment; and 16 Navy enlisted people serving as "winchmen and hatchmen".

SS Simmons Victory was tasked with delivering ammunition, which was loaded at the San Francisco-Suisun Bay area navy munitions depot at Port Chicago for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan. According to Harry Morgan, who served as an engineer on the ship, the Simmons Victory arrived in the Philippines about six weeks before V-E Day on 8 May 1945. She made one trip north in support of Operation Downfall and returned to the Philippines. She was in Leyte Gulf when Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945.

Simmons Victory departed Leyte Gulf on 6 October 1945, en route to the US West Coast via Eniwetok, and dumped ammunition at sea two days later. She arrived in San Francisco on 3 November 1945 and departed for the US east coast on 9 December 1945, reaching New York on Christmas Day, 1945. Her 5-inch, 3-inch, and 20-mm guns were removed there on 9 January 1946.

From December 1946 until 1963, the ship moved back and forth several times from commercial charters as a break bulk cargo carrier to stints in the National Defense Reserve Fleet (being twice berthed in the Hudson River). Most notably during this time, she made nine trips to the Far East between November 1950 and December 1952 during the Korean War "to equip American troops fighting communist North Korea" in the Military Sea Transportation Service. On 11 June 1958, Simmons Victory once again entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet, being berthed this time at Olympia, Washington, where she remained until 1963.

US Navy years
In February 1963, the U.S. Navy acquired Simmons Victory and converted her to a "Miscellaneous Auxiliary" ship at Willamette Iron and Steel of Portland. On 8 June, the vessel was renamed USS Liberty and given the hull classification symbol AG-168. On 1 April 1964, she was reclassified a Technical Research Ship (AGTR-5). She was commissioned at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, in December 1964.

In February 1965, Liberty steamed from the West Coast to Norfolk, Virginia, where she was further outfitted (cost: US$20 million) to suit her for a mission of supporting the National Security Agency by collecting and processing foreign communications and other electronic emissions of possible national defense interests. In June, Liberty began her first deployment, to waters off the west coast of Africa. She carried out several more operations during the next two years, and went to the Mediterranean Sea in 1967. During the Six-Day War between Israel and several Arab nations, she was sent to collect electronic intelligence in the eastern Mediterranean.

Israeli attack

On the afternoon of 8 June 1967, while in international waters off the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula, Liberty was attacked and damaged by aircraft of the Israeli Air Force and motor torpedo boats of the Israeli Navy; 34 American crewmen were killed and 174 wounded. Though Liberty was severely damaged, with a 39 x hole amidships and a twisted keel, her crew kept her afloat, and she was able to leave the area under her own power. Later, Israel apologized for the attack, stating it had mistaken Liberty for an Egyptian ship, as the incident occurred during the Six-Day War. In total, Israel gave close to $13 million (about $117 million in 2022) to the U.S. in compensation for the incident. This includes compensation to the families of those killed and wounded, and to cover damage of the ship.

The incident has become a subject of controversy and debate, with many books written on the topic.

After the attack, she was escorted to Valletta, Malta, by units of the Sixth Fleet and given temporary repairs. After the repairs were completed, Liberty returned to the United States on 27 July 1967. She was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 June 1968. She was laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet of Norfolk until December 1970, when she was transferred to the Maritime Administration for disposal. In 1973, she was sold for scrapping to the Boston Metals Company of Baltimore, Maryland.

Awards and decorations
As a result of the crew's heroic response to the Israeli attack, Liberty is the US Navy's "most highly decorated ship ... for a single action". For the action with Israeli forces, she was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon (8-9 June 1967) and the Presidential Unit Citation (8 June 1967). Although President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Presidential Unit Citation in 1968, it was not formally presented to the crew until June 1991. President George H. W. Bush declined to attend the 1991 White House ceremony, instead merely waving at the crew while passing by.

Commander (later Captain) William McGonagle, Liberty's commanding officer, received the Medal of Honor. Numerous members of the crew were decorated, including 11 members of the crew who were awarded Silver Stars, 20 with Bronze Stars, and over 200 who received Purple Hearts. The unidentified remains of six of Liberty's crew are buried under a single headstone in a mass grave in Arlington National Cemetery.

Liberty was also awarded the National Defense Service Medal.

title: USS Liberty


text:
List of ships named USS Liberty

USS Liberty may refer to:

 * USS Liberty (1775), was an American Revolutionary War ship
 * USS Liberty (ID-3461), was a transport ship launched in June 1918 and decommissioned in May 1919, and as USAT Liberty, a United States Army transport ship sunk in 1942
 * USS Liberty (AGTR-5), was a ship strafed and bombed by Israeli airforce in June 1967, resulting in more than 34 dead and 171 wounded and its decommissioning as beyond repair (USS Liberty incident is the main article concerning the attack).

Other

 * USS Liberty III (SP-1229), a patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919

title: List of ships named USS Liberty


text:
ADL

Adl is an Arabic word meaning justice.

Adl or ADL may also refer to:

Computing

 * Action description language, a formal language for automatic planning systems
 * Adventure Development Language, created by On-Line Systems
 * Alder Lake series Intel CPUs
 * Archetype definition language, as used in openEHR archetypes
 * Architecture description language, a formal language for architecture description and representation
 * Argument-dependent name lookup, a lookup for function names in the C++ programming language
 * Assertion definition language, a specification language

Organizations

 * ADL astronomical society, Slovenian astronomical society
 * Akademiska Damkören Lyran or The Academic Female Voice Choir Lyran, a Finnish choir
 * Alexander Dennis Limited, bus manufacturer in Scotland
 * Animal Defense League, animal rights organisation in North America
 * Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish non-governmental organization based in the US
 * Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, a political party
 * Arthur D. Little, a management consulting firm

Places

 * Adelaide Airport, Australia, IATA airport code ADL
 * A demonym for the city of Adelaide, South Australia, where the above airport is located
 * Adlington (Lancashire) railway station, England, National Rail code ADL

Other uses

 * Activities of daily living, a term used in medicine and nursing, especially in the care of the elderly
 * Advance–decline line, a stock market indicator
 * Advanced Distributed Learning, part of an effort to standardize and modernize training and education management and delivery
 * Arena Developmental League, American football league that became the National Arena League
 * Gallong language, a Tibeto-Burman language of India
 * New Zealand ADL class diesel electric unit, a type of diesel railway vehicle used on Auckland's suburban network
 * A driver's license issued by a jurisdiction whose name begins with the letter A

People

 * Aurelio De Laurentiis, filmmaker and president of S.S.C. Napoli

title: ADL


text:
Tyrian

Tyrian may refer to the following:

 * Tyre, Lebanon, an adjective for Tyre, a city in the South Governorate of Lebanon
 * Tyrian (video game), an arcade-style shooter video game by Epic MegaGames
 * Tyrian purple, a colour
 * Tyrian, a person who worships the Old Norse God, Tyr
 * HMS Tyrian, the name of five ships of the Royal Navy

title: Tyrian


text:
Talk:Holyhead

External links modified
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External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140812204951/http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/averages/19812010/sites/valley.html to http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/averages/19812010/sites/valley.html

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Gee
Gee thanks 😂 RailwayJG (talk) 16:07, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

"Undo because wording was better before. The edited wording was completely mangled and jumbled up." Okay I'm stupid and have no idea how to edit. Mangled and jumbled up okay... RailwayJG (talk) 16:10, 29 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry that what I wrote may have appeared rude. But it is fair to say that your edit jumbled up the text. The part about Holyhead being in Wales and a major ferry port was moved to a place where it made no sense with the adjacent text. That is presumably why the first time you edited it like that someone else then reverted it. Dubmill (talk) 16:37, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Holyhead


text:
Sandwich Islands (disambiguation)

Sandwich Islands was the name given to the Hawaiian Islands by James Cook in 1778.

Sandwich Islands or Sandwich Island may also refer to:

 * South Sandwich Islands, named Sandwich Land by Cook
 * Manuae (Cook Islands), named Sandwich Island by Cook
 * Efate in the Republic of Vanuatu, named Sandwich Island by Cook

Other uses

 * Sandwich Island sleeper, a species of fish endemic to the Hawaiian Islands
 * South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, part of the British territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
 * Sandwich Islets, south of Bahía Cook, Chile

title: Sandwich Islands (disambiguation)


text:
United States Soccer Federation

The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is a full member of FIFA and governs American soccer at the international, professional, and amateur levels, including: the men's and women's national teams, Major League Soccer, National Women's Soccer League, youth organizations, beach soccer, futsal, Paralympic, and deaf national teams. U.S. Soccer sanctions referees and soccer tournaments for most soccer leagues in the United States. The U.S. Soccer Federation also administers and operates the U.S. Open Cup and the SheBelieves Cup.

History

U.S. Soccer was originally known as the United States Football Association. It formed on April 5, 1913, at the Astor House Hotel in Lower Manhattan, and on August 15 of that year was accepted as one of the earliest member organizations of FIFA and the first from North and Central America. The affiliation was originally provisional but during FIFA Congress in Oslo, Norway on June 24, 1914, the USFA, as it was abbreviated at the time, was accepted as a full FIFA member. The governing body of the sport in the United States added the word soccer to its name in 1945, when it became the United States Soccer Football Association; by this point, football as a standalone word had come to define a totally different sport in the U.S. It dropped the word football from its name in 1974 to become known as the United States Soccer Federation.

U.S. Soccer has hosted several global soccer tournaments, including the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, and the Summer Olympic football tournaments in 1984 and 1996.

Headquarters and national training center
Originally based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. Soccer headquarters were moved to Chicago in 1991 under the leadership of former Secretary General, Hank Steinbrecher Called U.S. Soccer House, it is currently located in two refurbished mansions at 1801 South Prairie Avenue in Chicago.

In 2003, U.S. Soccer opened their National Training Center at Dignity Health Sports Park (then named Home Depot Center) in Carson, California. The $130 million facility includes a soccer-specific stadium, home to the MLS team Los Angeles Galaxy. Additionally, four grass soccer fields, a FieldTurf soccer field and a general training area are specifically dedicated to U.S. Soccer. Both the senior and youth men's and women's U.S. national teams hold regular camps at Dignity Health Sports Park.

U.S. Soccer was also exploring a possibility of building the National Training and Coaching Development Center in Kansas City, Kansas. On April 9, 2015, the Development Center received final approval from the local governments. U.S. Soccer agreed to a 20-year lease, with the project set to break ground in 2016 and finishing some time in 2017.

In September 2023, U.S. Soccer announced they were moving from Chicago to a new headquarters and training center south of Atlanta, which will be partially funded by Arthur Blank, cofounder of The Home Depot and owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and MLS’s Atlanta United. In December 2023, U.S. Soccer announced they had chosen a site for the new national training center in Fayette County, Georgia. The 200 acre site is scheduled to be developed and opened prior to the 2026 FIFA World Cup; it is in the same metropolitan area as the headquarters of Coca-Cola, one of the founding partners for the training center. The new training center will be named after Arthur Blank to honor his involvement in the move. There are currently temporary offices for U.S. Soccer in Fayette County at Town Trilith where Trilith Studios is located.

Organization and governance
U.S. Soccer is governed by a board of directors that administers the affairs of U.S. Soccer. Cindy Parlow Cone, former 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup champion and long-time U.S. Soccer administrator, became president in March 2020 following the resignation of Carlos Cordeiro. JT Batson was named chief executive officer and secretary general in September 2022.

U.S. Soccer members are individuals and affiliate organizations. The national council is the representative membership body of the federation. It elects the president and vice president, amends the bylaws, approves the budgets, decides on policies adopted by the board, and affirms actions of the Board. The non-profit organization is a member of the worldwide soccer body FIFA and the North American soccer body CONCACAF, and also has a relationship with the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.

The federation convenes an annual meeting, usually held in February. Every four years, the annual meeting's attendees hold an election for the federation's president and vice president.

Members of the U.S. Soccer Federation
USSF recognizes the following members:

Professional Council

 * Major League Soccer (MLS)
 * National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
 * United Soccer League (USL)
 * National Independent Soccer Association (NISA)

Adult Council

 * United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA)
 * United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA)

Youth Council

 * United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA)
 * United States Youth Soccer Association (US Youth Soccer)
 * American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO)
 * US Club Soccer
 * Soccer Association for Youth (SAY)

Other affiliate members

 * American Amputee Soccer Association
 * Armed Forces Sports Council
 * United Soccer Coaches
 * United States Power Soccer Association (USPSA)
 * U.S. Soccer Foundation
 * United States Futsal Federation
 * United States Specialty Sports Association
 * United States of America Deaf Soccer Association (USA Deaf Soccer)

U.S. men's national team
The United States men's national team was assembled in 1885 to play Canada in the first international match held outside the United Kingdom. The team was invited to the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930 and qualified for the World Cup in 1934, finishing third place (semifinals) in 1930 out of 13 teams participating. In 1950 the United States scored one of its most surprising victories with a 1–0 win over heavily favored England, who were amongst the world's best sides at the time. The United States did not reach another World Cup until an upstart team qualified for the 1990 World Cup with the "goal heard around the world" scored by Paul Caligiuri against Trinidad and Tobago, which started the modern era of soccer in the United States.

The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, setting total and average attendance records that still stand, including drawing 94,194 fans to the final. The United States made a surprising run to the second round in 1994, but finished last among the 32 teams in the 1998 World Cup. The tournament was marred by poor team chemistry and leadership, which led head coach Steve Sampson to resign. Sampson was replaced by Bruce Arena, a two-time MLS Cup winner with D.C. United, in 1998. Arena led a mix of veterans and youth players to a quarterfinal appearance in the 2002 World Cup, defeating rivals Mexico in the Round of 16 before losing to eventual runners-up Germany.

At the 2006 edition of the tournament, the U.S. failed to qualify for a knockout round with two losses and a draw in the group stage. Arena's contract was not renewed following the tournament; former assistant Bob Bradley was hired as head coach in 2007. The U.S. qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa by winning the CONCACAF qualifying tournament. At the World Cup, the Americans were undefeated in the group stage but were eliminated in the round of 16 by a loss to Ghana. Bradley was dismissed following the 2011 Gold Cup, which the United States lost 4–2 to Mexico in the final.

The U.S. entered the 2014 FIFA World Cup under Jürgen Klinsmann, who had led Germany to third place in the 2006 World Cup and had lived in the United States for several years. Klinsmann recruited dual national players, particularly Germans with American heritage, and favored youth in his rosters; this included his exclusion of Landon Donovan from the World Cup roster. The U.S. finished second in the "Group of Death" (eventual champion Germany, Ghana, and Portugal) and advanced to the round of 16, where they lost to Belgium in extra time after goalkeeper Tim Howard's 16 saves set a World Cup record. Klinsmann was retained as head coach for the 2018 World Cup qualifying cycle, but was fired in November 2016 after the team had lost the opening two matches of the final qualifying round. Bruce Arena was hired to replace Klinsmann, but the United States finished fifth and were unable to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. It was the first time the U.S. had failed to qualify for the World Cup since 1986.

Arena resigned following the qualification campaign and was replaced by Dave Sarachan, who was interim coach during the search for a permanent head coach. Sarachan's year-long tenure included the introduction of several young players to replace veterans who had resigned following the 2018 qualification cycle. Columbus Crew coach Gregg Berhalter was selected and hired as head coach in December 2018; his rosters rely mostly on younger players who had played in MLS academies or were developed by teams in Europe. During qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the United States had rosters with an average age of under 24 years old; the team finished 7–3–4 during the final round and qualified for the World Cup. Berhalter used the second-youngest roster at the World Cup with only DeAndre Yedlin retained from a previous World Cup team. The United States finished second in their group with a win against Iran and ties with England and Wales. The team were eliminated in the round of 16 by the Netherlands.

Berhalter's contract was renewed in June 2023 following an investigation by U.S. Soccer into allegations of domestic abuse from a 1991 incident. During his absence from the team, two assistant coaches served as interim coaches. B.J. Callaghan, the second interim coach, led the United States to a second CONCACAF Nations League title but failed to reach the final of the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The United States will co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico after their joint bid was selected over Morocco by FIFA in 2018. The tournament will be the first World Cup to feature 48 teams. The United States will also host the 2024 Copa América, the championship of South American teams; it will be the second Copa América to be played in the United States following the Copa América Centenario in 2016. The United States did not automatically qualify as hosts, but earned a spot through their performance in the 2023–24 CONCACAF Nations League.

U.S. women's national team
Having won four FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments—1991, 1999, 2015, and 2019—the United States is considered the most successful in international women's soccer. The team finished second in 2011 and third in 1995, 2003, and 2007. It has won Olympic gold medals at the 1996, 2004, 2008, and 2012 Summer Olympics. In addition, it has won ten titles at the Algarve Cup and nine at the CONCACAF Women's Championship, the qualifying tournament for the FIFA Women's World Cup.

The inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup was held in 1991 in China. The U.S. women's national team was the first team to win the prize after beating Norway in the final.

In 1999, the United States hosted the FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time. During their tournament run, the women's national team established a new level of popularity for the women's game, culminating in a final against China that drew 90,185 fans, an all-time attendance record for a women's sports event, to a sold-out Rose Bowl. After neither team scored in regulation or extra time, the final went to a penalty shootout, which the United States won 5–4. The celebration by Brandi Chastain after she converted the winning penalty, in which she took off her shirt, is one of the more famous images in U.S. women's sports.

Youth national teams
U.S. Soccer Federation oversees and promotes the development of 14 youth national teams:
 * U.S. Under-23 Men
 * U.S. Under-23 Women
 * U.S. Under-20 Men
 * U.S. Under-20 Women
 * U.S. Under-19 Men
 * U.S. Under-19 Women
 * U.S. Under-18 Men
 * U.S. Under-18 Women
 * U.S. Under-17 Men
 * U.S. Under-17 Women
 * U.S. Under-16 Boys
 * U.S. Under-16 Girls
 * U.S. Under-15 Boys
 * U.S. Under-15 Girls

U.S. Soccer Federation had ceased operations on its youth national team programming with the exception of the U-23, U-20, and U-17 teams on the men's side and the U-20 and U-17 teams on the women's side due to the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020.

Extended national teams
As of March 2023, U.S. Soccer Federation supervises nine extended national teams across the disciplines of beach soccer, CP soccer, deaf soccer, futsal, and power soccer.

Coaches and technical staff
Men's coaches

Women's coaches

Extended teams' coaches

Technical staff

Refereeing staff
Referee programs staff

Referee development staff

Professional leagues
Despite the growth of men's and women's professional soccer in the United States in the last few decades, by far the largest category of soccer in the United States, at least in terms of participation, is youth soccer. Though organized locally by organizations all over the United States, there are two main youth soccer organizations working nationwide through affiliated local associations. The United States Youth Soccer Association boasts over three million players between the ages of five and 19, while American Youth Soccer Organization has more than 300,000 players between the ages of four and 19. This makes soccer one of the most played sports by children in the United States.

Men
The professional first-division league in North America is Major League Soccer, which as of the 2023 season has 26 teams in the U.S. and 3 in Canada. The league began an aggressive expansion in 2017, with the goal of adding at least eight clubs. That effort has resulted in the addition of the following nine clubs: Atlanta United FC (2017), Minnesota United FC (2017), Los Angeles FC (2018), FC Cincinnati (2019), Inter Miami CF (2020), Nashville SC (2020), Austin FC (2021), Charlotte FC (2022), and St. Louis City SC (2023). The league operates as a single-entity league, which means MLS, and not the individual teams, holds the contracts on players.

The one sanctioned second-division men's outdoor soccer league is the USL Championship (USLC). Previously, the second North American Soccer League had second-division status, sharing it with the USL in the 2017 season, but the NASL was denied second-division sanctioning for 2018 due to considerable instability in the league; the league effectively folded at that time.

The USLC was sanctioned as the United States' lone Division II men's outdoor soccer league in 2018. Formed in 2010 as a result of the merger of the former USL First Division and USL Second Division, the USL Championship was sanctioned as Division III league from 2011 to 2016 before becoming provisionally sanctioned as a Division II league for 2017, and receiving full Division II sanctioning in 2018.

The USL Championship has expanded almost three-fold since its first season in 2011 to include 35 teams in the 2020 season, with the league divided into two conferences, Eastern and Western. The USLC is the world's largest Division II professional league by number of teams. Since 2014, valuation of USL Championship clubs have increased five-fold. In revenue, 2018 Championship clubs saw a 28% increase over 2017 numbers on an average of ticketing, sponsorship, merchandise, and ancillary revenue generation.

The USLC also holds a broadcast agreement with ESPN that sees 20 regular season games televised nationally on ESPN2, ESPNews and ESPN Deportes in addition to national broadcast of the USL Championship Final, which in 2019 was aired on both ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes. The league's remaining regular season games are broadcast nationally on ESPN+, with 22 of the Championship's clubs also holding local broadcast agreements. The USL Championship's broadcast agreement was made possible in large part by a major investment by USL with league technology partner Vista Worldlink to establish a USL Broadcast Center out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The second NASL had no official tie to the former NASL that operated from 1968 to 1984, although some of the teams shared names with their historic counterparts. Unlike MLS that is a single-entity operation, the second NASL, like the old NASL, had no salary cap and players were contracted by the individual teams. The season was a split format (similar to that of many leagues in Latin America) that features seven teams, including one Puerto Rican team. Previous to the reorganization of the NASL in 2009, the USL First Division operated as the professional second-division league in the United States. However, a dispute among its teams and ownership led to the creation of the NASL which applied for and was awarded by USSF second division status. The 2010 season was played as a combined USL/NASL league format before NASL officially separated in 2011.

USL League One is sanctioned at the Men's Division III level. In March 2017, United Soccer League, administrator of the USL Championship and USL League Two, announced following the successful sanctioning of the USL Championship as a Division II league it would start a new tier in its professional structure, which became USL League One, and seek Division III certification for the 2019 season. The league received sanctioning in December 2018 and conducted a successful first season in 2019 that saw 10 teams compete in a single-table format and North Texas SC claim its inaugural league title. The seven independent clubs averaged 2,496 fans per match in 2019, placing League One in the top three of Division III leagues globally, and the league has expanded to include 12 teams for its second season in 2020, with further expansion expected prior to the 2021 season.

National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) led by former Chicago Fire general manager Peter Wilt plans on fielding 8–10 teams in 2018 and has stated that it will seek third-division certification.

A fourth-division league in the United States is the USL League Two, which as of 2015 is expected to have 58 U.S. teams, and six Canadian teams. Though League Two does have some paid players, it also has many teams that are made up entirely or almost entirely of college soccer players who use the league as an opportunity to play competitive soccer in front of professional scouts during the summer, while retaining amateur status and NCAA eligibility. Other fourth-division leagues in the United States are the United Premier Soccer League, National Premier Soccer League and Ligas Unidas.

In addition to MLS and the USL, the United States Adult Soccer Association governs amateur soccer competition for adults throughout the United States, which is effectively the amateur fifth-division of soccer in the United States. The USASA sanctions regional tournaments that allow entry into the U.S. Open Cup, the oldest continuous national soccer competition in the United States. Since 1914, the competition has been open to all U.S. Soccer affiliated clubs, and currently pits teams from all five levels of the American soccer pyramid against each other each year, similarly to England's FA Cup.

Women
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is the professional, top-division league in North America and as of 2024, is composed of 14 teams based in the U.S. Two professional, top-division leagues preceded the NWSL: the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), which featured many players from the 1999 FIFA Women's Cup-winning team (as well as other national teams), ran from 2001 to 2003 and Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) ran from 2009 to 2011.

Two second-division leagues currently exist: United Women's Soccer began play in May 2016 and as of 2020 features 30 teams in five conferences and the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL), started in 1997, features over 115 teams across the United States and Canada (the largest women's soccer league in the world as of 2020). Previously, the USL W-League was a semi-professional league that ran from 1995 to 2015 and featured a mix of college students and international players.

National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), 2013–present
On November 21, 2012, U.S. Soccer, in conjunction with the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) and Mexican Football Federation (FMF), announced the formation of a new professional league for the 2013 season. The league, unnamed at the time of the initial announcement but later unveiled as the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), launched in April 2013 with eight teams. Like WUSA and WPS, NWSL teams are privately owned with some owned by existing MLS teams. The American and Canadian federations pay the salaries for many of their respective national team members. U.S. Soccer initially committed to funding up to 24 national team members, with the CSA committing to paying 16 players and FMF pledging support for at least 12 and possibly as many as 16. In addition, U.S. Soccer housed the league's front office for the first four years, and scheduled matches to avoid any possible conflict with international tournaments. Four of the league's charter teams had WPS ties—the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, Sky Blue FC, and the Western New York Flash. The other four initial teams were located in the Kansas City, Portland, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. markets with the Portland team run by the Portland Timbers of MLS. The NWSL expanded to nine teams for 2014 by adding the Houston Dash, run by the Houston Dynamo of MLS. In 2016, it expanded to 10 with the addition of another MLS-backed team, the Orlando Pride. Ahead of the 2017 season, A&E Networks announced it had taken an equity stake in the league and Lifetime would begin broadcasting games to a national television audience. , additional expansion teams were being discussed by Los Angeles FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and FC Barcelona,  but none of these have yet materialized.

Several league changes occurred in advance of the 2017 season. First, FMF and U.S. Soccer amicably ended their partnership following FMF's establishment of its own women's professional league, Liga MX Femenil. The Western New York Flash ceased fully professional operations (though retaining its youth and, for a time, semi-pro operations), selling its NWSL franchise rights to Steve Malik, owner of then-NASL and current USLC side North Carolina FC. Malik relocated the NWSL team to NCFC's home of the Research Triangle and rebranded it as the North Carolina Courage. Both the Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City folded, with FCKC's player contracts transferred to Utah Royals FC, a new side owned and operated by Real Salt Lake.

The Seattle franchise went through two major changes in subsequent years. First, the team moved from Seattle to Tacoma and rebranded as Reign FC before the 2019 season. Then, in January 2020, the team was purchased by the parent company of French Ligue 1 power Olympique Lyonnais and rebranded again as OL Reign.

The league's next expansion was announced in November 2019, with a Louisville franchise granted to the ownership group of USLC side Louisville City FC, The Louisville side, which began play as Racing Louisville FC in 2021, is the first NWSL team whose entry into the league was announced more than 5 months before it started play.

Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), 2009–2011

The second professional league, Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), was founded in 2009. The inaugural season champion was Sky Blue FC, based in the New York–New Jersey area. The team defeated the Los Angeles Sol 1–0 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California. The WPS launched with seven teams, all based in the United States. The Sol folded after the league's inaugural season, and two new teams joined for 2010, bringing WPS to eight teams. However, the 2010 season saw considerable instability, with another charter team, Saint Louis Athletica, folding during the season, champions FC Gold Pride folding after the season, and the Chicago Red Stars deciding to regroup in the second-tier Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL). The 2011 season, in which six teams based along the East Coast played, was marked by low attendance for most of the season and conflict with Dan Borislow, who had purchased the former Washington Freedom, moved the team to South Florida, and renamed it magicJack. The dispute between WPS and Borislow led the league to suspend the magicJack franchise, with Borislow responding by suing. The legal battle led WPS to suspend its 2012 season, with hopes of returning in 2013, but WPS soon decided to fold completely.

Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), 2001–2003
The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was founded in 2001. Headlined by the stars of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup-winning team, $30 million was initially invested by numerous cable TV networks and owners. The league's inaugural match was held between the Washington Freedom featuring Mia Hamm and the Bay Area CyberRays (featuring Brandi Chastain) at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. In addition to the 34,148 fans in attendance being greater than any MLS game that weekend, the Turner Network Television (TNT) broadcast reached 393,087 households: more than two MLS games broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2. The league folded in 2003.

United Women's Soccer (UWS), 2016-present
United Women's Soccer (UWS) began play in May 2016 and as of 2020 features 30 teams in five conferences across the United States.

Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL), 1997–present
Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL), started in 1997, features over 115 teams across the United States and Canada (the largest women's soccer league in the world as of 2020).

USL W League, 1995–2015, 2022–present
The USL W-League was a semi-professional league that ran from 1995 to 2015 and featured a mix of college students and international players. A second pre-professional league named the USL W League began play in May 2022 with 44 teams organized into seven regional divisions.

USL also plans to launch a professional league, the USL Super League, in 2024 with an application for first-division sanctioning.

Concussions
In 2014, parents and former players filed a class action lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation, FIFA, and other soccer organizations for failure to create policies that would prevent, evaluate and manage concussion injuries. Soccer is second only to American football in the number of concussion injuries per year.

MLS relationship
The USSF has been accused by representatives of the North American Soccer League, among others, of unfairly protecting MLS's leading role in American professional soccer. Among their concerns is that the USSF benefits from financial dealings with MLS that it does not have with other leagues, giving it an apparent incentive to protect MLS from competition. This includes the contract that the USSF has with MLS's Soccer United Marketing (SUM) subsidiary in which most USSF sponsorship, television licensing and royalty revenues (outside of its apparel deal with Nike, Inc.) are paid through SUM. The USSF reported $15,433,754 in revenues through the SUM relationship in its 2014 audited financial report.

In 2015, the NASL took issue with proposed USSF rule changes reportedly making it harder to gain co-equal "Division 1" status with MLS that would increase the NASL's influence within the USSF as well as presumably allow more access to international competition and larger media and sponsorship contracts, calling the draft proposal "...an anti-competitive bait and switch, with the purpose of entrenching MLS's monopoly position at the very time when the NASL is threatening to become a significant competitor." Seats on the USSF's Professional Council governing committee are also based proportionally on pyramid level, giving MLS more votes when choosing the two professional league representatives on the USSF's board of directors. In 2015, those representatives are MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Alec Papadakis, CEO of the United Soccer League that announced an affiliation with MLS in 2015.

International competitiveness
High-profile international soccer figures including former USMNT Head Coach Jürgen Klinsmann, former LA Galaxy head coach and USMNT Head Coach Bruce Arena and Manchester City coach and former FIFA World Coach of the Year Pep Guardiola, have expressed beliefs that the top-down structure of soccer developed and managed by the USSF in the United States, including pressure to have the best American players in MLS rather than higher-quality leagues in other countries, is hampering the nation's competitiveness in international soccer.

Conversely, Klinsmann has been criticized in turn by MLS representatives for recommending that American players leave MLS development systems to pursue professional careers in Europe in order to test themselves against higher levels of players in preparation for international competition. In 2015, MLS Commissioner Don Garber said, "I do believe our national team coach has a short-term objective. That's what he's hired to do. That doesn't mean next week, but it's to win the Gold Cup, it's to have the best possible team in 2018. And our goals and objectives are broader than that, and that's why we agree on some things but don't agree on others."

Women's national team lawsuit
On March 8, 2019, all members of the U.S. women's national team collectively filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation in a district court in Los Angeles. The lawsuit was filed due to claims that the athletes were being treated differently on the basis of gender, affecting their paychecks, the facilities they were offered, and even the medical treatment they received. Women on the team have previously filed complaints about pay disparity, including in 2016 when five members of the women's team filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

On May 1, 2020, the district court dismissed the team's unequal and discriminatory pay claim, however preserving the players' claims about unequal treatment in areas like travel, hotel accommodations and team staffing. A trial on those issues is scheduled to begin June 16.

Judge R. Gary Klausner of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, granted the federation's motion for summary judgment. In his ruling, he dismissed the players' arguments that they were systematically underpaid by U.S. Soccer in comparison with the men's national team. According to Klausner, U.S. Soccer had substantiated its argument that the women's team had actually earned more "on both a cumulative and an average per-game basis" than the men's team during the years at issue in the lawsuit.

On February 22, 2022, the U.S. Soccer Federation agreed settle the lawsuit for $24 million, with a proposed $22 million going the players in the case and an additional $2 million to benefit USWNT players post-career goals and also charitable efforts related to women's soccer. The settlement also requires both male and female soccer players to paid equally for friendlies, and tournaments including the World Cup.

U.S. Soccer became the first national governing body for the sport in the world to equalize World Cup prize money for its men's and women's teams. FIFA still distributes significantly more funds to its member associations for the men's event.

Garcia Report
On July 17, 2012, in the wake of announced anti-corruption reforms by Sepp Blatter, the president of the world soccer governing body FIFA, the organization appointed U.S. lawyer Michael J. Garcia as the chairman of the investigative chamber of FIFA Ethics Committee, while German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert was appointed as the chairman of the Ethics Committee's adjudication chamber.

In August 2012, Garcia declared his intention to investigate the bidding process and decision to respectively award the right to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup to Russia and Qatar by the FIFA Executive Committee. Garcia delivered his subsequent 350-page report in September 2014, and Eckert then announced that it would not be made public for legal reasons.

On November 13, 2014, Eckert released a 42-page summary of his findings after reviewing Garcia's report. The summary cleared both Russia and Qatar of any wrongdoing during the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, leaving Russia and Qatar free to stage their respective World Cups.

FIFA welcomed "the fact that a degree of closure has been reached," while the Associated Press wrote that the Eckert summary "was denounced by critics as a whitewash." Hours after the Eckert summary was released, Garcia himself criticized it for being "materially incomplete" with "erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions," while declaring his intention to appeal to FIFA's Appeal Committee. On December 16, 2014, FIFA's Appeal Committee dismissed Garcia's appeal against the Eckert summary as "not admissible." FIFA also stated that Eckert's summary was "neither legally binding nor appealable." A day later, Garcia resigned from his role as FIFA ethics investigator in protest of FIFA's conduct, citing a "lack of leadership" and lost confidence in the independence of Eckert from FIFA.

In June 2015, Swiss authorities claimed the report was of "little value".

Yates Report
On October 3, 2022, the U.S. Soccer Federation publicly released the 173-page Yates Report, officially titled Report of the Independent Investigation to the U.S. Soccer Federation Concerning Allegations of Abusive Behavior and Sexual Misconduct in Women's Professional Soccer, the official report documenting the findings and conclusions concerning abusive behavior and sexual misconduct in women's professional soccer. The report is named for Sally Yates, the lawyer who led the investigation, a former Acting United States Attorney General.

Presidents
United States Soccer Football Association (until 1974) • Gustav Randolph Manning (1913–1915)

• John A. Fernley (1915–1917)

• Peter Peel (1917–1919)

• George Healey (1919–1923)

• Peter Peel (1923–1924)

• Morris W. Johnson (1924–1926)

• Andrew Brown (1926–1928)

• Armstrong Patterson (1928–1932)

• Elmer A. Schroeder (1933–1934)

• Joseph J. Barriskill (1934–1936)

• Joseph Triner (1936–1938)

• H. S. Callowhill (1938–1941)

• Thomas E. Sager (1941–1945)

• H. H. Fairfield (1945–1948)

• Walter Giesler (1948–1950)

• F. W. Netto (1950–1952)

• James McGuire (1952–1954)

• E. Sullivan (1954–1957)

• W. Rechsteiner (1957–1959)

• Jack Flamhaft (1959–1961)

• J. Eugene Ringsdorf (1961–1963)

• George E. Fishwick (1963–1965)

• F. E. Woods (1965–1967)

• Bob Guelker (1967–1969)

• Erwin A. Single (1969–1971)

• James McGuire (1971–1974)

United States Soccer Federation (1974–present) • Gene Edwards (1974–1984)

• Werner Fricker (1984–1990)

• Alan Rothenberg (1990–1998)

• Robert Contiguglia (1998 – March 11, 2006)

• Sunil Gulati (March 11, 2006 – January 10, 2018)

• Carlos Cordeiro (January 10, 2018 – March 12, 2020)

• Cindy Parlow Cone (March 12, 2020 – present)

Current sponsorships

 * Allstate
 * Anheuser-Busch
 * AT&T
 * Chipotle
 * Coca-Cola
 * Deloitte
 * Nike
 * TRULY Hard Seltzer
 * Visa
 * Volkswagen

title: United States Soccer Federation