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Auslan

Auslan (Australian Sign Language) is the sign language used by the majority of the Australian Deaf community. Auslan is related to British Sign Language (BSL) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL); the three have descended from the same parent language, and together comprise the BANZSL language family. As with other sign languages, Auslan's grammar and vocabulary is quite different from spoken English. Its origin cannot be attributed to any individual; rather, it is a natural language that emerged spontaneously and has changed over time.

Recognition and status
Auslan was recognised by the Australian government as a "community language other than English" and the preferred language of the Deaf community in policy statements in 1987 and 1991. However, this recognition has yet to filter through to many institutions, government departments, and professionals who work with Deaf people.

The emerging status of Auslan has gone hand-in-hand with the advancement of the Deaf community in Australia, beginning in the early 1980s. In 1982, the registration of the first sign language interpreters by NAATI, a newly established regulatory body for interpreting and translating, accorded a sense of legitimacy to Auslan, furthered by the publishing of the first dictionary of Auslan in 1989 (Johnston, 1989). Auslan began to emerge as a language of instruction for Deaf students in primary and secondary schools from the late 1980s—mainly through the provision of Auslan/English interpreters in mainstream (hearing) schools with deaf support units, but also in some specialised bilingual programmes for deaf children. Boosted by the 1992 enactment of the federal Disability Discrimination Act, Auslan/English interpreters are also increasingly provided in tertiary education.

Today there is a growing number of courses teaching Auslan as a second language, from an elective language subject offered by some secondary schools to a two-year full-time diploma at TAFE.

Auslan content on television in Australia is limited. For some time, "Deaf TV", which was entirely in Auslan and was produced by Deaf volunteers, aired on community television station Channel 31 in Melbourne. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Auslan experienced a period of increased visibility through press conferences from federal and state leaders and health officials, which invariably featured Auslan interpreters. Since 2020, the ABC News channel's Sunday 5pm bulletin has included Auslan interpretation.

Prominent advocates for Auslan
In 2006 David Gibson was the first member of any Parliament in Australia to give a maiden speech in Auslan and was involved in Auslan events for the National Week of Deaf People at the Queensland Parliament, including the use of Auslan interpreters for question time and a debate between members of the deaf community and members of parliament on disability issues in 2007.

The Young Australian of the Year for 2015, Drisana Levitzke-Gray, is a strong proponent of Auslan and, in her acceptance speech using Auslan, called on the Government of Australia, and Australians, to learn and use Auslan as a natural language, as a human right for Australians.

History
Auslan evolved from sign language varieties brought to Australia during the nineteenth century from Britain and Ireland. The earliest record of a deaf Australian was convict Elizabeth Steel, who arrived in 1790 on the Second Fleet ship "Lady Juliana". There is as yet no historical evidence, however, that she used a sign language. One of the first known signing Deaf immigrants was the engraver John Carmichael who arrived in Sydney in 1825 from Edinburgh. He had been to a Deaf school there, and was known as a good storyteller in sign language.

Thirty-five years later, in 1860, a school for the Deaf was established by another Deaf Scotsman, Thomas Pattison—the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in New South Wales. In Victoria just a few weeks later, the Victorian College for the Deaf was founded by a Deaf Englishman, Frederick J Rose, who had been educated at the Old Kent Road School in London. These schools and others had an enormous role in the development of Auslan, as they were the first contact with sign language for many Deaf children. Because they were residential boarding schools, they provided ample opportunity for the language to thrive, even though in many schools, signing was banned from the classroom for much of the 20th century.

Irish Sign Language (ISL) also had an influence on the development of Auslan, as it was used in Catholic schools until the 1950s. The first Catholic school for Deaf children was established in 1875 by Irish nuns. As such, like Auslan evolving from BSL, Australian Irish Sign Language (or AISL) was born. Unlike British Sign Language, both ISL and AISL use a one-handed alphabet originating in French Sign Language (LSF), and although this alphabet has now almost disappeared from Australia, some initialised signs from the ISL/AISL manual alphabet are still used in Auslan.

In more recent times, Auslan has seen a significant amount of lexical borrowing from American Sign Language (ASL), especially in signs for technical terms. Some of these arose from the Signed English educational philosophies of the 1970s and 80s, when a committee looking for signs with direct equivalence to English words found them in ASL and/or in invented English-based signed systems used in North America and introduced them in the classroom. ASL contains many signs initialised from an alphabet which was also derived from LSF, and Auslan users, already familiar with the related ISL alphabet, accepted many of the new signs easily.

Word order
Previously, Auslan had been said to be an OSV, but more recent scholars have said that this idea is a false-equivalent of Auslan with spoken languages and that using anchor signs is not the same as word order. In general, word order in Auslan takes into account context and fluidity between signs being used, being less rigid than many spoken languages. Rather, Auslan instead follows the clause/word order off TTC—Time, topic, comment. The frequency of SVO in Auslan may come from code-switching with English (with very high bilingualism for Auslan users), as it is more common with "loan words (signs), English-based idiomatic phrases [and] fingerspelling" as well as by those who learned Auslan later in life.

In question phrases, the question word must always be at the end in Auslan in open questions. This word order is the same for both questions and statements, with questions in Auslan formed by either adding a question word at the end of a clause TOM KICKED PETER WHY or using nonmanual features of a questioning expression.

Verbs
Verbs in Auslan which are depicting signs use head-marking to show the semantic role of the arguments, rather than subject/object. An example of this is the word give, which involves an actor and a recipient. Both of these arguments can be expressed on the verb by using signing space.

Verb-predicates can be formed by using individual vocabulary words in sequential order (more commonly used by anglophones who speak Auslan as a second language) or using depicting signs, which can "blur" word order, as it allows for multiple signs to be used at once. This is generally a mark of high competence and fluency in the language. Lexicalisation of common predicates is common, and compounding is the most common way that new lexical items are produced.

Auslan is a zero-copula language, which means that the verb to be is not used at all except when quoting English (in which it is finger-spelt). Auslan replaces copula with interrogatives for certain phrase types, sometimes in this context called "rhetorical questions" or "modifiers", using non-manual features to express that it is a statement rather than a question. The interrogatives of Auslan are more or less direct translations to English ones, with WHY used for this purpose sometimes translated as BECAUSE. Examples of use are as follows:

 * Phoebe is an engineer : PHOEBE WHAT ENGINEER
 * She is at school : SHE WHERE SCHOOL
 * I went shopping with my sister : (BEFORE) I SHOP WITH WHO MY SISTER

Pronouns
Pronouns are established using the signing space, either arbitrary (for non-present people/things) or iconic. For example, "I will give you the doll tomorrow" would be signed as TOMORROW DOLL GIVE, with the sign GIVE starting at the speaker's body and finishing at the receiver's. The use of signing space also makes all pronouns non-gendered.

Auslan in relation to English
It is sometimes wrongly assumed that English-speaking countries share a single sign language. Auslan is a natural language distinct from spoken or written English. Its grammar and vocabulary often do not have direct English equivalents and vice versa. However, English, as the dominant language in Australia, has had a significant influence on Auslan, especially through manual forms such as fingerspelling and (more recently) Signed English.

It is difficult to sign Auslan fluently while speaking English, as the word order may be different, and there is often no direct sign-to-word equivalence. However, mouthing of an English word together with a sign may serve to clarify when one sign may have several English equivalents. In some cases, the mouth gesture that accompanies a sign may not reflect the equivalent translation in English (e.g. a sign meaning "thick" may be accompanied by a mouth gesture that does not resemble any English word).

Fingerspelling
A two-handed manual alphabet, identical to the one used in British Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language, is integral to Auslan. This alphabet is used for fingerspelling proper nouns such as personal or place names, common nouns for everyday objects, and English words, especially technical terms, for which there is no widely used sign. Fingerspelling can also be used for emphasis, clarification, or, sometimes extensively, by English-speaking learners of Auslan. The proportion of fingerspelling versus signs varies with the context and the age of the signer. A recent small-scale study puts fingerspelled words in Auslan conversations at about 10% of all lexical items, roughly equal to ASL and higher than many other sign languages, such as New Zealand Sign Language. The proportion is higher in older signers, suggesting that the use of fingerspelling has diminished over time.

Schembri and Johnston (2007) found that the most commonly fingerspelled words in Auslan include "so", "to", "if", "but" and "do".

Some signs also feature an English word's initial letter as a handshape from a one- or two-handed manual alphabet and use it within a sign. For example, part of the sign for "Canberra" incorporates the letter "C".

Signed English
Australasian Signed English was created in the late 1970s to represent English words and grammar, using mostly Auslan signs together with some additional contrived signs, as well as borrowings from American Sign Language (ASL). It was used largely in education for teaching English to Deaf children or for discussing English in academic contexts, and it is not clear to what extent this continues to be the case. It was thought to be much easier for hearing teachers and parents to learn another mode of English than to learn a new language with a complex spatial grammar such as Auslan.

The use of Signed English in schools is controversial with some in the Deaf community, who regard Signed English as a contrived and unnatural artificially constructed language. Signed English has now been largely rejected by Deaf communities in Australia and its use in education is dwindling; however, a number of its signs have made their way into normal use.

Acquisition and nativeness
Unlike oral languages, only a minority of Deaf children acquire their language from their parents (about 4 or 5% have Deaf parents). Most acquire Auslan from Deaf peers at school or later through Deaf community networks. Many learn Auslan as a "delayed" first language in adolescence or adulthood, after attempting to learn English (or another spoken/written language) without the exposure necessary to properly acquire it. The Deaf community often distinguish between "oral deaf" who grew up in an oral or signed English educational environment without Auslan, and those "Deaf Deaf" who learnt Auslan at an early age from Deaf parents or at a Deaf school. Regardless of their background, many Deaf adults consider Auslan to be their first or primary language, and see themselves as users of English as a second language.

Variation and standardisation
Auslan exhibits a high degree of variation, determined by the signer's age, educational background, and regional origin, and the signing community is very accepting of a wide range of individual differences in signing style.

There is no standard dialect of Auslan. Standard dialects arise through the support of institutions, such as the media, education, government and the law. As this support has not existed for most sign languages, coupled with the lack of a widely used written form and communications technologies, Auslan has probably diverged much more rapidly from BSL than Australian English has from British English.

Auslan was introduced to Papua New Guinea, where it mixed with local or home sign and Tok Pisin to produce Papua New Guinean Sign Language. Sign languages related to Auslan also appear to be used in some other parts of the Asia-Pacific, such as in Fiji.

Dialects
Linguists often regard Auslan as having two major dialects—Northern (Queensland and New South Wales), and Southern (Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia). The vocabulary of the two dialects traditionally differed significantly, with different signs used even for very common concepts such as colours, animals, and days of the week; differences in grammar appear to be slight.

These two dialects may have roots in older dialectal differences from the United Kingdom, brought over by Deaf immigrants who founded the first schools for the Deaf in Australia — varieties from the southeast of England in Melbourne and Scottish varieties in Sydney, although the relationship between lexical variation in the UK and Australia appears much more complicated than this (some Auslan signs appear similar to signs used in a range of regional varieties of BSL). Before schools were established elsewhere, Deaf children attended one of these two initial schools, and brought signs back to their own states. As schools opened up in each state, new signs also developed in the dormitories and playgrounds of these institutions. As a result, Auslan users can identify more precise regional varieties (e.g., "Sydney sign", "Melbourne sign", "Perth sign", "Adelaide sign" and "Brisbane sign"), and even vocabulary that may have been unique to individual schools. In a conversation between two strangers, one from Melbourne and the other from Perth, it is likely that one will use a small number of signs unfamiliar to the other, despite both belonging to the same "southern dialect". Signers can often identify which school someone went to, even within a few short utterances.

Despite these differences, communication between Auslan users from different regions poses little difficulty for most Deaf Australians, who often become aware of different regional vocabulary as they grow older, through travel and Deaf community networks, and because Deaf people are so well practised in bridging barriers to communication.

Indigenous Australian sign languages and Auslan
A number of Indigenous Australian sign languages exist, unrelated to Auslan, such as Warlpiri Sign Language and Yolngu Sign Language. They occur in the southern, central, and western desert regions, coastal Arnhem Land, some islands of the north coast, the western side of Cape York Peninsula, and on some Torres Strait Islands. They have also been noted as far south as the Murray River.

Deaf Indigenous people of Far North Queensland (extending from Yarrabah to Cape York) form a distinct signing community using a dialect of Auslan; it has features of Indigenous sign languages and gestural systems as well as signs and grammar of Auslan.

Written and recorded Auslan
Auslan has no written form; in the past transcribing Auslan was largely an academic exercise. The first Auslan dictionaries used either photographs or drawings with motion arrows to describe signs; more recently, technology has made possible the use of short video clips on CD-ROM or online dictionaries.

SignWriting, however, has its adherents in Australia.

A Silent Agreement was Australia's first theatrically released feature film to showcase Australian Sign Language in its main dialogue and as a plot element, with some scenes depicted entirely in Auslan. There is also one scene where the characters discuss the risky politics of using non-deaf actors using sign language in film.

title: Auslan


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Shake, Rattle and Roll

"Shake, Rattle and Roll" is a song written in 1954 by Jesse Stone (usually credited as "Charles Calhoun", his songwriting name) and first recorded that year by Big Joe Turner, whose version ranked No. 127 on the Rolling Stone magazine list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Background
In early 1954, Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records suggested to Jesse Stone that he write an up-tempo blues for Big Joe Turner, a blues shouter whose career had begun in Kansas City before World War II. Stone played around with various phrases before coming up with "shake, rattle and roll". (Stone used his real name for ASCAP songs, while using the pseudonym "Charles Calhoun" for BMI-registered songs, such as "Shake, Rattle and Roll").

However, the phrase had been used in earlier songs. In 1910, vaudeville performer "Baby" Franklin Seals published "You Got to Shake, Rattle and Roll", a ragtime tune about gambling with dice, in New Orleans; in 1919, Al Bernard recorded a version of the song.

Joe Turner original
Turner recorded "Shake, Rattle and Roll" in New York City on February 15, 1954. Atlantic released it as a single in April 1954, that reached number one on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart and number 22 on the Billboard singles chart.

Bill Haley version
Bill Haley & His Comets recorded a cover version of the song on June 7, 1954, the same week Turner's version first topped the R&B chart. The Comets provided the instrumental accompaniment: Johnny Grande on piano, Billy Williamson on rhythm guitar, Marshall Lytle on bass, and Joey Ambrose on saxophone. Haley's version was released in August and reached number seven on the Billboard singles chart, spending a total of twenty-seven weeks in the Top 40. In the UK, it peaked at number four.

Elvis Presley versions
Elvis Presley recorded the song twice in a studio setting: a demo recorded at radio station KDAV in Lubbock, Texas in January 1955 while under contract with Sun Records (this recording was not released until the 1990s) and as a 1956 single for RCA Victor.

Introduced by Cleveland disc jockey Bill Randle, Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore, bassist Bill Black, and drummer D. J. Fontana performed the song in medley with the similar "Flip, Flop and Fly" on the January 28, 1956, broadcast of the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show (Haley's "kitchen" opening verse was sung).

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

title: Shake, Rattle and Roll


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EPSP

EPSP may be an abbreviation for:

 * 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate An enzyme in plants, bacteria, fungi, and some protists
 * Excitatory postsynaptic potential A characteristic of neurons

title: EPSP


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Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, also called the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA, is a federal law of the United States, enacted in 2003. It produced the largest overhaul of Medicare in the public health program's 38-year history.

The MMA was signed by President George W. Bush on December 8, 2003, after passing in Congress by a close margin.

Prescription drug benefits
The MMA's most touted feature is the introduction of an entitlement benefit for prescription drugs, through tax breaks and subsidies.

In the years since Medicare's creation in 1965, the role of prescription drugs in patient care has significantly increased. As new and expensive drugs have come into use, patients, particularly senior citizens at whom Medicare was targeted, have found prescriptions harder to afford. The MMA was designed to address this problem.

The benefit is funded in a complex way, reflecting diverse priorities of lobbyists and constituencies.
 * It provides a subsidy for large employers to discourage them from eliminating private prescription coverage to retired workers (a key AARP goal);
 * It prohibits the federal government from negotiating discounts with drug companies;
 * It prevents the government from establishing a formulary, but does not prevent private providers such as HMOs from doing so.

Basic prescription drug coverage
Beginning in 2006, a prescription drug benefit called Medicare Part D was made available. Coverage is available only through insurance companies and HMOs, and is voluntary.

Enrollees paid the following initial costs for the initial benefits: a minimum monthly premium of $24.80 (premiums may vary), a $180 to $265 annual deductible, 25% (or approximate flat copay) of full drug costs up to $2,400. After the initial coverage limit is met, a period commonly referred to as the "Donut Hole" begins when an enrollee may be responsible for the insurance company's negotiated price of the drug, less than the retail price without insurance. The Affordable Care Act, also commonly known as "Obamacare", modified this measure.

Medicare Advantage plans
With the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Medicare beneficiaries were given the option to receive their Medicare benefits through private health insurance plans, instead of through the Original Medicare plan (Parts A and B). These programs were known as "Medicare+Choice" or "Part C" plans. Pursuant to the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, the compensation and business practices for insurers that offer these plans changed, and "Medicare+Choice" plans became known as "Medicare Advantage" (MA) plans. In addition to offering comparable coverage to Part A and Part B, Medicare Advantage plans may also offer Part D coverage.

Changes to plans
With the MMA, new Medicare Advantage plans were established with several substantive differences from the previous Medicare + Choice plans, including:
 * enrollees sign on for a whole year
 * care could be restricted to specific provider networks
 * formularies were to be used to restrict prescription drug choices
 * prescription coverage would be deferred to the patient or a Medicare Part D prescription plan
 * care other than emergency care can be restricted to a particular region
 * federal reimbursement can be adjusted according to the health risk of the enrollees

Health savings accounts
The MMA created a new Health Savings Account statute that replaced and expanded the previous Medical Savings Account law by expanding allowable contributions and employer participation. After the first 10 years over 12 million Americans were enrolled in HSAs (AHIP;EBRI).

Other provisions
While nearly all agreed that some form of prescription drug benefit would be included, other provisions were the subject of prolonged debate in Congress. The complex legislation also changed Medicare in the following ways:
 * it mandated a six-city trial of a partly privatized Medicare system (by 2010)
 * it gave an extra $25 billion to rural hospitals (at the request of congressional representatives in the rural West)
 * it required higher fees from wealthier seniors
 * it added a pretax health savings account for working people
 * it required Medicare Part D plans to support electronic prescribing, with a planned implementation date of April 2009.

Medicare administration of claims
In addition, the legislation mandated a major overhaul of how Part A and Part B claims are processed.

Under the new legislation, the Fiscal Intermediaries (FIs) and carriers would be replaced by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC's), serving both Parts A and B, and would be consolidated into fifteen Jurisdictions:
 * Jurisdiction 1—California, Hawaii, and Nevada, plus American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands
 * Jurisdiction 2—Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington
 * Jurisdiction 3—Arizona, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming
 * Jurisdiction 4—Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas
 * Jurisdiction 5—Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska
 * Jurisdiction 6—Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
 * Jurisdiction 7—Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi
 * Jurisdiction 8—Indiana and Michigan
 * Jurisdiction 9—Florida, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
 * Jurisdiction 10—Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee
 * Jurisdiction 11—North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia
 * Jurisdiction 12—Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
 * Jurisdiction 13—Connecticut and New York
 * Jurisdiction 14—Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont
 * Jurisdiction 15—Kentucky and Ohio

Four "Specialty MAC Jurisdictions" were also created to handle durable medical equipment and home health/hospice claims:
 * Jurisdiction A—consists of all states in Jurisdictions 12, 13, and 14
 * Jurisdiction B—consists of all states in Jurisdictions 6, 8, and 15
 * Jurisdiction C—consists of all states and territories in Jurisdictions 4, 7, 9, 10, and 11
 * Jurisdiction D—consists of all states and territories in Jurisdictions 1, 2, 3, and 5

Finally, the underlying contracts would be subject to competition, and would also be subject to the requirements of the Cost Accounting Standards and the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

Legislative history
According to the New York Times December 17, 2004 editorial W.J."Billy" Tauzin, the Louisiana Republican who chaired the Energy and Commerce Committee from 2001 until February 4, 2004, was one of the chief architects of the new Medicare law. In 2004 Tauzin was appointed as chief lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade association and lobby group for the drug industry with a "rumored salary of $2 million a year," drawing criticism from Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy group. They claimed that Tauzin "may have been negotiating for the lobbying job while writing the Medicare legislation." Tauzin was responsible for including a provision that prohibited Medicare from negotiating prices with drug companies.

"It's a sad commentary on politics in Washington that a member of Congress who pushed through a major piece of legislation benefiting the drug industry, gets the job leading that industry."

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said,

"I think if seniors want to know why the pharmaceutical companies made out so well at their expense, all they have to do is look at this. This is an abuse of power. This is a conflict of interest."

The bill was debated and negotiated for nearly six months in Congress, and finally passed amid unusual circumstances. Several times in the legislative process the bill had appeared to have failed, but each time was saved when a couple of Congressmen and Senators switched positions on the bill.

The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives early on June 25, 2003, as H.R. 1, sponsored by Speaker Dennis Hastert. All that day and the next the bill was debated, and it was apparent that the bill would be very divisive. In the early morning of June 27, a floor vote was taken. After the initial electronic vote, the count stood at 214 yeas, 218 nays.

Three Republican representatives then changed their votes. One opponent of the bill, Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-OK-5), changed his vote to "present" upon being told that C.W. Bill Young (R-FL-10), who was absent due to a death in the family, would have voted "aye" if he had been present. Next, Republicans Butch Otter (ID-1) and Jo Ann Emerson (MO-8) switched their vote to "aye" under pressure from the party leadership. The bill passed by one vote, 216–215.

On June 26, the Senate passed its version of the bill, 76–21. The bills were unified in conference, and on November 21, the bill came back to the House for approval.

The bill came to a vote at 3 a.m. on November 22. After 45 minutes, the bill was losing, 219–215, with David Wu (D-OR-1) not voting. Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay sought to convince some of dissenting Republicans to switch their votes, as they had in June. Istook, who had always been a wavering vote, consented quickly, producing a 218-216 tally. In a highly unusual move, the House leadership held the vote open for hours as they sought two more votes. Then-Representative Nick Smith (R-MI) claimed he was offered campaign funds for his son, who was running to replace him, in return for a change in his vote from "nay" to "yea." After controversy ensued, Smith clarified no explicit offer of campaign funds was made, but that he was offered "substantial and aggressive campaign support" which he had assumed included financial support.

At about 5:50 a.m., Otter and Trent Franks (AZ-2) were convinced to switch their votes. With passage assured, Wu voted yea as well, and Democrats Calvin M. Dooley (CA-20), Jim Marshall (GA-3) and David Scott (GA-13) changed their votes to the affirmative. But Brad Miller (D-NC-13), and then, Republican John Culberson (TX-7), reversed their votes from "yea" to "nay". The bill passed 220–215.

The Democrats cried foul, and Bill Thomas, the Republican chairman of the Ways and Means committee, challenged the result in a gesture to satisfy the concerns of the minority. He subsequently voted to table his own challenge; the tally to table was 210 ayes, 193 noes

The Senate's consideration of the conference report was somewhat less heated, as cloture on it was invoked by a vote of 70–29. However, a budget point of order was raised by Tom Daschle, and voted on. As 60 votes were necessary to override it, the challenge was actually considered to have a credible chance of passing.

For several minutes, the vote total was stuck at 58–39, until Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Trent Lott (R-MS), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) voted in quick succession in favor to pass the vote 61–39. The bill itself was finally passed 54–44 on November 25, 2003, and was signed into law by the President on December 8.

Costs
Initially, the net cost of the program was projected at $400 billion for the ten-year period between 2004 and 2013. Administration official Thomas Scully instructed analyst Richard Foster not to tell Congress of Foster's finding that the cost would actually be over $500 billion. One month after passage, the administration estimated that the net cost of the program over the period between 2006 (the first year the program started paying benefits) and 2015 would be $534 billion. As of February 2009, the projected net cost of the program over the 2006 to 2015 period was $549.2 billion.

Bar to negotiation of prescription drug prices
After the enactment of Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act in 2003, only insurance companies administering Medicare prescription drug program, not Medicare, had the legal right to negotiate drug prices directly with drug manufacturers. The Medicare Prescription Drug Act expressly prohibited Medicare from negotiating bulk prescription drug prices. The "donut hole" provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 was an attempt to correct the issue. In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act removed this ban and allowed Medicare to begin negotiating drug prices starting in 2026.

Government resources

 * Social Security Act - Title XVIII Health Insurance for The Aged and Disabled (PDF/details) as amended in the GPO Statute Compilations collection
 * Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
 * Medicare Modernization Act — includes PDF file of the actual text of the law.
 * Medicare.gov — the official website for people with Medicare
 * Medicare Modernization Act at Medicare.gov
 * Prescription Drug Coverage homepage at Medicare.gov — a central location for Medicare's web-based information about the Part D benefit
 * Enroll in a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan at Medicare.gov — the web-based tool for enrolling online in a Part D plan
 * Medicare Plan Choices at Medicare.gov — basic information about plan choices for Medicare beneficiaries, including Medicare Advantage Plans
 * |5|Unknown&language=English&year=2009&PDPYear=2009&MAPDYear=2009&defaultstatus=1&pagelist=MPPFHome&MPDPF_zip=&type=ZIPCOUNTY&ExternalSourceID=&MPPF_PDP_Integrate=N Medicare Personal Plan Finder at Medicare.gov — more detailed information about Medicare Advantage Plans; includes ability to do tailored searches based on specified criteria
 * Landscape of plans — state-by-state breakdown of all plans available an area, both Stand-alone Part D plans, as well as Medicare Advantage plans
 * Official Medicare publications at Medicare.gov — includes official publications about current Medicare benefits
 * Medicare & You handbook for 2006 at Medicare.gov — includes information about current Medicare benefits
 * Information about the 1-800-MEDICARE helpline from Medicare.gov — a 24X7 toll-free number where anyone can call with questions about Medicare

News articles

 * Johns, Michael. "The Great Society Meets the 21st Century". Orthopedic Technology Review, January 2004.
 * Under the Influence" - 60 Minutes special on prescription drug lobbyists' influence on the passage of the Medicare Bill

Other resources

 * Read Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding the Medicare Prescription Drug Act
 * "Medicare Q&A Weekly Column", The Kaiser Family Foundation
 * http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20090811041852/http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=22867

Indústria farmacèutica Medicare (Vereinigte Staaten) Industrie pharmaceutique


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Kiri Te Kanawa

Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa,, (born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". On 1 December 1971 she was recognised internationally when she appeared as the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House in London.

Te Kanawa received accolades in many countries, performing works composed in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and singing in several languages. She was particularly associated with the music of Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini and Richard Strauss, and was often cast as an aristocrat. Her extensive discography includes three albums which featured in the top forty in charts in Australia in the mid-1980s.

Towards the end of her career, Te Kanawa appeared in opera only rarely, preferring to perform in concerts and recitals. She also devoted much of her time to giving masterclasses and supporting young opera singers through the period of their apprenticeship.

Personal life
Te Kanawa was born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne, New Zealand, to Māori butcher Tieki "Jack" Wawatai and to Mary Noeleen Rawstron, who was the daughter of Irish immigrants. Wawatai was already married to Apo, the daughter of the Rev. Poihipi Kōhere. Rawstron's mother insisted the baby be given up for adoption. Te Kanawa was adopted as an infant by Thomas Te Kanawa, the owner of a successful trucking business, and his wife Nell. Kiri Te Kanawa's adoptive family is Ngāti Maniapoto.

She was educated at St Mary's College, Auckland, and formally trained in operatic singing by Sister Mary Leo Niccol. Te Kanawa began her singing career as a mezzo-soprano but developed into a soprano. Her recording of the "Nuns' Chorus" from the Benatzky's operetta Casanova was the first gold record produced in New Zealand.

Te Kanawa met Desmond Park on a blind date in London in August 1967, and they married six weeks later at St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland. They adopted two children, Antonia (born 1976) and Thomas (born 1979). The couple divorced in 1997. Te Kanawa never made an attempt to contact her biological parents, but her half-brother Jim Rawstron contacted her. Initially, she was unwilling to meet him, but agreed to do so in 1997. The episode ended bitterly, when a newspaper ran a story on their meeting; despite Rawstron denying contact with the newspaper, Te Kanawa has since reaffirmed her decision to have nothing to do with her birth family.

Career
In her teens and early 20s, Te Kanawa was a pop star and entertainer at clubs in New Zealand, and regularly appeared in newspapers and magazines. In 1963, she was runner-up to Malvina Major in the Mobil Song Quest with her performance of "Vissi d'arte" from Puccini's Tosca, and in 1965 she won the same competition. As winner, she received a grant to study in London.

She appeared and sang in the 1966 musical comedy film Don't Let It Get You. In 1966, she won the Melbourne Sun-Aria contest, which Major had won the previous year. Both singers had been taught by Sister Mary Leo.

Early years in London
In 1966, without an audition, she enrolled at the London Opera Centre to study under Vera Rózsa and James Robertson, who reputedly said Te Kanawa lacked a singing technique when she arrived at the school but had a gift for captivating audiences. She first appeared on stage as the Second Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute. On a recommendation by Richard Bonynge, she changed to soprano training in 1967. When she performed the title role of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in a concert performance that year, music critic Alan Blyth predicted that she was to be the "opera star of the next decade". in December 1968 she repeated the role at the Sadler's Wells Theatre.

She also performed the title role in Donizetti's Anna Bolena. In 1969, she appeared as Elena in Rossini's La donna del lago at the Camden Festival. Praise for her Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo led to an offer of a three-year contract as junior principal at the Royal Opera House, where she made her debut as Xenia in Boris Godunov and a Flower Maiden in Wagner's Parsifal in 1970. She was offered the role of the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro after an audition of which the conductor, Colin Davis, said, "I couldn't believe my ears. I've taken thousands of auditions, but it was such a fantastically beautiful voice." Under director John Copley, Te Kanawa was carefully groomed for the role for a December 1971 opening.

International career
Meanwhile, word of her success had reached John Crosby at the Santa Fe Opera, a summer opera festival in New Mexico then about to begin its 15th season. He cast her as the Countess in Figaro, which opened on 30 July 1971. The production also featured Frederica von Stade's first appearance in what was to become her signature role, Cherubino. According to a historian of the Santa Fe company, "It was two of the newcomers who left the audience dazzled: Frederica von Stade as Cherubino and Te Kanawa as the Countess. Everyone knew at once that these were brilliant finds. History has confirmed that first impression."

On 1 December 1971 at Covent Garden, Te Kanawa repeated her Santa Fe performance and created an international sensation as the Countess: "with 'Porgi amor' Kiri knocked the place flat." This was followed by performances as the Countess at the Opéra National de Lyon and San Francisco Opera in 1972. She first sang Desdemona in Otello in Glasgow in 1972, while her 1974 Metropolitan Opera (Met) début as Desdemona took place at short notice: she replaced an ill Teresa Stratas at the last minute, and performed alongside Jon Vickers in the title role. Te Kanawa sang at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1973, with further débuts in Paris and (1975), Sydney (1976), Milan (1978), Salzburg (1979), and Vienna (1980). In 1982, she gave her only stage performances as Tosca in Paris. In 1989, she added Elisabeth de Valois in Verdi's Don Carlos to her repertory at Chicago, and, in 1990, the Countess in Capriccio by Richard Strauss, sung first at San Francisco and with equal success at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and the Met in 1998.

In subsequent years, Te Kanawa performed at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Paris Opera, Sydney Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Bavarian State Opera in Munich and Cologne Opera, adding to her repertoire the Mozart roles of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Italian roles such as Mimi in Puccini's La bohème. She played Donna Elvira in Joseph Losey's 1979 film adaptation of Don Giovanni. She was seen and heard around the world in 1981 by an estimated 600 million people when she sang Handel's "Let the bright Seraphim" at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer.

In 1984, Leonard Bernstein decided to re-record the musical West Side Story, conducting his own music for the first time. Generally known as the "operatic version", it starred Te Kanawa as Maria, José Carreras as Tony, Tatiana Troyanos as Anita, Kurt Ollmann as Riff, and Marilyn Horne as the offstage voice who sings "Somewhere". Te Kanawa was the first of the singers to join the project, saying, "I couldn't believe it...This was music I'd grown up with, music I'd always wanted to sing." The album won a Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album in 1985, and the recording process was filmed as a documentary, The Making of West Side Story.

Te Kanawa has a particular affinity for the heroines of Richard Strauss. Her first appearance in the title role in Arabella was at the Houston Grand Opera in 1977, followed by the roles of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and the Countess in Capriccio. Many performances were given under the baton of Georg Solti and it was with him that in 1981 she made a recording of Le nozze di Figaro.

She participated in Prince Edward's 1987 charity television special The Grand Knockout Tournament.

In 1991, she premiered the theme song "World in Union" at the 1991 Rugby World Cup, which reached No.4 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1992, she performed at the Last Night of the Proms, where she sang "Rule, Britannia!".

In 1995, Te Kanawa performed the role of Maria Boccanegra in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, alongside Plácido Domingo, conducted by James Levine.

Later in her career, her appearances on stage became infrequent, but she remained busy as a concert singer. She appeared in performances in the title role of Barber's Vanessa in Monte Carlo (televised in 2001), with the Washington National Opera (2002), and the Los Angeles Opera in November to December 2004. Te Kanawa appeared as a Pennington Great Performers series artist with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra in 2004.

In 2006, Te Kanawa sang "Happy Birthday" to Queen Elizabeth followed by "God Save The Queen" at the Commonwealth Games in Australia.

In April 2010, Te Kanawa sang the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in two performances at the Cologne Opera. That same year, she played the spoken role of The Duchess of Krakenthorp in Donizetti's La fille du régiment at the Metropolitan Opera, and sang a tango. She repeated this role at the Met in a revival during the 2011–12 season, repeating it again in Vienna in 2013 and at Covent Garden in March 2014, a run that encompassed her 70th birthday. In the meantime, she performed at Haruhisa Handa's inaugural Tokyo Global Concert at Nakano-Zero Hall in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan, on 10 September 2013. In October 2013 she appeared in the role of Nellie Melba in the television series Downton Abbey.

Retirement years
On 13 September 2017, Te Kanawa announced her retirement from performing. She then committed herself to nurture young artists, and serving as a judge in several singing competitions. Her final performance was in Ballarat, Australia, in October 2016, but she did not announce her retirement until September 2017.

In 2021, she moved back to New Zealand permanently after having lived in the United Kingdom for 55 years. She was part of the official New Zealand delegation to the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation
Te Kanawa established the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation in order that "talented young New Zealand singers and musicians with complete dedication to their art may receive judicious and thoughtful mentoring and support to assist them in realising their dreams." The foundation manages a trust fund that awards scholarships to young New Zealand singers and musicians.

Kiri Prize
In January 2010, Te Kanawa and BBC Radio 2 launched an initiative to find a gifted opera singer of the future. The initiative was the BBC Radio 2 Kiri Prize competition.

Following regional auditions of over 600 aspiring opera singers, 40 were invited to attend masterclasses in London with Te Kanawa, mezzo-soprano Anne Howells and conductor Robin Stapleton. From these classes 15 singers were selected for the semi-finals, which were broadcast on 5 consecutive weeks on BBC Radio 2's Friday Night Is Music Night. The semi-finalists were accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Martin Yates, Richard Balcombe and Roderick Dunk and their performances were judged by Te Kanawa, Howells, Stapleton and director John Cox.

Five singers reached the final, which was broadcast on Radio 2 on 3 September 2010. The winner, soprano Shuna Scott Sendall, performed with Te Kanawa and José Carreras at the BBC Proms in the Park in Hyde Park, London on 11 September 2010, and was given the opportunity to attend a three-week residential course at the Solti Te Kanawa Accademia in Italy.

Māori welfare
In a 2003 interview with the Melbourne-based Herald Sun, Te Kanawa criticised the high rate of welfare dependence among the Māori people, angering some of her compatriots.

Operatic pop
Te Kanawa revealed her disapproval of operatic pop singers in The New Zealand Herald's Canvas magazine of 23 February 2008, criticizing Hayley Westenra on the eve of her Starlight Symphony concert in the Auckland Domain. "Have you heard Hayley? She's not in my world. She has never been in it at all. She's one of those singers singing today, very successfully [but] they are all fake singers. They sing with a microphone. They are the new fakes for the new generation coming through. But they can only perform with a microphone and they've, basically, never had any formal training. I've had a 40-year career, but these people . . . two or three years and they're gone."

Her comment was met with backlash from music critics and industry personnels, including producer Gray Bartlett, who discovered Westenra, and Katherine Jenkins via her spokesperson.

Traditional Latin Mass
On July 2, 2024, The Times published a letter to the editor, co-signed by Te Kanawa and numerous other Catholic and non-Catholic public figures, calling upon the Holy See to preserve what they describe as the "magnificent" cultural artifact of the Catholic Church's Traditional Latin Mass.

Litigation
In 2007, the event management company Leading Edge sued Te Kanawa for breach of contract after she cancelled a concert with Australian singer John Farnham. She cancelled after learning that his fans sometimes threw their underwear on stage, which he would then proudly display. The court found that no contract had been made by the two parties, so Te Kanawa was not liable for damages, but Mittane, the company that employs and manages her, was ordered to reimburse Leading Edge A$130,000 for expenditures already incurred.

Honours
Te Kanawa was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to music, in the 1973 Queen's Birthday Honours, and was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to opera, in the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours. Appointed Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1988, she received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, and was appointed to the Order of New Zealand in the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours. In the 1990 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia, for services to the arts, particularly opera, and to the community. In 2005, she received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of Bath. She was portrayed as Saint Cecilia on the stained glass window in St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin, which was unveiled in October 2012.

Appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to music, Dame Kiri was invested by the Prince of Wales at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 20 December.

In November 2019, the ASB Theatre in the Aotea Centre was renamed the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in acknowledgement of the work she has done on the world stage and to mark her 75th birthday. Te Kanawa unveiled a plaque with the change before a gala held in her honour.

Awards
Te Kanawa was selected as Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine in 1982. On 10 June 2008 she received the Edison Classical Music Award during the Edison Classical Music Gala (formerly the Grand Gala du Disque) in the Ridderzaal in The Hague. In 2012, Te Kanawa was awarded a World Class New Zealand award in the Iconic New Zealander category.

In 2006, Te Kanawa was awarded the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Dame Julie Andrews during the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles.

In 2010, she received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

Complete works

 * 1971 – Verdi – Rigoletto – as Countess Ceprano in a studio recording with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge
 * 1972 – Mozart – Exsultate Jubilate – (Exsultate, jubilate, Vesperae solennes de confessore, Kyrie in D minor, Ave verum corpus), Te Kanawa, London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Sir Colin Davis [Philips] (also re-issued 1986)
 * 1972 – Mozart – Don Giovanni – as Donna Elvira in a studio recording with Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra, Colin Davis
 * 1972 – Wagner – Parsifal – as a Flowermaiden in a studio recording with the Vienna Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
 * 1973 – Mozart – Great Mass in C minor – Studio recording with Ileana Cotrubas and the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard
 * 1975 – Bizet – Carmen – as Micaëla in a studio recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Georg Solti
 * 1976 – Mozart – Le nozze di Figaro – Te Kanawa (Contessa Almaviva), Freni (Susanna), Prey (Figaro), Fischer-Dieskau (Conte Almaviva), Ewing (Cherubino), Begg (Marcellina), Montarsolo (Don Bartolo), Wiener Philharmoniker, conductor Karl Böhm [DVD]
 * 1977 – Duruflé – Requiem/"Danse lente" – Te Kanawa, Nimsgern, Ambrosian Singers, Desborough School Choir, Andrew Davis, New Philharmonia Orchestra [CBS Schallplatten GmbH]
 * 1977 – Mozart – Così fan tutte – as Fiordiligi in a studio recording under Alain Lombard. For details, see Così fan tutte (Alain Lombard recording).
 * 1978 – Humperdinck – Hänsel und Gretel – as the Sandman in a studio recording under Sir John Pritchard. For details, see Hänsel und Gretel (John Pritchard recording).
 * 1978 – Mozart – Die Zauberflöte – as Pamina in a studio recording under Alain Lombard
 * 1979 – Brahms – A German Requiem – Variations on a Theme By Haydn – Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Georg Solti, Bernd Weikl, Margaret Hillis [London Records]
 * 1981 – Gay – The Beggar's Opera – as Polly Peachum in a studio recording with National Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Bonynge
 * 1981 – Mozart – Le nozze di Figaro – as Contessa Almaviva in a studio recording with London Philharmonic Orchestra, Georg Solti. For details, see Le nozze di Figaro (Georg Solti recording).
 * 1981 – Puccini – La rondine – as Magda de Civry in a studio recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, Lorin Maazel
 * 1984 – Puccini – Tosca – as Floria Tosca in a studio recording under Georg Solti
 * 1985 – Handel – Messiah – with Anne Gjevang, Keith Lewis, Gwynne Howell, Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Georg Solti [3xLP, Album + Box, London Records]
 * 1985 – Leonard Bernstein – West Side Story – a recording of Bernstein's music for the Broadway production West Side Story, with José Carreras singing the part of Tony and Leonard Bernstein conducting the orchestra and chorus [Polygram 415253]
 * 1986 – Richard Strauss – Arabella – as Arabella in a studio recording with Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra, Jeffrey Tate
 * 1986 – Gounod – Faust – sang the role of Marguerite in a studio recording with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Colin Davis
 * 1986 – Rodgers and Hammerstein – South Pacific – London Studio Cast, Kiri Te Kanawa, Mandy Patinkin, José Carreras and Sarah Vaughan – AUS No. 32
 * 1987 – Puccini – Manon Lescaut – sang the title role in a studio recording with Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Riccardo Chailly
 * 1987 – Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick 'Fritz' Loewe – My Fair Lady – a studio cast recording with Te Kanawa singing the role of Eliza Doolittle and Jeremy Irons singing the role of Henry Higgins [Polygram 421200]
 * 1987 – Beethoven – Symphonie No.9 – Te Kanawa, Hamari, Burrows, Holl, London Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Eugen Jochum [EMI]
 * 1988 – Mozart – Così fan tutte – recorded the role of Fiordiligi again this time with Vienna State Opera, James Levine
 * 1988 – Bach – St Matthew Passion – Te Kanawa, von Otter, Rolfe Johnson, Krause, Blochwitz, Bär, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti [Box, Album + 3xCD, Decca]
 * 1988 – Fauré – Requiem · Pelléas Et Mélisande · Pavane – Te Kanawa, Milnes, Choeur De L'Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal, Orchestre Symphonique De Montréal, Charles Dutoit [Decca]
 * 1989 – Verdi – Simon Boccanegra – in the role of Amelia Grimaldi in a studio recording with La Scala, Milan, Georg Solti
 * 1989 – Mozart – Die Zauberflöte – recorded the role of Pamina again this time with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
 * 1990 – Johann Strauss II – Die Fledermaus – sang the part of Rosalinde with Vienna State Opera, André Previn
 * 1990 – Mozart – Le nozze di Figaro – re-recorded the role of Contessa Almaviva in a studio recording with the Metropolitan Opera, James Levine
 * 1990 – Richard Strauss – Der Rosenkavalier – sang the role of the Marschallin with the Semperoper Dresden under Bernard Haitink
 * 1990 – Mozart – Der Schauspieldirector – sang the role of Mademoiselle Silberklang with the Vienna Philharmonic under John Pritchard
 * 1992 – Tchaikovsky – Eugene Onegin – sang the role of Tatyana in a studio recording with Welsh National Opera under Charles Mackerras
 * 1992 – Verdi – La traviata – sang the role of Violetta in a studio recording with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Zubin Mehta
 * 1992 – Mahler – Symphony No. 4 – Kiri Te Kanawa, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti [Decca]
 * 1993 – Wagner – Tannhäuser – sang the role of Elisabeth in a studio recording with the London Philharmonia Orchestra and the Ambrosian Singers, Marek Janowski
 * 1994 – Mozart – Great Mass in C minor – (chorus master: László Heltay) [Philips]
 * 1994 – Puccini – La bohème – recorded the role of Mimì in a studio recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano
 * 1996 – Richard Strauss – Capriccio – recorded the role of the Countess in a studio recording with Wiener Philharmoniker, Ulf Schirmer, Decca/London
 * 1998 – Bizet – Carmen – Highlights – Troyanos, Domingo, Te Kanawa, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Georg Solti [Decca]

Solo recitals, compilations, etc.

 * 1973 – My Favourite Things [Hallmark, SHM 3218]
 * 1974 – Herrmann – Salammbo's Aria from Citizen Kane – The Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann – Kiri Te Kanawa, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Gerhardt [RCA Victor, BMG Classics]
 * 1979 – Richard Strauss – Four Last Songs – London Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Davis [CBS Masterworks]
 * 1981 – Mozart Concert Arias – Kiri Te Kanawa, Wiener Kammerorchester, Gyorgy Fischer [London/Decca Jubilee 417756]
 * 1983 – Canteloube – Chants d'Auvergne (Songs of The Auvergne) / Villa-Lobos – Bachianas Brasileiras [Polygram SXDL 7604]
 * 1983 – Mozart Opera Arias – London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis [Philips], [Polygram 5414319]
 * 1983 – Verdi & Puccini – London Philharmonic Orchestra, John Pritchard [CBS 37298]
 * 1983 – The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala – Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine [Deutsche Grammophon DVD 00440 073 4538]
 * 1984 – Come to the Fair – Folk Songs & Ballads – with the Medici String Quartet and members of the National Philharmonic Orchestra, Douglas Gamley [EMI EMC 222]
 * 1984 – Ave Maria – a collection of religious favorites with the English Chamber Orchestra and the Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, London [Philips 412629]
 * 1984 – A Portrait of Kiri Te Kanawa [CBS SBR 236068]
 * 1985 – A Room with a View (OST) – the Puccini arias "O mio babbino caro" (Gianni Schicchi) and "Chi bel sogno di Doretta" (La Rondine) in the Merchant Ivory film A Room with a View [DRG CDSBL 12588]
 * 1986 – Kiri – Blue Skies – with Nelson Riddle And His Orchestra [Polygram/Decca 414 666–1 ] – AUS No. 36
 * 1986 – Christmas with Kiri (with Philharmonia Orchestra of London and Chorus, Carl Davis) London Classic / Polygram
 * 1987 – Kiri Sings Gershwin, a collection of George Gershwin songs with the New Princess Theater Orchestra, John McGlinn [EMI] – AUS No. 37
 * 1987 – Portrait [Polygram 417645]
 * 1989 – Songs of Inspiration – Kiri Te Kanawa, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Julius Rudel [London/Decca/Polygram 425431]
 * 1990 – Kiri in Recital – Liszt, Obradors, Ravel – Kiri Te Kanawa, with Roger Vignoles (Piano) [London/Decca 425820 ]
 * 1990 – Italian Opera Arias – with London Symphony Orchestra, Myung-Whun Chung
 * 1991 – Richard Strauss – Four Last Songs and other songs – with Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic
 * 1991 – The Kiri Selection
 * 1991 – Kiri Sings Kern
 * 1991 – World in Union (Single, 7") – (Rugby Union World Cup Theme Song) [Columbia]
 * 1992 – Paul McCartney and Carl Davis – Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio (Movement VII: "Crises")
 * 1992 – Kiri Sidetracks: The Jazz Album
 * 1993 – Mozart Arias (Grand Voci) [Decca]
 * 1993 – Classics – Mozart, Handel, Gounod, Schubet, Strauss [Philips 434725]
 * 1994 – Heart to Heart (with Malcolm McNeill)
 * 1994 – The Sorceress – arias from Handel operas with Hogwood and The Academy of Ancient Music
 * 1994 – Kiri!: Her Greatest Hits Live [Decca 443600]
 * 1994 – Kiri Sings Porter – Cole Porter songs [Angel]
 * 1995 – Christmas with Kiri Te Kanawa: Carols from Coventry Cathedral – Kiri Te Kanawa, Michael George, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Robin Stapleton [Teldec]
 * 1996 – Franz Schubert – Lieder – Judith Raskin, Kiri Te Kanawa, Elly Ameling, Peter Pears, Judith Blegen [Sony Classical]
 * 1996 – James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala, [Deutsche Grammophon DVD, B0004602-09]
 * 1997 – French Songs and Arias
 * 1997 – Sole et amore – Puccini Arias – Te Kanawa, Vignoles, Orchestre de L'Opera National de Lyon, Kent Nagano [Erato]
 * 1998 – The Greatest Classical Stars on Earth – Plácido Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa, Luciano Pavarotti, Lesley Garrett, Nigel Kennedy (2CD, Compilation) [Decca]
 * 1999 – Maori Songs (Air New Zealand) [EMI Classics 5 56828-2]
 * 1999 – Greatest Hits [EMI Classics]
 * 2001 – Kiri (also known as Kiri – The Best Of)
 * 2003 – The Very Best Of
 * 2004 – Kiri – A Portrait
 * 2004 – Dame Kiri Te Kanawa & Friends: The Gala Concert – Gold
 * 2005 – The Best of Kiri Te Kanawa [20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection]
 * 2006 – Kiri Sings Karl: Songs of Mystery & Enchantment – arranged and conducted by Karl Jenkins [EMI Classics]
 * 2013 – Waiata Sony Music Entertainment

title: Kiri Te Kanawa


text:
Conversano

Conversano (Barese: Cunverséne) is an ancient town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, south-eastern Italy. It is 30 km southeast of Bari and 7 km from the Adriatic coast, at 219 m above sea level.

The counts of Conversano owned a stud that they used to breed black Neapolitan stallions with Barb and Andalusian genetic backgrounds: these horses had strong ram-like heads, short backs, and broad hocks. One horse born in 1767, Conversano, became one of the principal stallions for establishing the Lipizzan horses (Lipizzaner).

History
The town of Conversano was settled as early as the Iron Age, when the Iapygians or the Peucetians founded Norba. Later, as evidenced by the 6th-century BC necropolis, it became a flourishing trade town that was influenced by the nearby Greek colonies. Norba was conquered by the Romans in 268 BC and seems to have been abandoned around the time of the Visigothic invasion of Italy in 410–411.

The toponym, Casale Cupersanem, is known from the 5th century AD and was a bishopric seat from the 7th century. This new town gained importance when, in 1054, the Norman lord Geoffrey, assumed the title of "Count of Conversano" and turned Conversano into the capital of a large county that extended to Lecce and Nardò. After the count's death in 1101, the county was inherited by his sons Robert and Alexander. In 1132, defeated by Roger II of Sicily, Alexander fled to Dalmatia, and the county was assigned to Robert I of Basseville, who was succeeded by his son Robert II. After a period of royal sovereignty, Conversano was a possession of Bernardino Gentile and of the Brienne, the Enghien, Luxembourg, Sanseverino, Barbiano, Orsini, Caldora and Orsini del Balzo families. In 1455, Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini died; the county was inherited by his daughter Catherine, whose husband, Giulio Antonio Acquaviva, started the long rule of the Acquaviva family, which lasted until the early 19th century.

In 1690 the town was struck by plague and decimated. Feudalism was abolished in 1806.

In 1921, a local socialist deputy, Giuseppe Di Vagno, was assassinated in Mola di Bari by Fascist militia.

Counts of Conversano
This list may not be complete.

Main sights
Conversano's main attraction is the medieval Castle, which dates from the period of Norman-Hohenstaufen rule in the Kingdom of Sicily. The castle is located on a hill overlooking the city, and probably dates from the Gothic Wars (6th century), although it was rebuilt from the 11th century. It has a single round tower that was added by Giulio Antonio Acquaviva.

The Romanesque cathedral is the see of the diocese of Conversano-Monopoli. It was built in the 11th century but received new decor in the 14th and, in Baroque style, in the 17th centuries. The exterior is in Romanesque style with a large 15th-century rose window and three portals, the middle one having sculpted decoration. The floor plan is T-shaped with two eastbound apses; the aisles are characterized by matronea and, in the left one, a 15th-century fresco from the Pisan school. The church houses the icon of the Madonna della Fonte, protector of the city.

The Benedictine Monastery, founded, according to tradition, in the 6th century, was once one of the most powerful in Apulia. In 1266, the Benedictines were replaced by a group of Cistercian nuns from Greece. It was the only convent in western Europe that allowed nuns to wear male religious symbols, such as the mitre. The church has maintained part of the 11th-century structure, while the decorated side entrance is from 1658. The interior has a nave and two aisles, with Baroque decor, and two canvasses by Paolo Finoglio. The crypt, dedicated to San Mauro, is from the 11th century. The bell tower rises higher than that of the cathedral, to symbolize the superior status of the nuns over the local bishop.

Other landmarks include the megalithic walls (6th century BC) erected by the Pelasgi, the Baroque church of SS. Cosma e Damiano, the church of St. Francis (1289), and, 1 km outside the city, the church of St. Catherine (c. 12th century). In the neighborhood are the church of Santa Maria dell'Isola (1462, enlarged in 1530), the Castle of Marchione (an 18th-century country residence of the Acquaviva), and the ruins of Castiglione (13th-16th centuries).

Sport
The local handball team won the national league in the 2002–03 2003–04 2005–06 2009–10 seasons.

Twin towns

 * 🇮🇹 Cascia, Italy, since 1998
 * 🇮🇹 Nardò, Italy, since 2008
 * 🇮🇹 Fratta Polesine, Italy, since 2008
 * 🇮🇹 Trecenta, Italy, since 2008
 * 🇮🇹 Recanati, Italy, since 2008
 * Bethlehem, Palestinian Authority, since 13 August 2009

title: Conversano


text:
Main-Spessart

Main-Spessart is a Landkreis (district) in the northwest of Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Lower Franconia and derives its name from the river Main and the wooded hills of the Spessart.

Geography
The district is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Bad Kissingen, Schweinfurt and Würzburg, the state of Baden-Württemberg (district of Main-Tauber), the districts of Miltenberg and Aschaffenburg, and the state of Hesse (district of Main-Kinzig).

The river Main forms a large horse-shoe bend in the district, entering in the southeast near Thüngersheim and leaving to the southwest near Hasloch. In the north it is joined by the Franconian Saale river at Gemünden. The Spessart hills cover most of the area of the district west and north of the Main. To the northeast, the district borders on the Rhön hills.

History
The district was established in 1972 by merging the former districts of Gemünden, Karlstadt, Lohr and Marktheidenfeld. Although Lohr is the largest town, the seat of the administration is located in Karlstadt.

Politics

 * Main-Spessart (electoral district)

Economy
In 2017 (latest data available) the GDP per inhabitant was €36,264. This places the district 44th out of 96 districts (rural and urban) in Bavaria (overall average: €46,698).

Coat of arms
The coat of arms displays:
 * a wheel symbolising the clerical state of Mainz
 * the arms of the bishopric of Würzburg
 * an oak leaf representing the forests of the area
 * a bunch of grapes symbolising viticulture
 * a wavy line representing the river Main

title: Main-Spessart


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The ClueFinders

The ClueFinders is an educational software series aimed at children aged 8–12 that features a group of mystery-solving teenagers. The series was created by The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) as a counterpart to their Reader Rabbit series for older, elementary-aged students. The series has received praise for its balance of education and entertainment, resulting in numerous awards.

The Learning Company (1997–2001)
The ClueFinders was conceived as a spiritual successor to the Reader Rabbit series. The first ClueFinders title, The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: The Mystery of Mathra, was released in 1997, and The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures was released in 1998. The Learning Company used their new game as the prototype for Internet Applet technology, which allowed users to download supplementary activities from the ClueFinders website. The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures was also the first game to include the A.D.A.P.T. technology, which allowed teachers and parents to monitor the player's progress and included auto-adjustable levels based on the player's abilities.

In 1997, The Learning Company was acquired by Mattel for $3.7 billion. The following year, Mattel sold off their "The Learning Company" assets to Gores Technology Group. In 2000, Mattel Interactive hired professional writers Jill Gorey and Barbara Herndon to design a concept for a TV series, but the franchise never made its way to television. The ClueFinders Reading Adventures was discontinued in 2000. ClueFinders held a writing competition in 2001. Sponsored by The Learning Company, the competition was open to 3rd-6th grade classrooms in the United States. The winning essay, a new adventure for the ClueFinders crew, won its writer an iMac.

Riverdeep/HMH (2001–2021)
In 2001, Riverdeep acquired many of The Learning Company's properties from Gores Technology Group by selling $40 million in stock. Carmen Sandiego, ClueFinders, and Reader Rabbit were then licensed to the KidsEdge Website in 2002, where they were available to play among 170 games and activities. In 2003, The ClueFinders' Reading Adventures was reconfigured to run on Windows XP. The 2004 RCN InterACTION service allowed parents to stream over 35 games in series such as Carmen Sandiego, Clifford the Big Red Dog and ClueFinders over a broadband connection. Compilations of multiple previously released titles were added, such as ClueFinders Adventure Pack and ClueFinders Triple Pack. These bundle often include a single ClueFinders title (often "The ClueFinders Reading Adventures") along with other games (but mostly The Learning Company games), such as "Adventure Workshop" or "After School Clubhouse". In addition, the 3rd–6th grade titles were re-released on the iOS platform on December 19, 2010. As of 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (the successor of Riverdeep) was offering the ClueFinders brand as a licensing opportunity on its website.

HarperCollins (2021–present)
In 2021, HarperCollins Publishers, a subsidiary of News Corp, purchased Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s books and media division, including all the rights to their video game intellectual properties.

Plot
Development of the games' backstory took 16 months. The ClueFinders adventures take place in the real contemporary world, incorporating some elements of fantasy and science fiction.

The main cast of characters include: They were chosen to be around the same age as their player base after the art director ran various character designs by a group of kids. Some of the unsuccessful designs included animals, rock stars, and FBI agents, which the kids perceived as babysitters instead of teammates. Each character was designed with a distinct personality and identifiable faults to increase their relatability. The developers used a character grid to aid their writing, which contained information such as "their flaws, their fears, how they met, where they grew up, and their likely reactions to certain situations".
 * Joni Savage (Josie Savage in UK version): ClueFinders founder. Her catchphrase is "Wow" whenever something incredible happens.
 * Santiago Rivera (Sebastian Robertson in UK version), a Spanish-American mechanically-minded member
 * Owen Lam, an Asian-American skater dude member
 * Leslie Clark (Lucy Clark in UK version), an African-American literary-minded member
 * LapTrap, The Turbo T.U.R.T.L.E.: A floating artificially intelligent laptop. During "The Incredible Toy Store Adventure" Laptrap is joined by a second spherical Turbo T.U.R.T.L.E. called AliTrap. The gameplay has him acting as the pause menu.
 * Socrates, an intelligent dog who acts as the narrator and mascot. He only appears in the first two games.

In The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: The Mystery of Mathra, a great city was built 1000 years ago in the fictional Numerian rainforest in South America until a dragonlike monster named Mathra invaded. After Mathra was captured, the Numerians abandoned their city, sealed the entrance, and hid the two halves of the key in the far corners of the rainforest. One part was hidden in the Monkey Kingdom and the latter in the Goo Lagoon. Animals had started to disappear in the rainforest once again and Joni's uncle, Dr. Pythagoras, also disappeared. Mr. Limburger (Lindman in the UK version) flies the ClueFinders in his airplane and briefs them on the events going on. The ClueFinders set off to find the lost doctor, animals, and the keys to the Lost Numerian City. However, the evidence suggests that there is more to the disappearances than a 1000-year-old monster as well as a sinister plot behind it.

In The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures: Puzzle of the Pyramid, the ClueFinders are on an adventure in Egypt with Professor Botch, Alistair Loveless, and their dog, Socrates. There, at a dig site, they uncover the tomb of Peribsen, a king from the second dynasty. Joni finds a mysterious ring and tries it on her finger, but it magically latches onto her finger. Later that night, Alistair Loveless and his goons kidnap Professor Botch and steal several valuable relics. Loveless intends to unleash Set, the Egyptian God of Evil and Chaos. The ClueFinders are left to recover the relics, rescue Professor Botch, and prevent Loveless and Set from wreaking havoc.

In The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures: Secret of the Living Volcano, the ClueFinders are on a mission with Captain Clark, Leslie's sailor grandfather, to find out why so many ships have been disappearing in a certain area of the Pacific Ocean. In one of the wrecked ships, Joni and Santiago discover a pair of metal plaques with strange symbols written on them called CrypTiles. However, when their ship comes into view of a tiny uncharted island, a tsunami promptly forms and hits their ship. Joni, Santiago and LapTrap are stranded on the island and set off to rescue their remaining team members, locate Captain Clark and his crew, and find out what sort of activities are happening on the island.

In The ClueFinders 6th Grade Adventures: The Empire of the Plant People, while playing a game of frisbee, Joni accidentally tosses the disc over the fence into the overgrown yard of their friendly neighbours, Miss Rose. When Joni and Santiago enter Miss Rose's yard to find the frisbee, the ground opens up and swallows them. Owen, Leslie, and LapTrap investigate to look for their lost team members and find a labyrinth under the yard inhabited by self-aware, anthropomorphic talking plants. They learn from a friendly plant named Ficus that the plants have captured Joni and Santiago and are concocting a plan to attack the town above.

In The ClueFinders Math Adventures Ages 9–12: Mystery in the Himalayas, in a village high in the Himalayas, twenty-four priceless treasures have been stolen. An elder of the village calls the ClueFinders to help uncover the treasures and the thief's identity. Many, including the elder's pessimistic apprentice, believe the Yeti is behind the theft, but the clues all point in different directions and it appears a different person is responsible for the theft of each item.

In The ClueFinders Reading Adventures: Mystery of the Missing Amulet, an asteroid has crashed in the Sierra Mountains. The ClueFinders approach the asteroid, discovering it is significantly cool despite its recent crash. Joni touches it, and the ClueFinders get beamed across space, arriving on the planet Millenia. The team is separated into two parts of the Millenia. Joni and Owen then meet Malveera, the princess of Millenia who brought them to help save her planet from the evil sorceress Malicia, who has also captured Santiago and Leslie. The only way to stop her and return to Earth is to locate the two halves of the Amulet of Life hidden by the Doldreks and the Sorrens.

In ClueFinders Search and Solve Adventures: The Phantom Amusement Park, one night, when the ClueFinders are observing a lunar eclipse from their clubhouse, they see an SOS signal coming from an abandoned amusement park on the edge of town. They find Jacques Ramone, the curator of the local art museum, is trapped at the top of the drop-tower ride. He tells them that he was kidnapped and placed there, but says he doesn't know why. After Joni and Owen rescue the curator, Santiago and Leslie are captured by the curator's sister, Mimi Ramone. Joni and Owen investigate the park and find some art supplies and damaged robots, indicating that some art forgery crime was taking place.

In The ClueFinders: The Incredible Toy Store Adventure, the ClueFinders are heading on a San Francisco cable car to the recently built toy store, Ultimate Toys. Owen goes to retrieve his wallet, along with Joni and LapTrap, while Leslie, Santiago, and AliTrap head into the store, only to be shot by a shrinking ray and captured into a sack. Once they escape from the sack, they realize they've been taken to the sixth floor. Using Owen's red video phone, they contact Leslie and Santiago and inform them of their plight, prompting Leslie and Santiago to try to rescue them. To do this Owen, Joni and LapTrap need to make their way into the toy store and construct a machine to reverse the shrinking effects while nabbing the perpetrator responsible for the shrinking them. While investigating, The Cluefinders discover that employee Pericles Lear has stolen a prototype shrink ray device and has started shrinking various landmarks around town.

In The ClueFinders: Mystery Mansion Arcade, the ClueFinders explore a creepy house on a hill, thinking that Joni's uncle Dr. Horace Pythagoras sent a distress email that he was trapped in the house and needed rescue. It turns out to be a trap, and the four ClueFinders are separated. Four of the ClueFinders' previous enemies—Fletcher Limburger, Alistair Loveless, Pericles Lear, and Miss Rose—have joined forces with a mysterious new ally and created the trap to get revenge on the ClueFinders.

Gameplay
The series consists of "multi-subject by grade" programs, in which players practice skills and advance their understanding of grade-based content. The player can choose to play the adventure mode or to play the game's activities outside the adventure in "practice mode". Choosing to play the adventure will lead to a follow-up sequence, which further establishes the premise as well as the overall goal of the game. The bulk of each game involves traveling between different screens in a predetermined area that has various educational activities. The user will have to play these games to advance. Usually, each area will have one activity that needs to be completed to advance, but which can only be played by collecting items from all the other activities in the area.

In all of the games except for The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures, the ClueFinders are split into two teams at the start. A portable red videophone allows the two teams to make contact with each other and clicking on the phone provides the user with game hints from the other team. The other team will typically either be serving as backup, looking for clues or else be captured and in need of rescue. Games have different activities divided among different areas, each with their skill and goal. The games contain a number of parodies of and allusions to popular culture and other topics.

In The ClueFinders: Mystery Mansion Arcade, the activities are not as educationally based as the previous games but more arcade-oriented. The mini-games consist of an obstacle course, category matching, a maze game, and a pinball game. In The ClueFinders Math Adventures, the game is set up similar to Clue in that the central goal of each round is to identify three variables—who stole the treasure, which treasure they took, and where they hid it—based on clues. Clues are acquired from playing games and helping the villagers with their work. Using the acquired clues, the player can limit the number of possibilities until, with enough clues, only one remains. When 24 treasures are restored, the game is won.

Graphics and coding
During the gameplay, 2D computer graphics are used in the style of hand-drawn animated cartoons with animations that use thick outlines and solid colors on two-dimensional backgrounds. For this reason, the series is often  described as imitating the look of a Saturday morning cartoon, Scooby-Doo being repeatedly cited by reviewers. Cutscenes, however, use pre-rendered 3D graphics.

Educational goals
While Reader Rabbit was popular with younger audiences, The Learning Company came up with ClueFinders to appeal to third graders and onward for both boys and girls. To match with kids' abstract thinking, the games were activity-centered and included cross-curriculum topics more sophisticated than preschool material, which included algebra, grammar, and spelling. To ensure that users actually learned something, the educational content came first before the puzzles, gameplay, and objectives.

Books
Two ClueFinders books - The Mystery of Microsneezia and The Mystery of the Backlot Banshee - were both written by Ellen Weiss and illustrated by Mel Friedman.

Reception
3rd Grade won the 1997 Gold Award from Parents' Choice. During the Opening Day of the Bologna Children's Book Fair on April 8, 1999, the game was awarded the Bologna New Media Prize for the Best Logical Thinking Program.

Computer Shopper and SuperKids described 3rd Grade Adventures as the educational equivalent of the Indiana Jones trilogy. Kiplinger's Personal Finance thought 4th Grade Adventures "works hard for its players' enjoyment". Discovery Education wrote that 5th Grade Adventures "seamlessly combines fun and learning". SuperKids praised the "cartoon quality animation and an alluring storyline" of Math Adventures and the Cluedo-inspired gameplay. 01Net asserted that in terms of 5th Grade Adventures, the activities take precedence over the merely incidental storyline. In 2001, the site described the series' graphics as "very colorful" and "truly seductive" but three years later the site decided they were outdated. Asbury Park Press noted that Reading Adventures, like Carmen Sandiego Word Detective, "placed reading games in the middle of mysteries".

Exploring Values Through Literature, Multimedia, and Literacy Events highlighted the series for its multicultural and balanced cast in which the nonwhite characters have equal status to the white character, noting that Leslie and Santiago are the main sources of knowledge, but also noted that there were no examples of software with the primary character being non-white. Meanwhile, The Boston Herald commented that the series had "come a long way"; the paper suggested that the decision to include a Caucasian (Joni), Asian (Owen), Black (Leslie), and Latino (Santiago) in its main cast smelt of interference from the California School Board standard. The paper praised the series' "television-quality animation, broad educational focus and lively situations", though thought the early games were uneven in difficulty. Exploring Values Through Literature, Multimedia, and Literacy Events further praised the series' focus on character interdependence, or how missions are not successful until and unless they work together. Children's Software Review managing editor Ellen Wolock criticized The Learning Company for focusing too much of its resources on repackaging its old software, commenting that she received the impression the company was "just throwing together" entries in its newer ClueFinders series. Working Mother thought the series offered a "painless way for kids to hone their skills". The Cincinnati Enquirer recommended the "strong" series to gamers who were unable to locate the then soon to be discontinued title The Sims: Livin' Large, and said "there is a lot to like" about entries in the series, such as the closed captioning of later titles.

One piece of research used the game as a "tool for assessing how children worked on computers in social interactions and influence acceptance by peers in classroom interactions". The Times Shepperton felt 4th Grade did a "nice job of integrating the learning activities into an engaging adventure". Battle Creek Enquirer and The Tennessean felt 4th Grade's strong sense of mystery encouraged players to learn academia. Arizona Republic felt Search and Solve would intrigue children due to having the right mix of "scariness and intrigue".

4th Grade received positive reviews. All Game Guide gave the game four out five stars, writing that "the cut-scenes successfully build excitement, providing an incentive for completing the entire game [though there is no] real reason to play a second time... Gameplay is simple with an easy to use click or click-and-drag mouse control scheme, and the lack of a written manual is overcome with full explanations of all activities within the game...The game seems a delightful mix of adventure and learning". Game Vortex rated the game 80/100, saying that "Clue Finders 4th Grade Adventure: Puzzle of the Pyramid is a typical edutainment game that teaches your child the ins and outs of what he or she needs to know to make it through the fourth grade". 7Wolf Magazine rated the game 70/100.

Reading Adventures gave mixed reviews. Although they said that teacher reviewers were especially impressed with the reading comprehension section", they felt that "too many of the [activities] require fast-twitch gaming ability in addition to knowledge of the subject matter". Of the kids appeal, the review stated that "the activities themselves, however, are inconsistent. While some are novel and quite educational...others are tired repeats of games seen many times over in many other programs". It concluded by saying that "this likable Clue Finders adventure provides an entertaining way for kids to practice their reading and language skills. Students who need significant help with their reading skills would do better with a more academically oriented title, and those who are not adept gamers may become frustrated with some of the activities".

Commercial performance
As of 2001, the first six games have sold around 3.5 million copies.

Awards and nominations
Since its creation in 1997, the ClueFinders series has won over 50 awards and accolades in three years. The Incredible Toy Store was an Edutaining Kids General Learning software pick of 2001.

title: The ClueFinders