text:
Jagged Edge (American group)

Jagged Edge is an American R&B group from Atlanta, Georgia. The group, initially signed to record producer Jermaine Dupri's So So Def Recordings, is best known for their string of hit singles including "Let's Get Married" and "Where the Party At" (featuring Nelly), most of which were produced by Dupri. The group's members include identical twin lead singers Brian and Brandon Casey as well as Richard Wingo and Kyle Norman. The group's debut album, A Jagged Era (1997), performed modestly at the time of its release but achieved gold status; however, their subsequent albums until 2007 all became commercial successes—debuting within the top 10 of the Billboard 200.

Wingo was a late addition to the group, added after a recommendation from Kandi Burruss of Xscape. Burruss was also the one who brought the group to the attention of Dupri, who signed them to his Columbia Records distributed imprint, So So Def Recordings. The name Jagged Edge is derived from the song "Snakes" by rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard's debut album Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, more specifically, the beginning of RZA's verse, which states, "Jagged Edge, Rockhead God, hard as Stonehenge..."

1997–2000: A Jagged Era and J.E. Heartbreak
Jagged Edge began their mainstream recording career with the single "The Way That You Talk". They followed this in 1997 with the album, A Jagged Era which went gold, featuring the singles "I Gotta Be" and "The Way That You Talk". "I Gotta Be" which was written by the twins, reached number 11 on the R&B charts and number 23 on the Hot 100.

Following up on their debut album, Jagged Edge released J.E. Heartbreak in 1999. The album was the group's breakthrough album with several popular singles. The album went double platinum and had the hit single "Let's Get Married" which topped the R&B charts and reached number 11 on the Hot 100. The album's second single, "He Can't Love U" (released September 28, 1999) had similar success, reaching number 3 on the R&B charts and number 15 on the Hot 100. It also featured the track "Promise", which reached number 1 on the R&B charts and number 9 on the Hot 100.

2001–2003: Jagged Little Thrill and Hard
The group's third release, Jagged Little Thrill, was released in 2001 and went platinum. Its success was in large part, due to the up-tempo "Where the Party At" which reached number 1 on the R&B charts and number 3 on the Hot 100, the group's highest-charting single.

Jagged Edge's fourth album, Hard, was released in 2003 and went gold. The album's single "Walked Outta Heaven" performed well on the charts, reaching number 6 on the Hot 100 and number 2 on the R&B charts.

2006–2011: Jagged Edge, Baby Makin' Project and The Remedy
Jagged Edge's fifth album, Jagged Edge, was released on May 9, 2006, by Columbia/Sony Music Urban and it went gold. It featured the hit urban single "Good Luck Charm". Also released on November 21, 2006, was The Hits collection featuring Jagged Edge's biggest hits plus a few album tracks. The album shared the single "Stunnas" that's also on the Jagged Edge album as a bonus track.

Jagged Edge parted ways with Columbia Records shortly after the release of their self-titled fifth album and signed back with Dupri. Dupri re-signed the group to So So Def through Island Def Jam, which handles the distribution for So So Def, and where Dupri was president of the urban division. The group was also granted their own record label called 581 Muzik Groupe which was credited on their album, Baby Makin' Project.

The only single released off Baby Makin' Project was "Put a Little Umph in it" featuring Ashanti. It reached number 49 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. The group recorded so much material for the project that they have saved eight of the tracks for another album, a release date for which has not been announced.

Jagged Edge signed to Slip-N-Slide Records in May 2009. The album titled "The Remedy" was released on June 21, 2011. The project had one collaboration with Rick Ross. The first warm-up single from "The Remedy" is "Tip of My Tongue" featuring Slip 'N Slide Records' labelmate Trina and Gucci Mane. A second warm-up single, "Lay You Down", was released before the "official" single titled "Baby".

2014–present: J.E. Heartbreak II and Layover
The group released their eighth studio album titled J.E. Heartbreak 2 on October 27, 2014. On May 15, released their first single titled "Hope." The song was co-written by brothers Brian and Brandon Casey.

In November 2016, they released a new greatest hits album, featuring re-recorded versions of their biggest hit singles.

In 2017, they recorded an episode of TV One's Unsung series, which premiered on July 9. They also announced the release of their ninth studio album Layover set for release on the same day. However, it was delayed and finally released a day later.

In late 2018, they announced a new single "He Ain't Sh*t" featuring Ty Dolla Sign.

In 2019, the group released the single "Closest Thing to Perfect" and announced they are working on their 10th album. On June 12, the group announced on their official Instagram that their 10th studio album A Jagged Love Story will be releasing on July 15, 2019.

The album, A Jagged Love Story, was released July 30, 2020.

Members

 * Current
 * Brian Casey (1995–present)
 * Brandon Casey (1995–present)
 * Richard Wingo (1995–present)
 * Kyle Norman (1995–present)

Discography

 * Studio albums
 * A Jagged Era (1997)
 * J.E. Heartbreak (1999)
 * Jagged Little Thrill (2001)
 * Hard (2003)
 * Jagged Edge (2006)
 * Baby Makin' Project (2007)
 * The Remedy (2011)
 * J.E. Heartbreak 2 (2014)
 * Layover (2017)
 * A Jagged Love Story (2020)

Awards and nominations

 * American Music Award

 * 2001
 * Jagged Edge
 * Favorite Soul/R&B Band/Duo/Group
 * Nominated
 * 2002
 * Jagged Edge
 * Favorite Soul/R&B Band/Duo/Group
 * Nominated
 * 2006
 * Jagged Edge
 * Favorite Soul/R&B Band/Duo/Group
 * Nominated
 * }
 * Favorite Soul/R&B Band/Duo/Group
 * Nominated
 * }

 * BET Awards

 * 2001
 * Jagged Edge
 * Best Group
 * Nominated
 * 2002
 * Jagged Edge
 * Best Group
 * Nominated
 * 2003
 * Jagged Edge
 * Best Group
 * Nominated
 * }
 * Best Group
 * Nominated
 * }

 * Grammy Award

 * 2002
 * "Where the Party At" (featuring Nelly)
 * Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
 * Nominated
 * }
 * }

 * Soul Train Music Awards

 * rowspan="2" | 2001
 * "Let's Get Married"
 * Best R&B/Soul Single, Group, Band or Duo
 * Won
 * J.E. Heartbreak
 * Best R&B/Soul Album, Group Band or Duo
 * Won
 * rowspan="2" | 2002
 * "Where the Party At" (featuring Nelly)
 * Best R&B/Soul Single, Group, Band or Duo
 * Nominated
 * Jagged Little Thrill
 * Best R&B/Soul Album, Group Band or Duo
 * Nominated
 * 2004
 * "Walked Outta Heaven"
 * Best R&B/Soul Single, Group, Band or Duo
 * Nominated
 * rowspan="2" | 2007
 * "Good Luck Charm"
 * Best R&B/Soul Single, Group, Band or Duo
 * Nominated
 * Jagged Edge
 * Best R&B/Soul Album, Group Band or Duo
 * Nominated
 * }
 * Best R&B/Soul Single, Group, Band or Duo
 * Nominated
 * Jagged Edge
 * Best R&B/Soul Album, Group Band or Duo
 * Nominated
 * }
 * }

title: Jagged Edge (American group)


text:
Ricky Hui

Richard Hui Koon-ying (3 August 1946 – 8 November 2011) was a Hong Kong actor and singer. He along with his brothers, Michael and Sam, made several comedy blockbusters in the 1970s and 1980s.

Biography
Ricky Hui Koon-ying was born 3 August 1946 in Panyu, Guangdong, China. He had four siblings, Samuel, Michael, Stanley and Judy. The Hui family migrated from mainland China to Hong Kong in 1950 and settled in the then poor area of Diamond Hill. His father worked hard and undertook any work available to be able to support his family. In the Hui family Arts played a very significant role. Ricky's father played the violin and his mother loved Cantonese opera.

Films
Ricky worked as a correspondent for the French Press Agency in Hong Kong. He also frequently appeared in Shaw Brothers films between 1972 and 1976, such as The Lizard (1972), The 14 Amazons (1972), The Sugar Daddies (1973), The Generation Gap (1973), Rivals of Kung Fu (1974), Hong Kong 73 (1974) etc. For him the big break came when he joined his brothers on screen.

Hui's first major role was in Games Gamblers Play (1974) as a card player followed by The Last Message (1975) with a short appearance as a waiter. Ricky had a larger role in The Private Eyes (1976) and with that film a new era of the Hong Kong Cinema started. The Hui brothers' comedy films were an influential part of Hong Kong cinema. Their films were packed with visual gags and unique Cantonese humor. Although Ricky had only a small role in The Private Eyes, it remained one of the all time favorites among fans. According to Michael Hui, Ricky had only brief appearance in this film because at that time he had a contract with the Shaw Brothers. Reportedly, his contract with the Shaw Brothers ended around 1976, because the last Shaw Brothers film he appeared in was Challenge of the Masters that year. The following year found Ricky at Golden Harvest with a leading role in John Woo's Money Crazy as well as From Riches to Rags. In 1979 Games Gamblers Play was released in the Japanese market. For this edition Michael shot a new scene, a fight between Ricky and Sam on the beach, and replaced the original Sammo Hung vs Sam Hui fight with it. The next Hui brothers production where Ricky teamed up with his brothers again was The Contract in 1978, followed by Security Unlimited (1981), one of the most successful films featuring the Hui brothers; Security Unlimited was full of gags and included the Huis' trademark Cantonese humor. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Ricky played leading roles in John Woo films like From Riches To Rags (1979), To Hell with the Devil (1982) or Plain Jane To The Rescue (1982).

Michael became a producer in 1987 and Ricky appeared in his films: Chicken and Duck Talk (1988), Front Page (1990), The Magic Touch (1992). In 1985 Sammo Hung produced one of the biggest cult films Mr. Vampire where Ricky Hui played Man Choi, a memorable role on the side of the unforgettable (Lam Ching-ying).

Ricky was most active in his film career in the 1970s and 1980s. In the late 1990s he appeared in only one film, in First Love Unlimited (1997). He later rejoined his brother Sam in Winner Takes All (2000). The last films Ricky Hui appeared in were Super Model and Forever Yours, both from 2004.

Music
Hui has also released seven albums, most of them on vinyl in the 1970s and 1980s. There are three Ricky albums on vinyl: 發錢寒 (1977), 夏之戀 (1978), 錢作怪 (1980). In 1993 '93 急流? was released, which featured new songs by Sam Hui and guest vocals from Michael Hui. The second album in 1993 was 一生渴望 (Lifelong Desire) a 2-CD set that featured one CD of hits from the 1970s and 1980s, and brand-new Mandarin recordings of songs from '93 急流?. It also paved the way for Ricky's 2 shows at the Hong Kong Coliseum (produced by Sam Hui). The third CD was released in 2001, called The Classical Songs of Universal. It is the re-released version of the album from 1980 with a few extra songs. The last, Greatest Hits album (2CDs), 十足斤兩, was released only 26 July 2006.

Ricky also wrote some songs for his brother Sam: On Sam Hui's debut Cantonese album, Ricky wrote 3 complete songs (music and lyrics): Track 3 (甜蜜伴侶), track 4 (無情夜冷風), and track 11 (夜雨聲). On Sam's 2nd Cantonese album, Ricky contributed 2 songs: track 5 (情人離別去), track 10 (歡樂桃源), and track 11 (故苑懷舊). On Sam's 3rd Cantonese album, Ricky has one contribution: track 12 (流水恨). He also wrote a song that can only be heard on his own debut album in 1977: 月影.

In 2000 Ricky had a stage play called Ha Luk Hei Ban (蝦碌戲班). In the same year he appeared in five episodes of the ATV series Heung Gong Yat Ka Chun. In 2001 a DVD was released of a variety show about the development of Hong Kong entertainment, called Laughing Kaleidoscope which featured Ricky among various artists on stage. In the same year he participated with three songs in the La Fai Palace Jubilee concert. In 2003 Ricky appeared in a concert commemorating the 8th anniversary of the death of Teresa Teng and also celebrating her 50th birthday. Ricky participated with three songs in Sing Along Golden Hits Encore Concert in 2004 among other stars. He appeared in the Rosanne in Starry Night Concert in March, 2006.

Ricky was also a returning guest on Sam Hui's concerts singing a few songs on his own or duets with his brother. He often participated in television game shows as well.

On 30 July 2006, Ricky appeared on concert in Jockey Club Auditorium, at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Death
Ricky Hui died of a heart attack at home on 8 November 2011 at the age of 65. His funeral was held at Po Fook Hill Memorial Hall in Sha Tin, and was attended by dozens of guests and relatives. His family followed his wishes to put his ashes to sea in Sai Kung. 8th November also is the death day of Lam Ching-ying, who was Ricky Hui's partner in "Mr Vampire".

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

title: Ricky Hui


text:
Coventry Carol

The "Coventry Carol" is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story from chapter two in the Gospel of Matthew: the carol itself refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed, and takes the form of a lullaby sung by mothers of the doomed children.

The music contains a well-known example of a Picardy third. The author is unknown; the oldest known text was written down by Robert Croo in 1534, and the oldest known setting of the melody dates from 1591. There are alternative, modern settings of the carol by Kenneth Leighton, Philip Stopford and Michael McGlynn.

History and text
The carol is the second of three songs included in the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, a nativity play that was one of the Coventry Mystery Plays, originally performed by the city's guilds.

The exact date of the text is unknown, though there are references to the Coventry guild pageants from 1392 onwards. The single surviving text of the carol and the pageant containing it was edited by one Robert Croo, who dated his manuscript 14 March 1534. Croo, or Crowe, acted for some years as the 'manager' of the city pageants. Over a twenty-year period, payments are recorded to him for playing the part of God in the Drapers' Pageant, for making a hat for a "pharysye", and for mending and making other costumes and props, as well as for supplying new dialogue and for copying out the Shearmen and Tailors' Pageant in a version which Croo described as "newly correcte". Croo seems to have worked by adapting and editing older material, while adding his own rather ponderous and undistinguished verse.

Religious changes caused the plays' suppression during the later 16th century, but Croo's prompt book, including the songs, survived and a transcription was eventually published by the Coventry antiquarian Thomas Sharp in 1817 as part of his detailed study of the city's mystery plays. Sharp published a second edition in 1825 which included the songs' music. Both printings were intended to be a facsimile of Croo's manuscript, copying both the orthography and layout; this proved fortunate as Croo's original manuscript, which had passed into the collection of the Birmingham Free Library, was destroyed in a fire there in 1879. Sharp's transcriptions are therefore the only source; Sharp had a reputation as a careful scholar, and his copying of the text of the women's carol appears to be accurate.

Within the pageant, the carol is sung by three women of Bethlehem, who enter on stage with their children immediately after Joseph is warned by an angel to take his family to Egypt:

Sharp's publication of the text stimulated some renewed interest in the pageant and songs, particularly in Coventry itself. Although the Coventry mystery play cycle was traditionally performed in summer, the lullaby has been in modern times regarded as a Christmas carol. It was brought to a wider audience after being featured in the BBC's Empire Broadcast at Christmas 1940, shortly after the Bombing of Coventry in World War II, when the broadcast concluded with the singing of the carol in the bombed-out ruins of the Cathedral.

Music
The carol's music was added to Croo's manuscript at a later date by Thomas Mawdyke, his additions being dated 13 May 1591. Mawdyke wrote out the music in three-part harmony, though whether he was responsible for its composition is debatable, and the music's style could be indicative of an earlier date. The three (alto, tenor and baritone) vocal parts confirm that, as was usual with mystery plays, the parts of the "mothers" singing the carol were invariably played by men. The original three-part version contains a "startling" false relation (F♯ in treble, F in tenor) at "by, by".

Mawdyke, who may be identifiable with a tailor of that name living in the St Michael's parish of Coventry in the late 16th century, is thought to have made his additions as part of an unsuccessful attempt to revive the play cycle in the summer of 1591, though in the end the city authorities chose not to support the revival. The surviving pageants were revived in the Cathedral from 1951 onwards.

A four-part setting of the tune by Walford Davies is shown below:

"Appalachian" variant
A variant of the carol was supposedly collected by folklorist John Jacob Niles in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in June 1934 (from an "old lady with a gray hat", who according to Niles's notes insisted on remaining anonymous). Niles surmised that the carol had been transplanted from England via the shape note singing tradition, although this version of the carol has not been found elsewhere and there is reason to believe that Niles, a prolific composer, actually wrote it himself. Joel Cohen uncovered an early shape note choral song from the 18th century which also includes some of the lyrics to the Coventry Carol and has a tune at least marginally resembling Niles' variant. For this reason, Cohen argued that the Appalachian variant was likely to be authentic and that Crump et al. have been too quick to assume chicanery on Niles' part due to his proclivity for editing some of his collected material.

Although the tune is quite different to that of the "Coventry Carol", the text is largely similar except for the addition of an extra verse (described by Poston as "regrettable"):

A number of subsequent recorded versions have incorporated the fifth verse.

title: Coventry Carol


text:
Phife Dawg

Malik Izaak Taylor (November 20, 1970 – March 22, 2016), known professionally as Phife Dawg (or simply Phife), was an American rapper and a member of the group A Tribe Called Quest with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (and for a short time Jarobi White). He was also known as the "Five-Foot Assassin" and the "Five-Footer," because he stood at just 5 ft.

Early life
Phife Dawg was born Malik Izaak Taylor on November 20, 1970, in Queens, New York City, the son of Trinidadian immigrant parents Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, a poet, and Walt Taylor. His mother settled in the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens when she was 13 years old, and Phife Dawg was raised in the same neighborhood. Born prematurely, his twin brother Mikal died shortly after birth. He was a cousin of writer Zinzi Clemmons.

He first met his friend Q-Tip at the age of two. At nine years old, Phife Dawg suggested that they should rap, after hearing "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang for the first time. He attended Pine Forge Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school near Philadelphia, for his freshman year of high school, later transferring to Springfield Gardens High School in Queens.

Career
Phife Dawg formed A Tribe Called Quest, then simply named Quest, with Q-Tip and DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad in 1985; the group was later expanded with the addition of Jarobi White. A Tribe Called Quest were closely associated with fellow hip-hop acts De La Soul and Jungle Brothers, with the groups collectively known as the Native Tongues. A Tribe Called Quest was initially offered a demo deal by Geffen Records in 1989, but signed to Jive Records to release its 1990 début People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

Phife Dawg's contributions to the group increased on its second album, 1991's The Low End Theory, which saw Phife—often calling himself "the Five-Foot Assassin"—rapping about social and political issues; the record has since been acclaimed by critics and musicians. The group released three more albums that decade—Midnight Marauders in 1993, Beats, Rhymes and Life in 1996, and The Love Movement in 1998—before disbanding as a result of conflict both with their record label and internally. The group's troubles, especially the sometimes tense relationship between Phife and Q-Tip, were featured in the 2011 documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, directed by Michael Rapaport.

Phife also performed with other artists. He was featured on the Fu-Schnickens song "La Schmoove", Diamond D's "Painz & Strife" with Pete Rock, and Chi-Ali's "Let the Horns Blow" with Dres, Al' Tariq and Trugoy. In 2000, he released his debut solo album, Ventilation: Da LP. In 2013, it was reported that Phife was working on another solo album, MUTTYmorPHosis. A single, "Sole Men," was released one day after Phife's death (March 23, 2016) along with a posthumously released video. Another single, "Nutshell", was released online in April 2016 along with a posthumously released video.

On November 13, 2015, A Tribe Called Quest reunited for a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. That night, Phife and Q-Tip decided to put aside their differences and record a new group album, We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, in secrecy. Phife spent four months working on the album before his death; it was completed by the surviving members and released on November 11, 2016. In February 2017, it was announced that Phife's second studio album would be released later in the year. The single "Wanna Dance" was released that month and features Dwele and Mike City.

Phife Dawg's second solo album, Forever, was released on March 22, 2022, the sixth anniversary of his death.

Personal life
Taylor was married to Deisha Head-Taylor and had two children, a daughter and a son. He was a fan of the New York Knicks, and was a playable character in the video games NBA 2K7 and NBA 2K9.

Health problems and death
Taylor was diagnosed with diabetes in 1990. Conflicting reports indicated it as type 1, while other sources reported it as type 2. He described himself as a "funky diabetic" in the single "Oh My God" from A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 album Midnight Marauders. After the group disbanded, he continued playing live shows to help cover medical costs, and revealed in the 2011 documentary film Beats, Rhymes & Life that he was "just addicted to sugar ... it's really a sickness." In 2008, Taylor developed renal failure and received a kidney transplant from his wife, but it was unsuccessful, and by 2012 he again required a transplant.

On March 22, 2016, Taylor died at age 45 in his Oakley, California, home due to complications of diabetes.

Legacy
Phife has been described as having had a "self-deprecating swagger," and his work with A Tribe Called Quest helped challenge the "macho posturing" of rap and hip-hop music during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Phife's work has been cited as an influence on Kanye West, Jill Scott, The Roots and Common, while the 1991 album The Low End Theory is considered one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever.

On November 19, 2016, a portion of Linden Boulevard, at the intersection of 192nd Street in St. Albans, was honorarily renamed "Malik 'Phife Dawg' Taylor Way." The location is significant as the site of the video for A Tribe Called Quest's song "Check the Rhime."

In 2024, Phife Dawg was posthumously selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of A Tribe Called Quest.

Studio albums

 * Ventilation: Da LP (2000)
 * Forever (2022)

Filmography

 * 1993: Who's the Man? – Gerald
 * 1998: The Rugrats Movie – Newborn Baby
 * 2007: NBA 2K8 – Himself
 * 2011: Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest – Himself
 * 2017: NBA 2K18 - Himself

title: Phife Dawg


text:
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-02-07/Advocacy groups

Last week, new signs appeared of organized efforts to edit Wikipedia to promote a particular agenda. While these efforts were not particularly successful, they did have an impact on Wikipedia and reignited longstanding fears that such groups could undermine the neutral point of view policy.

Yahoo vs. Google on Wikipedia?
Angela reported on her blog last Friday that a dispute had developed over the Google article. She indicated that one of the participants, Alterego, had "accused two Wikipedians of being Yahoo employees out to discredit Google by editing Wikipedia" on his own blog. (Both blog posts have been changed significantly since they were first posted.)

The controversy over the article's content focused on two points: a delay in adding Abu Ghraib photographs to Google's image index, and the fact that one of Google's employees apparently worked for the National Security Agency before being hired. These two items were placed into a section together, apparently suggesting a possible connection. In reality, the google-watch item about the former NSA employee was asking the question, "Can you trust Google with a database of all the search terms you've ever used?" while the Slashdot story about the Abu Ghraib pictures did not mention the NSA at all. Google has also offered the explanation that its image index "is not updated as frequently as it should be."

Only one of the two users originally identified as Yahoo employees actually was one, however. This was Sundar, who works for Yahoo's software development group in India, and has posted this openly on his user page ever since it was created last March. He said that he admired Google, but thought the article was insufficiently neutral and wanted "to tone down the heaps of appreciation on Google (but only based on facts)". And while he participated in the debate on the talk page, Sundar was not involved in making any of the disputed edits.

Nevertheless, while the scenario of corporations manipulating Wikipedia content proved unfounded in this case, many people remain concerned about the possibility. As Jonathan Zittrain pointed out at the Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility conference (see archived story), a glance at the Wal-Mart article can make it fairly obvious that nobody representing Wal-Mart has attempted to edit the article.

Another storm builds
A different situation also came up last week, with the more familiar touch of a small advocacy group guiding members toward Wikipedia to advance its particular cause. On the English Wikipedia mailing list, AndyL pointed out a bulletin board discussion on Stormfront where its Neo-Nazi members debated what to do about a supposed "Jewish bias" on Wikipedia, particularly with respect to Holocaust denial issues.

The bulletin board thread, which started back in December, started by criticizing Wikipedia's article on revisionism, and slowly gathered steam over several weeks. The discussion went back and forth between urging members to mobilize and edit Wikipedia, and considering an alternative of setting up their own wiki or otherwise forking Wikipedia content.

VfD mobilization
Then last Thursday another Stormfront discussion urged members to go to Wikipedia and vote to keep an article called "Jewish ethnocentrism." Participants in the deletion debate noticed a significant increase in votes from newly registered users after this point. The same issue was brought up in the original Stormfront thread on Sunday, this time offering advice on accumulating edits so that votes to keep would not be disregarded.

However, by then the debate had been on Votes for deletion for more than the minimum five days and had already run its course. Based on the strong support expressed for deletion, AndyL deleted the article before any organized countereffort could sway the outcome.

While Wikipedia has absorbed the impact of outside mobilization efforts so far, the mailing list discussion raised concerns about whether it could handle better-organized groups. Still, Jimbo Wales expressed confidence that the community would be able to develop new solutions for this as necessary.


text: User talk:69.151.227.239

title: User talk:69.151.227.239


text:
Birjand

Birjand is a city in the Central District of Birjand County, South Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. The city is known for its saffron, barberry, jujube, and handmade carpet exports.

History

The first citation of the city in the historical literature belongs to the famous book Mojem Alboldan, by Yaqut Homavi (13th century) which introduces the Birjand as the most beautiful town in the Qohestan. Before this, Birjand had been probably not as big and important as a municipality but rather as a rural community. However, the Birjand geographical area had its historical and political importance long before the emergence of the city of Birjand. Many citations of the region are available in the original literature like Ehya -ol- Molook of the once important localities in the area. Apart from literature, the oldest evidence on the history of the region is the ancient Lakh-Mazar inscription in the Kooch village some 25 km southeast of Birjand. Numerous fine drawings and inscriptions are carved on an igneous rock surface. The inscriptions include pictograms as well as Arsacid Pahlavi, Sasanian Pahlavi, Arabic and Persian scripts.

In 1931, Birjand Municipality was opened under the name of Birjand Municipality next to the tomb of Hakim Nazari and started its activities with 12 employees. The first mayor of Birjand was Mr. Afshar, who served as mayor for six years.

Population
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 157,848 in 41,341 households. The following census in 2011 counted 178,020 people in 48,130 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 203,636 people in 57,745 households.

Climate
Birjand has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk) with hot summers and cool winters and a significant difference between day and night temperatures. Precipitation falls mostly in winter and spring.

Airport
In 1933, due to the political and military situation of Birjand city and the east of the country, Birjand airport was established on a 150-hectare land in the north of the city.

Customs
In 1938, in order to facilitate the transportation, export and import of goods to the subcontinent of India and Afghanistan, the Birjand Customs Office was established and started its activities with two customs units, Dareh and Gezik.

Imam Reza Hospital
In 1948, Imam Reza Hospital was established in one of the lands and endowments belonging to the Alam family, known as Bagh-e Anari. In addition to accepting patients in Birjand city, this hospital also accepted other patients in southern cities of Khorasan province.

Education
It is said that the Shokatiyeh School in Birjand together with Darolfonoon in Tehran were the first modern public schools of higher education in Iran in the mid-19th century. Ever since then, Birjand has amassed an abundance of institutions of higher education and become an important location for research and development.

Universities
In 1975, following Dr. Mohammad Hassan Ganji, the Birjand Institute of Higher Education was established in the Assadollah Alam Endowment Collection. This university started with the admission of 120 students in the fields of mathematics, physics and chemistry and is now officially known as Birjand University.

The city contains such universities and academic institutions as:

 * University of Birjand
 * Birjand University of Technology
 * Birjand University of Medical Sciences
 * Payame Noor University
 * Islamic Azad University of Birjand
 * University of Applied Science and Technology (south khorasan branch)
 * Academy of Tarbiat-e Moalem
 * Academy of Amuzesh-e Aly
 * Academy of Amuzesh-e Modiriat Dolaty

Notable people

 * Abd al-Ali al-Birjandi, 16th century astronomer
 * Hakim Nezari Quhestani
 * Ibn Hessam Khusfi
 * Amir Shokat Ul-Molk Alam, Amir of Qaen County and Governor of Quhestan at the end of Qajar dynasty
 * Amir Ali Khan Sheibany, PhD, founder and first CEO of Zob Ahan Esfahan (Esfahan Steel Company)
 * Seyyed Mohammad Tadayyon
 * Asadollah Alam, prime minister of Iran during Pahlavi dynasty
 * Seyyed Gholam Reza Saeidi, writer
 * Mohamad Haghgou, composer
 * Sima Bina, Iranian folk music singer
 * Ahmad Kamyabi Mask, writer and renowned theater scholar
 * Mohammad Hassan Ganji, geographer
 * Mohammad Ismail Rezvani, historian
 * Mohammad Reza Hafeznia
 * Gholam Hossein Shokouei
 * Kazem Motamadnejad
 * Shah Seyyed Ali Kazemi, Last tribal leader in Moud and Birjand at the beginning of Pahlavi dynasty
 * Mohammad Hossain Ayati
 * Mohammad Ibrahim Ayati
 * Seyyed Hassan Tahami
 * Ardalan Shoja Kaveh, actor

title: Birjand


text: User talk:216.19.218.38

title: User talk:216.19.218.38


text:
Marma people

The Marma (မာရမာ တိုင်းရင်းသား), also known as Moghs, Mogs or Maghs, are the second-largest ethnic community in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts, primarily residing in the Bandarban, Khagrachari and Rangamati Hill Districts. They belong to the same community as the Rakhine people. There are three endogamous groups within Magh Community which are known as

i)The Thongtha, Thongcha, Jumia Mags

ii)The Marma, Mayamma, Roang or Rakhaing Magh

iii)The Maramagri, otherwise called Barua Magh

They belong to the second sub tribe or group within the Magh Community.

Ethnonyms
Between the 17th and 18th centuries, the Rakhine began calling themselves Mranma (မြန်မာ) and its derivatives like Marama (မရမာ), as attested by texts like the Rakhine Minrazagri Ayedaw Sadan and the Dhanyawaddy Ayedawbon. This endonym continues to be used by the Marma. The term "Marma" is derived from "Myanmar," which was first used in the early 1100s. In the Marma and Arakanese, Myanmar is pronounced Mranma, not Myanma. In the Burmese language, the Marma are known as the  (မရမာ).

By 1585, European, Persian, and Bengali accounts began describing the Marma and Buddhist groups in the region as the Mugh or Magh, which were not used by the Marmas themselves. The word's etymology is likely to derive from Magadha, the name of an ancient Buddhist kingdom. The Marmas considered these names to be pejorative because of the word's association with piracy, and thus assumed the name Marma in the 1940s. Some Marmas in the Indian state of Tripura continue to self-identify as Marima, or as Moghs or Maghs.

History
The ancestors of the Marma, the Rakhine, live in a coastal region between Chittagong and the Arakan Mountains, in what is now Rakhine State of Myanmar. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, the Rakhine received a reputation for piracy in association with the Portuguese, due to endemic piracy in the Bay of Bengal. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Marmas migrated from their homeland to the Chittagong Hill Tracts, coinciding with the Kingdom of Mrauk U's conquest of Chittagong.

Records of the East India Company and others indicate that the Marmas migrated from the Kingdom of Mrauk U to Chittagong of Bangladesh in two phases of migrations during 14th to 17th centuries in the golden period of Mrauk U. In the first phase, during the Mrauk U Kingdom expanded to some parts of Chittagong Division. Secondly, Marma ancestors fled to Chittagong and settled down as the Arakanese kingdom was conquered and annexed by Burmese king Bodawpaya in 1785.

In 1971, following the Bangladesh Liberation War in which Bangladesh achieved independence, the country's majority Bengali Muslims began settling in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, which has displaced native inhabitants.

Genetic studies
Genetic studies have indicated that the Marma populations share a high frequency of Indian and low frequency of East Asian specific maternal haplogroups, and have the highest haplotype diversity when compared with Tripura and Chakma populations, suggesting deep colonization of the region by Marmas.

Culture
The Marmas are subdivided into 12 clans, named after the place from where they migrated. These clans include the Ragraisa, consisting of Marmas living south of the Karnaphuli river, the Palaingsa from Ramgarh Upazila, the Khyongsa (ချောင်းသား) from riverside communities, the Toungsa (တောင်သား) from the hill ridges, and smaller clans including the Longdusa, the Frangsa, the Kyokara-sa, and the Talongsa (တလိုင်းသား).

The culture of the Marmas is similar to that of the Rakhine people, including their language, food, clothes, religion, dance, and funeral rites. Marma men wear a sarong called lungyi, while Marma women wear a sarong called thabein.

Marmas mostly depend on agriculture, traditionally practicing slash-and-burn cultivation on the hills. Their belief in Theravada Buddhism is as deep as the Rakhine society's, with an emphasis on ritual practices in deities. Some Marmas also practice Animism, Christianity and Islam.

Marmas follow the Burmese calendar. They celebrate the New Year, called Sangrai (MY သင်္ကြန်), which begins on the first day of Bohag. They make sangraimu, which is a form of traditional cakes. They take part in Sangrain Relong Pwe (MY သင်္ကြန်ရေလောင်းပွဲ; water pouring), where young Marma men and women spray each other with water. Sangrai is celebrated in three days, On the 1st day, called Painchwai or Akro, homes are decorated with flowers. On the 2nd day, Sangrai Akya, Marmas participate in traditional sports, dances, cultural activities and hold meetings regarding community issues. They also go to monasteries to participate in the Buddha statue's bathing (cleansing) ritual on this day. On the 3rd day, called Sangrai Atada, they cook a vegetable dish made out of more than 100 ingredients, called hangbong (MY ဟင်းပေါင်း; pachan in Bangla).

After death, Marma elderlies are cremated, while younger deceased Marmas are buried.

Festival
Like other ethnic peoples, the Marma's celebrate a variety of traditional festivals such as birth, death, marriage and New Year. The main festivals of Marma's are: - Buddha Purnima, Kathina , Oyahgyai or Prabarana Purnima , Sangrai etc. The Marma New Year festival is called Sangrai. In addition to these festivals, other natural festivals are also celebrated, which are often similar to other indigenous ethnic groups in Bangladesh.

Buddha Punirma
On this full moon day, Mahamati Gautam Buddha was born, attained enlightenment and attained Mahaparinirvana. It is a religious festival. Every year the festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm and fervor.

Kathina
One night it's the color of cotton yarn from the Buddhist beggars wear cibara are made each solid cibara say.

Wagyoi or Prabarona
Wagyai or Prabarona Purnima is a major religious festival of the Marmas. On this day this festival is celebrated with great joy and happiness in every society of Marmas and Bihar. These days delicious cakes are made at home. On this day at night, lanterns are blown to worship and dedicate the great hair of Gautam Buddha.

Sangrai
The name of the Marma New Year festival is ' Sangrai '. This is one of their main traditional ceremonies. They organize this festival on the Bengali new year occasion of month Boishakh. On the occasion of the New Year, they organize various interesting events in Sangrai. Water festival is one of these events. On that day, the Marma youths rejoiced by sprinkling water on each other. By sprinkling water, they wash away the dirt and ink of the past year. Apart from that, they also find the person of their choice through water sports. In addition to water sports, they celebrate the Sangrai festival by performing other rituals such as pangchowai (flower sangrai), sangrai ji, candle lighting and buddhasnan. They enjoy their festivals by speaking on their mother tongue.

Bangladeshi

 * Dr. Moung Usha Thowai, Doctor of Medicine 'Soviet Union' Physician, Writer
 * Uk Ching Marma, Bangladeshi freedom fighter
 * Ushwe Sing, Bangladeshi politician
 * Saching Prue Jerry, Bangladeshi politician
 * Aung Shwe Prue Chowdhury, Bangladeshi politician
 * Ma Mya Ching, Bangladeshi politician
 * Anai Mogini, Bangladeshi footballer
 * Mitul Marma, Bangladeshi footballer
 * Aungmraching Marma, Bangladesh national team footballer and former captain
 * Dr Mong Sano Marma, Scientist Nucleotide Chemistry
 * Mongshewpru Chowdhury Apu, Bangladeshi politician
 * Kiki Aye, Writer and Poet
 * Nuthowai Barang, Educationist & Writer, DU.
 * Mongsathowai Chowdhury, Freedom Fighter
 * Kya Shew pru, Writer and Academician

Indian

 * Mailafru Mog, Indian politician and member of Tripura Legislative Assembly
 * Dr Dhammapiya, Academician and founder of Dhamma Dipa School

title: Marma people


text:
Category:Communes of Réunion

Réunion counts 24 communes. The 25th (La Rivière) might be created in the future, by dividing La Rivière Saint-Louis and Saint-Louis.

title: Category:Communes of Réunion


text:
District of Columbia home rule

District of Columbia home rule is the District of Columbia residents' ability to govern their local affairs. As the federal capital, the Constitution grants the United States Congress exclusive jurisdiction over the District in "all cases whatsoever".

Before 1874 and since 1973, Congress has allowed certain powers of government to be carried out by locally elected officials. However, Congress maintains the power to overturn local laws and exercises greater oversight of the district than exists for any U.S. state. Furthermore, the District's elected government exists at the pleasure of Congress and could theoretically be revoked at any time.

A separate yet related controversy is the District's lack of voting representation in Congress. The district's unique status creates a situation where District of Columbia residents have neither complete control over their local government nor voting representation in the body with complete control.

In 2015, Washington, D.C. became a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.

Constitutional provisions
James Madison explained the need for a federal district on January 23, 1788, in the Federalist No. 43, arguing that the national capital needed to be distinct from the states, in order to provide for its own maintenance and safety. An attack on the Congress at Philadelphia by a mob of angry soldiers, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, had emphasized the need for the government to see to its own security. Therefore, the authority to establish a federal capital was provided in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, which states that Congress shall have the power:

"To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States"

The phrase "exclusive legislation in all Cases whatsoever" has been interpreted to mean that Congress is the ultimate authority over the District, thereby limiting local self-government by the District of Columbia's residents. However, the Founding Fathers envisioned that Congress would devolve some of this power to the local level. For example, Madison stated in the Federalist No. 43 that "a municipal legislature for local purposes, derived from their own suffrages, will of course be allowed them."

History of self-government
On July 16, 1790, the Residence Act provided for a new permanent capital to be located on the Potomac River, the exact area to be selected by President Washington. As permitted by the U.S. Constitution, the initial shape of the federal district was a square, measuring 10 mi on each side, totaling 100 sqmi. The Residence Act also provided for the selection of a three-member board of commissioners, appointed by the President, charged with overseeing the construction of the new capital.

Two other incorporated cities that predated the establishment of the District were also included within the new federal territory: Georgetown, founded in 1751, and the City of Alexandria, Virginia, founded in 1749. A new "federal city" called the City of Washington was under construction, partly habitable, on the north bank of the Potomac, to the east of the established settlement at Georgetown. Note: The plan that this web page describes identifies the plan's author as "Peter Charles L'Enfant". The web page nevertheless identifies the author as "Pierre-Charles L'Enfant." L'Enfant identified himself as "Peter Charles L'Enfant" during most of his life, while residing in the United States. He wrote this name on his ''Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t(he) United States. ... '' (Washington, D.C.) and on other legal documents. However, during the early 1900s, a French ambassador to the U.S., Jean Jules Jusserand, popularized the use of L'Enfant's birth name, "Pierre Charles L'Enfant". (Reference: Bowling, Kenneth R (2002). Peter Charles L'Enfant: vision, honor, and male friendship in the early American Republic. George Washington University, Washington, D.C. ISBN 978-0-9727611-0-9). The National Park Service has identified L'Enfant as "Major Peter Charles L'Enfant" and as "Major Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant" in its histories of the Washington Monument on its website. The United States Code states in : "(a) In General.—The purposes of this chapter shall be carried out in the District of Columbia as nearly as may be practicable in harmony with the plan of Peter Charles L'Enfant."

The Organic Act of 1801 officially organized the District of Columbia and placed the entire federal district under the exclusive control of Congress.

At its formation, the District consisted of five political subdivisions: the three cities of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, and the unincorporated rural sections organized into two counties:  Washington County, D.C. to the east of the Potomac and the Alexandria County, D.C. to the west. It included all of the present Arlington County plus part of what is now the independent city of Alexandria. The respective laws of Maryland and Virginia were declared still in force.

In 1802, the board of commissioners was disbanded, and the City of Washington was officially incorporated. The city's incorporation allowed for a local municipal government consisting of a mayor appointed by the President and two branches of a city council, popularly elected. The local colonial-era governments of Georgetown and Alexandria were also left intact. As such, the citizens of Georgetown retained their popularly elected mayor, as did the City of Alexandria. In 1812, the council was given the power to elect the mayor of the City of Washington. In 1820, the Congress granted the City of Washington a new charter, which allowed for a mayor popularly elected by voters.

The disputes became more political in 1840 when the city elected a member of the anti-Jackson Whig Party as mayor. Two weeks after the election, members of Congress submitted legislation to alter the charter of the City of Washington to remove the city's elected government. However, the bill was unable to pass the Congress due to disputes among members about the status of slavery in the District. The election of President William Henry Harrison, who was favorable to residents of the District, assured that the proposed bill would not become law.

On July 9, 1846, in response to a voter referendum, Congress retroceded the City of Alexandria and Alexandria County to Virginia.

In the years preceding and during the American Civil War, the District developed a complicated, piecemeal government. Three distinct authorities over Washington County and the two cities, Washington and Georgetown, remained intact. In 1861, as the first step toward political consolidation, those three bodies were granted shared authority over the new Metropolitan Police Department, founded to enforce the law throughout the District. Its oversight board of five commissioners named by the President included one representing Georgetown, one from the county of Washington, and three from the city of Washington.

During the Civil War, the district experienced a large increase in its population; by 1870, the District's population had grown to nearly 132,000. Despite the district's growth, District still had dirt roads and lacked basic sanitation; the situation was so bad that some members of Congress proposed moving the capital elsewhere. To facilitate infrastructure improvements and make the district's government operate more efficiently, Congress passed the Organic Act of 1871, which created a new government for the entire federal district. This Act effectively combined the City of Washington, Georgetown, and the unincorporated area known then as Washington County into a single district government for the whole District of Columbia. In the same Organic Act, Congress created a territorial government which consisted of a legislative assembly with an upper house composed of eleven council members appointed by the President and a 22-member house of delegates elected by the people, as well as an appointed Board of Public Works charged with modernizing the district. In 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed the board's most influential member, Alexander Robey Shepherd, to the new post of governor. Shepherd authorized large-scale projects to modernize the District of Columbia but spent three times the approved budget, bankrupting the district.

In 1874, Congress abolished the District's local government in favor of direct rule. The territorial government was replaced by a three-member Board of Commissioners, consisting of two members appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate, and a third member selected from the United States Army Corps of Engineers, with one of the three members selected to act as President of the Board. This form of government continued for nearly a century. Between 1948 and 1966, six bills were introduced in Congress to provide some form of home rule, but none ever passed.

In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson presented to Congress a plan to reorganize the District's government designed by David Carliner. The three-commissioner system was replaced by a government headed by a single mayor-commissioner, an assistant mayor-commissioner, and a nine-member district council, all appointed by the president. The mayor-commissioner and his assistant served four-year terms, while the council served three-year terms. While the council was officially nonpartisan, no more than six council members could be of the same political party. Council members were expected to work part-time. All council members, and either the mayor-commissioner or his assistant, were required to have been residents of the District of Columbia for the three years preceding appointment. All were required to be District residents while serving their terms in office.

Council members had the quasi-legislative powers of the former Board of Commissioners, approving the budget and setting real estate tax rates. The mayor-commissioner could, without any Congressional approval, consolidate District agencies and transfer money between agencies, powers the preceding Board of Commissioners had not possessed. The mayor-commissioner could veto ordinances passed by the Council, but the Council could override the veto with a three-fourths vote.

Despite a push by many Republicans and conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives to reject Johnson's plan, the House of Representatives accepted the new form of government for the District by a vote of 244 to 160. Johnson said that the new District government would be more effective and efficient.

Walter E. Washington was appointed the first mayor-commissioner, with Thomas W. Fletcher as his assistant. The first Council appointments were Chairman John W. Hechinger, Vice Chairman Walter E. Fauntroy, Stanley J. Anderson, Margaret A. Haywood, John A. Nevius, William S. Thompson, J.C. Turner, Polly Shackleton, and Joseph P. Yeldell.

1973 Home Rule Act
On December 24, 1973, Congress enacted the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, providing for a popularly elected mayor and 13-member Council. Each of the district's eight wards elects a single member of the council and five members, including the chairman, are elected at large.

Small neighborhood districts elect 37 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs). ANCs traditionally wield a great deal of influence, and the district government routinely considers their suggestions carefully. The Council has the ability to pass local laws and ordinances. However, pursuant to the Home Rule Act all legislation passed by the District of Columbia government, including the district's local budget, remains subject to the approval of Congress.

The Home Rule Act specifically prohibits the Council from enacting certain laws that, among other restrictions, would:
 * lend public credit for private projects;
 * impose a tax on individuals who work in the District but live elsewhere;
 * make any changes to the district's federally mandated height limit;
 * pass any law changing the composition or jurisdiction of the local courts;
 * enact a local budget that is not balanced; and
 * gain any additional authority over the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington Aqueduct, or District of Columbia National Guard.

The Home Rule Act prohibits the District from imposing a commuter tax on non-residents, who comprise over 60% of the district's workforce. In addition, over 50% of property in the District is also exempt from taxation. The Government Accountability Office and other organizations have estimated that these revenue restrictions create a structural deficit in the district's budget of anywhere between $470 million and over $1 billion per year. While Congress typically provides larger grants to the District for federal programs such as Medicaid and the local justice system, analysts claim that the payments do not resolve the imbalance. The proposed FY 2017 budget figures show the District raising about $10 billion in local revenue out of a proposed FY 2017 $13.4 billion budget.

Non-citizen voting
D.C. has allowed non-citizen residents, regardless of immigration status, to vote in local elections since February 23, 2023. Non-citizen D.C. residents are only eligible to vote in elections for local offices (Mayor of the District of Columbia, members of the D.C. Council, Attorney General for the District of Columbia, members of the State Board of Education, and members of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions) and on local initiatives, referendums, and amendments to the D.C. Charter. Non-citizens cannot vote in elections for any federal offices.

Justice system
The District's local justice system is centered on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, which hears all local civil and criminal cases, and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which serves as the highest local appeals court in District of Columbia. Although the local courts are technically the third branch of the D.C. government, they are funded and operated by the United States federal government. Though operated by the federal government, the District's local courts are separate from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which only hear cases regarding federal law.

The President of the United States appoints the district's local judges from a group of nominees selected by a judicial nomination commission. All presidential nominees are then confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The local Attorney General of the District of Columbia only has jurisdiction in civil proceedings and prosecuting minor offenses such as misdemeanors and traffic violations. The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia is also appointed by the President and is responsible for prosecuting both federal and local felony crimes, such as robbery, murder, aggravated assault, grand theft, and arson. This setup differs from elsewhere in the country where 93% of local prosecutors are directly elected and the remainder are appointed by local elected officials.

The fact that the U.S. Attorneys in the District of Columbia are neither elected nor appointed by district officials leads to criticism that the prosecutors are not responsive to the needs of residents. Efforts to create the position of D.C. district attorney regained attention in 2008. The D.C. district attorney would be elected and have jurisdiction over all local criminal cases, streamlining prosecution and making the justice system more accountable to residents.

Relationship with Congress
Even though the District of Columbia has an elected mayor and district council, significant congressional oversight of the District's local affairs remains in place. Congress has the power to review all bills passed by the council and can prevent them from taking effect even if the council passed them with a large majority. It can also pass legislation for the district without approval from residents or the local government and even revoke the home rule charter altogether. District leaders have long complained about the interventionist approach that Congress members who have no particular attachment to the district take in dealing with the District's local affairs. However, when confronted by hot-button political issues such as the death penalty, gun control, or gay marriage, members of Congress are often pressured to cast votes consistent with the beliefs of their constituents, regardless of the law's effect on the district.

Occasionally, congressional intervention in the district's affairs has produced disastrous results. As an early example from the mid-19th century, when Jacksonian Democrats tried to exercise greater authority over the District, the population convened to request retrocession of the District back to the states of Maryland and Virginia. The efforts to return the northern portion of the District failed; however, the citizens of the District's southern territory of Alexandria successfully petitioned to retrocede that area to Virginia in 1846.

The standing committees charged with oversight of the district, known as the District committees, were also originally believed to be unimportant compared to other committees with greater scope and authority. As such, those appointed to the District committees were often less-respected members of Congress. For example, Theodore G. Bilbo, a senator from Mississippi in the 1930 and '40s, was made chairman of the United States Senate Committee on the District of Columbia during his final years in the Senate. Bilbo, an unapologetic racist, used the appointment to extend segregationist policies among the District's increasingly African American population.

The District committees were largely restructured in the late 1970s and were downgraded to subcommittees in the 1990s. Currently, the District of Columbia is overseen in the House of Representatives by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and its Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives. As a courtesy to the district's residents, the District's non-voting delegate, currently Eleanor Holmes Norton, serves as a member of both committees. The District is overseen in the United States Senate by the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and its Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia. The District has no representation in the Senate at all.

Congress has intervened in the District's local affairs several times since the Home Rule Act in 1973. In most instances, Congress has prohibited the District from spending funds to implement laws passed by the district council instead of directly overturning them. Most notable was the prohibition on spending funds to enact the Health Care Benefits Expansion Act of 1992, which extended health benefits to registered domestic partners in the district, and prohibiting the expenditure of funds to lobby for greater representation in Congress. In other instances, however, the Congress has implemented a more active approach in exercising its authority over the District. For example, legislation was passed in 1992 mandating a referendum on the use of the death penalty in the District, and bills to remove the District's strict gun control regulations have been continuously introduced in the Congress as well.

Efforts to roll back the district's gun laws were curtailed following the June 26, 2008, Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. The court held that the district's 1976 handgun ban violates the Second Amendment right to gun ownership. However, the ruling does not prohibit all forms of gun control, and pro-gun rights members of Congress are still attempting to repeal remaining gun regulations such as the District's "assault weapon" ban.

The most significant intrusion into the district's local affairs since the Home Rule Act was when Congress removed the district's authority to control its finances in the mid-1990s. The situation was a result of mismanagement and waste in the district's local government, particularly during the mayoralty of Marion Barry. By 1995, the district had become nearly insolvent, which prompted the Congress to create the District of Columbia Financial Control Board. As part of the restructuring arrangement, the appointed members of the Financial Control Board had the authority to approve all district spending; however, Congress also agreed to provide more funding for federally mandated programs such as Medicaid. Mayor Anthony Williams won election in 1998. His administration oversaw a period of greater prosperity, urban renewal, and budget surpluses. The District regained control over its finances in September 2001, and the oversight board's operations were suspended.

Proposals for change
Advocates of more significant D.C. home rule have proposed several reforms to increase the District's independence from Congress. These proposals generally involve either limiting oversight or allowing the state of Maryland take back the land it ceded to form the District.

Legislation
While maintaining its authority over the District, several legislative proposals have been made for Congress to restrain the degree of oversight significantly. These initiatives include:
 * Allowing greater legislative autonomy and removing the congressional review period required before local legislation becomes law;
 * Removing the required congressional review and active approval of the district's local budget; and

As of 2011, all of these proposals were pending before various committees in Congress.

Retrocession
The process of uniting the District of Columbia with the State of Maryland is referred to as retrocession. The District was originally formed out of parts of both Maryland and Virginia. However, the portion ceded by Virginia was returned to that state in 1846; all the land in present-day D.C. was once part of Maryland. If both the Congress and the Maryland state legislature agreed, jurisdiction over the District of Columbia could be returned to Maryland, possibly excluding a small tract of land immediately surrounding the United States Capitol, the White House, and the Supreme Court building. If the District were returned to Maryland, exclusive jurisdiction over the district by Congress would be terminated. Citizens in D.C. would gain voting representation in Congress as residents of Maryland. Potential obstacles to retrocession include the need for approval by the State of Maryland and the preference of many District residents for independent statehood. Further, retrocession may require a constitutional amendment as the District's role as the seat of government is mandated by the District Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Retrocession could also alter the idea of a separate national capital as envisioned by the U.S. Founding Fathers.

Statehood
If the District of Columbia were to become a state, Congress would no longer have exclusive authority over the district, and residents would have full voting representation in Congress, including the Senate. However, there are some constitutional considerations with any such statehood proposal. Article Four of the United States Constitution gives the Congress power to grant statehood; the House of Representatives voted on D.C. statehood in November 1993, and the proposal was defeated by a vote of 277 to 153. The House of Representatives again voted on D.C statehood in June 2020 and the proposal passed by a vote of 232 to 180 with the bill moving to the Senate, although it was not passed there. Further, like the issue of retrocession, opponents argue that statehood would violate the District Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and erode the principle of a separate federal district as the seat of government. D.C. statehood could therefore require a constitutional amendment.

title: District of Columbia home rule


text:
Talk:District of Columbia home rule

Worldrights
The little segment on Worldrights is advertising, so I'm deleting it. Natalie 22:52, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Original research
I deleted the following passage from the article:

Proposals have been made for Congress, while maintaining the current oversight over the District, to significantly restrain the degree of oversight, perhaps requiring a supermajority vote of both houses to overturn local laws passed by locally-elected officials. This proposed modification of the current system could be accomplished through simple legislation, although a constitutional amendment would preclude the changes from being withdrawn by a future Congress.

Advocates claim that this approach would largely preserve for D.C. governance the fundamental democratic principle that "just power derives from the consent of the governed", while still allowing the national legislature to exercise the last word in cases where the overriding national interest requires, as defined by a supermajority "national consensus" vote in both Houses.

Another approach would be a constitutional amendment to limit Congress's absolute power in the District to those areas directly under Federal control like the Capitol, White House, executive departments and national parks and memorials. This would allow District residents to take complete control over local issues such as taxes, schools, police, transportation, etc. while retaining Congress's power over its own institutions.

None of this information is sourced and seems completely like Original Research. If anybody has evidence of any proposed legislation or constitutional amendment to alter Congressional oversight of the District, please provide it. Best, epicAdam(talk) 18:46, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

School Segregation
I've deleted these sentences:

Conversely, some legal scholars contend that Congress cannot completely transfer its exclusive jurisdiction to local authorities. For example, federal judge Michael W. McConnell has written that "no act of Congress has ever authorized or required that the schools of the District of Columbia be segregated", and therefore local authorities were not permitted to take such a momentous step.

Whatever McConnell may argue about the constitution, there is no question that DC schools were segregated by the "local authorities." The local authorities may have been appointed by the president under authority of congress, but they were still the local authorities, and they certainly segregated DC schools. 152.3.146.45 (talk) 21:12, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on District of Columbia home rule. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080925173235/http://occ.dc.gov:80/occ/cwp/view,a,3,q,530960,occNav_GID,1522,occNav,%7C31705%7C,.asp to http://occ.dc.gov/occ/cwp/view,a,3,q,530960,occNav_GID,1522,occNav,%7c31705%7c,.asp
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20120119044111/http://dcclims1.dccouncil.us/federallegislativeinitiatives to http://dcclims1.dccouncil.us/federallegislativeinitiatives

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 07:28, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 4 one external links on District of Columbia home rule. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added tag to http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/tab23.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090331094658/http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us/history to http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us/history
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081212030451/http://federalworkforce.oversight.house.gov/documents/20080424175551.pdf to http://federalworkforce.oversight.house.gov/documents/20080424175551.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090206151350/http://dccouncil.washington.dc.us/images/00001/20020710134641.pdf to http://dccouncil.washington.dc.us/images/00001/20020710134641.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090206151355/http://mdah.state.ms.us/pubs/bilbo.pdf to http://mdah.state.ms.us/pubs/bilbo.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 02:06, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 8 external links on District of Columbia home rule. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090404012136/http://www.alexandriahistorical.org/history.html to http://www.alexandriahistorical.org/history.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080607022442/http://anc.dc.gov/anc/site/default.asp to http://anc.dc.gov/anc/site/default.asp
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090508094540/http://app.cfo.dc.gov/CFORUI/news/release.asp?id=96&mon=200401 to http://app.cfo.dc.gov/CFORUI/news/release.asp?id=96&mon=200401
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110511193725/http://www.dcappleseed.org/library/DC%20Appleseed%20Report.FINAL.pdf to http://www.dcappleseed.org/library/DC%20Appleseed%20Report.FINAL.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081205020014/http://www.uscourts.gov/districtcourts.html to http://www.uscourts.gov/districtcourts.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://occ.dc.gov/occ/cwp/view%2Ca%2C3%2Cq%2C530960%2CoccNav_GID%2C1522%2CoccNav%2C%7C31705%7C%2C.asp
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081011085230/http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dc/2008/06/dc_attorney_general_all_guns_m.html to http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dc/2008/06/dc_attorney_general_all_guns_m.html
 * Added archive http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20061026014037/http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/about/history.php to http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/about/history.php

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 13:03, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

DC has no-excuse mail-in voting. Ballots are mailed out automatically
See: --Timeshifter (talk) 14:40, 22 September 2023 (UTC)
 * https://www.dcboe.org/Voters/Casting-Your-Vote/Request-an-Absentee-Ballot
 * https://lims.dccouncil.gov/Legislation/B24-0507

title: Talk:District of Columbia home rule


text: User talk:216.19.218.5

title: User talk:216.19.218.5


text: User talk:216.19.218.8

title: User talk:216.19.218.8


text: User talk:216.19.218.41

title: User talk:216.19.218.41


text: User talk:216.19.218.49

title: User talk:216.19.218.49


text:
Talk:General Motors Gamma platform

GM DAT or Opel/Fiat?
Since 2000, there were various statements made by FIAT and General Motors about their cooperation in building new "small car" platform, where the main responsibility of GM would be overall chassis and suspension design, while Fiat will use their own engines and implement somewhat different styling (see the Fiat Punto article). The work on GM part was supposed to be done by Opel engineers located in Germany, and Fiat will use the platform for its 2005 Punto; it will also be the foundation for the new 2006 Corsa.

Now I see statements all over Opel Corsa, GM Daewoo Motors and this GM Gamma platform articles that it's now Daewoo responsibility to develop a new version of Gamma platform. I can't find any references. Can anyone confirm the sources of this information? Maybe GM DAT is developing "next-next" version of the platform, that is the one that should be employed by 2010 when 2006 Corsa is to be replaced? --DmitryKo 22:44, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * Here's AutoWeek's reference. Not solid.  But the relationship between FIAT and GM is really weak now - I'd bet against a FIAT Gamma! --SFoskett 04:13, Feb 7, 2005 (UTC)
 * This is somewhat recent news, and the wording is "considering" and "versions of Gamma platform", which doesn't necessarily mean "is developing" and "the Gamma platform"! The development of the newer Gamma must have already been going long before this statement was made last Fall, because new Fiat Punto is due Autumn 2005 and new Opel Corsa due 2006, and the earliest links I've found by searching Google for "Fiat GM Opel Corsa Punto small car" date back to 2000. Here's some of them:
 * http://waw.wardsauto.com/ar/auto_gmfiat_exchange_diesel/
 * http://www.channel4.com/4car/gallery/spy-shots-2004/F/fiat-punto-070404/punto.html
 * http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/050131/323/fbfbg.html
 * http://www.autotechdaily.com/pdfs/T02-14-02.pdf
 * http://www.just-auto.com/store/samples/gmeur_sample.pdf
 * http://imvp.mit.edu/papers/02/camuffo_volpato.pdf
 * http://www.autonews.com/images/random/110104/files/04profiles.pdf
 * Over that, I'm not an Autonews subscriber and I can't read articels and news, but if you search up the same words in their archives, there are lot of articles on the subject, dating back to 2000.
 * I think it's safe to say that new Gamma platfrorm is being codeveloped by Fiat/Opel team since 2002, exact responsibilities to be investigated, while GM DAT is considered to make variants out of it and hopes to be involved in its future development. --DmitryKo 09:30, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Is this a good english sentence?
As a German my english might simply not be good enough but my impression is that the following sentence has some mistakes in it. What does "Acturally" mean to start with? Is "wheelbase" or "Corsa" now writen with capital first letter or not? And what is the sentence all about in coherence with the rest of the article anyways?

Acturally, S4300 underpins Opel corsa C which has a 2,491 mm (98.1 in) Wheelbase, that was growning from S4200 (Corsa B) which has a 2,465 mm (97.0 in) wheelbase.

UltraBlonz (talk) 21:55, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

split to Fiat-GM SCCS
Why the entire section on Gamma/SCCS was split into a separate article and no text has been left here? SCCS has always been referred as Gamma in GM world and it was mainly engineered by Opel, and Gamma II is a development of that platform as well. --Dmitry (talk•contibs) 20:06, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

 * Il Pianale SCCS è stato sviluppato da Fiat e GM (Opel) a Torino ed è una piattaforma che non ha nulla a che fare con le vecchie Gamma di General Motors poichè è tutta nuova ed è stata la Grande Punto ad adottarla per prima. Fiat in seguito ha ribattezzato il pianale semplicemente Small come è possibile vederlo nei documenti ufficiali di Fiat Group. Inoltre il nome corretto è SCCS - Small Common Components System, il nome Gamma non è presente --Corvettec6r (talk) 13:18, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

 * From Corriere della Sera

http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2002/febbraio/08/Fiat_General_Motors_insieme_nelle_co_0_0202087834.shtml

"Fiat Auto e Gm Europe hanno raggiunto un accordo per la creazione di un centro di progettazione congiunto per lo sviluppo di componenti e sistemi comuni destinati alle rispettive produzioni di vetture di piccola cilindrata. Il centro di progettazione avrà sede a Torino. Responsabile del centro sarà Ulrich Schmalohr, l' ingegnere a capo della linea «small cars» della Opel, mentre Giorgio Cornacchia di Fiat Auto assumerà l' incarico di capo progetto del nuovo team di sviluppo congiunto, che sarà operativo da subito. Secondo la Fiat, «l' impegno per lo sviluppo congiunto è diretto unicamente a componenti e tecnologia senza impatti sulla specificità del marchio delle rispettive vetture di futura generazione»." --Corvettec6r (talk) 13:09, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't hold it to be a good idea to merge GM Fiat Small platform into this purely GM related article. This platform was a product of the GM-Fiat cooperation which has ended. FIAT is not being incorporated into GM, and so that article about a common project should stand alone, or rather being linked to both corporations, and the respective Wikipedia-categories. Or should all former and future GM only platforms be part of the categors FIAT PLATFORMS??--L.Willms (talk) 10:43, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Seems to no consensus to merge so have removed the tags. Warren (talk) 10:53, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:General Motors Gamma platform


text: User talk:216.19.218.51

title: User talk:216.19.218.51


text:
Raetovari

The Raetovari (or Raetobari, Rätovarier, Raetovarii/Raetobarii) were an Alamannic tribe in the region of the Nördlinger Ries in the west of the German state of Bavaria. They lived in the upper Danube region. They were mentioned by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (330–395).

title: Raetovari


text: User talk:216.19.218.68

title: User talk:216.19.218.68


text:
User:Conundrumphile

I'm from New Zealand.

Created Pages
Other than this page, I've created:

 * Coventry Carol
 * John Psathas
 * Gillian Whitehead

Other Contributions
I have provided significant contributions to:

 * Jack Body

title: User:Conundrumphile


text:
Aziz

Aziz (عزيز, ʿazīz, ) (עזיז) is a Semitic, Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic male name. In Arabic and Hebrew the feminine form of both the adjective and the given name is Aziza. In Hebrew and Aramaic Aziz is derived from the root עזז meaning "strong, powerful". In Arabic it is derived from the root ʕ-z-z, again meaning "strong, powerful", while the adjective has also acquired the meaning of "dear, darling, precious" in both Arabic and Aramaic. In the Old Testament Aziz was the son of Shema and the father of Bela. In the Latinised form "Azizus" it is attested as the name of one of the Arab Priest-Kings who ruled Emesa (the modern Homs, Syria) as clients of the Roman Empire.

In ancient Levantine mythology, Azizos or Aziz is the Palmyrene Aramean and Arab god of the morning star.

The Arabian goddess Al-Uzza, also related to the planet Venus, is named from the same root ʕ-z-z.

Al-Aziz is one of the names of God in Islam. The "Al" makes the word "Aziz" proper. "Aziz" without "Al" is used as a royal title borne by the high nobles of Egypt, being a title borne by the prophet Joseph in the Quranic Surah-e-Yusuf, and also by the Biblical Potiphar, referred to in the Quran as Aziz.

It is used in existing Semitic languages such as Arabic, Assyrian Neo Aramaic, Mandic, Hebrew and Maltese and has also spread to non-Semitic languages like Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Persian, Urdu, Berber, Pashtu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Dari, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Uzbek, Uyghur, Balochi, Bengali, Somali, Indonesian, Chechen, Circassian and Malaysian.

Aziz is a common masculine given name, especially in the Muslim world but it has also continued to be used by non-Muslim- non Arab peoples in the Middle East, e.g. Jews, Assyrians, Arameans, Maronites and Mandeans.

Azeez

 * Azeez Abu (born 1994), Nigerian beach soccer player
 * Azeez Al-Shaair (born 1997), American football player
 * Azeez Ojulari (born 2000), American football player
 * Azeez Shobowale Shobola (born 1992), Nigerian footballer

Aziz

 * Aziz Ansari (born 1983), Indian-American stand-up comedian and actor.
 * Aziz Azion (born 1984), Ugandan R&B singer-songwriter.
 * Aziz Behich (born 1990), Australian footballer.
 * Aziz Ibrahim (born 1964), British guitarist.
 * Aziz Mian (1942–2000), Pakistani singer.
 * Aziz Nesin (1915–1995), Turkish humorist and author.
 * Aziz Sancar (born 1946), Turkish scientist and 2015 Nobel laureate in Chemistry.
 * Aziz Shavershian (1989–2011), Russian-Australian bodybuilder and Internet personality of Kurdish descent.
 * Aziz Yıldırım (born 1952), Turkish businessman.

Azeez

 * A. M. A. Azeez (1911–1973), Ceylonese civil servant, educator, social worker
 * Ade Azeez (born 1994), English footballer
 * Dan Azeez (born 1989), British boxer
 * Fatima Azeez (born 1992), Nigerian badminton player
 * K. P. A. C. Azeez (1934–2003), Indian film actor in Malayalam cinema
 * Ramon Azeez (born 1992), Nigerian footballer

Aziz

 * Aaron Aziz (born 1976), Singaporean actor
 * Arif Aziz (born 1943), Azerbaijan artist and educator
 * Douglas Aziz (born 1942), Assyrian Iraqi footballer
 * Fatima Aziz (1973–2021), Afghan physician and politician
 * Gamal Aziz, also known as Gamal Mohammed he Abdelaziz, Egyptian-American businessman
 * Lisa Aziz (born 1962), British television presenter and journalism
 * Michael Aziz, American engineer
 * Mohamad Aziz, Malaysian politician
 * Mohammad Aziz, Indian playback singer
 * Omar Aziz (born 1958), Brazilian politician
 * Philip Aziz (1923–2009), Canadian artist of Lebanese ancestry
 * Riza Aziz, Malaysian producer
 * Sartaj Aziz (1929–2024), Pakistani economist and strategist
 * Shaukat Aziz (born 1949), Pakistani Prime Minister
 * Tariq Aziz (born Mikhail Yuhanna) (1936–2015), ethnic Assyrian former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister under Saddam Hussein
 * Tariq Aziz (field hockey, born 1938) (born 1938), Pakistani field hockey player
 * Tariq Aziz (TV personality) (1936–2020), Pakistani TV personality
 * Tipu Aziz (born 1956), Professor of neurosurgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford University

title: Aziz


text: User talk:85.166.219.155

title: User talk:85.166.219.155


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/BoshTang

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE. jni 13:09, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

BoshTang
Self-promotion page for a non-notable blog. — J3ff 09:44, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC) This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * Delete So it is. --Lawlore 13:23, Feb 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * Speedy delete as an article consisting only of an external link. See Candidates for speedy deletion. JoaoRicardo 20:15, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, not notable, website advertisement. Megan1967 01:24, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Omar Filini 07:10, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. -- AllyUnion (talk) 05:42, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)