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Greg Abbott

Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Texas from 2002 to 2015 and as a justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1996 to 2001.

Abbott was the third Republican to serve as attorney general of Texas since the Reconstruction era. He was elected to that office with 57% of the vote in 2002 and reelected with 60% in 2006 and 64% in 2010, becoming the longest-serving Texas attorney general in state history, with 12 years of service. Before becoming attorney general, Abbott was a justice of the Texas Supreme Court, a position to which he was appointed in 1995 by then-governor George W. Bush. Abbott won a full term in 1998 with 60% of the vote. As attorney general, he successfully advocated for the Texas State Capitol to display the Ten Commandments in the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case Van Orden v. Perry, and unsuccessfully defended the state's ban on same-sex marriage. He was involved in numerous lawsuits against the Barack Obama administration, seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act and the administration's environmental regulations.

Elected in 2014, Abbott is the first Texas governor and third governor of a U.S. state to use a wheelchair, the others being Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Wallace. As governor, Abbott supported the Donald Trump administration and has promoted a conservative agenda, including measures against abortion such as the Texas Heartbeat Act, lenient gun laws, opposition to illegal immigration, support for law enforcement funding, and election reform. In response to the power crisis following a February 2021 winter storm, Abbott called for reforms to Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and signed a bill requiring power plant weatherization. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas, Abbott opposed implementing face mask and vaccine mandates, while blocking local governments, businesses, and other organizations from implementing their own. He has also made a priority of fighting illegal immigration, starting Operation Lone Star in 2021.

Early life, education, and legal career
Abbott was born on November 13, 1957, in Wichita Falls, Texas, of English descent. His mother, Doris Lechristia Jacks Abbott, was a housewife and his father, Calvin Rodger Abbott, was a stockbroker and insurance agent. When he was six years old, they moved to Longview; the family lived there for six years. When he was 12, Abbott's family moved to Duncanville. In his sophomore year in high school, his father died of a heart attack; his mother went to work in a real estate office. Abbott graduated from Duncanville High School, where he was on the track team, in the National Honor Society and was voted "Most Likely to Succeed".

In 1981, Abbott earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and the Young Republicans Club. He met his wife, Cecilia Phalen, while attending UT Austin. The two married in 1981. In 1984, he earned his Juris Doctor degree from the Vanderbilt University Law School.

Abbott went into private practice, working for Butler and Binion, LLP between 1984 and 1992.

Judicial career
Abbott's judicial career began in Houston, where he served as a state trial judge in the 129th District Court for three years. Then-Governor George W. Bush appointed Abbott to the Texas Supreme Court; he was then twice elected to the state's highest civil court—in 1996 (two-year term) and in 1998 (six-year term). In 1996, Abbott had no Democratic opponent but was challenged by Libertarian John B. Hawley of Dallas. Abbott defeated Hawley, 84% to 16%. In 1998, Abbott defeated Democrat David Van Os, 60% to 40%.

In 2001, after resigning from the Supreme Court, Abbott returned to private practice and worked for Bracewell & Giuliani LLC. He was also an adjunct professor at University of Texas School of Law.

2002 election
Abbott resigned from the Texas Supreme Court in 2001 to run for lieutenant governor of Texas. He had been campaigning for several months when the previous attorney general, John Cornyn, vacated the post to run for the U.S. Senate. Abbott then switched his campaign to the open attorney general's position in 2002. He defeated the Democratic nominee, former Austin mayor and former state senator Kirk Watson, 57% to 41%. Abbott was sworn in on December 2, 2002, following Cornyn's election to the Senate.

Tenure
Abbott expanded the attorney general's office's law enforcement division from about 30 people to more than 100. He also created a new division, the Fugitive Unit, to track down convicted sex offenders in violation of their paroles or probations.

In 2003, Abbott supported the Texas Legislature's move to cap non-economic damages for medical malpractice cases at $250,000, with no built-in increases for rising cost of living.

In a 2013 speech to fellow Republicans, when asked what his job entails, Abbott said: "I go into the office in the morning, I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home." Abbott filed 31 lawsuits against the Obama administration, including suits against the Environmental Protection Agency; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including challenges to the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"); and the U.S. Department of Education, among many others. According to The Wall Street Journal, from Abbott's tenure as attorney general through his first term as governor, Texas sued the Obama administration at least 44 times, more than any other state over the same period; court challenges included carbon-emission standards, health-care reform, transgender rights, and others. The Dallas Morning News compared Abbott to Scott Pruitt, noting that both attorneys general had repeatedly sued the federal government over its environmental regulations. The Houston Chronicle noted that Abbott "led the charge against Obama-era climate regulations".

Abbott has said that the state must not release Tier II Chemical Inventory Reports for security reasons, but that Texans "can ask every facility whether they have chemicals or not". Koch Industries has denied that its contributions to Abbott's campaign had anything to do with his ruling against releasing the safety information.

In March 2014, Abbott filed a motion to intervene on behalf of Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Plano in three federal lawsuits against the hospital, brought by patients who alleged that the hospital allowed Christopher Duntsch to perform neurosurgery despite knowing that he was a dangerous physician. Abbott cited the Texas legislature's cap on malpractice cases and the statute's removal of the term "gross negligence" from the definition of legal malice as reasons for defending Baylor.

In the late 2000s, Abbott established a unit in the attorney general's office to pursue voter-fraud prosecutions, using a $1.4 million federal grant; the unit prosecuted a few dozen cases, resulting "in small fines and little or no jail time". The office found no large-scale fraud that could change the outcome of any election.

Lawsuit against Sony BMG
In late 2005, Abbott sued Sony BMG. Texas was the first state in the nation to bring legal action against Sony BMG for illegal spyware. The suit is also the first filed under the state's spyware law of 2005. It alleges the company surreptitiously installed the spyware on millions of compact music discs (CDs) that consumers inserted into their computers when they played the CDs, which can compromise the systems. On December 21, 2005, Abbott added new allegations to his lawsuit against Sony-BMG. He said the MediaMax copy protection technology violated Texas's spyware and deceptive trade practices laws. Sony-BMG offered consumers a licensing agreement when they bought CDs and played them on their computers; in the lawsuit, brought under the Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act of 2005 and other laws, Abbott alleged that even if consumers rejected that agreement, spyware was secretly installed on their computers, posing security risks for music buyers and deceiving Texas purchasers. Sony settled the Texas lawsuit, as well as a similar suit brought by California's attorney general, for $1.5 million.

Separation of church and state
In March 2005, Abbott delivered oral argument before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Texas, defending a Ten Commandments monument on grounds of the Texas State Capitol. Thousands of similar monuments were donated to cities and towns across the nation by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, who were inspired by the Cecil B. DeMille film The Ten Commandments (1956) in following years. In his deposition, Abbott said, "The Ten Commandments are a historically recognized system of law." The Supreme Court held in a 5–4 decision that the Texas display did not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and was constitutional. After Abbott's oral arguments in Van Orden v. Perry, Justice John Paul Stevens commented upon Abbott's performance while in a wheelchair, "I want to thank you [...] for demonstrating that it's not necessary to stand at the lectern in order to do a fine job."

Guns
As attorney general, Abbott opposed gun control legislation. In 2013, he criticized legislation enacted by New York State strengthening its gun regulation laws by expanding an assault weapons ban and creating a high-capacity magazine ban; he also said he would sue if Congress enacted a new gun-control bill. After the law passed, Abbott's political campaign placed Internet ads to users with Albany and Manhattan ZIP codes suggesting that New York gun owners should move to Texas. One ad read, "Is Gov. Cuomo looking to take your guns?", and the other read, "Wanted: Law abiding New York gun owners looking for lower taxes and greater opportunity." The ads linked to a letter on Facebook in which Abbott wrote that such a move would enable citizens "to keep more of what you earn and use some of that extra money to buy more ammo".

In February 2014, Abbott argued against a lawsuit brought by the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) to allow more people access to concealed carry of firearms, as he felt this would disrupt public safety.

Tort reform
Abbott backed legislation in Texas to limit "punitive damages stemming from noneconomic losses" and "noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases" at $750,000 and $250,000, respectively. While the settlement in his own paralysis case was a "nonmedical liability lawsuit", which remains uncapped, Abbott has faced criticism, generally from Democrats who oppose the Republican-backed lawsuit curbs, for "tilt[ing] the judicial scales toward civil defendants."

Support for ban on sex toys
As attorney general, Abbott unsuccessfully defended Texas's ban on sex toys. He said Texas had a legitimate interest in "discouraging prurient interests in autonomous sex and the pursuit of sexual gratification unrelated to procreation."

Opposition to same-sex marriage
As attorney general, Abbott defended the state's ban on same-sex marriage from a constitutional challenge. In 2014, he argued in court that Texas should be allowed to prohibit same-sex marriage because LGBT individuals cannot procreate. He said that as "same-sex relationships do not naturally produce children, recognizing same-sex marriage does not further these goals to the same extent that recognizing opposite-sex marriage does." He also argued that gay people are still free to marry, saying they are "as free to marry an opposite-sex spouse as anyone else". He suggested that same-sex marriage led to a slippery slope in which "any conduct that has been traditionally prohibited can become a constitutional right simply by redefining it at a higher level of abstraction."

In 2016, Abbott urged the Texas Supreme Court to limit the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case that held that the 14th Amendment requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages and made same-sex couples eligible for state and federal benefits tied to marriage, including the right to be listed on a birth certificate and the right to adopt.

2006 election
In the November 7, 2006, general election, Abbott was challenged by civil rights attorney David Van Os, who had been his Democratic opponent in the 1998 election for state Supreme Court. He was reelected to a second term with 60% to Van Os's 37%.

2010 election
Abbott ran for a third term in 2010. He defeated the Democratic nominee, attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky, with 64% of the vote to her 34%. He was the longest-serving Texas attorney general in Texas history.

In July 2013, the Houston Chronicle alleged improper ties and oversight between many of Abbott's largest donors and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, of which he was a director.

2014 election
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In July 2013, shortly after Governor Rick Perry announced that he would not seek a fourth full term, Abbott announced his candidacy for governor of Texas in the 2014 election. In the first six months of 2011, he raised more money for his campaign than any other previous Texas politician, reaching $1.6 million. The next-highest fundraiser among state officeholders was Texas comptroller Susan Combs, with $611,700.

Abbott won the Republican primary on March 4, 2014, with 91.5% of the vote. He faced State Senator Wendy Davis in the general election.

Abbott promised to "tie outcomes to funding" for pre-K programs if elected, but said he would not require government standardized testing for 4-year-olds, as Davis accused him of suggesting. When defending his education plan, Abbott cited Charles Murray: "Family background has the most decisive effect on student achievement, contributing to a large performance gap between children from economically disadvantaged families and those from middle class homes." A spokesman for Abbott's campaign pointed out that the biggest difference in spending was that Davis had proposed universal pre-K education while Abbott wanted to limit state funding to programs that meet certain standards. Davis's plan could reach $750 million in cost and Abbott said that her plan was a "budget buster", whereas his education plan would cost no more than $118 million. Overall, Abbott said the reforms he envisioned would "level the playing field for all students [and] target schools which don't have access to the best resources." He called for greater access to technology in the classroom and mathematics instruction for kindergarten pupils.

Abbott received $1.4 million in campaign contributions from recipients of the Texas Enterprise Fund, some of whose members submitted the proper paperwork for grants. Elliot Nagin of the Union of Concerned Scientists observed that Abbott was the recipient of large support from the fossil fuels industries, such as NuStar Energy, Koch Industries, Valero Energy, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. Abbott was endorsed by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Morning News, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and the Tyler Morning Telegraph. He and Dan Patrick, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, were endorsed by the NRA Political Victory Fund and given an "A" rating.

Abbott defeated Davis by over 20 percentage points in the November general election.

2018 election
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In January 2017, Abbott was reportedly raising funds for a 2018 reelection bid as governor;, he had $34.4 million on hand for his campaign, of which he had raised $9 million during the second half of 2016. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick had been mentioned as a potential challenger, but confirmed that he would run for reelection as lieutenant governor. During the weekend of January 21, 2017, Abbott said that he intended to run for reelection. He confirmed this on March 28, 2017.

Abbott formally announced his reelection campaign on July 14, 2017. This came four days before the start of a special legislative session that could split the Republican Party into factions favoring Abbott and Patrick on one hand and House speaker Joe Straus on the other. Straus represented the Moderate Republican faction, which opposes much of the social conservative agenda Abbott and Patrick pursued.

In the November 6 general election, Abbott defeated Democratic nominee Lupe Valdez with about 56% of the vote,   having outraised her 18 to 1. He received 42% of the Hispanic and 16% of the African American vote.

2022 election
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Abbott ran for a third term and faced challengers from within his own party, including former Texas Republican Party chair Allen West and Don Huffines. On March 1, he won the primary with over 66% of the vote. He was challenged by the Democratic nominee, former U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke. Abbott began with a large campaign funding advantage over his opponents, but was outraised by O'Rourke, who raised $81.6 million to Abbott's $78.5 million.

Abbott defeated O'Rourke, 54% to 43%, becoming the fifth Texas governor to serve three terms, after Allan Shivers, Price Daniel, John Connally and Rick Perry. He won 68% of Anglos, 18% of African Americans, and 42% of Latinos.

2026 election
According to the Austin American Statesman, advisers close to Abbott have said he has not ruled out running for a fourth term in 2026, which would make him the longest-serving governor in state history with 16 years of service by January 21, 2031, surpassing former governor Rick Perry's 14 years.

On March 1, 2024, Abbott announced his candidacy for reelection to a fourth term.

Tenure as governor (2015–present)
Abbott was sworn in as governor of Texas on January 20, 2015, succeeding Rick Perry. He is the first governor of Texas and the third elected governor of a U.S. state to use a wheelchair, after Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York (1929–1932) and George Wallace of Alabama (1963–1967, 1971–1979; 1983–1987).

Abbott held his first meeting as governor with a foreign prime minister when he met with the Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny on March 15, 2015, to discuss trade and economic relations.

During the 2015 legislative session, initiated by officials at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the Texas legislature placed a rider to cut $150 million from its budget by ending payments and coverage for various developmental therapies for children on Medicaid. A lawsuit was filed against the state on behalf of affected families and therapy providers, claiming the cut could cause irreparable damage to the affected children's development. The litigation obtained a temporary injunction order on September 25, 2015, barring THHSC from implementing therapy rate cuts.

During Donald Trump's presidency, Abbott ardently supported Trump. The Trump administration appointed several former Abbott appointees to federal courts, which some media outlets attributed to Abbott's influence on the administration. In 2021, Trump endorsed Abbott for reelection, choosing him over several Republican primary rivals who also positioned themselves as pro-Trump.

Abbott's book Broken But Unbowed (2016) recounted Abbott's personal story and views on politics.

In October 2016, explosive packages were mailed to Abbott, President Obama, and the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Abbott's package did not explode when he opened it because "he did not open [the package] as intended".

On June 6, 2017, Abbott called for a special legislative session in order to pass several of his legislative priorities, an agenda supported by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Abbott vetoed 50 bills in the regular 2017 session, the most in a session since 2007.

Abbott appointed multiple judges to various judgeships, including several GOP-affiliated judges who had recently lost local judicial elections.

After the regular 2021 session, The New York Times called Abbott and Patrick "the driving force behind one of the hardest right turns in recent state history". Other sources said Abbott and other state officials advanced strongly conservative policies. By his 2022 reelection campaign, Abbott more prominently emphasized "culture war" issues. He had been compared to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in promoting conservative policies.

According to a report by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica, Abbott centralized power under the governor's office during his tenure.

Abortion
In November 2016, the State of Texas, at Abbott's request, approved new rules that require facilities that perform abortions either to bury or cremate the aborted, rather than dispose of the remains in a sanitary landfill. The rules were intended to go into effect on December 19, but on December 15 a federal judge blocked them from going into effect for at least one month after the Center for Reproductive Rights and other advocacy groups filed a lawsuit. On January 27, 2017, a federal judge ruled against the law, but the State of Texas vowed to appeal the ruling.

On June 6, 2017, Abbott signed a bill into law banning dismemberment and partial-birth abortions and requiring either burial or cremation of the aborted. That law was also blocked by a federal judge; the state said it would appeal.

On May 18, 2021, Abbott signed the Texas Heartbeat Act, a six-week abortion ban, into law. In September 2021, he signed into law a bill preventing women from mail-ordering abortion medication seven weeks into pregnancy.

Convention of States proposal

In 2016, Abbott spoke to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, calling for a Convention of States to amend the U.S. Constitution. In his speech, he proposed the Texas Plan, a series of nine new amendments to "unravel the federal government's decades-long power grab "to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government and limit the federal government's power and jurisdiction." The plan would limit the power of the federal government and expand states' rights, allowing the states to nullify federal law under some circumstances.

On January 8, 2016, Abbott called for a national constitutional convention to address what he saw as abuses by justices of the United States Supreme Court in "abandoning the Constitution." Speaking to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Abbott said, "We the people have to take the lead to restore the rule of law in the United States." Abbott elaborated on his proposal in a public seminar at the Hoover Institute on May 17, 2016.

Criminal justice
In the wake of the George Floyd protests, Abbott called on candidates in the 2020 elections to "back the blue." In response to actions by some Texas cities to redirect funding from police to social services and emergency response, he threatened that the state of Texas would seize control of the local police departments. In 2021, Abbott spearheaded legislative efforts to financially penalize cities in Texas that reduce spending on police.

In 2021, Abbott vetoed a bipartisan criminal justice bill that would have made people convicted of certain crimes before the age of 18 eligible for early parole and created panels to consider inmates' age and mental status at the time of their crimes when evaluating parole eligibility. He also vetoed legislation to prohibit police from using statements made under hypnosis in criminal court. He also vetoed an animal protection bill that would have made it illegal to chain up dogs without giving them access to drinkable water and shade or shelter.

In May 2024, Abbott granted a full pardon to former Army Sergeant Daniel Perry after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously recommended a pardon. Perry was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2023 for fatally shooting Air Force veteran Garrett Foster during a Black Lives Matter protest. In 2023, Abbott said he would work swiftly for a pardon after a jury convicted Perry of murder.

Firearms
In 2015, Abbott signed the campus carry (SB 11) and the open carry (HB 910) bills into law. The campus carry law came into effect later that year, allowing licensed carrying of a concealed handgun on public college campuses, with private colleges able to opt out. The open carry bill went into effect in 2016, allowing the licensed open carrying of handguns in public areas and private businesses that do not display a 30.07 sign. The 30.07 sign (referring to state penal code 30.07) states that a handgun may not be carried openly even by a licensed gun carrier. To do so openly is considered trespassing. Texas is the 45th state to have open carry. In 2017, Abbott signed into law a bill lowering handgun carry license fees. In 2021, he signed into law a bill that allowed Texans to carry guns without a license.

In an interview with Fox News following the November 5, 2017, Sutherland Springs church shooting, Abbott urged historical reflection and the consideration that evil had been present in earlier "horrific events" during the Nazi era, the Middle Ages and biblical times. The Anti-Defamation League called his comparison of the shooting "to the victims of the Holocaust" "deeply offensive" and "insensitive".

After the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting, Abbott said that he would consult across Texas in an attempt to prevent gun violence in schools. A series of round-table discussions followed at the state capitol. In a speech to a NRA convention in Dallas almost two weeks later, Abbott said, "The problem is not guns, it's hearts without God". In June 2019, he signed a bill allowing for more armed teachers, with school districts unrestricted as to the number they allow. The creation of "threat assessment teams", passed into law by the bill, is intended to identify potentially violent students. Although the state legislature passed measures for students services to deal with related mental health issues, proposals to adopt a red flag law failed. Abbott said such a law was "not necessary in the state of Texas."

In August 2019, a gunman who had written a racist manifesto killed 22 people in a mass shooting at a Wal-Mart in El Paso, saying he had targeted "Mexicans". After the shooting, Abbott convened a domestic terrorism task force to look into domestic extremism, but reiterated his opposition to a red-flag law and rejected calls to convene a special session of the state legislature to address gun violence.

From September 1, 2021, Texans are able to carry handguns without a license or training after Abbott signed a permitless carry bill into law in June 2021.

On May 24, 2022, Abbott said that an 18-year-old carrying a handgun and possibly a rifle (later identified as an Daniel Defense DDM4, an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle) killed 19 students and 2 teachers at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. On May 25, Abbott held a news conference to give further information on the shooting. Gun laws were not mentioned. Abbott said that mental health in the community was the root cause of the event. Beto O'Rourke, who was running for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022, approached the stage and said, "The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing." Abbott responded that it was a time for "healing and hope" for the victim's families, not "our agendas." Rather than attend the annual NRA meeting on May 27, Abbott published a YouTube message. He did not mention the sale of assault rifles, but said that gun laws have not been effective, noting that the shooter broke two gun laws the day he committed the multiple murders. It is a felony to possess a gun on school property, and "what he did on campus is capital murder. That's a crime that would have subjected him to the death penalty in Texas", Abbott said.

Jade Helm 15
On April 28, 2015, Abbott asked the State Guard to monitor the training exercise Jade Helm 15 amid Internet-fueled suspicions that the war simulation was really a hostile military takeover. In 2018, former director of the CIA and NSA Michael Hayden said that Russian intelligence organizations had propagated the conspiracy theory and that Abbott's response convinced them of the power such a misinformation campaign could have in the United States.

Religion
In 2015, Abbott signed the Pastor Protection Act, which allows members of the clergy to refuse to marry same-sex couples if they feel doing so violates their beliefs.

In 2017, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 24, preventing state or local governments from subpoenaing pastors' sermons. The bill was inspired by an anti-discrimination ordinance in Houston, where five pastors' sermons were subpoenaed.

Also in 2017, Abbott signed House Bill 3859, which allows faith-based groups working with the Texas child welfare system to deny services "under circumstances that conflict with the provider's sincerely held religious beliefs." Democrats and civil rights advocates said the adoption bill could allow such groups to discriminate against those who practice a different religion or who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, and LGBT rights groups said they would challenge the bill in court. In response, California added Texas to a list of states to which it banned official government travel.

Immigration and border security

In June 2015, Abbott signed a bill bolstering Texas's border security operations, including hiring additional state police, expanding the use of technology, and creating intelligence operations units. In November 2015, he announced that Texas would refuse Syrian refugees following the Paris terrorist attack earlier that month. In December 2015, Abbott ordered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to sue the federal government and the International Rescue Committee to block refugee settlement, but a federal district court struck the lawsuit down.

On February 1, 2017, Abbott blocked funding to Travis County, Texas, due to its recently implemented sanctuary city policy. On May 7, 2017, he signed into law Texas Senate Bill 4, targeting sanctuary cities by charging county or city officials who refuse to work with federal officials and allowing police officers to check the immigration status of those they detain.

In January 2020, Abbott made Texas the first state to decline refugee resettlement under a new rule implemented by the Trump administration. In a joint statement, all 16 Catholic bishops of Texas condemned the move.

In 2021, Abbott referred to undocumented immigrants crossing the border as an "invasion". In March 2021, he tweeted, "The Biden Administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities." PolitiFact rated Abbott's claim "Mostly False", since those being released were asylum seekers with a legal right to remain in the U.S., and the number was well below "hundreds", only 108, at the time of Abbott's tweet.

In June 2021, Abbott ordered Texas child-care regulators to take the licenses of child-care facilities that housed unaccompanied migrant minors. He said that housing unaccompanied minors in child-care facilities had a negative impact on facilities housing Texan children in foster care. Later that month, he announced plans to build a border wall with Mexico, saying that the state would provide $250 million and that direct donations from the public would be solicited.

In July 2021, Abbott advised state law enforcement officers to begin arresting illegal migrants for trespassing. On July 27, 2021, he ordered the National Guard to begin helping arrest migrants, and the next day he signed an order to restrict the ground transportation of migrants. Migrants arrested under Abbott's policy were imprisoned for weeks without legal help or formal charges. By December 2023, nearly 10,000 migrants had been arrested on trespassing charges.

In September 2021, Abbott signed legislation spending nearly $2 billion on Texas's border security operations, including $750 million for border wall construction. This was a significant increase, and supplemented $1 billion already appropriated for border security in the two-year state budget. In December 2021, Abbott announced that Texas would continue the U.S. Border Wall started by Donald Trump. The wall has the same design as Trump's and is under construction.

On April 7, 2022, Abbott announced in a press conference a plan to direct the Texas Division of Emergency Management to bus illegal immigrants with 900 charter buses from Texas to Washington D.C, citing the potential surge of immigrants who would cross the border after Title 42 provisions regarding communicable disease were set to be rolled back by President Biden the next month. Any mayor, county judge, or city could request buses for immigrants who had been released from federal custody. After initial criticism, Abbott clarified that the trip would be voluntary for immigrants. On April 13, the first bus, carrying 24 immigrants, arrived in Washington D.C after 30 hours. A second bus arrived the next day. Abbott came under fire for both buses, with one American Enterprise Institute scholar suggesting Abbott be federally prosecuted for human trafficking. Senator Ted Cruz supported Abbott's actions and advocated for more immigrants to be bused into other predominantly Democratic areas. In a press conference, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said it was "nice" that Texas was "helping them get to their final destination as they await the outcome of their immigration proceedings". Washington D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser responded to the influx of migrants from Texas by requesting National Guard support for what she termed a "migrant crisis".

On September 15, 2022, Abbott sent two buses with 101 mostly Venezuelan migrants detained after crossing the U.S. border with Mexico to the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. On September 17, Abbott sent another bus with 50 migrants to Harris's residence.

In June 2023, Abbott deployed floating barriers in the Rio Grande in an effort to deter illegal border crossings. The U.S. Justice Department sued Abbott and the state of Texas after Abbott refused to remove the barriers.

In December 2023, Abbott signed three border-security-related bills into law, including a bill making illegal immigration a state crime.

Border inspections
In early April 2022, Abbott announced that Texas would increase inspections of commercial trucks entering from Mexico with the goal of seizing illegal drugs and illegal migrants. Shortly thereafter, the inspections caused a multi-mile backup of commercial vehicles carrying produce, auto parts, household goods and many other items. A spokesman for the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas said that up to 80% of perishable fruits and vegetables had been unable to cross and in some cases were in danger of spoiling. The president of the Texas Trucking Association said the delays were affecting every kind of trucking and being felt across the country. Mexican truckers blockaded several bridges in protest. Under heavy pressure from Texas business owners, who strongly criticized the "secondary inspections", Abbott canceled the policy on April 15. He said the reversal was because the governors of adjacent Mexican states had agreed to exercise stronger vigilance against human trafficking, drugs, and guns.

Abbott's truck inspections ultimately cost Texas an estimated $4.2 billion and led to no apprehensions of drugs or illegal migrants.

Environment
, Abbott rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. He has said that the climate is changing, but does not accept the consensus that human activity is the main reason.

In early 2014, Abbott participated in sessions held at the headquarters of the United States Chamber of Commerce to devise a legal strategy to dismantle climate change regulations. In 2016, he supported Scott Pruitt's appointment as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), saying, "He and I teamed up on many lawsuits against the EPA." As Texas attorney general, Abbott often sued the federal government over environmental regulations.

After Joe Biden was elected president, Abbott vowed to pursue an aggressive legal strategy against the Biden administration's environmental regulations.

Voting rights
Abbott pressed for a purge of nearly 100,000 registered voters from Texas voter rolls. Texas officials initially claimed that the voters to be purged were not American citizens. The purge was canceled in April 2018 after voting rights groups challenged the purge, and officials at the Office of the Texas Secretary of State admitted that tens of thousands of legal voters (naturalized citizens) were wrongly flagged for removal. Abbott claimed that he played no role in the voter purge, but emails released in June 2019 showed that he was the driving force behind the effort.

In September 2020, Abbott issued a proclamation that each Texas county could have only one location where voters could drop off early voting ballots. He justified the decision by claiming it would prevent "illegal voting" but cited no examples of voter fraud. Election security experts say voter fraud is extremely rare. Also in September 2020, Abbott extended the early voting period for that year's general election due to COVID-19; the Republican Party of Texas opposed his decision.

Abbott made "election integrity" a legislative priority after President Trump's failed attempts to overturn the election results of 2020 United States presidential election by using baseless claims that the results were fraudulent. Voting rights advocates and civil rights groups denounced the resulting legislation, saying it disproportionately affected voters of color and people with disabilities. Multiple sources:

In July 2021, Democratic lawmakers in the Texas legislature fled the state on a chartered flight to Washington, D.C., in an effort to block the passage of a bill that would reform the state election procedures. Abbott threatened to have the lawmakers arrested upon their return to Texas. In August, the Supreme Court of Texas made a ruling allowing for the arrest of the absent lawmakers, so they could be brought to the state capitol.

In October 2021, Abbott appointed John Scott as Texas Secretary of State, putting him in a position to oversee Texas elections. Scott aided Trump in his failed efforts to throw out election results in the 2020 presidential election.

LGBT rights
In 2014, Abbott defended Texas's ban on same-sex marriage, which a federal court ruled unconstitutional. As attorney general of Texas, he argued that the prohibition on same-sex marriage incentivized that children would be born "in the context of stable, lasting relationships."

Abbott condemned Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional. He said, "the Supreme Court has abandoned its role as an impartial judicial arbiter." Shortly thereafter, Abbott filed a lawsuit to stop same-sex spouses of city employees from being covered by benefit policies.

In a letter dated May 27, 2017, the CEOs of 14 large technology companies, including Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, urged Abbott not to pass what came to be known as the "bathroom bill": legislation requiring people to use the bathroom of the sex listed on their birth certificates, not the one of their choice. The bill was revived by Abbott and supported by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. In March 2018, Byron Cook, the chairman of the House State Affairs committee who blocked the bill, claimed that Abbott privately opposed the bill. The bill was never signed; Abbott later said, "it's not on my agenda" in a debate with Lupe Valdez, the Democratic nominee for governor in 2018.

In 2017, Abbott signed legislation to allow taxpayer-funded adoption agencies to refuse same-sex families from adopting children for religious reasons.

In 2021, a Republican primary challenger criticized Abbott because Texas's child welfare agency included content regarding LGBTQ youths. Shortly thereafter, the agency, whose members Abbott appoints, removed the webpage that included a suicide prevention hotline and other resources for LGBT youths.

In 2022, Abbott instructed Texas state agencies to treat gender-affirming medical treatments (such as puberty blockers or hormone treatments) for transgender youths as child abuse.

Homelessness
In June 2019, the city of Austin introduced an ordinance that repealed a 25-year-old ban on homeless people camping, lying, or sleeping in public. In October 2019, Abbott sent a widely publicized letter to Austin Mayor Steve Adler criticizing the camping ban repeal and threatened to deploy state resources to combat homelessness.

In November 2019, Abbott directed the State of Texas to open a temporary homeless encampment on a former vehicle storage yard owned by the Texas Department of Transportation, which camp residents dubbed "Abbottville".

Marijuana
In 2019, when numerous local prosecutors announced that they would stop prosecuting low-level marijuana offenses, Abbott instructed them to continue enforcing marijuana laws. The prosecutors cited recently passed legislation that legalized hemp. As hemp contains the same chemical as marijuana, THC, tests at law enforcement's disposal cannot distinguish between marijuana usage and hemp usage. Abbott has said that legal hemp products come with a "hemp certificate".

In 2022, a poll of Texas voters found that 55% of Texans either support or strongly support legalizing cannabis.

COVID-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Abbott issued a stay-at-home order from April 2 to May 1, 2020. This was one of the shortest stay-at-home orders implemented by any governor. After Texas started to reopen, COVID-19 surged, leading Abbott to pause the reopening. On June 24, Texas broke its record of new COVID-19 cases in a day. Critics described Abbott's pause as a half-measure and argued that he should reverse the reopening in full to limit the virus's spread.

According to The New York Times, Abbott's response to the pandemic has been contradictory, as he has said that Texans should stay at home while also saying that Texas is open for business. He also said that Texans should wear face masks but refused to issue a statewide mandate. Abbott's response to the pandemic has been criticized on both sides of the political spectrum. In July 2020, he directed counties with more than 20 COVID-19 cases to wear masks in public places; he had previously prohibited local governments from implementing required face masks.

In December 2020, Abbott directed Texas restaurants to ignore local curfews that had been imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Localities had implemented restrictions on indoor dining and drinking late at night on New Years weekend amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

On March 2, 2021, Abbott lifted all COVID-19 restrictions in Texas, which included ending a mask mandate and allowing businesses to reopen "100 percent."

In April 2021, Abbott signed an executive order banning state agencies and corporations that take public funding from requiring proof of vaccination against COVID-19. In June 2021, he signed a bill that would punish businesses that require customers to have proof of COVID-19 vaccination for services.

On May 18, 2021, Abbott issued an executive order banning mask mandates in public schools and governmental entities, with up to a $1,000 fine for non-compliers.

On August 17, 2021, Abbott's office announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. According to his office, Abbott was "in good health and experiencing no symptoms". He received Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatment.

Abbott emphasized personal responsibility over government restrictions, and resolutely opposed government mandates in August 2021. On July 29, 2021, during an again worsening pandemic, he issued a superseding executive order (GA-38) that reinstated earlier orders and imposed additional prohibitions on local governmental officials, state agencies, public universities, and businesses doing business with the state, to prohibit them from adopting measures such as requiring face masks or proof of vaccination status as a condition of service. The order also provides for a $1,000 fine for local officials who adopt inconsistent policies. President Biden criticized Abbott for these measures. The ban on mask mandates led to a score of legal challenges between Abbott and local governments, including school districts. In justifying the ban on local government mandates in August 2021, an Abbott spokesperson said, "Private businesses don't need government running their business." In October 2021, Abbott issued an executive order that banned any entity, including a private business, from implementing a vaccine requirement for its employees.

February 2021 North American ice storm
During the February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm, power-plant failures across Texas left four million households in Texas without power. Abbott called for investigation and reform of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the electric grid operator for most of Texas.

On February 16, on Hannity, Abbott said, "This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America ... Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis... It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary." The Texas energy department clarified that a failure to winterize the state's power grid caused most of the losses. Most power plants in Texas are gas-fired, with wind generators providing about 10% during the winter.

By February 18, Abbott had ordered Texas natural gas to sell exclusively to power generators in Texas, which had an immediate and direct impact on Mexico, where gas-fired plants generate two-thirds of all energy. In June 2021, Abbott signed a bill requiring power companies to be more prepared for extreme weather events.

College diversity, equity, and inclusion
In the summer of 2023, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 17, which prohibits Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices at Texas's public colleges and universities.

The bill, passed largely along party lines, garnered both support and criticism, with proponents arguing it would save taxpayer funds and promote a merit-based approach to education and critics expressing concern about discrimination and hindrance to diversity efforts.

As a result of Senate Bill 17 and similar legislation, universities have been compelled to reevaluate their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, often leading to significant restructuring and reallocation of resources. At the University of Texas-Austin, Senate Bill 17's implementation led to the layoff of approximately 60 employees and the closure of the Division of Campus and Community Engagement, which was formerly the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement.

Personal life
Abbott, a Catholic, is married to Cecilia Phalen Abbott, the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants. They were married in San Antonio in 1981. His election as governor of Texas made her the first Latina to be First Lady of Texas since Texas joined the union. They have one adopted daughter, Audrey. Cecilia is a former schoolteacher and principal.

Wheelchair use
On July 14, 1984, at age 26, Abbott was paralyzed below the waist when an oak tree fell on him while he was jogging after a storm. Two steel rods were implanted in his spine, and he underwent extensive rehabilitation at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston and has used a wheelchair ever since. He sued the homeowner and a tree service company, resulting in an insurance settlement that provided him with lump sum payments every three years until 2022 along with monthly payments for life, both of which were adjusted for inflation. Abbott has said he relied on the money to pay for nearly three decades of medical expenses and other costs.

title: Greg Abbott


text:
Şirvan, Azerbaijan

Shirvan (Şirvan) is a city in Azerbaijan, located on the Kura River. It was called Zubovka until 1938 and Ali Bayramli until 2008. From 1938 to 1954, Shirvan possessed the status of a village. It obtained the status of a city of Republican level on January 4, 1963. The territory of Shirvan is 72.7 km2, and the population is 87,400 according to the 2020 census. Population density is 1226 persons per 1 km2. The city also includes the settlement of Hajigarahmanly and Bairamly. 98.5% of the population are Azerbaijani, while others - Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Turks, and other natives.

History
Shirvan originally was the name of Caucasian Zone (From north of Kura river of modern Azerbaijan areas) from 809 A.D till nowadays. But the city Shirvan originated in the 19th century as the Russian resettlement village Zubovka, named in honor of Valerian Zubov, while it was known locally as Qarachukhar. Throughout history, Şirvan changed its name a few times.

In 1796, a special military squad led by General Zubov entered Azerbaijan. Yekaterina showed great interest in this march. 30 thousand troops were given to General Zubov's army. The rally began in St. Petersburg in the church, and the priests blessed the supreme commander and the Russian-Cossack forces.

General Zubov, who successfully progressed in Azerbaijan, named the village Yekaterinaserd. Two thousand Russian Kazaks were transferred here as the first event. They were equipped with military and agricultural tools. They would plant or harvest crops and caterpillars, and they would use the weapon as they wanted.

The city was called Zubovka prior to 1938, then was renamed Ali Bayramli in honor of Ali Bayramov from 1938 to 2008.

The city was renamed to 'Şirvan' by the decision of the Parliament of Azerbaijan on April 25, 2008. 'Shirvan' appears to be derived from Shīr (, 'Lion').

Throughout its history, Shirvan has suffered from floods because of its proximity to the river and the relatively low elevation of most of the town.

Economy

Timurid mausoleum of Shirvan The city is the oil center of the Shirvan region, which at one time gave a significant part of the liquid fuel produced onshore. Engineering enterprises, the light and food industry have been developed in the city. In addition, the railway junction passes through the city.

Oil and gas production and the fuel and energy complex as a whole have been and remain the basis of the city's economy. As before, today about 90% of the gross output in the city falls to this industry.

Archeological excavations
The archaeological samples found in the vicinity of the town testify to the settlement of these lands in ancient times. On the territory on which Shirvan is located, once passed caravan routes. During archaeological excavations in 2 km from the city, in the lower part of Mishovdag, the remains of a 14th-century urban settlement were discovered. Found in the craft districts of this city, 12 pottery furnaces have been preserved in very good condition. Also here were found various objects of everyday life, and ornaments of folk crafts, carpet weaving, stone carvings and jewellery craft were preserved.

Geography

Shirvan is located on the left bank of the river Kura, on the Shirvan plain, on the transport junction. The largest in Europe Shirvan GRES is open in the city. The Shirvan Children's Music School has existed for more than 40 years. Situated in the east of the Kura lowland, on the left bank of the Kura, the young city of Shirvan was founded in 1954 in connection with the discovery of the Kurovdag oil field.

Climate
The summer months are typically dry and very hot due to Şirvan's semi-desert climate. The temperature can rise to 44 °C often resulting in moderate drought conditions. In contrast, winter is cool but not severe, rarely going below -6 °C.

Administrative divisions
The municipality of Shirvan consists of the city of Shirvan and the municipalities of Bayramly, Chilpagly and Haji Gahramanly. The mayor, presently Mardan Jamalov, embodies the executive power of the city.

Demographics
According to the State Statistics Committee, as of 2018, the population of city recorded 85,800 persons, which increased by 16,800 persons (about 24.3 percent) from 69,000 persons in 2000. 42,100 of total population are men, 43,700 are women. More than 27,3 percent of the population (about 23,500 persons) consists of young people and teenagers aged 14–29.

Population

 * Population 85,800
 * Azerbaijanis 68.652 (99.7%)
 * Meskhetian Turks 207 (0.3%)

Notable residents
The city's residents include: historian Farida Mammadova, footballer Samadagha Shikhlarov and dancer Oksana Rasulova.

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

title: Şirvan, Azerbaijan


text:
Cipriano Castro

José Cipriano Castro Ruiz (12 October 1858 – 4 December 1924) was a high-ranking officer of the Venezuelan military, politician and the president of Venezuela from 1899 to 1908. He was the first man from the Venezuelan Andes to rule the country, and was the first of four military strongmen from the Andean state of Táchira to rule the country over the next 46 years.

Early life
Cipriano Castro was the only son of José Carmen Castro and Pelagia Ruiz. He was born on 12 October 1858 in Capacho Viejo, Táchira. Castro's father was a mid-level farmer and he received an education typical of the tachirense middle-class. His family had significant mercantile and family relations with Colombia, in particular with Cúcuta and Puerto Santander. After studying in his native town and the city of San Cristóbal, he continued his studies at a seminary school in Pamplona, Colombia (1872–1873). He left those studies to return to San Cristóbal, where he began work as employee of a company called Van Dissel, Thies and Ci'a. He also worked as a cowboy in the Andean region. During his early life he grew up with 22 brothers and sisters and his mother died which then lead on to his father marrying somebody else then leading to more siblings. He was very close to his family and he then sent most of his little brothers to study in Caracas

Military experience and introduction to politics
In 1876 Castro opposed the candidacy of general Francisco Alvarado for the presidency of the Táchira state. In 1878 he was working as the manager of the newspaper El Álbum when he participated along with a group of independence advocates in the seizure of San Cristóbal when they refused to submit to the authority of the new president of the state.

In 1884, he got into a disagreement with a parish priest, Juan Ramón Cárdenas in Capacho, which led to his imprisonment in San Cristóbal. After six months, he escaped and took refuge in Cúcuta, where he ran an inn. There he met his future wife, Rosa Zoila Martínez, who would become known as Doña Zoila. In June 1886, he returned to the Táchira as a soldier, accompanying generals Segundo Prato, Buenaventura Macabeo Maldonado and Carlos Rangel Garbiras to again raise the flag of autonomy, much to the dismay of the governor of the Táchira region, General Espíritu Santo Morales. Castro defeated government forces in Capacho Viejo and in Rubio. Promoted to general, himself, Castro began to stand out in the internal politics of Táchira state. It was during the burial of a fellow fighter, Evaristo Jaimes, who had been killed in the earlier fighting that Castro met Juan Vicente Gómez, his future companion in his rise to power. He entered politics and became the governor of his province of Táchira but was exiled to Colombia when the government in Caracas was overthrown in 1892. Castro lived in Colombia for seven years, amassing a fortune in illegal cattle trading and recruiting a private army.

Presidency
Amassing considerable support from disaffected Venezuelans, Castro's once personal army developed into a strong national army, and he used it to march on Caracas in October 1899 in an event called the Restorative Liberal Revolution, and seize power, installing himself as the supreme military commander.

Once in charge, Castro inaugurated a period of plunder and political disorder having assumed the vacant presidency, after modifying the constitution (1904). He remained president for the period 1899–1908, designating Juan Vicente Gómez his "compadre" as vice-president.

Castro's rule was marked by frequent rebellions, the murder or exile of his opponents, his own extravagant living, and trouble with other nations. Castro was characterized as "a crazy brute" by United States secretary of state Elihu Root and as "probably the worst of Venezuela's many dictators" by historian Edwin Lieuwen. His nine years of despotic and dissolute rule are best known for having provoked numerous foreign interventions, including blockades and bombardments by Dutch, British, German, and Italian naval units seeking to enforce the claims of their citizens against Castro's government.

Crisis of 1901–1903
In 1901 the banker Manuel Antonio Matos was the leader of the Liberating Revolution, a major military movement with the intention to overthrow Cipriano Castro's government. Severe disagreements between Castro and the foreign economic elite that support the revolution (as New York and Bermudez Company, Orinoco Shipping Company, Krupp, French Cable, and others) evolved into an open war that shook the country and brought the government to the brink of collapse.

On 2 April 1902, in response to rising political tension between the Netherlands and Venezuela to evacuate the Jews of Coro to Curaçao, the HNLMS Koningin Regentes and the HNLMS Utrecht (1898) arrived in the Venezuelan port of La Guaira. Prior to their arrival, the Venezuelan Navy had repeatedly checked Dutch and Antillean merchant ships and the presence of the Dutch warships acted as a deterrent against further actions.

In November 1902, the troops at command of Castro himself broke the Siege of La Victoria, weakened the vast network of revolutionaries armies and its extraordinary power.

Few weeks after that, Venezuela saw a naval blockade of several months imposed by Britain, Germany and Italy over Castro's refusal to pay foreign debts and damages suffered by European citizens in the recent Liberating Revolution. Castro assumed that the Monroe Doctrine would see the United States prevent European military intervention, but at the time the government of president Theodore Roosevelt saw the Doctrine as concerning European seizure of territory, rather than intervention per se. With prior promises that no such seizure would occur, the US allowed the action to go ahead without objection. The blockade saw Venezuela's small navy quickly disabled, but Castro refused to give in, and instead agreed in principle to submit some of the claims to international arbitration, which he had previously rejected. Germany initially objected to this, particularly as it felt some claims should be accepted by Venezuela without arbitration. When the world press reacted negatively to incidents including the sinking of two Venezuelan ships and the bombardment of the coast, the U.S pressured the parties to settle, and drew attention to its nearby naval fleet in Puerto Rico at command of Admiral George Dewey. With Castro failing to back down, Roosevelt pressure and increasingly negative British and American press reaction to the affair, the blockading nations agreed to a compromise, but maintained the blockade during negotiations over the details. This led to the signing in Washington of an agreement on 13 February 1903 which saw the blockade lifted, and Venezuela represented by U.S. ambassador Herbert W. Bowen commit 30% of its customs duties to settling claims. When an arbitral tribunal subsequently awarded preferential treatment to the blockading powers against the claims of other nations, the U.S feared this would encourage future European intervention. The revolutionaries, bearing a wound that could not be healed, succumbing finally in July 1903 in the Battle of Ciudad Bolivar after the siege of government army conducted by General Gomez, with which Matos decides to leave Venezuela, establishing itself in Paris.

However, the blockading nations argued for preferential treatment for their claims, which Venezuela rejected, and on 7 May 1903 a total of ten powers with grievances against Venezuela, including the United States, signed protocols referring the issue to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The Court held on 22 February 1904 that the blockading powers were entitled to preferential treatment in the payment of their claims. Washington disagreed with the decision in principle, and feared it would encourage future European intervention to gain such advantage. As a result, the crisis produced the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, described in Roosevelt's 1904 message to Congress. The Corollary asserted a right of the United States to intervene to "stabilize" the economic affairs of small states in the Caribbean and Central America if they were unable to pay their international debts, in order to preclude European intervention to do so. The Venezuela crisis, and in particular the arbitral award, were key in the development of the Corollary.

In 1906, Castro punished the international firms involved in the Revolution to the point that diplomatic relations were broken with the United States and then with France due to debt differences. As a result, Venezuela lost its direct telegraph cable access when the French company that had been providing it was ousted from the country. The DeForest Wireless Telegraph company negotiated with Castro and sent a representative on April 18, 1908 to install stations in five different towns across Venezuela.

General Antonio Paredes led an insurrection against Castro, and in the winter of 1906, Paredes was captured and executed alongside sixteen other dissidents. His brother, Hector Luis Paredes, issued a manifesto from his home in Berlin, Germany. In it, Paredes called on the Venezuelan diaspora to join together to oust Castro from power, accusing him of stealing millions from the national treasury and using mercenary force to impede the government.

In 1908, accusing the opposition to his regime, General Castro massively expelled Corsican producers and traders established in and around Carúpano.

Dutch–Venezuelan crisis

In 1908, a dispute broke out between the Netherlands and president Castro regime on the grounds of the harboring of refugees in Curaçao. In July, Castro's government broke diplomatic relations with the Netherlands, arguing that the country's chargé d'affaires in Caracas had sent his government negative reports about the situation in Venezuela, some of which were published in the press of that country. Castro subjected Dutch ships to registration and applied tariff measures to them. The Netherlands considered that the series of decrees harmed its trade with Curazao. Venezuela expelled the Dutch ambassador, prompting a Dutch dispatch of three warships – a coastal battleship, the HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck (1906), and two protected cruisers, the HNLMS Gelderland (1898) and the HNLMS Friesland (1896). The Dutch warships had orders to intercept every ship that was sailing under the Venezuelan flag.

On 12 December 1908, the Gelderland captured the Venezuelan gunboat Alix off Puerto Cabello. She and another ship the 23 de Mayo were interned in the harbor of Willemstad. With their overwhelming naval superiority, the Dutch enforced a blockade on Venezuela's ports.

Several popular riots run through the streets of Caracas, protesting the Dutch threats against Venezuela. The demonstrations degenerate into looting of businesses. Among the looted businesses was that of the Dutch merchant Thielen, an important figure in the Castro regime.

Castro's overthrow in 1908, exile and death in 1924
Few days later, Castro, who had been seriously ill for four years due to a kidney problem, left for Paris to seek medical treatment for syphilis, leaving the government in the hands of vice president Juan Vicente Gómez, the man who was instrumental in his victories of 1899 and 1903. However, on 19 December 1908, Gómez seized power himself and effectively ended the war with the Netherlands. A few days later, General Castro left for Berlin, nominally for a surgical operation. After that Castro suffered the harassment of the European powers resentful due to the policy that he had maintained towards them during his 8 years as president of Venezuela.

Without resources to carry out an armed invasion, he went to Madrid and then recovered from his operation in Paris and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. At the end of 1912 Castro intended to spend a season in the United States, but was captured and vexed by the immigration authorities of Ellis Island which forced him to leave in peremptory terms (February, 1913). He finally settled with his wife in Puerto Rico (1916), under close surveillance by spies sent by Juan Vicente Gómez, who assumed the Venezuelan presidency.

Castro spent the rest of his life in exile in Puerto Rico, making several plots to return to power — none of which were successful. Castro died 4 December 1924, in Santurce, Puerto Rico.

Personal life
Castro was married to Zoila Rosa Martínez in October 1886 when she was only 16 years of age. She served as First Lady of Venezuela from 1899 to 1908. She was sometimes known as Zoila de Castro.

She died in Caracas in 1952.

Castro's daughter, Rosa Castro Martínez, was born on January 31, 1906. She adopted the stage name Lucille Méndez, and became the first Venezuelan actress in Hollywood silent movies. Director Ralph Ince suggested the stage name, the same as his former wife. Rosa and Ralph married on July 7, 1926; afterwards, her Spanish performances billed her as Rosa Castro, though she continued to be listed as Méndez in films recorded for English-speaking audiences.

Méndez died in San Diego, California on May 24, 2008 at the age of 102.

Trivia
During his presidency, northern Venezuela was struck by the powerful 1900 San Narciso earthquake, which caused widespread material damage in Miranda State and in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. Castro was woken in the middle of the night, and he leaped off from a window of the Yellow House, the then official residence of the President of Venezuela, and suffered a broken ankle. The earthquake led him to consider changing the official residence to a building with anti-seismic structure, which occurred in 1904, when he transferred the Presidential House to Miraflores Palace, becoming its first occupant.

In popular culture
Cipriano Castro was portrayed by Roberto Moll in the 2017 film La planta insolente.

title: Cipriano Castro


text:
Talk:The Lorax

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 3 September 2020 and 16 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jcuhrinek.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:06, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Plot and Intention Dr. Seuss
I read a link to neoclassical economics in a better way this time becuase i feel its important to connect it to the larger issues dr seuss was trying to raise awareness of. same thing with the idea that it is more than a sad story about nature. theres precedence in seuss books, look at the butter battle book.

so ive been thinking about all of the oncelers relatives leaving as a human population crash, because they wouldnt just leave their good relative. or a combination of that and how greed and corruption ruins families in society. same things for the 'migrations' of animals, some are seen so sick that they arent able to walk, mass die off. ill find a way to add it at a later date

-Bob

Do you think that grickle grass is invasive? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by BobbyPowers (talk • contribs) 19:39, 24 February 2005 (UTC).

 * Bob, the article can mention that The Lorax is regarded as a parable about industrial destruction of the environment, because that goes beyond any one editor's point of view. Personal speculations outside the text, though, are original research and don't belong in the article.

 * Regarding the "neoclassical economics" mention, it seems to imply (1) that classical economics, which dominated the 18th and 19th centuries, was less inclined to environmental destruction (2) that the US moved quickly to protect the environment between the 1920s and 1960s, when classical economics was out of fashion. I don't think either is correct. The book is about commercial industry destroying the environment generally, and singling out destruction that is allegedly caused by "neoclassical economics" strikes me as POV.

 * Aside from that, I welcome your contributions. Gazpacho 05:29, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Lake Erie?
The article currently sttes at the end that Seuss had the book changed after publication to remove the line, "I hear things are just as bad up at Lake Erie!" Yet a Google search for this gets only one hit other than this article, and that hit isn't a credible source. Could someone please find information to back up this claim? --LostLeviathan 22:02, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

 * True, and good point, but that is if one only searches the full text of the string. Another search, ("The Lorax" "Lake Erie") brings up 980 results, including some pretty credible results, I'd say.

 * From T.E.A.C.H. (which got the text from The Late, Great Lakes, by William Ashworth, Alfred A. Knoph, Inc. (pg. 133), 1988.):

 * "The demise of Lake Erie even made it into a Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax."

 * With a slight misspelling of "hear" (spelled "here"), we get Thinkquest's page entitled Why he wrote The Lorax. Along with many others on the subject (as I said, 980 of them). I agree that just entering the string looks misleading, but one has to remember that differing variations on the wording, as well as only references can be made. Thank you for your concern, however.-- User:Mys e kurity|Mysekurity ]] additions | e-mail ]]05:26, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Thank you very much. --LostLeviathan 22:17, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

--"The Lorax has the distinction of being the only book that Seuss himself ever changed after publication, by removing the Lorax's line, "I hear things are just as bad up at Lake Erie!" which he found to be out of place in his fantasy work, as it refered to a real world place."

Is this correct? He didn't remove a reference to Weehawken, a real world town in New Jersey bordering NYC.--

 * Yeah, but lots of people who aren't from the area have heard of Lake Erie. Weehawken sounds very Seuss-ish, and if you're not from the area, you probably haven't heard of it.  Besides, it only states that it's memorable because it was changed, it doesn't state that it was the only reference to a real world place.  Ehurtley 02:59, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I don't understand why it uses the word "reason" when it talks about the Truax...I feel reason makes it seem like it would be reasonble to support unsustainable logging...I'm considering changing to to read more clearly the point of the Truax...logging companies attempting to make unsustainable logging look like a reasonable thing to do. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Aerros (talk • contribs) 04:05, 20 December 2006 (UTC).

Just great. the article in its current state doesn't mention Lake Erie untill the trivia section: The book was made into an animated television special in 1972, produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. The line about Lake Erie was spoken by one of the humming fish as they marched out of the river at the foot of the Once-ler's factory.
 * That being the first appearance of Lake Erie, it makes no sense at all! It makes even less sense to have to come to the discussion page to find out what the line was. Propose fixes? --200.44.6.104 04:17, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

I am removing the part about the line being omitted from later releases, as my copy of The Lorax, purchased in 2011, still contains the line. Additionally, the only articles I can find on Google that would back this claim up reference this page as their source. --Eldritch2k4 (talk) 12:25, 18 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Despite your research to the contrary, the info is well sourced. FWIW (which isn't much), my niece's copy (circa 2004) does not mention Lake Erie. - Sum mer PhD  (talk) 14:41, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

I have also just bought a copy of the book and the line about Lake Erie is in there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.96.106.50 (talk) 05:34, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

Summary
Isn't the article's plot description kind of adult for a children's book? ("...his business was destroying the Truffula ecosystem, causing mass migrations of native fauna...") Yes, I realize that the book has a not-too-subtle political message (I'm doing a paper on it right now), but I would think the article could describe the plot in simpler terms, and point out its environmental themes in a separate section. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Marbehraglaim (talk • contribs) 15:40, 25 April 2006.
 * The Book is for children but the article is for Adults. It is alos funny when one uses such fancy words for a children's book.  The article can be facy aslong as it still is legible.  (What good is it to use words only you know withouth a link to the meaning).  All complicated concepts have thier own page and facy workds can have an Interwiki link such as word --E-Bod 20:57, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm not saying the article shouldn't have a discussion about the environental implications of the book. Of course it should. The problem is that it fails to distinguish the story description from the story interpretation. Both belong in the article, but separately. Someone who's never read the book and reads the article is likely to think that the story is actually about ecosystems and native fauna, when in fact those terms never show up anywhere in the book, and it would be inconceivable that they would. The article fails to give a sense that on its most literal level, The Lorax is simply a delightful tale that takes place in an imaginary world populated by weirdly named creatures and colorful woolly trees. And for most of us, the book can still be enjoyed on that level. In neglecting that fact, the article sounds oddly unprofessional. It would be like describing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a story about Jesus. That's certainly what C.S. Lewis intended the book to represent, but on a basic level it's just a fantasy, and to ignore that fact is to overlook the main reason why the book appeals to more than just a Christian audience, just as The Lorax appeals to more than just environmental activists. marbeh raglaim

I have changed the page. I wrote my own summary of the book, and I condensed the old summary and made it a separate section called "Interpretation." If you have any objections, we can discuss them. marbeh raglaim 09:20, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
 * While the Interpretation section has some interesting information, it mostly seems like Original Research. Any way to get some citations, or maybe a published review that states these same ideas? Pnkrockr 18:00, 22 September 2006 (UTC)
 * I think the insights of the Interpretation section, while well-written, are fairly obvious to anyone who's read the book. Do you know anyone who would disagree with the claims in this section? marbeh raglaim 18:50, 22 September 2006 (UTC)
 * It's not a matter of anyone disagreeing, but just that everything needs to be cited. Pnkrockr 20:01, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Memorable Quotes
There was some sort of random SAD SACK quote with an address for a blog that I removed. As far as I could tell, it had nothing to do with The Lorax. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.82.180.22 (talk) 16:41, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Lost Reference (dead link)
Source 2 (most likely the one meant for "The Truax", as it points to an appropriate PDF) is a dead reference link. Trying on both my desktop and laptop turns up no PDF at the end. It has either been pulled or moved. Not sure what Wikipedia's standards are on such cases (Wikifur Editor, sorry). Somebody with a little more experience feel like throwing a starving collegiate wol... erm, student a bone? --Copb.phoenix (talk) 08:14, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

[Untitled comment-section]
hi i did a reaserach about the enviorment! at its a pretty darn good book:) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.250.160.241 (talk) 19:43, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

Correction
In the section FLASHBACK, it states that the Oncelers were making "Sneeds." This is incorrect. They were making "Thneeds." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.77.207.249 (talk) 02:22, 12 June 2011 (UTC)
 * It was vandalized yesterday. I've reverted it. - SummerPhD (talk) 02:58, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Lot of Vandalism
There is a lot of vandalism, check the history page. Maybe that last edit by 67.236.19.249 should also be undone. --82.171.13.139 (talk) 13:54, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Green Energy
Through the use of turbines, we can collect the excess energy of Dr. Seuss spinning in his grave and turn it into electricity! It's really the best way to generate green energy that I've ever heard. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.18.237.126 (talk) 21:28, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * While the snarky and off-(the literary-)topic nature of the talk-contribution on which i am commenting may have caught my eye bcz of its tone, and the axe that it may be out to grind, the relevant criterion behind my moving it away from the head of the page is that WP article talk is not a listserv, and that the gyps-who-pass-in-the-night on a talk page don't deserve any more protection from having the prominence of their voices kept appropriate (new topics after old, and responses to comments after the comment responded to) than do the non-ym ous members of this community. --Jerzy•t 15:29, 28 July 2018 (UTC)

The Conservative Lorax on CollegeHumor
http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6804067/the-conservative-lorax — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.142.161.30 (talk) 17:24, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

Identity of the boy?

 * When I read the book, I thought that the boy was meant to be "you", i.e. whoever was reading the book. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 22:43, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

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Connection with El Paso mass shooting
In the purported "manifesto" of the mass shooter in So Paso, the book is stated as at least part of his motivation  “The American lifestyle affords our citizens an incredible quality of life. However, our lifestyle is destroying the environment of our country. The decimation of the environment is creating a massive burden for future generations. Corporations are heading the destruction of our environment by shamelessly overharvesting resources. This has been a problem for decades. For example, this phenomenon is brilliantly portrayed in the decades old classic “The Lorax”. Water sheds around the country, especially in agricultural areas, are being depleted. Fresh water is being polluted from farming and oil drilling operations. Consumer culture is creating thousands of tons of unnecessary plastic waste and electronic waste, and recycling to help slow this down is almost non-existent. Urban sprawl creates inefficient cities which unnecessarily destroys millions of acres of land. We even use god knows how many trees worth of paper towels just wipe water off our hands. Everything I have seen and heard in my short life has led me to believe that the average American isn’t willing to change their lifestyle, even if the changes only cause a slight inconvenience. The government is unwilling to tackle these issues beyond empty promises since they are owned by corporations. Corporations that also like immigration because more people means a bigger market for their products. I just want to say that I love the people of this country, but god damn most of y’all are just too stubborn to change your lifestyle. So the next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable.” StreamingRadioGuide (talk) 13:35, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 June 2023
-In musical section, “…but was cut before the show opened sadly enough.” remove the phrase sadly enough, opinionated and unprofessional term. -Also in musical section, “The gender role was reversed. The book has a boy, the musical cast a girl…” should be completely revised. The two sentences should be converted to one and the beginning of the sentence should make it clear what role was gender-swapped instead of stating this at the end. I.e.: “In the production, the role of the boy who receives the last seed was changed to a girl.” 71.214.134.32 (talk) 18:02, 11 June 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ Actualcpscm (talk) 19:04, 11 June 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Lorax


text:
For All the Saints

"For All the Saints" was written as a processional hymn by William Walsham How, who was ultimately the Anglican Bishop of Wakefield. The hymn was first printed in Hymns for Saints' Days, and Other Hymns, by Earl Nelson, 1864.

Tune
The hymn was sung to the melody Sarum, by the Victorian composer Joseph Barnby, until the publication of the English Hymnal in 1906. This hymnal used a new setting by Ralph Vaughan Williams which he called Sine Nomine (literally, "without name") in reference to its use on the Feast of All Saints, 1 November (or the first Sunday in November, All Saints Sunday among some Lutheran church bodies or those congregations whose membership makes weekday services infeasible). It has been described as "one of the finest hymn tunes of the [20th] century."

Although most English hymn tunes of its era are written for singing in SATB four-part harmony, Sine Nomine is primarily unison (verses 1,2,3,7 and 8) with organ accompaniment; three verses (4, 5 and 6) are set in sung harmony. The tune appears in this forms in most English hymnbooks (for example English Hymnal (641), New English Hymnal (197), Common Praise (232)) and American hymnals (for example, The Hymnal 1982 and the Lutheran Service Book (677)).

Since the 1990s, some Presbyterian churches and groups affiliated with Reformed University Fellowship in the United States use a tune composed by Christopher Miner.

Charles Villiers Stanford's tune Engelberg was also written to be partnered with this hymn, although in the wake of Sine nomine it never gained popularity and is now more commonly used with other hymns, including "When in Our Music God is Glorified."

Text

 * 1. For all the saints, who from their labours rest,
 * Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
 * Thy Name, O Jesu, be forever blessed.
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 2. Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
 * Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
 * Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 3. For the Apostles’ glorious company,
 * Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,
 * Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 4. O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
 * Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
 * And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 5. For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,
 * Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
 * Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 6. For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
 * Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
 * And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 7. O blest communion, fellowship divine!
 * We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
 * Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 8. And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
 * Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
 * And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 9. The golden evening brightens in the west;
 * Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
 * Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 10. But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
 * The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
 * The King of glory passes on His way.
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

 * 11. From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
 * Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
 * Singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
 * Alleluia, Alleluia!

''Some versions substitute "far off we hear" for "steals on the ear" (verse 8). There are other minor variations as well. Most renditions omit verses 3, 5 and 6.''

Use in German
On a request by German composer Heinz Werner Zimmermann, Anna Martina Gottschick wrote a hymn "Herr, mach uns stark" (Lord make us strong [in courage to confess you]) to the "Sine nomine" tune in 1972, because the composer wanted to make it available for German church singing. Her hymn is intended for the end of the liturgical year. The version in German Protestant and Catholic hymnals closes with a stanza which Jürgen Henkys translated from "For All the Saints".

title: For All the Saints


text: Category:Scottish geologists

title: Category:Scottish geologists


text: Category:British geologists

title: Category:British geologists


text:
Talk:Tlingit clans

[Untitled]
The clan list is incomplete mostly because I haven't been bothered to fill in the rest. Typing Tlingit names in HTML is not an easy task, nor is trying to transcribe them accurately from various sources. I'm not even completely sure of the pronunciation of some of them, nor their meanings. This is my apology for the list being unfinished. Also, many of the clans are extremely minor and may not exist anymore, which needs to be noted; this isn't an easy task because it requires interviewing a number of people and consulting various hard-to-get sources (like the CCTHITA tribal rolls). For those that are not familiar with Tlingit culture, rest assured there are about as many Eagle as there are Raven clans, and that there are a finite number of them. Ts'éiyoosh 05:53, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Tlingit clans


text: User talk:68.6.77.7

title: User talk:68.6.77.7


text:
Pierre Pierce

Pierre Antoine Pierce (born June 7, 1983) is an American former professional basketball player. A former member of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes men's team, Pierce was convicted of several crimes relating to a violent incident with a former girlfriend, leading to his dismissal from the Hawkeyes and eventual imprisonment. The 6-foot-4-inch (1.93 m) and 195 lb (88 kg) point guard /shooting guard was the highest scoring player on the team at the time of his dismissal.

Pierce was born in the Chicago, Illinois suburb of Westmont, and he played competitive basketball for Westmont High School. He began attending the University of Iowa in 2001.

College career
In his freshman season (2001–02), in which he started 32 of 35 games, mostly at point guard, Pierce averaged 7.1 points (4th on the team ), 3.3 rebounds (4th on the team ) and a team-leading 3.3 assists per game, while making 16.7% of his three-pointers.

As he was suspended for the entire 2002–03 season, Pierce's sophomore season commenced in 2003–04. In 29 games, he averaged a team-leading 16.1 points, 5.7 rebounds (3rd on the team ) and 3.7 assists (2nd on the team ). A highlight was a 28-point performance in a 79–70 loss to Michigan on March 12, 2004.

In his final season (2004–05), up until it had been cut short, the junior had been leading the team with 17.8 points, while averaging 5.2 rebounds (2nd on the team ), 4.2 assists, and for a team-high 2.5 steals, this was a marked improvement from 2001–02 and 2003–04, when he averaged only 0.9 steals in each of those seasons. He had a career-high 31 points and a team-high 3 steals in an 81–69 loss to Ohio State on January 8, 2005.

2001 and 2002 charges
According to DuPage County (Illinois) court records, in June 2001, Pierce was arrested and had to post bail on charges of criminal defacement and mob action for allegedly spray-painting his high school, although Pierce disputes the records.

In September 2002, Pierce was charged with one count of third-degree sexual assault in Iowa City. He was arrested on October 1. On September 7, a report was filed by a woman who was treated at a hospital emergency room the day before. She accused Pierce, an acquaintance, of performing unwanted sex acts on her at a party at his Iowa City apartment on September 6. According to records, Pierce held the woman's hands over her head and covered her mouth when she tried to scream. He was subsequently suspended indefinitely from the Iowa Hawkeyes by athletic department officials, which was atypical, as the school usually waits for the legal process to play out before making a decision, but the school took swift action because of the severity of the charge.

To avoid imprisonment, Pierce pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge of assault causing injury in a sexual assault. He received no jail time, but received a deferred judgment, so the charge was erased from his record after he successfully completed a year of probation, counseling and 200 hours of community service, the requirements of the plea agreement. He later apologized publicly for engaging in "inappropriate sexual conduct with a fellow student." Pierce sat out the 2002–03 season after his plea bargain but took it as a redshirt year to avoid losing it as a year of eligibility.

Because there were many people upset over Pierce being allowed to remain on the team and keep his scholarship, two petitions totaling over 3,000 signatures were filed protesting the circumstances of the school's handling of the case. A petition started by a law school student had 1,873 signatures, while the university's Women's Resource and Action Center collected 1,230. Amid resolutions urging students to boycott the men's basketball games, the petition had urged season ticket holders to ask the athletic department for a refund or to transfer their tickets to another athletic team, actions Pierce's attorney Alfredo Parrish labeled "absolutely ridiculous" because "[they] don't know the facts" before "[reaching] a conclusion."

Pierce spent that season working on improving his game while he was not competing. Pierce was back in uniform with the team in August 2003, in a return for the 2003–04 season, in which he led the Hawkeyes on a five-game tour of Australia. In those games, he averaged 20.8 points a game on better than 50-percent shooting, and almost 5 rebounds per game.

2005 charges and imprisonment
On January 27, 2005, a disturbance was investigated at the West Des Moines home of a woman Pierce had been dating for 2½ years. He allegedly choked her, threatened her with a knife and stripped her after an argument over her new boyfriend. Pierce was also accused of causing damage to her apartment and stealing a laptop and camera. After police confirmed Pierce was the focus of their investigation, he was dismissed from the basketball team by coach Steve Alford on February 2, with Alford saying that [Pierce had] betrayed the trust they placed in him when he was given a second chance two years prior. At the time, Pierce was the leading scorer on the team averaging 17.8 points per game, the third-best in the Big Ten Conference, and led the Hawkeyes with 16.1 points a game as a sophomore in 2003–04. Pierce met with Alford for about 15 minutes on February 15, and Pierce's appeal to have his dismissal reconsidered was rejected by Alford. Pierce remained on scholarship and was still attending classes.

Pierce's attorney Alfredo Parrish sought dismissal of the most serious of the charges, first-degree burglary, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of up to 25 years upon conviction. On February 28, 2005, Pierce pleaded not guilty to two charges of first-degree burglary, assault with intent to commit sexual assault and fourth-degree criminal mischief. Because the first-degree burglary charges and the assault charges are felonies, a conviction would mean Pierce could have been sentenced to up to 56 years and fined $9,000. In March, he waived his right to a speedy trial, delaying it from mid-May to a later date. Months later, fresh evidence surfaced that Pierce made more than 200 phone calls to his ex-girlfriend in March and April, which violated a no-contact order.

In May 2005, a judge allowed Pierce to travel outside of Iowa to attend a Chicago, Illinois-based camp in preparation for June's 2005 NBA draft. Strict conditions were placed on Pierce, including the posting of a $30,000 cash bond, that he stay with his parents in the Chicago area and that he submit a plan outlining his supervision while attending the camp.

In August 2005, he reached a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary, assault with an intent to commit sexual abuse, false imprisonment, and fourth-degree criminal mischief in Dallas County District Court. He was originally charged with two counts of first-degree burglary, but prosecutors agreed to dismiss these, which would have carried a 25-year sentence. He got off easy (due to his privilege) and was sentenced on October 28, 2005 to a five-year suspended sentence on the burglary charge, two years on the assault charge and one year each for false imprisonment and criminal mischief, the sentences to be served concurrently.

Pierce served 332 days (11 months) of a 2-year sentence at Iowa's Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility before being released on probation on September 24, 2006. Pierce originally sought early release but learned he was denied on August 7, 2006, thus delaying his freedom for several weeks. He received time off for good behavior and participation in prison treatment programs including a 4- to 5-month treatment program for sex offenders. He was to remain on probation for the next four years and one month, and had to register with the Iowa Sex Offender Registry before his release.

Release
Pierce was named to the roster of Golden State Warriors' 2007 NBA Summer League competition in Las Vegas, in which he played impressively, averaging 21.5 points in his first two games. Because the terms of his probation prevented him from leaving Iowa to pursue a career with the NBA, his participation in the Nevada-based summer league was a violation, which resulted in him being sentenced in April 2008 to 30 days' jail.

In September 2008, the Iowa Supreme Court allowed Pierce to leave Iowa to play professionally in France where he signed a $120,000 contract with a team (Hyères-Toulon Var Basket ) in their top professional league in which he averaged 13.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 30 French League games. In July 2010 he signed a one-year deal with Greek club Aris BC. In February 2011 he signed with BC Azovmash. He last played for l'Angers Basket Club in France in 2014-15 season.

title: Pierre Pierce