title: Röyksopp

text: On 14 June 2022 the band released Sorry, featuring Jamie Irrepressible as a lead single for Profound Mysteries II. At the same time the album became available for pre-order with Unity, Featuring Karen Harding available alongside it. The album was released on 19 August 2022. The next album in this series, Profound Mysteries III, was released on 18 November 2022.


title: Röyksopp

text: Röyksopp's music is often referred to as "warm", a reference to the band's downbeat electronica that combines elements of house music and Afro-American sounds.


title: Röyksopp

text: A notable component of Röyksopp's song repertoire relies on the use of multiple lead vocalists. For instance, "Melody A.M." features the vocal talents of Anneli Drecker and Erlend Øye, "The Understanding" features Kate Havnevik, Chelonis R. Jones, and Karin Dreijer Andersson, and "Junior" features Robyn, Anneli Drecker, Karin Dreijer Andersson, and Lykke Li.


title: Röyksopp

text: Röyksopp enjoy using classic synthesizers, including the monophonic Korg MS-20, the polyphonic Roland Juno-106, and multiple members of the Akai Sampler Series. The band has stated that they prefer using analogue synthesizers over digital ones. Svein Berge said, "It's fairly limited the fun you can have with the use of a mouse. We like to mix."


title: Röyksopp

text: In addition to writing their own music, the duo enjoy remixing songs. Berge said, "It's obviously fun remixing people like Coldplay, artists of such a big calibre. Whenever people approach us for a remix it's very nice; being approached by Roots Manuva, The Streets, and even Peter Gabriel is quite fun." The band was also asked by Britney Spears for a remix, but had to turn down the offer due to scheduling conflicts.


title: Röyksopp

text: As they grew up in northern Norway, Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland listened to local artists like Bel Canto and former Bel Canto member Biosphere (whom, coincidentally, Berge and Brundtland would remix in 1997 while they were part of Alanïa). The band has also expressed their interest in the music of Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Giorgio Moroder, Art of Noise, Vangelis, Erik Satie, and Francis Lai. Svein Berge has also stated that he is very fond of the production and programming skills of Datassette, who produced a remix of the Röyksopp single "Happy Up Here".


title: Röyksopp

text: Röyksopp often include references and homages to their musical influences. For instance, "Röyksopp Forever" pays homage to famous electronica musicians from the 1970s, including, "the likes of Vangelis and these people, and Krautrock, like Tangerine Dream and even Pink Floyd and King Crimson."


title: Röyksopp

text: Röyksopp is known for its elaborate concert performances. Marc Hogan of Pitchfork Media said that "Those who have heard Röyksopp's two albums ... won't be surprised to learn the Norwegian duo's live set is much better and more raucuous than hunching next to the speakers at yer local Crate & Barrel". When performing live, the duo often appear in eccentric outfits. Ari Stein, of Electronic Beats, said, that during one particular live set, "Röyksopp returned with two separate encores, one which included Berge playing "Eple" with a space suit capsule on his head".


title: Röyksopp

text: In addition to sales success, Röyksopp has garnered generally positive reception from many music critics. The band has also been nominated for many prestigious awards, including multiple Spellemannprisens and a Grammy.


title: Röyksopp

text: The tracks "What Else Is There?" and "Eple" were chosen among the top 500 tracks of the decade by Pitchfork Media and placed in 375th and 336th place respectively. Another track written by Röyksopp, Annie's "Heartbeat", was placed 17th on the same list. On 24 November 2009, "Melody A.M." was named the best Norwegian album of the decade by Norway's largest newspaper, "Verdens Gang". "The Understanding" came 5th on the same list. In a ranking of the top 10 Norwegian tracks of the decade by VG, "Eple" and "What Else Is There?" were placed 3rd and 6th respectively.


title: Röyksopp

text: However, some criticism has been aimed at the repetitive nature of the band and the trip hop genre in general. Robert Christgau said that, "chill-out tends toward waiting-room music for plastic surgeons who really want you to order that butt implant. Where once [Röyksopp] were extolled for their subtle melodicism, here their schlock candidly attacks the jugular. If they're Air, Goldie was Tricky." Pitchfork Media, in their review of "Senior", said that "the kind of downtempo stuff that makes up the majority of Röyksopp's vocal-less compositions just doesn't hold up to concentrated, repeated listens like many other forms of instrumental electronic music."


title: 8-track tape

text: The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, which pre-dated the 8-track system, surpassed it in popularity for pre-recorded music.


title: 8-track tape

text: The format was most popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Japan. One advantage of the 8-track tape cartridge was that it could play continuously, and did not have to be "flipped over" to play the entire tape. It is now considered to be obsolete, although there are collectors that refurbish these tapes and players as well as some bands that issue these tapes as a novelty(Cheap Trick's "The Latest" in 2009 and Dolly Parton's "A Holly Dolly Christmas" in 2020 with a track that's only available on the 8 track)


title: 8-track tape

text: The Stereo 8 Cartridge was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear, of Lear Jet Corporation, along with Ampex, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Motorola, and RCA Victor Records (RCA - Radio Corporation of America).


title: 8-track tape

text: Inventor George Eash invented a design in 1953, called the Fidelipac cartridge, also called the NAB cartridge.


title: 8-track tape

text: The Lear Jet Stereo 8 cartridge was designed by Richard Kraus while working for the Lear Jet Corporation, under Bill Lear, in 1963. The major change was to incorporate a neoprene rubber and nylon pinch roller into the cartridge itself, rather than to make the pinch roller a part of the tape player, reducing mechanical complexity. Lear also eliminated some of the internal parts of the Eash cartridge, such as the tape-tensioning mechanism and an interlock that prevented tape slippage. Because the Stereo-Pak cartridges were prone to jamming due to their complex design, Lear endeavored to redesign them, putting twice the number of tracks on them, doubling their recording time to 80 minutes.


title: 8-track tape

text: The popularity of both four-track and eight-track cartridges grew from the booming automobile industry. In September 1965, the Ford Motor Company introduced factory-installed and dealer-installed eight-track tape players as an option on three of its 1966 models (the sporty Mustang, luxurious Thunderbird, and high-end Lincoln), and RCA Victor introduced 175 Stereo-8 Cartridges from its RCA Victor and RCA Camden labels of recording artists catalogs. By the 1967 model year, all of Ford's vehicles offered this tape player upgrade option. Most of the initial factory installations were separate players from the radio (such as shown in the image), but dashboard mounted 8-track units were offered in combination with an AM radio, as well as with AM/FM receivers.


title: 8-track tape

text: The 8-track format gained steadily in popularity because of its convenience and portability. Home players were introduced in 1966 that allowed consumers to share tapes between their homes and portable systems. By the late 1960s, the 8-track segment was the largest in the consumer electronics market and the popularity of 8-track systems for cars helped generate demand for home units. "Boombox" type portable players were also popular but eight-track player/recorders failed to gain wide popularity and few manufacturers offered them except for manufacturer Tandy Corporation (for its Radio Shack electronics stores). With the availability of cartridge systems for the home, consumers started thinking of eight-tracks as a viable alternative to 33 rpm album style vinyl records, not only as a convenience for the car. Also by the late 1960s, prerecorded releases on the 8-track tape format began to arrive within a month of the vinyl release. The 8-track format became by far the most popular and offered the largest music library of all the tape systems.


title: 8-track tape

text: Milton Bradley's (MB) OMNI Entertainment System was an electronic quiz machine game first released in 1980, similar to "Jeopardy!" or later "You Don't Know Jack" video game series, using 8-track tapes for playback analog audio for questions, instructions and answers as well as digital signals in magnetic tape data storage on remaining tracks to load the right answer for counting the score. In 1978, the Mego Corporation launched the 2-XL toy robot, which utilized the tracks for determining right from wrong answers. In 1977, the Scottish company GR International released the Bandmaster Powerhouse, a drum machine that played back custom-made 8-track cartridges containing drum and percussion rhythms loops recorded with real instruments. These could be subjected to a degree of processing using the drum machine's controls, which included tempo and instrument balance.


title: 8-track tape

text: 1978 was the peak year for 8-track sales in the United States, with sales declining quite rapidly from then on. Eight-track players became less common in homes and vehicles in the late 1970s. The compact cassette had arrived in 1963.


title: 8-track tape

text: In the U.S., eight-track cartridges were phased out of retail stores in late 1982 and early 1983. However, some titles were still available as eight-track tapes through Columbia House and RCA (BMG) Music Service "Record Clubs" until late 1988. Until 1990, Radio Shack (Tandy Corporation) continued to sell blank eight-track cartridges and players for home recording use under its Realistic brand.


title: Justine Frischmann

text: Justine Elinor Frischmann (born 16 September 1969) is an English artist and retired musician. She was the lead singer of the Britpop band Elastica after forming Suede, before retiring from the music industry and pursuing a career as a painter.


title: Justine Frischmann

text: Frischmann was born on 16 September 1969 in Kensington, London, the daughter of Wilem Frischmann, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who is the former chairman of the Pell Frischmann company of consulting engineers, and a Russian mother. Her parents are both Jewish. She grew up in Twickenham, London, and attended St Paul's Girls School, before studying at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London.


title: Justine Frischmann

text: She was a founding member of the band Suede with Brett Anderson, whom she met at UCL in 1988. She left the band in October 1991. In the 2018 documentary "The Insatiable Ones", Anderson cites her as a huge influence on the band's first album.


title: Justine Frischmann

text: Frischmann later founded and fronted her own band, Elastica. Their first album, "Elastica", released in 1995, became the fastest selling debut album in UK history. They were signed to Deceptive Records in the UK, and later with Geffen Records in Europe and the US. In 1994, Elastica were voted Best New Band by NME readers at the Brit awards. In 1995, Elastica were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for their album "Elastica". The album went on to sell over a million copies worldwide. In 2001 the band announced an amicable breakup, citing, in part, burnout from a grueling touring schedule.


title: Justine Frischmann

text: Frischmann spent the next few years developing artist M.I.A., whom she discovered. M.I.A. was Frischmann's friend and flatmate. Frischmann co-wrote and produced M.I.A.'s demos for her first album, "Arular", most notably its 2003 single "Galang".


title: Justine Frischmann

text: In 2017, Rough Trade Records released a remastered version of Elastica's first eponymously titled album. That year, there were rumours that Elastica had been asked to perform at M.I.A.'s Meltdown at the Southbank. In 2019, Rough Trade released a limited edition Elastica BBC sessions album on UK Record Store Day.


title: Justine Frischmann

text: In 2003, Frischmann co-presented a series called "Dreamspaces" for the BBC Television about modern architecture. In 2004, she presented "The South Bank Show" and was a judge for the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture.


title: Justine Frischmann

text: In 2005, Frischmann moved to Boulder, Colorado, to enroll in a masters program in visual arts at Naropa University, a small, Buddhist-inspired liberal arts college, and "become a nobody". In 2012 her work was shortlisted for the UK's Marmite Prize for painting, and she has been included in The Amsterdam List of 1000 Living Painters.


title: Justine Frischmann

text: In a 2016 interview regarding her art career, Frischmann stated, "I don't really have any desire to make music, to be honest."


title: Justine Frischmann

text: Frischmann has said, "The themes and ideas I am working with are in direct relation to an ongoing personal narrative; the big questions are reflected in the choices I make in my art ... [including] my ever-evolving relationship with my spiritual faith. I think my approach and aesthetics reveal internal struggles and speak to my family origins and history."


title: Justine Frischmann

text: Frischmann previously dated her Suede bandmate Brett Anderson. She then dated Blur lead singer Damon Albarn from 1991 until the couple broke up in 1998, which served as inspiration for Blur's 1999 singles "No Distance Left to Run" and "Tender". She is now married to a meteorologist, Professor Ian Faloona, and lives and works in the United States.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: Juliet Anne Prowse (September 25, 1936 – September 14, 1996) was a dancer and actress whose four-decade career included stage, television and film. She was raised in South Africa, where her family emigrated after World War II. Known for her attractive legs, she was described after her death as having "... arguably the best legs since Betty Grable."


title: Juliet Prowse

text: Prowse was born in Bombay, British India, to an English father and South African mother. After her father's death when she was 3 years old, her mother returned with her to South Africa. She began studying dance a year later, at the age of four.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: In her early twenties, she was dancing at a club in Paris when she was spotted by a talent agent and eventually signed to play the role of Claudine in the Walter Lang film "Can-Can" (1960). She had already missed a few opportunities to go to Hollywood because she was under contract but eventually left a show in Spain in which she was starring to travel to the United States for this film.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: It was during the filming of "Can-Can" in 1959 that she captured the international spotlight. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the set of the film, and after Prowse performed a rather saucy can-can for the Russian leader, he proclaimed her dance immoral. The publicity brought Prowse considerable attention in the United States. From there, her career accelerated.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: Prowse met Frank Sinatra on the set of "Can-Can". "Time" did not rate the movie highly, but declared Prowse the best thing in it: "In fact, the only thing really worth seeing is Juliet Prowse, a young South African hoofer who puts some twinkle in the stub-toed choreography. And the only thing really worth hearing is the crack that Frank flips back at Juliet when she whips a redoubtable hip in his direction. 'Don't point,' he gasps. 'It's rude.'" She would go on to appear with Sinatra and other notable guests such as Ella Fitzgerald, Peter Lawford, Hermione Gingold, the Hi-Lo's, Red Norvo, and Nelson Riddle and his orchestra on the 1959 "Frank Sinatra Show". She at times would sing in the chorus with other guests or Sinatra would sing to her.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: Sinatra invited Prowse to join him in Las Vegas, even though she was living with the actor Nico Minardos at the time. Sinatra and Prowse announced their engagement in 1962. Soon afterwards they broke-up, reportedly because Prowse wanted to concentrate on her career. Prowse later admitted, "I was as much flattered as I was in love. He (Sinatra) was a complex person, and after a few drinks he could be very difficult."


title: Juliet Prowse

text: Prowse co-starred alongside Elvis Presley in "G.I. Blues" (1960). During shooting of the film, they had a short and intense fling. "Elvis and I had an affair. ... We had a sexual attraction like two healthy young people, but he was already a victim of his fans. We always met in his room and never went out." Prowse also made a brief cameo appearance in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer documentary film, "" (1970) as an interviewed audience member about to attend Elvis Presley's opening night show at the International Hotel in Las Vegas on August 10, 1970.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: She starred with Denny Scott Miller on her own NBC sitcom in the 1965–1966 season: "Mona McCluskey", which was produced by George Burns. The series was based on the idea that the couple, Mike and Mona McCluskey, would live on his military salary, rather than her lucrative earnings as an actress.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: Prowse also did other feature films, including "The Fiercest Heart" (1961) and "Who Killed Teddy Bear?" (1965) with Sal Mineo and Elaine Stritch.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: Although her film and television career did not make her as big a star as predicted, Prowse had a rather philosophical way of looking at it. "Things generally happen for the best. ... I never worry about what happens in my career, because I can always do something else." Prowse would later go on to headline successful Las Vegas shows, commanding a very high salary. Stating that Las Vegas was the most demanding place she ever worked, she won "Entertainer of the Year" for the Vegas run of "Sweet Charity". She would later show off her famous dancer's legs in a series of lucrative nationwide commercials for a number of advertisers, including L'eggs hosiery and Mannington Flooring.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: In 1987, she was mauled by the same 80-pound leopard on two occasions: the first time while filming a scene for "Circus of the Stars", then later while rehearsing a promotional stunt on "The Tonight Show". The latter attack was more serious, requiring upwards of twenty stitches to reattach her ear.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: Throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s, Prowse hosted the "Championship Ballroom Dance Competition" on PBS.


title: Juliet Prowse

text: In 1994, Prowse was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In 1995, she went into remission and was well enough to tour with Mickey Rooney in "Sugar Babies". The cancer subsequently returned and she died on September 14, 1996, eleven days short of her 60th birthday.


The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations, housing 1.73 billion people and having a combined gross domestic product of US$4.4 trillion (2022). The BIMSTEC member states – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand – are among the countries dependent on the Bay of Bengal.


title: Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation

text: Fourteen priority sectors of cooperation have been identified and several BIMSTEC centres have been established to focus on those sectors. A BIMSTEC free trade agreement is under negotiation (c. 2018), also referred Similar to SAARC.


text: Leadership is rotated in alphabetical order of country names. The permanent secretariat is in Dhaka, Bangladesh.


text: On 6 June 1997, a new sub-regional grouping was formed in Bangkok under the name BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Following the inclusion of Myanmar on 22 December 1997 during a special Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, the Group was renamed ‘BIMST-EC’ (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). In 1998, Nepal became an observer. In February 2004, Nepal and Bhutan became full members.


text: On 31 July 2004, in the first Summit the grouping was renamed as BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.


text: There are 16 main sectors of BIMSTEC along technological and economic cooperation among South Asian and Southeast Asian countries along the coast of the Bay of Bengal.


text: Sectors 7 to 13 were added at the 8th Ministerial Meeting in Dhaka in 2005 while the 14th sector was added in 11th Ministerial Meeting in New Delhi in 2008.


text: The BIMSTEC Permanent Secretariat at Dhaka was opened in 2014 and India contributes 32% of its expenditure. The current Secretary General of the BIMSTEC is Ambassador Tenzin Lekphell from Bhutan and the former Secretary General was M Shahidul Islam from Bangladesh. And First Secretary General was Sumith Nakandala from Sri Lanka.


text: The BIMSTEC uses the alphabetical order for the Chairmanship. The Chairmanship of the BIMSTEC has been taken in rotation commencing with Bangladesh (1997–1999).


text: Leaders are either heads of state or heads of government, depending on which is constitutionally the chief executive of the nation's government.


text: The organisation has 15 priority areas for cooperation, including Trade & Investment, Transport & Communication, Energy, Tourism, Technology, Fisheries, Agriculture, Public Health, Poverty Alleviation, Counter-Terrorism & Transnational Crime, Environment & Disaster Management, People-to-People Contact, Cultural Cooperation, Climate Change and Blue Economy.


text: In a virtual BIMSTEC Colombo summit which took place on March 30, 2022, decision was taken to reduce, re-constitute and reconstruct the number of sectors of co-operation from the unwieldy 14 to a more manageable 7.


text: The BIMSTEC Free Trade Area Framework Agreement (BFTAFA) has been signed by all member nations to stimulate trade and investment in the parties, and attract outsiders to trade with and invest in the BIMSTEC countries at a higher level. Subsequently, the ""Trade Negotiating Committee"" (TNC) was set up, with Thailand as the permanent chair, to negotiate in areas of trade in goods and services, investment, economic co-operation, trade facilitations and technical assistance for LDCs. Once negotiation on trade in goods is completed, the TNC would then proceed with negotiation on trade in services and investment.


text: The BIMSTEC Coastal Shipping Agreement draft was discussed on 1 December 2017 in New Delhi, to facilitate coastal shipping within 20 nautical miles of the coastline in the region to boost trade between the member countries. Compared to the deep sea shipping, coastal ship require smaller vessels with lesser draft and involve lower costs. Once the agreement becomes operational after it is ratified, a lot of cargo movement between the member countries can be done through the cost effective, environment friendly and faster coastal shipping routes.


text: The necessity for coastal shipping ecosystem and electricity grid interconnectivity, as two of the necessary components of the evolving shape of BIMSTEC.


text: On 7 and 8 November 2019, the first ever BIMSTEC Conclave of Ports summit was held in Visakhapatnam, India. The main aims of this summit is providing a platform to strengthen maritime interaction, port-led connectivity initiatives and sharing best practices among member countries.


text: In 2022 summit saw the declaration of the Master Plan for Transport Connectivity that would provide a framework for regional and domestic connectivity,


text: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) becomes a partner in 2005, to undertake the "BIMSTEC Transport Infrastructure and Logistic Study" (BTILS), which was completed in 2014.


title: Gurjar

text: Gurjar or Gujjar (also transliterated as Gujar, Gurjara and Gujjer) is an ethnic nomadic, agricultural and pastoral community, spread mainly in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, divided internally into various clan groups. They were traditionally involved in agriculture and pastoral and nomadic activities and formed a large homogeneous group. The historical role of Gurjars has been quite diverse in society, at one end they have been founder of several kingdoms, dynasties, and at the other end, some are still nomads with no land of their own.


title: Gurjar

text: The pivotal point in the history of Gurjar identity is often traced back to the emergence of a Gurjara kingdom in present-day Rajasthan during the Middle Ages (around 570 CE). It is believed that the Gurjars migrated to different parts of the Indian Subcontinent from the Gurjaratra. Previously, it was believed that the Gurjars had migrated earlier on from Central Asia as well, however, this view is generally considered to be speculative. According to B.D. Chattopadhyaya, historical references speak of Gurjara warriors and commoners in North India in the 7th century CE, and mention several Gurjara kingdoms and dynasties. However, according to Tanuja Kothiyal, the historical image of Gujar is of 'ignorant' herders though historical claim of Gurjar past also associate them with Gurjara-Pratiharas. She cites a myth that any Rajput claim Gurjars may have comes through Rajput marrying a Brahmin woman, and not through older Kshatriya clan. However, she states that the historical process suggests the opposite: that Rajputs emerged from other communities, such as Gujars, Jats, Raikas etc. The Gurjaras started fading way from the forefront of history after 10th century CE. Thereafter, several Gurjar chieftains and upstart warriors are mentioned in history, who were rather petty rulers in contrast to their predecessors. "Gujar" and "Gujjar" were quite common during the Mughal era, and documents dating from the period mention Gujars as a "turbulent" people. The Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan were known as "Gurjaradesa" and "Gurjaratra" for centuries prior to the arrival of the British power. The Gujrat and Gujranwala districts of Pakistani Punjab have also been associated with Gurjars from as early as the 8th century CE, when there existed a Gurjara kingdom in the same area. The Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh was also known as Gurjargadh previously, due to the presence of many Gujar zamindars, or land holding farmer class, in the area.


title: Gurjar

text: Gurjars are linguistically and religiously diverse. Although they are able to speak the language of the region and country where they live, Gurjars have their own language, known as Gujari. They variously follow Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism. The Hindu Gujars are mostly found in Indian states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab Plains and Maharashtra. Muslim Gurjars are mostly found in Punjab, Pakistan where they make up 20% of the population, mainly concentrated in Northern Punjabi cities of Gujranwala, Gujrat, Gujar Khan, Jehlum and Lahore, Afghanistan and Indian Himalayan regions such as Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of Uttarakhand.


title: Gurjar

text: The word "Gujjar" represents a "caste" and a tribe and a group in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, locally referred to as "jati", "zaat", "qaum" or "biradari" The history of the word Gurjar can be confidently traced back to an ancient ethnic and tribal identity called "Gurjara", which became prominent after the collapse of Gupta Empire. A literal or definitive meaning of the word Gurjara is not available in any of the historical references. The oldest reference to the word Gurjara is found in the book called "Harshacharita" (Harsha's Deeds), a biography of king "Harshavardhana" written around 630 CE. "Banabhatta", the author of Harshacharita, mentions that Harsha's father "Prabhakravardhana" (560-580 CE) was "a constant threat to the sleep of Gurjara""—"apparently a reference to the Gurjara king or kingdom. Inscriptions from a collateral branch of Gurjaras, known as "Gurjaras of Lata", claim that their family was ruling "Bharakucha" (Bharuch) as early as 450 CE from their capital at "Nandipuri". Based on these early dates, it has been proposed by some authors that Gurjara identity might have been present in India as early as the 3rd century CE, but it became prominent only after the fall of Guptas.


title: Gurjar

text: It has been suggested by several historians that Gurjara was initially the name of a tribe or clan which later evolved into a geographical and ethnic identity following the establishment of a "janapada" (tribal kingdom) called 'Gurjara'. This understanding has introduced an element of ambiguity regarding ancient royal designations containing the word 'gurjara' such as "gurjaraeshvara" or "gurjararaja", as now its debatable whether the kings bearing these epithets were tribal or ethnic Gurjaras.


title: Gurjar

text: Historians and anthropologists differ on the issue of Gurjar origin. According to this view, circa 1 CE, the ancient ancestors of Gurjars came in multiple waves of migration and they were initially accorded status as high-caste warriors in the Hindu fold in the North-Western regions (modern Rajasthan and Gujarat). Aydogdy Kurbanov states that some Gurjars, along with people from northwestern India, merged with the Hephthalites to become the Rajput clan.


title: Gurjar

text: According to scholars such as Baij Nath Puri, the Mount Abu (ancient Arbuda Mountain) region of present-day Rajasthan had been an abode of the Gurjars during the medieval period. The association of the Gurjars with the mountain is noticed in many inscriptions and epigraphs including "Tilakamanjari of Dhanpala". These Gurjars migrated from the Arbuda mountain region and as early as in the 6th century A.D., they set up one or more principalities in Rajasthan and Gujarat. The whole or a larger part of Rajasthan and Gujarat had been long known as "Gurjaratra" (country ruled or protected by the Gurjars) or "Gurjarabhumi" (land of the Gurjars) for centuries prior to the Mughal period.


title: Gurjar

text: In Sanskrit texts, the ethnonym has sometimes been interpreted as "destroyer of the enemy": "gur" meaning "enemy" and "ujjar" meaning "destroyer").


title: Gurjar

text: In its survey of "The People of India", the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) – a government-sponsored organisation – noted that


title: Gurjar

text: Irawati Karve, an indologist and historian, believed that the Gurjars position in society and the caste system generally varied from one linguistic area of India to another. In Maharashtra, Karve thought that they were probably absorbed by the Rajputs and Marathas but retained some of their distinct identity. She based her theories on analysis of clan names and tradition, noting that while most Rajputs claim their origins to lie in the mythological Chandravansh or Suryavansh dynasties, at least two of the communities in the region claimed instead to be descended from the Agnivansh.


title: Gurjar

text: Babur, in context of revolt, wrote that Jats and Gurjars poured down from hills in vast numbers in order to carry off oxen and buffaloes and that they were guilty of severest oppression in the country.


title: Gurjar

text: Many Gurjars were converted to Islam at various times, dating back to Mahmud of Ghazni's raid in Gujarat in 1026. Gurjars of Awadh and Meerut date their conversion to Tamerlane, when he sacked Delhi and forcibly converted them. By 1525, when Babur invaded India, he saw that the Gurjars of northern Punjab were already Muslims. Until the 1700s, conversions continued under Aurangzeb, who converted the Gurjars of Himachal Pradesh by force. Pathans and Balochis drove Gujar converts out of their land, forcing them into vagrancy.


title: Gurjar

text: In the 18th century, several Gurjar chieftains and small kings were in power. During the reign of Rohilla Nawab Najib-ul-Daula, Rao Dargahi Singh Bhati, the Gurjar chieftain of Dadri possessed 133 villages at a fixed revenue of Rs. 29,000. A fort in Parikshitgarh in Meerut district, also known as Qila Parikishatgarh, is ascribed to a Gurjar king Nain Singh Nagar. Morena, Samthar, Dholpur, Saharanpur and Roorkee were also some of the places ruled by Gurjar Kings.


title: Gurjar

text: During the revolt of 1857, the Gurjars of Chundrowli rose against the British, under the leadership of Damar Ram. The Gurjars of Shunkuri village, numbering around three thousand, joined the rebel sepoys. According to British records, the Gurjars plundered gunpowder and ammunition from the British and their allies. In Delhi, the Metcalfe House was sacked by Gurjar villagers from whom the land was taken to erect the building. The British records claim that the Gurjars carried out several robberies. Twenty Gurjars were reported to have been beheaded by Rao Tula Ram for committing dacoities in July 1857. In September 1857, the British were able to enlist the support of many Gurjars at Meerut. The colonial authors always used the code word "turbulent" for the castes who were generally hostile to British rule. They cited proverbs that appear to evaluate the caste in an unfavorable light. A British administrator, William Crooke, described that Gurjars seriously impeded the operations of British forces before they captured Delhi. Reporter Meena Radhakrishna believe that the colonial authorities classified the Gurjars along with others as "criminal tribes" because of their active participation in the revolt of 1857, and also because, they considered these tribes to be prone to criminality in the absence of legitimate means of livelihood.


title: Gurjar

text: Small pockets of Gujars are found in Afghanistan's northeastern region, particularly in and around the Nuristan province.


title: Gurjar

text: Today, the Gurjars are classified under the Other Backward Class category in some states in India. However, in Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Himachal Pradesh, they are designated as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of positive discrimination. Hindu Gurjars were assimilated into several varnas.


title: Gurjar

text: Gurjars form an important component of Delhi. They have combined their traditional occupation of pastoralism and marginal cultivation over a large area in and around Delhi. Currently there is one Gurjar Member of Parliament, Ramesh Bidhuri, and six Gurjar MLAs including the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, Madan Lal, Sahi Ram, Kartar Singh Tanwar, Dhanwanti Chandila and 26 Councillors in MCD. A part of National Highway 24 was named after Gurjar Samrat Mihir Bhoja Marg by then Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma.


title: Gurjar

text: The Gurjar community in Haryana has set elaborate guidelines for solemnizing marriages and holding other functions. In a "mahapanchayat" ("the great panchayat"), the Gurjar community decided that those who sought dowry would be excommunicated from the society.


title: Gurjar

text: In Rajasthan, some members of the Gurjar community resorted to violent protests over the issue of reservation in 2006 and 2007. During the 2003 election to the Rajasthan assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised them ST status. However, the party failed to keep its promise after coming to the power, resulting in protests by the Gurjar in September 2006.


title: Gurjar

text: In May 2007, during violent protests over the reservation issue, members of the Gurjar community clashed with the police. Subsequently, the Gurjar protested violently, under various groups including the Gurjar Sangarsh Samiti, Gurjar Mahasabha and the Gurjar Action Committee. The protestors blocked roads and set fire to two police stations and some vehicles. Presently, the Gurjars in Rajasthan are classified as Other Backward Classes.


title: Gurjar

text: On 5 June 2007, Gurjars rioted over their desire to be added to the central list of tribes who are given preference in India government job selection as well as placement in the schools sponsored by the states of India. This preference is given under a system designed to help India's poor and disadvantaged citizens. However, other tribes on the list oppose this request as it would make it harder to obtain the few positions already set aside.


title: Gurjar

text: In December 2007, the Akhil Bhartiya Gurjar Mahasabha ("All-India Gurjar Council") stated that the community would boycott BJP, which is in power in Rajasthan. But now in 2009 all Gurjars were supporting BJP so that they can be politically benefitted. Kirori Singh Bainsla fought and lost at BJP ticket. In early 2000s (decade), the Gurjar community in Dang region of Rajasthan was also in news for the falling sex ratio, unavailability of brides, and the resulting polyandry.


title: Gurjar

text: The State took its name from the Gurjara, the land of the Gurjars, who ruled the area during the 700s and 800s.


title: Gurjar

text: Gurjars are one of the 6 main carpenter (Suthar) castes of Gujarat, and are believed to be of Central Asian descent. They are listed among the Other Backward Classes of Gujarat.


title: Gurjar

text: The Kutch Gurjar Kshatriya (also known as Mistri) and Gurjar Kshatriya Kadia are minority communities of Gujarat which are listed among the Other Backward Classes of Gujarat.


title: Gurjar

text: A few scholars believe that the Leva Kunbis (or Kambis) of Gujarat, a section of the Patidars, are possibly of Gurjar origin. However, several others state that the Patidars are Kurmis or Kunbis (Kanbis); Gurjars are included in the OBC list in Gujarat but Patidars are not.


title: Gurjar

text: The Gurjars are a subtype of Kumhar and Prajapati community of Gujarat and are listed among the Other Backward Classes of Gujarat.


title: Gurjar

text: Gurjars of North Gujarat, along with those of Western Rajasthan and Punjab, worship Sitala and Bhavani.


title: Gurjar

text: , the Gurjars in parts of Himachal Pradesh were classified as a Scheduled Tribe. They are mostly found in the Chamba district of the state and are predominantly Muslim. They are closely related to the Gujars and Bakarwals of neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir.


title: Gurjar

text: Gurjars, Bakerwals tribes of Jammu and Kashmir were declared Scheduled Tribe (ST) in 1991. In the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the concentration of Gurjars is observed in all but largely found in Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, Kishtwar district and, followed by, Anantnag, Udhampur and Doda districts. It is believed that Gurjars migrated to Jammu and Kashmir from Gujarat (via Rajasthan) and Hazara district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.


title: Gurjar

text: , the Gurjars and the Bakarwals in Jammu and Kashmir were classified as Scheduled Tribes constitute 12% of the total population of Jammu and Kashmir. However, they claim that they constitute more than 20% of the population, and allege undercounting because of their nomadic lifestyle, saying that when the censuses were held in 2001 and 2011, half of their population had been in the upper reaches of the Himalaya. According to 2011 Census of India, Gurjar is the most populous scheduled tribe in J&K, having a population of nearly 1.5 million. Nearly all of them follow Islam.


title: Gurjar

text: The Gurjars of Jammu and Kashmir in 2007 demanded to treat this tribal community as a linguistic minority in the erstwhile state and provide constitutional safeguards to their language Gojri. They also impressed upon the state government to urge the central government to include Gojri in the list of official languages of India.


title: Gurjar

text: In 2002, some Gurjars and Bakarwals in J&K demanded a separate state called Gujaristan for Gurjar and Bakarwal communities, under the banner of All India Gurjar Parishad. Gujars and Bakarwals have at times been targeted by militants of the insurgency in the territory, such as during the Kot Charwal and Teli Katha massacres.


title: Gurjar

text: The Van Gurjars ("forest Gurjars") are found in the Shivalik Hills area of Uttarakhand. The Van Gurjars follow Islam, and they have their own clans, similar to the Hindu gotras. They are a pastoral semi-nomadic community, practising transhumance. In the winter season, the Van Gurjars migrate with herds of semi-wild water buffalo to the Shivalik Hills at the foot of the Himalayas, and in summer, they migrate to alpine pastures higher up the Himalayas. The Gurjar's sell milk to local peoples as their primary source of income. They treat their animals with great care and do not eat them nor sell them for meat.


title: Gurjar

text: The Van Gurjars have had conflicts with forest authorities, who prohibited human and livestock populations inside reserved parks. However, India's Forest Rights Act of 2006 granted rights to "traditional forest dwellers" to the lands they've relied on for generations. The conflict between local forest officials who claim rights over the newly created parks, and the thousand year nomadic traditions of the Van Gurjars has been ongoing.


title: Gurjar

text: Gurjars are a major tribe in Pakistan and compromise as much as twenty percent of the country's population. Several cities in Punjab, Pakistan are named after them including Gujranwala (district headquarters), Gujrat (district headquarters), Gujar Khan, (tehsil headquarters), and Gojra (tehsil headquarters) . Due to migrations, large Gujjar population can also be found in Islamabad, Sialkot, Lahore and Faisalabad. The majority of Gurjars in Pakistan speak Punjabi. Punjabi, Kashmiri and KPK Gurjars typically use the prefixes Chaudhry, Malik, Rana, Khan, Nawab, Mehar, Rajput, Sardar and Nawabzada, as courtesy titles.


title: Personal relationships of Paul McCartney

text: The relationships of the English musician Paul McCartney include engagements to Dot Rhone and actress Jane Asher, and marriages to Linda Eastman, Heather Mills, and Nancy Shevell.


text: McCartney had a three-year relationship with Dot Rhone in Liverpool, and bought her a gold ring in Hamburg after she became pregnant in 1960 and they were to be married. However, she miscarried and they did not marry, but stayed together until the autumn of 1962. In London, McCartney had a five-year relationship with Asher after they met in April 1963 and lived in her parents' house for three years. He wrote several songs at the Ashers' house, including "Yesterday". Asher inspired other songs, such as "And I Love Her", "You Won't See Me", and "I'm Looking Through You". On December 25, 1967, they announced their engagement, but they separated in July 1968.


text: McCartney met the American photographer Linda Eastman in The Bag O’ Nails club in London on May 15, 1967, while still with Asher. They met again at the launch party for the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" on May 19, 1967. In May 1968, McCartney met Eastman again in New York, and they were married on March 12, 1969. They had three children together and remained married until her death from breast cancer in 1998.


text: McCartney appeared publicly beside Heather Mills at a party in January 2000 to celebrate her 32nd birthday. On June 11, 2002, they were married at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, Ireland. They had one child, Beatrice, in 2003 but were living apart by May 2006. In July 2006, British newspapers announced that McCartney had petitioned for divorce. On March 17, 2008, the financial terms of the divorce were finalised, which awarded Mills £24.3 million ($38.5 million). In November 2007, McCartney started dating Nancy Shevell, who was a member of the board of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and is vice president of the family-owned New England Motor Freight. It was announced on May 6, 2011, that the two had become engaged, and they married in London on October 9, 2011.


text: With encouragement from his father, Jim, Paul started playing the family piano and wrote "When I'm Sixty-Four" on it. Jim advised Paul to take some music lessons, which he did, but soon realised that he preferred to learn 'by ear' (as his father had done) and because he never paid attention in music classes. After Paul and brother Michael (stage name Mike McGear) became interested in music, Jim connected the radio in the living room to extension cords connected to two pairs of Bakelite headphones so that they could listen to Radio Luxembourg at night when they were in bed.


text: After first meeting John Lennon, Jim warned Paul that John would get him "into trouble", although he later allowed The Quarrymen to rehearse in the dining room at Forthlin Road in the evenings. Jim was reluctant to let the teenage Paul go to Hamburg with the Beatles until Paul said the group would earn £15 per week each (). As this was more than he earned himself, Jim finally agreed, but only after a visit from the group's then-manager, Allan Williams, who said that Jim should not worry. Bill Harry recalled that Jim was probably "the Beatles' biggest fan", and was extremely proud of Paul's success. Shelagh Johnson—later to become director of the Beatles' Museum in Liverpool—said that Jim's outward show of pride embarrassed his son. Jim enlisted Michael's help when sorting through the ever-increasing sacks of fan letters that were delivered to Forthlin Road, with both composing "personal" responses that were supposedly from Paul. Michael later succeeded on his own with the group the Scaffold.


text: Paul wrote "I Lost My Little Girl" just after Mary had died, and explained that it was a subconscious reference to his late mother. He has speculated that he subconciously wrote the song "Yesterday" about his mother as well. He also wrote "Golden Slumbers" at his father's house in Heswall, and said the lyrics were taken from Ruth McCartney's sheet-music copy of Thomas Dekker's lullaby—also called "Golden Slumbers"—that Ruth had left on the piano at Rembrandt. Hunter Davies, who was at Jim's house at the time doing an interview for his Beatles' biography, remembered Jim listening to an acetate disc of "When I'm Sixty-Four". Davies wrote that Paul recorded the song specifically for his father, as Jim was then 64 years old and had married Angela two years previously. Paul wrote "Let It Be", because of a dream he had in 1968. He said that he had dreamt of his mother, and the "Mother Mary" lyric was about her. He later said, "It was great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream. So that got me writing 'Let It Be'."


text: In 1974, Paul recorded a song his father had previously written, entitled "Walking in the Park with Eloise", which was released by Wings under the pseudonym, "The Country Hams". The Country Hams' single was backed with a tune entitled "Bridge on the River Suite". Both songs can be found on the CD "Venus and Mars" from The Paul McCartney Collection.


text: One of McCartney's first girlfriends, in 1957, was called Layla, a name he remembered as being unusual in Liverpool at the time. She was slightly older than McCartney and used to ask him to baby-sit with her. Julie Arthur, another girlfriend, was Ted Ray's niece.


text: McCartney's first serious girlfriend in Liverpool was seventeen-year-old Dorothy "Dot" Rhone (a bank clerk or a cashier at a chemist's, according to varying accounts), whom he had met at The Casbah Club in 1959. McCartney picked out the clothes he liked Rhone to wear and told her which make-up to use, also paying for her to have her blonde hair done in the style of Brigitte Bardot, whom both he and John Lennon idolised. He disliked Rhone seeing her friends, and stopped her from smoking, even though he did so himself. When McCartney first went to Hamburg with The Beatles, he wrote regular letters to Rhone, and she accompanied Lennon's girlfriend, Cynthia Powell, to Hamburg when the group played there again in 1962. According to Rhone, McCartney bought her a gold ring in Hamburg, a leather skirt, took her sightseeing, and was very attentive and caring. For the time Rhone was there, the couple lived in a bungalow by the Hamburg docks that belonged to Rosa, a former cleaner at the Indra club. McCartney admitted that he had other girlfriends in Hamburg when Rhone was in Liverpool, admitting that they were usually strippers, who knew a lot more about sex than Liverpool girls.


text: Rhone later rented a room in the same house as Cynthia Lennon was living, with McCartney contributing to the rent. According to Mark Lewisohn’s biography "Tune In", Dot became pregnant in 1960, and Paul’s father, Jim, while being shocked, was nonetheless rather pleased at the prospect of becoming a grandfather. They were to be married soon, but Dot had a miscarriage. She still wore the ring he gave her, and they stayed together until the autumn of 1962 when Paul broke up with her, knowing she’d eventually want to get married (John & Cynthia had recently married in August 1962 due to her pregnancy), and he didn’t want to marry anyone at the time because was still only 20 years old.


text: He then had a brief relationship with Thelma Pickles, who had previously dated Lennon. She later married Liverpool poet Roger McGough, but she remembered McCartney as growing from a "plump young schoolboy into someone very much his own person" during their time together. McCartney also had a fiery on–off relationship with Iris Caldwell, the younger sister of singer Rory Storm, who refused to bow to McCartney's demands. After one argument, Caldwell poured a bowl of sugar over his head, but when McCartney turned up the next day, she had to phone her new boyfriend, George Harrison, to cancel their date.


text: Rhone later emigrated to Toronto, Canada, and McCartney met her again when the Beatles played there, and then again with Wings. Rhone later said that "Love of the Loved" and "P.S. I Love You" were written about her. Years later, Cynthia Lennon gave Rhone the gold ring that McCartney had bought Rhone, having once tried it on while Rhone was washing dishes, and forgotten to take it off. Rhone is now a grandmother and lives in Mississauga, Ontario.


text: McCartney first met British actress Jane Asher on 18 April 1963 when the Beatles performed at the Royal Albert Hall, in London, after a photographer asked them to pose with her. They were then interviewed by Asher for the BBC, with Asher being photographed screaming at them like a fan. McCartney soon met Asher's family: Margaret, her mother was a music teacher, and Asher's father Richard was a physician. Her brother, Peter, was a member of Peter and Gordon, and her younger sister, Clare, was also an actress. McCartney later gave "A World Without Love" to Peter and Gordon, as well as "Nobody I Know". Both songs were hits for the duo. McCartney took up residence at the Ashers' house at 57 Wimpole Street, London, and lived there for nearly three years. During his time there McCartney met writers such as Bertrand Russell, Harold Pinter, and Len Deighton. He wrote several songs at the Ashers', including "Yesterday", and worked on songs with Lennon in the basement music room. Asher inspired many songs, such as "And I Love Her", "You Won't See Me", and "I'm Looking Through You".


text: On 13 April 1965, McCartney bought a £40,000 three-storey Regency house at 7 Cavendish Avenue, St John's Wood, London, and spent a further £20,000 renovating it. He thanked the Ashers by paying for the decoration of the front of their house. On 15 May 1967, McCartney met American photographer Linda Eastman at a Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O'Nails in London. Eastman was in the UK on an assignment to take photographs of "swinging sixties" musicians in London. They met again four days later at the launch party for the "Sgt. Pepper" album at Beatles' manager Brian Epstein's house in Belgravia, but after her assignment was completed, she flew back to New York. On 25 December 1967, McCartney and Asher announced their engagement, and she accompanied McCartney to India in February and March 1968.


text: Asher broke off the engagement in the summer of 1968, apparently because of an alleged affair Paul was having. McCartney and Asher later attempted to mend their relationship, but finally broke up in July 1968. Asher has consistently refused to publicly discuss that part of her life.


text: In May 1968, McCartney met Linda Eastman again in New York when Lennon and McCartney were there to announce the formation of Apple Corps. In September, McCartney phoned her and asked her to fly over to London. Six months later they were married at a small civil ceremony, when Eastman was four months pregnant with their child, Mary McCartney, at Marylebone Town Hall on 12 March 1969. He later said that his wife was the woman who "gave me the strength and courage to work again", after the break-up of the Beatles. McCartney adopted her daughter from her first marriage, Heather, and had three children together: Mary, Stella, and James. McCartney taught Linda to play keyboards, and permanently included her in the line-up of Wings.


text: Linda died of breast cancer at age 56 in Tucson, Arizona on 17 April 1998; McCartney denied rumours that her death was an assisted suicide. Along with eight other British composers, he contributed to the choral album "A Garland for Linda", and dedicated his classical album "Ecce Cor Meum" to his late wife. McCartney has said that he and Linda spent less than a week apart during their entire marriage, excluding McCartney's incarceration in Tokyo on drug charges in January 1980.


text: After having sparked the interest of the tabloids about his appearances at events with former model, amputee, and campaigner against landmines Heather Mills, McCartney appeared publicly beside her at a party in January 2000 to celebrate her 32nd birthday. On 11 June 2002, McCartney married Mills in an elaborate ceremony at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, County Monaghan, Ireland, where more than 300 guests were invited and the reception included a vegetarian banquet. On 28 October 2003, Mills gave birth to Beatrice Milly McCartney. She was reportedly named after Mills' mother Beatrice, and McCartney's Aunt Milly.


text: On 29 July 2006, British newspapers announced that McCartney had petitioned for divorce, which sparked a media furore. On 17 March 2008, the financial terms of the divorce were finalised, with a settlement awarding Mills £24.3 million. The settlement stated that McCartney pay their four-year-old daughter Beatrice's nanny, school fees, and pay Beatrice £35,000 a year until she is 17, or ends her secondary education. After the divorce ruling, Justice Bennett said that throughout the case Mills was "inconsistent, inaccurate and less than candid" while McCartney was "honest." On 12 May 2008, Justice Hugh Bennett issued a decree nisi, which would become final after a period of six months apart.


text: McCartney started dating Nancy Shevell in November 2007. Shevell is a cousin of journalist Barbara Walters. She was born in Edison, New Jersey, US on 20 November 1959, and grew up there with her family.


text: She was a graduate of J. P. Stevens High School and Arizona State University, was a member of the board of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority as well as vice president of a family-owned transportation conglomerate that includes New England Motor Freight. She resigned from the MTA board in January 2012. It was announced on 6 May 2011 that the two had become engaged. On 9 October 2011, McCartney and Shevell were married at Marylebone Town Hall, where his first wedding took place in 1969. The couple attended Yom Kippur synagogue services prior to the wedding, out of respect for Shevell's Jewish faith, but did not seek a religious blessing for their union. Upon their marriage, Shevell became Lady McCartney. McCartney wrote the song "My Valentine", from his 2012 album "Kisses on the Bottom", about Shevell.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: Vincent John Cusano (born August 6, 1952), better known by his stage name Vinnie Vincent, is an American guitarist. He is a former member of the rock band Kiss from 1982 until mid-1984 during the band's transition out of their 1973–1983 makeup period. Vincent was the last member to wear a unique makeup/costume configuration, as the character of the Ankh Warrior (a design created by Paul Stanley), until he and the band were first shown without the makeup during an interview on MTV in September 1983. He founded his own band, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, which had minor hits.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: Vincent John Cusano was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Theresa "Terri" (Ferraro) and Alfonso Cusano, musicians. Both of his parents were of Italian descent. He picked up the guitar at an early age and was inspired by bluegrass and rock and roll. Cusano's first introduction to working with internationally renowned artists was working with Felix Cavaliere (mostly widely known from The Rascals and their hit "Good Lovin' ") as part of the band "Treasure". This resulted in an album of the same name being released on Epic Records in 1977. It was recorded in New York City at Sound Ideas recording studios In 1980, Vincent moved to Los Angeles, California where he became a staff songwriter for the television series "Happy Days" and "Joanie Loves Chachi". Many of the series songs were written on Vincent's acoustic guitar while sitting at the Cunninghams' kitchen table on the "Happy Days" set, during off-time from the show's rehearsal schedule. Vincent has said the times of working at the Paramount lot were genuinely "happy days". According to the site "Kiss Related Recordings", Vincent has played with Dan Hartman as well as the bands Hunter, Warrior, Hitchhikers and Heat going as far back as 1970.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: After being introduced to the band by songwriter Adam Mitchell, Vincent was brought in as the replacement for guitarist Ace Frehley. Vincent's personality meshed well with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, thus enabling him to play lead guitar on six of the nine tracks on the "Creatures of the Night" album as well as co-writing three. After a commercially disappointing Creatures of the Night/Tenth Anniversary tour, that finished on a high at what ended up being the "last" makeup show (and Kiss' largest crowd attendance) at Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, Vincent returned to the studio with Kiss to record the "Lick It Up" album. His work was productive, yielding eight co-writes out of the ten songs on the album (a record for any member until Bruce Kulick's nine out of 12 on "" and Stanley's 10 out of 13 on "Monster").


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: Though contributing to "Creatures of the Night" as a session player before being named as Frehley's replacement in December 1982, Vincent, for all the public knew, was the official guitarist in Kiss and played all the lead guitar tracks on "Lick it Up". In what was a frequent occurrence for former guitarist Frehley, a "ghost player" was asked to play on the album, with Rick Derringer recording the solo on the opening track.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: Though Vincent performed well live with Kiss, he refused to sign an employment contract which strained the relationship with Simmons/Stanley. This arose because of disputes over his role in the band and pay (some reports indicated that Vincent had asked for, and was flatly denied, a percentage of the band's gross profits). Consequently, Vincent never formally became a member of the band. This ultimately led to him leaving after the North American leg of the "Lick It Up" tour. He was replaced by Mark St. John. Despite parting on bad terms, Vincent was later used by Kiss as a songwriter on the 1992 album "Revenge", contributing to the songs "Unholy", "Heart Of Chrome" and "I Just Wanna". Vincent again fell out of favor with Simmons and Stanley, as they claimed that Vincent again began "making all kinds of crazy demands and pulling the same kind of crazy stuff all over again".


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: In 2022, Kiss released a super deluxe multi disc version of the Creatures of the Night album, which featured demos and outtakes with Vincent as guitarist and songwriter, as well as two full CDs of live recordings from the Creatures of the Night/10th Anniversary Tour, the first officially released live recordings with Vinnie Vincent.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: Following his departure from Kiss in mid-1984, Vincent used his money that he made from his tenure in the band to take a long vacation and traveled the world for a full year visiting places like Tahiti, Philippines, Mozambique, India and Europe, including a visit to the small town Mora in Dalarna, Sweden. Then he formed the band Vinnie Vincent Invasion with, among others, former Journey singer Robert Fleischman in the mid-1980s and released two studio albums: "Vinnie Vincent Invasion" in 1986 and "All Systems Go" in 1988. The band broke up in 1989. After that, the band's singer Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum formed Slaughter.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: In 1996, Vincent released a solo EP from the studio sessions he did in 1990 (some say 1989–91), called "Euphoria", once again with Robert Fleischman on vocals. Vincent, as well as playing all the guitars, played bass and did the drum programming under the guise of "V. Meister". Andre LaBelle provided drum tracks to the CD but they were replaced by Vincent's drum programming. LaBelle can be heard on various tracks on the bootleg Guitarmaggedon/Guitars from Hell CD that featured five more songs than the "Euphoria" EP.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: A tribute album entitled "Kiss My Ankh: A Tribute To Vinnie Vincent" was released by SplitScreen Entertainment on August 27, 2008. The album consists of new recordings of songs from Vincent's careers with Kiss and the Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Featured artists include Steve Brown of Trixter, Troy Patrick Farrell of White Lion, T.J. Racer of Nitro, Mike Weeks of Robert Fleischman's band, Sheldon Tarsha of Adler's Appetite, Chris Caffery of Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Ryan Roxie from the Alice Cooper band and rock and roll comic C.C. Banana, who performs a parody of the Kiss song "Unholy" (rewritten as a roast of Danger Danger vocalist Ted Poley).


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: After 22 years of being off the radar, Vinnie Vincent agreed to appear at the 2018 Atlanta Kiss Expo in January. Vincent fulfilled his commitment and appeared at the sold-out expo, playing a four song set including the live premiere of Kiss's "A Million to One" from Lick It Up and a VVI song "Back on the Streets" where he was joined by original VVI vocalist Robert Fleischman. He said he considers Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley family, wishing them nothing but the best. After some e-mail exchanges with Gene Simmons, Vincent agreed to appear with Simmons on stage in April 2018 which was the first time they have met in person in over two decades. He also gave an exclusive interview to Eddie Trunk for Sirius XM, which was his first in over two decades, and held multiple question-and-answer sessions with fans.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: On February 16, 2018, it was announced via Facebook that Vinnie would appear at the Days of the Dead convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in May 2018.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: Vinnie Vincent's first concert in 30 years was scheduled for December 7, 2018, at Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee. However these shows were postponed until February 8–9, 2019 in Nashville, before being canceled.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: Vincent then announced another show in Nashville called "Speedball Jamm", which was scheduled for June 7, 2019. This show was ultimately canceled.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: Two months later, Vincent hosted Vinnie Vincent's Birthday Bash on August 10 in Nashville, TN, followed by Vinnie Vincent's Merry Metal Christmas on December 14–15, 2019.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: On May 22, 2022 Vinnie played for the first time live together with his lead guitar colleagues from Kiss, Ace Frehley and Bruce Kulick, performing a 4-song all Kiss set at Creatures Fest in Nashville.


title: Vinnie Vincent

text: Vincent was married to AnnMarie Peters, and has twin daughters with her. AnnMarie was murdered in 1998, after she and Vincent had divorced. In 1996, Vincent married his second wife Diane Kero, one of Ace Frehley's ex-girlfriends whom he met at a Kiss convention in Chicago the previous year. The two resided in Smyrna, Tennessee until her death on January 13, 2014. Diane died aged 47 from complications due to alcoholism.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Gordon Douglas Jones (born May 4, 1954) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who served as a United States senator from Alabama from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Jones was previously the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1997 to 2001.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones was born in Fairfield, Alabama, and is a graduate of the University of Alabama and Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. After law school, he worked as a congressional staffer and as a federal prosecutor before moving to private practice. In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Jones as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. Jones's most prominent cases were the successful prosecution of two Ku Klux Klan members for the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four African-American girls and the indictment of domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph. He returned to private practice at the conclusion of Clinton's presidency in 2001.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones announced his candidacy for United States Senate in the 2017 special election following the resignation of Republican incumbent Jeff Sessions to become U.S. Attorney General. After winning the Democratic primary in August, he faced former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore in the general election. Jones was considered a long-shot candidate in a deeply Republican state. A month before the election, Moore was alleged to have sexually assaulted and otherwise acted inappropriately with several women, including some who were minors at the time. Jones won the special election by 22,000 votes, 50%–48%.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: At the time, Jones was the only statewide elected Democrat in Alabama and the first Democrat to win statewide office since Lucy Baxley was elected President of the Alabama Public Service Commission in 2008. Democrats had not represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate since 1997, when Howell Heflin left office. Jones was considered a fairly moderate Democrat, who supported reproductive and LGBT rights but demonstrated a willingness to work with Republicans and split with his party on certain issues. Jones ran for a full term in 2020 and lost to Republican nominee Tommy Tuberville by a wide margin.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In January 2021, he joined CNN as a political commentator. Jones was a fellow at the Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service during the spring 2021 academic semester. In February 2022, the Biden administration named him as a Nomination Advisor for Legislative Affairs, advising the president on Supreme Court nominations.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Doug Jones was born in Fairfield, Alabama to Gordon and Gloria (Wesson) Jones. His father worked at U.S. Steel and his mother was a homemaker. Jones graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science in political science in 1976, and earned his Juris Doctor from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 1979. He is a member of Beta Theta Pi.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones's political career began as staff counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Alabama Senator Howell Heflin. Jones then worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1980 to 1984 before resigning to work at a private law firm in Birmingham, Alabama, from 1984 to 1997.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: President Bill Clinton announced on August 18, 1997, his intent to appoint Jones as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, and formally nominated Jones to the post on September 2, 1997. On September 8, 1997, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama appointed Jones as interim U.S. Attorney. The Senate confirmed Jones' nomination on November 8, 1997, by voice vote.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In January 1998, Eric Rudolph bombed the New Woman All Women Health Care Center in Birmingham. Jones was responsible for coordinating the state and federal task force in the aftermath, and advocated that Rudolph be tried first in Birmingham before being extradited and tried in Georgia for his crimes in that state, such as the Centennial Olympic Park bombing.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones prosecuted Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry, two members of the Ku Klux Klan, for their roles in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. The case was reopened the year before Jones was appointed, but did not gain traction until his appointment. A federal grand jury was called in 1998, which caught the attention of Cherry's ex-wife, Willadean Cherry, and led her to call the FBI to give her testimony. Willadean then introduced Jones to family and friends, who reported their own experiences from the time of the bombing. A key piece of evidence was a tape from the time of the bombing in which Blanton said he had plotted with others to make the bomb. Jones was deputized to argue in state court and indicted Blanton and Cherry in 2000. Blanton was found guilty in 2001 and Cherry in 2002. Both were sentenced to life in prison. Blanton was up for parole in 2016; Jones spoke against his release, and parole was denied. Cherry died in prison in 2004.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones recounts the history of the bombings and his subsequent involvement in Blanton and Cherry's prosecution in his 2019 book "Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights".


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones left office in 2001 and returned to private practice, joining the law firm of Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker. In 2004, he was court-appointed General Special Master in an environmental cleanup case involving Monsanto in Anniston, Alabama. In 2007, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute gave Jones its 15th Anniversary Civil Rights Distinguished Service Award. Also in 2007, Jones testified before the United States House Committee on the Judiciary about the importance of reexamining crimes of the Civil Rights Era. In 2013, he formed the Birmingham firm Jones & Hawley, PC with longtime friend Greg Hawley. Jones was named one of "B-Metro Magazine"'s Fusion Award winners in 2015. In 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alabama chapter of the Young Democrats of America.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: On May 11, 2017, Jones announced his candidacy for that year's U.S. Senate special election, running for the seat left open when Jeff Sessions was appointed Attorney General. Sessions, a Republican, had held the seat since 1997, after Democrat Howell Heflin chose not to run for reelection. Jones won the Democratic nomination in August, and became the senator-elect for Alabama after defeating former Alabama Supreme Court judge Roy Moore in the general election on December 12, which was also Jones's 25th wedding anniversary.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones received 673,896 votes (50.0%) to Moore's 651,972 votes (48.3%) with 22,852 write-in votes (1.7%). After the election, Moore refused to concede. He filed a lawsuit attempting to block the state from certifying the election and called for an investigation into voter fraud, as well as a new election. On December 28, 2017, a judge dismissed his suit and state officials certified the election results, officially declaring Jones the winner.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones ran for a full six-year term. He was seen as the most vulnerable senator from either party since Alabama is a deeply Republican state and the circumstances and controversy surrounding his Republican opponent in 2017 were no longer a factor.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: The Democratic Party nominated Jones for the seat unopposed. The two top contenders in the Republican primary were former football coach Tommy Tuberville and former United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had held Jones's seat before resigning to become Attorney General in 2017. U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne was also a contender, sometimes even outpolling the other candidates, but in the first round of the primary, on March 3, Tuberville and Sessions finished second and first. Since neither had a majority of the vote, they advanced to a runoff, which Tuberville won. Jones was the only Democratic senator to lose re-election in 2020.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones was sworn in on January 3, 2018, alongside fellow Democrat Tina Smith of Minnesota, and his term ran through January 3, 2021, the balance of Sessions's term. He was the first Democrat to represent the state in the U.S. Senate in 21 years, and the first elected in 25. Jones was one of five Democratic senators who voted for the continuing resolution that failed to pass and consequently led to the United States federal government shutdown of 2018. According to Morning Consult, which polls approval ratings of senators, , Jones had a 41% approval rating, with 36% disapproving. This trailed Jones's fellow Alabama senator, Republican Richard Shelby, who had a 45% approval rating, with 30% disapproving.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: On January 8, 2019, Jones was one of four Democrats to vote to advance a bill imposing sanctions against the Syrian government and furthering U.S. support for Israel and Jordan as Democratic members of the chamber employed tactics to end the United States federal government shutdown of 2018–2019.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In September 2019, after the House launched an impeachment inquiry against President Trump, Jones urged caution on the part of the media and his colleagues because his experience with law had led him to believe that it was "very unlikely there’s going to be an absolute smoking gun on either side". He stated his support for "fact-finding" by the House, only after which he would make a decision about Trump's guilt. In February 2020, Jones voted to convict President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, saying the evidence presented "clearly proves" that Trump used his office to seek to coerce a foreign government to interfere in the election.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In November 2020, Jones was mentioned as a potential candidate for United States Attorney General in the Biden administration. The position was ultimately filled by Merrick Garland.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: On January 29, 2021, Jones joined CNN as a political commentator. He also became a politics fellow at Georgetown University. In May 2021, Jones and his former Senate staff member Cissy Jackson were announced to have joined the Government Relations and Government Enforcement & White Collar division of the D.C.-based law firm Arent Fox, joining the likes of former Senator Byron Dorgan and former Representative Phil English.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In January 2022, Biden named Jones as his "sherpa" in assisting with the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court vacancy, filling the vacancy created by the announced retirement of Stephen Breyer. Jackson was confirmed by a 53–47 vote on April 7, 2022.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: The editorial board of "The Birmingham News" has described Jones as a "moderate Democrat". Former Alabama Democratic Party chair Giles Perkins described Jones as "a moderate, middle-of-the-road guy". Describing his own views, Jones said: "If you look at the positions I've got on health care, if you look at the positions I got on jobs—you should look at the support I have from the business community—I think I'm pretty mainstream." Jones's campaign has emphasized "kitchen-table" issues such as health care and the economy. He has called for bipartisan solutions to those issues and pledged to "find common ground" between both major parties. Jones said that people should not "expect [him] to vote solidly for Republicans or Democrats". During his campaign, he had supporters from both parties, including Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona. According to FiveThirtyEight, Jones had voted with President Donald Trump's position about 35% of the time as of September 2020.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: A July 2018 NBC News editorial stated that Jones had voted with Trump more often than all but three of his fellow Democratic senators while also taking liberal positions more in line with his party, including LGBT rights.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones is mostly pro-choice on abortion with the exception of late-term abortion stating during a virtual rally "I have never, never supported what is known as a late term abortion." Also in the same virtual rally he stated "I support the Hyde Amendment I have said that over and over." In 2018, Planned Parenthood gave him a 100% rating, while the National Right to Life Committee gave him a 0% rating. Jones voted against the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which prohibits abortion after 20 weeks except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the pregnant woman's health. He also pledged to support Planned Parenthood as a senator. In May 2019 he criticized the passage of an abortion ban in Alabama, calling it "shameful".


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In February 2019, Jones was one of three Senate Democrats to vote for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation requiring health care practitioners present at the time of a birth "exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age." Jones is a supporter of the Hyde Amendment.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: On December 11, 2018, Jones voted for the conference farm bill, which included his provisions for farmers, rural health, wastewater infrastructure, and high-speed internet. In May 2019, he co-sponsored the Transporting Livestock Across America Safely Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Ben Sasse and Jon Tester intended to reform hours of service for livestock haulers by authorizing drivers to have the flexibility to rest at any point during their trip without it being counted against their hours of service and exempting loading and unloading times from the calculation of driving time.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In June 2019, Jones and Republican Senator Susan Collins cosponsored the American Broadband Buildout Act of 2019, a bill that requested $5 billion for a matching funds program that the Federal Communications Commission would administer to "give priority to qualifying projects" and mandated that at least 15% of funding go to high-cost and geographically challenged areas. The legislation also authorized recipients of the funding to form "public awareness" and "digital literacy" campaigns to further awareness of the "value and benefits of broadband internet access service" and served as a companion to the Broadband Data Improvement Act.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In December 2018, Jones voted for the First Step Act, legislation aimed at reducing recidivism rates among federal prisoners by expanding job training and other programs in addition to expanding early-release programs and modifying sentencing laws such as mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, "to more equitably punish drug offenders."


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones supports the reversal of mandatory three-strikes laws for nonviolent offenses to give judges flexibility in giving sentences.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In June 2019, along with Democrat Mark Warner and Republicans Tom Cotton and Mike Rounds, Jones introduced the Improving Laundering Laws and Increasing Comprehensive Information Tracking of Criminal Activity in Shell Holdings (ILLICIT CASH) Act, a bill mandating that shell companies disclose their real owners to the United States Department of the Treasury and updating outdated federal anti-money laundering laws by bettering communications among law enforcement, regulatory agencies, the financial industry, and the industry and regulators of advanced technology. Jones said he was "all too familiar with criminals hiding behind shell corporations to enable their illegal behavior" from being an attorney.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones supports some gun control measures, including "tighter background checks for gun sales and to raise the age requirement to purchase a gun from 18 to 21", but has said that he does not support an assault weapons ban and that such a ban could not pass Congress. Jones himself is a gun owner.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In March 2018, Jones was one of 10 senators to sign a letter to Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Lamar Alexander and ranking Democrat Patty Murray requesting they schedule a hearing on the causes and remedies of mass shootings in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In 2018, Jones co-sponsored the NICS Denial Notification Act, legislation developed in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that would require federal authorities to inform states within a day after a person failing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System attempts to buy a firearm.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In 2018, Jones participated in votes concerning immigration and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). He voted in favor of the McCain–Coons proposal to offer a pathway to citizenship to undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, which did not include funding for a border wall; voted against withholding federal funding from sanctuary cities; voted for Susan Collins's bipartisan bill to offer a pathway to citizenship and federal funding for border security; and voted against Trump's proposal to offer a pathway to citizenship while reducing overall legal immigration numbers and using federal funds for a border wall. He has also proposed reassessing the current quota system. He has agreed that improvements in border security are needed but does not believe it is a national emergency.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones supports same-sex marriage and said that his son Carson, who is gay, helped change his views. In 2017, he was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, which supports LGBT rights. Jones supports protections for transgender students and transgender troops.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In March 2018, Jones voted against Bernie Sanders's and Chris Murphy's resolution to end U.S. support for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In an interview with "The Birmingham News", Jones said he favored increasing defense spending, saying it would boost Alabama's local economy, particularly in the areas around NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal, and protect the United States from foreign threats.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones voted to confirm Mike Pompeo as U.S. Secretary of State, joining with Republicans and five other Democratic senators. He opposed Gina Haspel's nomination as CIA director.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In May 2019, Jones co-sponsored the South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act, a bipartisan bill reintroduced by Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin intended to disrupt China's consolidation or expansion of its claims of jurisdiction over the sea and air space in disputed zones in the South China Sea.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In August 2019, after Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were denied entry into Israel due to their support for BDS, Jones said he was "concerned the relationship with Israel is beginning to see some cracks for political reasons" and that the US-Israel relationship was being "used as a political weapon to try to divide people for political gain" in both countries. He added that while he did not agree "with a lot of their views on Israel", Tlaib and Omar were entitled to them, and cited the necessity of having to defend other members of Congress when they are barred from "the right to go and visit with other members".


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In October 2019, Jones was one of six senators to sign a bipartisan letter to President Trump calling on him to "urge Turkey to end their offensive and find a way to a peaceful resolution while supporting our Kurdish partners to ensure regional stability" and arguing that to leave Syria without installing protections for American allies would endanger both them and the US.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: "Newsweek" has described Jones as an economic populist. He was one of five Democrats to vote for the Republican budget deal in January 2018 and one of 17 Democrats to vote with Republicans in favor of a bill to ease banking regulations. Jones opposes the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In February 2019, Jones was one of 20 senators to sponsor the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, enabling employers to contribute up to $5,250 to the student loans of their employees.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In July 2019, Jones and Tina Smith introduced the Addressing Teacher Shortages Act, a bill to allow school districts across the United States to apply for grants to aid the schools in attracting and retaining quality teachers. The bill also funded the Education Department's efforts to help smaller and under-resourced districts apply for grants.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: On September 19, 2019, Jones took to the Senate floor to request unanimous consent to pass legislation that would further the $255 million in federal funding for minority-serving colleges and universities ahead of its expiration date in weeks. The vote was shut down by Senate Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, who instead called for support for the passage of "a long-term solution that will provide certainty to college presidents and their students" and "a few additional bipartisan higher education proposals."


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In March 2019, Jones was one of three Democrats to vote with all Senate Republicans against the Green New Deal when it came up for a procedural vote. All other Senate Democrats voted "present" on the legislation, a move anticipated as allowing them to avoid having a formal position.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In June 2019, Jones was one of 44 senators to introduce the International Climate Accountability Act, legislation that would prevent Trump from using funds in an attempt to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and directing the Trump administration to instead develop a strategic plan for the United States that would allow it to meet its commitment under the Paris Agreement.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones opposes the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, but he has called for changes to the U.S. health-care system, which he calls broken. He supports the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program and during his senatorial campaign repeatedly criticized his opponent for lacking a clear stance on the program. Jones says he is open to the idea of a public option, but that he is "not there yet" on single-payer healthcare. In January 2018, Jones was one of six Democrats to join most Republicans in voting to confirm Alex Azar, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In December 2018, Jones was one of 42 senators to sign a letter to Trump administration officials Alex Azar, Seema Verma, and Steve Mnuchin arguing that the administration was improperly using Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act to authorize states to "increase health care costs for millions of consumers while weakening protections for individuals with preexisting conditions". The senators requested the administration withdraw the policy and "re-engage with stakeholders, states, and Congress".


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In January 2019, Jones was one of six senators to cosponsor the Health Insurance Tax Relief Act, delaying the Health Insurance Tax for two years.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In January 2019, Jones was one of six Democratic senators to introduce the American Miners Act of 2019, a bill that would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to swap funds in excess of the amounts needed to meet existing obligations under the Abandoned Mine Land fund to the 1974 Pension Plan as part of an effort to prevent its insolvency as a result of coal company bankruptcies and the 2008 financial crisis. It also increased the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund tax and ensured that miners affected by the 2018 coal company bankruptcies would not lose their health care.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In January 2019, during the 2018–19 United States federal government shutdown, Jones was one of 34 senators to sign a letter to Commissioner of Food and Drugs Scott Gottlieb recognizing the efforts of the FDA to address the effect of the government shutdown on public health and employees while remaining alarmed "that the continued shutdown will result in increasingly harmful effects on the agency's employees and the safety and security of the nation's food and medical products".


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In February 2019, Jones was one of 11 senators to sign a letter to insulin manufactures Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi over increased insulin prices and charging that the price increases caused patients to lack "access to the life-saving medications they need".


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In September 2019, amid discussions to prevent a government shutdown, Jones was one of six Democratic senators to sign a letter to congressional leadership advocating the passage of legislation to permanently fund health care and pension benefits for retired coal miners as "families in Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Alabama, Colorado, North Dakota and New Mexico" would start to receive notifications of health care termination by the end of the following month.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In October 2019, Jones was one of 27 senators to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer advocating the passage of the Community Health Investment, Modernization, and Excellence (CHIME) Act, which was set to expire the following month. The senators warned that if the funding for the Community Health Center Fund (CHCF) was allowed to expire, it "would cause an estimated 2,400 site closures, 47,000 lost jobs, and threaten the health care of approximately 9 million Americans."


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In March 2019, Jones co-sponsored a bipartisan resolution led by Gary Peters and Jerry Moran that opposed privatization of the United States Postal Service (USPS), citing the USPS as a self-sustaining establishment and noting concerns that privatization could cause higher prices and reduced services for USPS customers, especially in rural communities.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones has not called for tax increases and has instead called for reductions in corporate taxes "to try to get reinvestment back into this country". He opposed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, calling it fiscally irresponsible and skewed to benefit the wealthy while ignoring or hurting the middle class.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In 2019, along with fellow Democrat Amy Klobuchar and Republicans Pat Toomey and Bill Cassidy, Jones was a lead sponsor of the Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act, a bill to undo a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that raised the tax on the benefit children receive from a parent's Department of Defense survivor benefits plan to 37% from an average of 12% to 15%. The bill passed in the Senate in May 2019.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In 2018, along with Joni Ernst and Rob Portman, Jones introduced the Trade Security Act, a bill that would modify Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to require that the Defense Department justify the national-security basis for new tariffs under Section 232 and implement an increase of congressional oversight of the process. Jones said the process currently led by the Commerce Department to investigate whether a trading partner is undermining U.S. national security had "been misused to target important job-creating industries in Alabama like auto manufacturing" and that the bill would refocus "efforts on punishing bad actors, rather than hurting American manufacturers, workers, and consumers."


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In December 2018, Jones stated that automakers and soybean farmers were fearful of the Trump administration's trade policy and added that his constituents in Alabama were questioning Trump's success.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In February 2019, amid a report by the Commerce Department that ZTE had been caught illegally shipping goods of American origin to Iran and North Korea, Jones was one of seven senators to sponsor a bill reimposing sanctions on ZTE in the event that ZTE did not honor both American laws and its agreement with the Trump administration.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In a July 2019 committee hearing, Jones predicted that tariffs would eventually directly hit the consumer and they would witness "tariffs that are going to cause a depletion in supply of things like Bibles and artificial fishing lures, which are fairly standard staples in Alabama."


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Addressing the North Alabama International Trade Association in September 2019, Jones said Alabama had a fairly robust economy that was also "pretty fragile and it could go completely bust if we don't get this trade war with China and other trade issues resolved and resolved soon", and that uncertainty about tariffs was affecting business confidence.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: In December 2018, Jones was one of 21 senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie calling it "appalling that the VA is not conducting oversight of its own outreach efforts" in spite of suicide prevention being the VA's highest clinical priority and requesting that Wilkie "consult with experts with proven track records of successful public and mental health outreach campaigns with a particular emphasis on how those individuals measure success".


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones married Louise New on December 12, 1992. They have three children. Jones's father died of dementia on December 28, 2019.


title: Doug Jones (politician)

text: Jones has been a member of the Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook for more than 33 years. He also serves on the advisory board of the Blackburn Institute, a leadership development and civic engagement program at the University of Alabama.


title: The Devil's Backbone

text: The Devil's Backbone () is a 2001 gothic horror film directed by Guillermo del Toro, and written by del Toro, David Muñoz, and Antonio Trashorras.


title: The Devil's Backbone

text: The film is set in Spain, 1939, during the final year of the Spanish Civil War. It was released to positive reviews.


title: The Devil's Backbone

text: Casares, a doctor, and his friend's wife Carmen operate a small orphanage in a remote part of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Helping the couple are Jacinto, the groundskeeper, and his fiancée Conchita, a teacher. Casares and Carmen support the Republican loyalists, and are hiding a large cache of gold being used to back the Republican treasury; the orphanage has also been subject to attacks from Francisco Franco's troops, and an inert bomb sits in the courtyard.


title: The Devil's Backbone

text: One day, an orphan named Carlos arrives with Ayala and Domínguez, two loyalists. Casares and Carmen take Carlos in, and he soon strikes up a friendship with Jaime, the orphanage bully, as well as Galvez and Owl. However, Carlos soon begins having visions of a mysterious entity, and hears stories about a child named Santi who went missing on the day the bomb was dropped in the courtyard. On his first night at the orphanage, Carlos is dared by Jaime to sneak to the kitchen for water after curfew. The boys reach the kitchen, but Jaime sneaks back to the dormitory, leaving Carlos alone. Carlos hears a whisper telling him that "many of you will die." Frightened, Carlos rushes outside, but is caught by Jacinto. The next morning, Casares asks who snuck out after curfew but Carlos claims he went alone. This, as well as Carlos saving Jaime from falling in a cistern, earns him Jaime's friendship.


title: The Devil's Backbone

text: Jacinto knows of the gold hidden at the orphanage, and uses his affair with Carmen as an opportunity to take her keys and search for the treasure. That night, the boys hear strange noises and Carlos decides to investigate. He sneaks out, and encounters a pale figure of a young boy with a bleeding wound on his head, which causes him to run back into the building. Later, after flipping through Jaime's sketchbook, Carlos finds a drawing of a ghostly figure labeled "Santi," leading him to suspect that Jaime knows more than the other boys.


title: The Devil's Backbone

text: Casares sees that Ayala has been captured by the nationalists. Fearing Ayala will soon be tortured into revealing the gold’s location at the orphanage, he convinces Carmen that they must evacuate the children immediately. Jacinto overhears the conversation and confronts Carmen, demanding the stash of gold and crassly bringing up their affair in front of Casares. Enraged, Casares points a gun at Jacinto and forces him to leave.