title: Steve Beshear

text: After graduating from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1968, Beshear briefly practiced law in New York before returning to Kentucky and being elected to the state legislature, where he gained a reputation as a consumer advocate. He parlayed that reputation into a term as attorney general, serving under Governor John Y. Brown Jr. As attorney general, Beshear issued an opinion that copies of the Ten Commandments must be removed from the walls of the state's classrooms in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in "Stone v. Graham". He also clashed with first lady Phyllis George Brown when he opposed the practice of charging an admission fee for visitors to view the renovated governor's mansion. In 1983, Beshear was elected lieutenant governor in the administration of Governor Martha Layne Collins. His most significant action in this capacity was the formation of the Kentucky Tomorrow Commission, a panel charged with making recommendations for the future of the state.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear's initial rise to political prominence was interrupted in 1987 when he finished third in a five-candidate Democratic gubernatorial primary election. The Beshear campaign's sparring with that of former Governor Brown, the second-place finisher in the primary, opened the door for political novice Wallace Wilkinson's well-financed campaign to achieve a come-from-behind upset in the race. For the next 20 years, Beshear practiced law at a Lexington law firm. His only foray into politics during this period was an unsuccessful challenge to Senator Mitch McConnell in 1996. In 2007, Beshear was drawn back into politics by the vulnerability of incumbent Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher, whose administration was under extended investigation by then-Attorney General Greg Stumbo, over violations of the state's merit system. In the 2007 gubernatorial election, Beshear emerged from a six-candidate Democratic primary—largely on the strength of his pledge to expand casino gambling as a means of further funding social programs like education—and defeated Fletcher in the general election. Beshear was reelected in 2011, defeating Republican David L. Williams and Gatewood Galbraith, an Independent. He was ineligible for reelection in 2015 due to term limits imposed by the Kentucky Constitution, and was succeeded by Republican Matt Bevin. Bevin lost reelection in 2019 to Beshear's son Andy.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Steve Beshear was born on September 21, 1944, in Hopkins County, Kentucky. He is the third of five children born to Orlando Russell and Mary Elizabeth (Joiner) Beshear. He was raised in the small town of Dawson Springs, where his father owned a furniture store, operated a funeral home, and served as mayor. His father, grandfather, and uncle were Primitive Baptist lay ministers, and in his childhood years, Beshear attended both his father's church and the Christian Church where his mother was a member. Beshear also accompanied his uncle, Fred Beshear, as he traveled around the county during several races for a seat in the state House of Representatives.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear graduated as valedictorian in a class of 28 at Dawson Springs High School in 1962. He then attended the University of Kentucky, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1966. He was a member of the Delta Tau Delta social fraternity and the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He was also elected student body treasurer and from 1964 to 1965 served as student body president. While in college, he attended Lexington Primitive Baptist Church and often had lunch at the home of Harold and Marie Fletcher, whose son Ernie he would eventually challenge for the governorship of Kentucky. In 1968, Beshear graduated with honors from the University of Kentucky College of Law.


title: Steve Beshear

text: The next year, he married Jane Klingner. After the marriage, Beshear joined Crestwood Christian Church, which his wife attended. The couple has two sons, Jeffery Scott Beshear and Andrew Graham Beshear (who is the current Governor of Kentucky), two grandsons, and one granddaughter. Following their marriage, the Beshears moved to New York City, where Steve worked for the Wall Street law firm of White & Case. He also served as an intelligence specialist in the United States Army Reserve, performing some of the duties of a Judge Advocate General.


title: Steve Beshear

text: After two and a half years, the family returned to Kentucky, where Beshear joined the Lexington law firm of Harbison, Kessinger, Lisle, and Bush. He went into practice for himself in 1974. Taking on partners, he formed the law firm of Beshear, Meng, and Green. He led the firm until his election as attorney general in 1979.


title: Steve Beshear

text: In 1973, Beshear began his political career by being elected to represent the 76th District (Fayette County) in the Kentucky House of Representatives. During his first term, his colleagues named him the most outstanding freshman legislator. He was re-elected in 1975 and 1977; both campaigns featured close Democratic primaries between Beshear and Jerry Lundergan.


title: Steve Beshear

text: As a legislator, Beshear gained a reputation as a consumer advocate, and sponsored bills to increase environmental protections and end the practice of commercial bail bonding. In 1974, Beshear voted against a resolution condemning the practice of desegregation busing because it called for changes to the federal constitution. One of his major accomplishments in the House was spearheading legislation to improve neonatal care at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. Although he considered a 1978 bill requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in Kentucky classrooms to be unconstitutional, he abstained from voting on it rather than voting against it, a move he later claimed he regretted.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear was the first candidate to announce his bid for the post of Attorney General of Kentucky in the 1979 election. Shortly after declaring his candidacy, he was endorsed by outgoing Attorney General Robert F. Stephens. The central issue of Beshear's campaign was his pledge to be an advocate of the consumer in cases of proposed utility rate hikes. After winning the Democratic primary, he defeated Republican nominee Ron Snyder by a vote of 471,177 to 302,951. When incumbent Attorney General Stephens resigned in December 1979 to accept an appointment to the Kentucky Supreme Court, Beshear was appointed to fill the vacancy until his term officially began in January. As attorney general, Beshear created the state's first Medicaid fraud division and his office took a leading role in the Leviticus Project, an eight-state coalition committed to prosecuting organized crime in the country's coal fields.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Two minor controversies marked Beshear's tenure as attorney general. The first came in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the 1980 case of "Stone v. Graham". The ruling struck down the state law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in all of the state's classrooms on grounds that it violated the Establishment Clause of the federal constitution. State Superintendent Raymond Barber asked the Supreme Court to clarify whether its ruling meant that all of the copies of the Commandments already posted had to be taken down or whether it simply invalidated the Kentucky requirement for them to be posted; the Court refused the request for clarification. Beshear then issued an advisory opinion that displaying the Commandments in classrooms under any circumstances was banned by the Court's ruling.


title: Steve Beshear

text: The second controversy arose as a result of the renovation of the governor's mansion. Phyllis George Brown, Kentucky's first lady, created the Save the Mansion Fund to help cover the costs of the renovation. When the renovation was complete, she planned a nine-day showcase of the mansion for the general public. Guests were charged $10 to take a tour of the mansion. Legislator Eugene P. Stuart objected to taxpayers being charged a fee to view a mansion their tax dollars supported. He asked Beshear to protest the charge, and Beshear requested an injunction against the Save the Mansion Fund. A Lexington judge refused to grant the injunction, and Beshear appealed to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court's decision. Beshear's actions caused a rift between him and Governor John Y. Brown Jr.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Limited to one term as attorney general by the state constitution, Beshear declared his candidacy for lieutenant governor in 1983. In a seven-candidate Democratic primary in May, Beshear captured 183,662 of the 575,022 votes cast to defeat a field that included former state Auditor George L. Atkins, Jefferson County judge executive Todd Hollenbach, Agriculture Commissioner Alben Barkley II, and former Kentucky Wildcats basketball star Bill Spivey. In the general election, Beshear faced Republican Eugene Stuart and Don Wiggins, who became the nominee of the newly formed Consumers Lobby Party after losing in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Stuart categorized Beshear as being too liberal for Kentucky, citing his opinion in the Ten Commandments case, as well as his support for abortion rights and gun control. Beshear denied advocating for gun control and charged that Stuart, a state senator from Jefferson County, had not shown any leadership worthy of election to the lieutenant governor's office. Beshear easily defeated Stuart by a vote of 568,869 to 321,352; Wiggins captured just 7,728 votes.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Several changes were proposed to the office of lieutenant governor during Beshear's tenure. In 1984, state representative Bobby Richardson proposed a constitutional amendment to abolish the office. When that effort failed, Richardson introduced a bill in the 1986 General Assembly that would have revoked the lieutenant governor's right to live rent-free in the state's Old Governor's Mansion, eliminated his or her police protection, and restricted his or her use of the state's two executive helicopters. The measure would also have eliminated the lieutenant governor's salary, paying him or her "per diem" for days served as acting governor or president of the state senate instead. The measure would further have lifted the ban on the lieutenant governor holding other employment. Although the bill would have exempted Beshear from its provisions, Beshear still opposed it and charged that it was politically motivated. Richardson had expressed interest in running for lieutenant governor in the past, and Beshear claimed that because he was never elected to the office, he "doesn't want anybody else to have it." Richardson denied that his efforts were a political ploy; he claimed the office was largely ceremonial and served only as a stepping stone to the governorship. Three of the previous four lieutenant governors had subsequently been elected governor, including sitting governor Martha Layne Collins.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Despite opposing Richardson's changes to the office, Beshear conceded that the provision of the state constitution that made him acting governor every time Governor Collins left the state was "archaic." During its 1987 organizational session, the General Assembly relieved the lieutenant governor of his membership on the committees that assigned bills to other committees and that managed the flow of legislation on the Senate floor. Later that year, a subcommittee of the Commission on Constitutional Review proposed requiring the governor and lieutenant governor to run as a ticket and combining the office with that of the secretary of state. These recommendations were not acted on during Beshear's term.


title: Steve Beshear

text: During his service as lieutenant governor, Beshear formed and chaired the Kentucky Tomorrow Commission, a privately financed group assembled to make recommendations for the state's future growth and development. The 30-person commission was formed in July 1984 and presented its report – containing more than 100 recommendations – in September 1986. Among the recommendations in the commission's report were several changes to the state constitution, adopted in 1891. The recommended changes included eliminating the offices of state treasurer, secretary of state, and superintendent of public instruction, holding elections only in odd-numbered years instead of every year, and raising the term limit for the state's constitutional officers from one term to two consecutive terms. The state legislature showed little interest in calling a constitutional convention, however, and the commission's recommendations were not immediately adopted, though several have since been implemented. Other recommendations in the commission's report included the creation of lifelong learning programs, implementation of criminal justice reforms, and improvements in worker training. The commission was hailed by some as the most substantial undertaking by a lieutenant governor to date, but was panned by others as a move by Beshear to better position himself for a run for governor in 1987.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Among Beshear's other activities as lieutenant governor was his participation in an investigation of Kentucky Utilities' coal-buying practices. At issue was whether it was legal and ethical for the company's coal buyer to accept gifts and other perks from coal suppliers. Beshear had clashed with the company over similar issues during his term as attorney general. The company attempted to block Beshear's participation in the investigation, but the Kentucky Public Service Commission rejected the attempt. Due to the length of the investigation and the number of appeals filed, the matter was not fully adjudicated until 1992, well past the end of Beshear's term. The Kentucky Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of Kentucky Utilities.


title: Steve Beshear

text: In 1987, Beshear entered a crowded Democratic gubernatorial primary that included former governor Julian Carroll, millionaire bookstore magnate Wallace Wilkinson, and Eastern Kentucky physician Grady Stumbo. Beshear had the backing of the Collins administration and the endorsement of several labor leaders and the state teachers' association; he appeared to be the front-runner in the race until former governor John Y. Brown Jr. entered late and became the instant favorite. Beshear spent much of the campaign running ads that blasted Brown for his jet-setting lifestyle, including, the ads claimed, his "wild nights in Vegas". Brown countered with ads claiming that Beshear was distorting the facts and could not be trusted. Both Beshear and Brown claimed the other would raise taxes if he were elected. The feud between Beshear and Brown allowed Wilkinson, who was last among the candidates according to polls as late as February 1987, to launch his own blitz of ads claiming both Beshear and Brown would raise taxes and proposing a state lottery as an alternative means of raising funds for the state. In the final days of the campaign, Wilkinson surged past both Brown and Beshear and captured 221,138 votes to win the primary; Beshear finished third with 114,439, trailing Brown (163,204 votes) but leading Stumbo (84,613 votes), Carroll (42,137 votes), and three minor candidates.


title: Steve Beshear

text: After his defeat in the 1987 election, Beshear moved to a farm in Clark County. He resumed his career as a lawyer, joining the 125-member Lexington law firm of Stites and Harbison. He handled several high-profile cases such as the bankruptcy of Calumet Farm and the liquidation of the Kentucky Central Insurance Company. He underwent successful surgery to treat prostate cancer in 1994.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear did little in the political arena for almost a decade after his 1987 primary defeat, but in late 1995, he was encouraged by Democratic leaders – including former governor Ned Breathitt, Senator Wendell H. Ford, and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Bob Kerrey – to challenge incumbent Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. Beshear entered the primary as a heavy favorite against Tom Barlow, a former one-term Congressman from Kentucky's First District, and Shelby Lanier, a retired Louisville police officer. During the primary campaign, Beshear virtually ignored Barlow and Lanier and focused his rhetoric on McConnell. Despite Barlow's tour of all 120 Kentucky counties, Beshear cruised to victory in the primary, garnering 177,859 votes (66.38%) to Barlow's 64,235 (23.97%) and Lanier's 25,856 (9.65%).


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear faced heavy deficits in polls against McConnell throughout the general election campaign. McConnell also raised twice as much money as Beshear during the campaign. Beshear tried to make McConnell's fundraising a campaign issue, claiming much of the money came from political action committees that represented interests that lobbied the Senate committees on which McConnell served. McConnell defended his contributors, saying that the right to free speech included the right to donate money. Beshear charged that Republicans, including McConnell, had voted to cut Medicare; McConnell responded that Republicans had not cut Medicare, but had put forward a plan to curb its growth, a plan that didn't differ significantly, McConnell said, from the one proposed by Democratic President Bill Clinton.


title: Steve Beshear

text: The campaign turned personal during the second of two debates between the two candidates when McConnell charged that the Iroquois Hunt Club, to which Beshear belonged, had no African-American members and was racially discriminatory. Beshear denied that the club was discriminatory and fired back that a prominent McConnell supporter from Louisville was "virulently anti-women." McConnell countered that Beshear had taken money from a labor union group that was under investigation for links to organized crime. After the debate, it was revealed that the Pendennis Club, of which McConnell had been a member, was under investigation for discriminatory membership practices; McConnell claimed he had resigned his membership in the club after perceiving that it practiced discrimination, but did not express his reasons for resigning to the club's membership or leadership. Ultimately, none of Beshear's arguments gained much traction, and he lost the race by a 724,794 votes (55.5%) to 560,012 (42.9%). At the time, it was the largest victory margin of McConnell's career. In a 2009 biography of McConnell, author John David Dyche wrote that Beshear "had no illusions about his chance of success [in the race against McConnell], but for the sake of his party, and hoping to ride the coattails of President Clinton's likely re-election, he got in the race." After the book's release, Beshear said through a spokesman that Dyche's assessment "sounds accurate."


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear continued his legal practice at Stites and Harbison following his defeat by McConnell. In 2001, the firm was hired to represent creditors in a bankruptcy case against Wallace Wilkinson, Beshear's opponent in the 1987 gubernatorial primary. The firm also represented four creditors of Wallace's Bookstore, the company through which Wilkinson had made his fortune. Wilkinson unsuccessfully sought to have the firm removed from the case, citing a potential conflict of interest stemming from his old political rivalry with Beshear. The case was eventually settled in 2002, four months after Wilkinson's death.


title: Steve Beshear

text: On December 18, 2006, Beshear announced that he would enter the 2007 gubernatorial race with Hazard physician and state senator Daniel Mongiardo as his running mate. Beshear promised to return "integrity" to the governor's office, a slap at sitting governor Ernie Fletcher, who was seeking re-election despite a recently concluded investigation into his administration's hiring practices conducted by Democratic Attorney General Greg Stumbo. At the time, the only other declared Democratic candidates were state treasurer Jonathan Miller and Harlan contractor Otis Hensley Jr., who only ran a limited campaign. By the filing deadline, the list of Democratic challengers had grown to include Louisville millionaire businessman Bruce Lunsford, former lieutenant governor Steve Henry, Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives Jody Richards, and perennial candidate Gatewood Galbraith.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Early polls showed that Beshear and Henry led the Democratic field in name recognition, but both trailed Fletcher and his Republican primary rival Anne Northup in that area. Early in the campaign, Beshear attempted to set himself apart from the other candidates by supporting a constitutional amendment that would allow expanded casino gambling in the state, which he claimed could generate $500 million in new revenue without the need to raise taxes. Observers noted that this strategy was remarkably similar to the one used by Wallace Wilkinson who, in his 1987 primary victory over Beshear and others, trumpeted the revenue a state lottery would generate. Initially, all of the Democratic candidates except Hensley endorsed a casino amendment, but as Beshear made it the centerpiece of his campaign, support from other candidates began to waver; Richards officially changed his position to oppose the amendment, while several other candidates charged that Beshear was staking too much of his platform on a proposal that was not guaranteed to pass.


title: Steve Beshear

text: In April 2007, Beshear received the endorsement of former Governor Brereton Jones. Just two weeks before the primary, candidate Jonathan Miller dropped out of the race and endorsed Beshear. Miller, who was consistently lagging in the polls, indicated that he was endorsing Beshear in order to prevent an "unelectable" candidate from becoming the Democratic Party's nominee for the fall campaign. He later admitted that comment was aimed at Lunsford, who dropped out of the 2003 Democratic gubernatorial primary and in the general election endorsed Fletcher over Democratic candidate Ben Chandler, and at Henry, who faced allegations of illegal medical billing and improper campaign financing. Buoyed by these endorsements, Beshear surged ahead and won the primary; he garnered 40.9 percent of the vote, just enough to avoid a costly runoff election with Lunsford, the second-place finisher.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Incumbent governor Fletcher emerged from the Republican primary, and Beshear immediately looked to make the investigation against Fletcher the primary issue of the campaign. Fletcher countered by strengthening his opposition to Beshear's casino expansion plan. In June 2007, Fletcher backed off an earlier commitment to let Kentuckians vote on casino gambling amendment; a campaign staffer told reporters that "The voters will have their chance to decide this issue in [the] November [election]. To put it on the ballot would be redundant." Fletcher's choice to make casino gambling the centerpiece of the campaign proved ineffective. After months of campaigning on the issue, a SurveyUSA poll showed that Fletcher had gained only 6 percentage points on Beshear and still trailed him by 16 percentage points. Further, polling showed that more than half of the state's voters believed Fletcher had acted unethically with regard to the claims in the hiring investigation while 81% believed the casino gambling amendment should be placed on the ballot. Late in the campaign, eight of Kentucky's leading newspapers endorsed Beshear. Ultimately, Beshear was elected by a vote of 619,567 to 435,856.


title: Steve Beshear

text: On January 26, 2009, Lieutenant Governor Daniel Mongiardo announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Senator Jim Bunning in the 2010 senatorial election. The move effectively prohibited Mongiardo from running for re-election with Beshear in the 2011 gubernatorial contest. On July 19, 2009, Beshear announced that Louisville mayor Jerry Abramson would replace Mongiardo as his running mate in his re-election campaign.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear faced no opposition in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, held on May 17, 2011. In the Republican primary, Senate President David Williams defeated Louisville businessman Phil Moffett, a favorite of the Tea Party Movement, and Bobbie Holsclaw, county clerk of Jefferson County. Perennial candidate Gatewood Galbraith sought the governorship as an Independent after collecting the requisite 5,000 signatures from registered voters requesting that his name be added to the ballot.


title: Steve Beshear

text: On November 8, 2011, Beshear was re-elected as governor of Kentucky with close to 56% of the vote in a three-way race. On the same night Democratic candidates won all but one of the statewide offices.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Soon after taking office, Beshear ordered $78 million in budget cuts, citing a $434 million projected deficit in the state budget. Republican Senate President David Williams questioned the legality of the cuts, claiming that the shortfall was only $117.5 million and that $145 million in surplus funds from the previous fiscal year would cover the difference. Beshear countered that the legislature had already authorized $138 million in expenditures from the surplus fund and that his reckoning of the deficit also included $300 million in "additional spending needs". Williams stopped short of filing a legal challenge to the cuts, but warned Beshear that the General Assembly would closely monitor the cuts and override any they disagreed with by passing modifications to the 2006–2008 budget after the commencement of the legislative session in February.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear was dealt the first political setback of his term in the special election to fill the state Senate seat of his lieutenant governor, Daniel Mongiardo. Despite a 2-to-1 voter registration advantage in the district for Democratic candidates and the fact that both Beshear and Mongiardo campaigned heavily for Democratic nominee Scott Alexander, Republican Brandon Smith captured the open seat by 401 votes. The loss by Alexander was the most expensive in state legislative history and gave Republicans a 22–15 advantage over Democratic members in the state senate; the chamber also included one Independent.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Much of the debate in the 2008 legislative session centered on crafting a budget for the 2008–2010 biennium, a period when the state was projected to encounter a shortfall of nearly $1 billion. Beshear expressed surprise that the budget issues consumed so much of the Assembly's time during the session, but admitted that the legislature had become much more independent of the governor than it was when he was a legislator two decades earlier. He listed early childhood education and expanded health care for children among the priorities that he was unable to address in the session.


title: Steve Beshear

text: On February 15, 2008, Beshear unveiled his promised legislation that would allow casino gambling in Kentucky. Beshear's plan included a constitutional amendment allowing 12 casinos to be licensed in the state – seven at each of the state's horse racetracks and five additional free-standing casinos – and a companion bill specifying how the increased revenues would be spent. After the plan encountered initial resistance, House leadership reduced the number of casinos that would have been allowed to by the amendment to nine. One proposal, authored by House Speaker Jody Richards, would have guaranteed five casino licenses to the state's racetracks and allowed the other four to go to free-standing casinos. A competing measure, drafted by House Majority Whip Rob Wilkey and Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, would have allowed all nine licenses to be awarded competitively, with none specifically reserved for racetracks. In late February, the House Elections, Constitutional Amendments, and Intergovernmental Affairs committee failed to advance either proposal to the full floor of the House of Representatives. The following day, Speaker Richards removed Representative Dottie Sims from the committee; Sims claimed Richards retaliated against her for voting against the proposals, but Richards said he removed Sims because she told him she would vote for the proposals and then voted against them. Following Sims' removal the committee passed the amendment.


title: Steve Beshear

text: The casino legislation was not called to a vote in the Democratic controlled Kentucky House of Representatives, where 60 votes out of 100 would have been required for passage. Beshear announced that his proposal for a constitutional amendment to allow for casinos was dead for the regular session on March 27, 2008. Among the other proposals favored by Beshear that failed to pass in the session were an ethics reform measure Beshear proposed in the wake of the investigation of the Fletcher administration, a plan to reduce the projected shortfall in the state's pension system, and a proposed 70-cent-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes. Besides the state budget, major legislation passed during the session included incentives for homeowners and businesses to utilize energy efficiency measures, anti-bullying legislation, and increased penalties for animal cruelty.


title: Steve Beshear

text: In the final hours of the legislative session, both houses of the General Assembly resorted to the controversial practice of stopping the clocks in their respective chambers a few minutes before midnight in order to avoid the constitutionally mandated deadline for the end of the session – midnight on April 15. The Assembly then passed twelve bills between midnight and 1 o'clock on April 16 before adjourning. Among those bills was House Bill 79, which provided funding and direction for the state's road-building plan for the next six years. The bill was delivered to Beshear later in the day, and he vetoed it on April 26. With the General Assembly unable to reconvene and override the veto, Senate President David Williams filed suit, claiming Beshear's veto was invalid because it was not issued within 10 days of the bill's passage. Williams' reasoning was based on the fact that, according to the legislative record, the bill was passed on April 15. Beshear counter-sued, claiming the bill was actually passed on April 16 and thus invalid to begin with. On July 31, 2008, a Lexington judge sided with Beshear, invalidating the law and declaring that the General Assembly would no longer be allowed to use the practice of stopping the clocks; he did not rule on the validity of the other bills passed after the session expired.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Dissatisfied that the General Assembly had not acted to shore up the state pension system, Beshear called a special legislative session for July 23, 2008, after House and Senate leaders informed him that they had reached an agreement on a plan after the regular legislative session's end. The session lasted five days, the minimum amount of time required to maneuver the bill through the legislative process.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Following the legislative session, Beshear began to address his agenda related to energy production. In April 2008, he announced that he would divide the state's Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet to form a new Energy and Environmental Cabinet. The move essentially reversed the consolidation of Environmental, Public Protection, and Labor Cabinets effected under Beshear's predecessor, Ernie Fletcher. Later in the year, Beshear released what he called the state's first-ever comprehensive energy plan. The plan called for expansion of solar, wind, and biomass energy generation, as well as more speculative ventures such as coal gasification and carbon capture and sequestration. Although the plan called for an exploration of the use of nuclear power, Beshear stopped short of advocating an end to the state's ban on the construction of nuclear reactors.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Hoping to attract a proposed ZAP electric vehicle manufacturing plant to the city of Franklin, Kentucky, Beshear issued an executive order permitting low-speed vehicles on many Kentucky roads in August 2008. The state also offered the company $48 million in tax incentives, contingent upon its delivering a promised 4,000 jobs. Construction of the proposed plant stalled, however, when GE Capital, a primary investor, pulled out of the project. ZAP officials maintained their intention to build the plant, but said they would also consider other states' proposals if they could not replace the $125 million commitment from GE.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear clashed with the state Council on Postsecondary Education over its hiring of Brad Cowgill as its president. Beshear said state law required that the Council conduct a national search for its president and that they hire someone with experience and an established reputation in higher education; he claimed that Cowgill, a Lexington lawyer and state budget director for former Governor Fletcher, was not qualified for the position and that the council hired him without a national search. Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway issued a non-binding opinion that the hiring was illegal under state law, and Cowgill resigned rather than wage a legal battle with Beshear. Beshear, who had considered asking all of the council members to resign or abolishing the council altogether in favor of a new one, praised Cowgill's decision. Democratic House Budget Committee Chairman Harry Moberly said Cowgill "had the council headed in the right direction" and added "I would have been satisfied if Brad had the permanent position, but I do not criticize the governor for the role he had played [in Cowgill's resignation]." Senate President David Williams called Beshear's interference in the matter "unfortunate".


title: Steve Beshear

text: In September 2008, Beshear's administration attempted to seize control of 141 gambling-related domain names in an attempt to block Kentucky residents from accessing those websites. Beshear claimed the sites were conducting illegal, unregulated gambling operations in the state and providing untaxed competition to the state's horse racing industry. Later that year, a Franklin County judge ruled that Beshear had the authority to seize the domain names, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned that ruling on appeal. Beshear appealed to the Kentucky Supreme Court, partially on grounds that the web site owners were being represented by gambling associations and players groups who Beshear said had no legal standing in the case. In 2010, the Kentucky Supreme Court agreed with Beshear and ordered the web site owners themselves to appear before the court. On December 23, 2015, Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate ruled in favor of the state and awarded it $870 million in damages. The other party to the case, Amaya Gaming, announced they would appeal the decision.


title: Steve Beshear

text: During the organizational session of the 2009 General Assembly, House Speaker Jody Richards was ousted by House Democratic members by a three-vote margin in favor of former Majority Leader and Attorney General Greg Stumbo. Some speculated that Beshear had personally interfered on behalf of Stumbo, a charge he denied. When asked about Beshear's alleged interference, Richards refused to comment.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Due to the state's worsening economy, the primary issue facing the legislature for the session was a $456 million budget shortfall. Expanded gambling was again proposed as a possible source of revenue, and a bill to allow slot machines at the state's racetracks passed the House Licensing and Occupations Committee, but died in the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. Speaker Stumbo expressed doubt that he had enough votes to pass the measure even if it were brought to the House floor. Instead, the Assembly passed a series of tax bills to deal with the shortfall. The Assembly also began the process of reforming the state's system of school accountability testing, a move advocated by Beshear. Other bills passed during the session revised the state road plan to allocate newly available federal stimulus funds, created a program to divert accused substance abusers to treatment before their trials, and created a statewide database for tracking payday loans.


title: Steve Beshear

text: The rules of the House of Representatives required that the final two days of the chamber's session be reserved for overriding any vetoes by the governor. Beshear hoped that the House would suspend the rules, as they had in previous years, in order to consider bills to increase funding to public defenders, create a transportation authority to oversee bridge-building projects in Louisville and Henderson, and provide various economic incentives, including a package intended to lure a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race to Kentucky Speedway. The House refused to suspend the rules, however, citing its desire to receive legislation in a timely manner in the future. The chamber allowed Beshear's one veto to stand and adjourned a day early.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Following the 2009 legislative session, Attorney General Jack Conway was asked to issue advisory opinions on two gambling-related issues. Republican state senator Damon Thayer asked for an opinion as to whether Instant Racing – allowing individuals to bet on the outcome of previously run horse races – would be allowable under the state constitution. Democratic Representative Jody Richards also asked for an advisory opinion as to whether a constitutional amendment was required to allow video lottery terminals at the state's racetracks or whether they could be construed as legal under the amendment that allowed a state lottery. Critics charged that Conway had a conflict of interest in the matter because his father was a member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, but Conway denied that a conflict existed, and the state Executive Branch Ethics Board refused to take a position unless an official request for an investigation were made. Conway subsequently opined in June 2009 that video lottery terminals would be legal if governed by the Kentucky Lottery Corporation and in January 2010 that instant racing would be allowable under the state's parimutuel betting statutes with a few regulatory changes.


title: Steve Beshear

text: In an effort to cut costs, the Kentucky State Police announced in May 2009 that it would only offer the state driving test in English beginning June 1, 2009. The test had previously been offered in 22 foreign languages, but the state police said that the foreign language versions of the test had not been updated to reflect recent changes to driving laws. Two days later, Beshear announced the reversal of the state police's new policy, saying he was not informed of it and believed it was the wrong thing to do. He promised the foreign language versions of the test would be updated and would continue to be offered.


title: Steve Beshear

text: In April 2009, Beshear announced a partnership between the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, and Chicago-based Argonne National Laboratory to construct a research facility in Lexington to develop advanced battery technologies that could be used to power electric cars. A week later, the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture announced they would locate a battery manufacturing plant in Hardin County, citing the nearby research facility as an incentive for choosing Kentucky over competing sites. The venture, however, was predicated upon receiving $342 million in federal stimulus funds; in August 2009, those funds were denied, and officials conceded it was unlikely that the plant would be built.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear called another special legislative session in June 2009 to address another $1 billion shortfall in the state budget. Later, Beshear amended the call to include the economic incentives package that was not approved during the regular session and, in light of Attorney General Conway's opinion on video lottery terminals, a measure to expand gambling in the state by statute. With the threshold lowered from 60 votes for a constitutional amendment to 51 votes for a statute, the House of Representatives passed the expanded gambling bill, but the measure died in the Republican-dominated Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee by a 10–5 vote. The amended budget and the economic incentives bills both passed in the 10-day session.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Again unable to get his expanded gambling proposal past the Senate, Beshear attempted to chip away at the Republican majority in that chamber by appointing some Republican senators to lucrative positions in the executive and judicial branches in advance of the 2010 General Assembly. Shortly after the special session, Beshear named Republican senator Charlie Borders to the state Public Safety Commission. That appointment set up a special election for Borders' seat, which was won by Democratic senator Robin Webb, reducing the Republican majority to 20–17 with one Independent who usually voted with the Republicans. Following Webb's victory, Beshear appointed Republican senator Dan Kelly to a circuit judgeship, but Republicans held on to that seat in a special election.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Early in the 2010 legislative session, Beshear presented his biennial budget proposal to the General Assembly. The state projected a $1.5 billion shortfall for the biennium, and Beshear once again proposed to make up for the shortfall with revenue generated from expanded gambling. Days after Beshear presented the proposal, both House Speaker Stumbo and Senate President Williams declared all gambling legislation "dead" for the session, saying there was no political will in either chamber to pass such legislation ahead of the legislative elections in November. The process of crafting a budget consumed the vast majority of the Assembly's time during the session, but legislators reached the constitutionally mandated end of their session with no agreement. Announcing his intent to call a special session to pass a budget and prevent a state government shutdown, Beshear blasted the leadership of both chambers for discarding his budget proposal. "[W]riting their own budget would be their 'defining moment'," Beshear said the legislators had claimed. "Well, it was. A moment of abject failure." Beshear said expanded gambling would not be on the agenda for the special session unless an agreement were reached before the session date. In May 2010, legislators reconvened and passed a budget. Beshear utilized his line-item veto on 19 items in the budget, claiming they restricted his ability to implement the reduction in executive expenses mandated by the budget. Legislators were unable to override the vetoes because the special session had already adjourned.


title: Steve Beshear

text: In July 2010, Beshear announced six mandatory, unpaid furlough days for most state employees in order to achieve the savings called for by the budget. Later in the month, Beshear announced exceptions from the furlough for public safety and mental health care workers. The American Federation of County State and Municipal Employees (AFCSME) Council 62, which represents about 9,000 of Kentucky's state workers, filed suit to block implementation of the furloughs. A Franklin County Circuit Court Judge refused to issue an injunction in September 2010, but allowed the lawsuit to proceed. A month later, AFCSME agreed to drop the suit and address the furlough issue through Beshear's Employee Advisory Council. Ultimately, all six furlough days were observed as outlined in Beshear's plan.


title: Steve Beshear

text: In the lead-up to the 2011 legislative session, state senator and former governor Julian Carroll declared, "In all the years I've been around the Capitol, I can't recall people expecting so little from a legislative session." Carroll's pessimism was the result of Senate President David Williams' announcement that he would challenge Beshear in the upcoming gubernatorial election, which Carroll believed would disincentivize cooperation between the two leaders.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Among the items passed in the legislative session were a bill allowing optometrists to perform eye surgery (a procedure usually reserved for ophthalmologists), a ban on the sale of a psychoactive drug marketed as "bath salts", and a measure allowing community supervision and addiction treatment as jail alternatives for non-violent drug criminals. Measures that did not pass included tougher measures to curb illegal immigration advocated by Williams and raising the legal age for dropping out of high school from sixteen to eighteen, a proposal supported by Beshear. Also, the Assembly was unable to agree on whether to adopt Beshear's plan to address a shortfall in the state's Medicaid obligations or an alternative plan proposed by Williams. Beshear's plan involved moving $166 million from the second year of the biennial budget to cover the shortfall and cover the costs in the second year through savings achieved by switching to a managed care plan for Medicaid. Williams' plan, passed by the Republican majority in the state senate, called for $101 million in cuts to state government spending to cover the shortfall. Without a plan in place, Beshear estimated that the state would have to cut Medicaid reimbursements to health care providers by 30 percent.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Immediately following the end of the legislative session, Beshear called for a special legislative session to consider a way to meet the state's Medicaid obligations and whether or not to raise the minimum dropout age. In the special session, legislators also approved raising the minimum dropout age to 18 during the special session. Following the session, the National Education Association honored Beshear with its America's Greatest Education Governor Award for 2011, citing his advocacy for raising the minimum dropout age and his consistent refusal to cut education funding. Both houses also approved a plan that allowed Beshear to move the funds from the second year of the budget, but triggered automatic spending cuts if the managed care plans did not generate sufficient savings. The bill also called for the hiring of an independent accounting firm to assess the savings achieved by the managed care plans. Beshear then used his line-item veto to strike the spending cuts and the savings assessment provisions, per a previous arrangement with Democratic lawmakers. By eliminating these provisions, the version of the bill signed by Beshear was essentially the plan he had proposed during the regular session. The House adjourned the session March 24, but the Senate remained in session until April 6, voting to override Beshear's vetoes, but without concurrence from the House, the override votes were ineffective.


title: Steve Beshear

text: Beshear delivered the Democratic response to a speech to a joint session of the United States Congress given by President Donald Trump on February 28, 2017. Beshear was chosen due to his successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Kentucky and to bring back the white, rural voters that Democrats felt they had lost in the 2016 presidential election. Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, praised the choice, saying "[Beshear] led the country in the health care exchanges in the Affordable Care Act, knows firsthand about the success of the Affordable Care Act" Other Democrats, however, felt it was a mistake, with Pennsylvania's Bob Brady saying, "I don't know who the former governor of Kentucky is, and I don't think anybody else does, either. Do you?"


title: Steve Beshear

text: Reviewing the response, "The Cincinnati Enquirer" wrote, "Judging from the response from Twitter and TV pundits, it did not go well." Fox News reported that the speech was "widely mocked". "The New York Post" noted one particularly resonating statement when Beshear said, "I'm a proud Democrat, but first and foremost, I'm a proud Republican, and Democrat, and mostly, American." The criticism extended to Beshear's choice of backdrop – "people sitting behind him, near motionless, in a dimly lit diner" – which comedian Stephen Colbert described as your "normal, relatable everyday diner where everyone faces the same direction in terrified silence." Emanuel Cleaver, a Democratic congressman from Missouri concluded, "I don't mind saying when we make mistakes. And [selecting Beshear for the response] was a mistake."


title: Steve Beshear

text: Steve Beshear is currently a Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In this role, he is teaching a course in the Department of Health Policy and Management titled, "A Governor's Perspective on Leadership."


title: Religious views on female genital mutilation

text: There is a widespread view among practitioners of female genital mutilation (FGM) that it is a religious requirement, although prevalence rates often vary according to geography and ethnic group. There is an ongoing debate about the extent to which the practice's continuation is influenced by custom, social pressure, lack of health-care information, and the position of women in society. The procedures confer no health benefits and can lead to serious health problems.


text: FGM is practised predominantly within certain Muslim societies, but it also exists within some adjacent Christian and animist groups. The practice isn't required by most forms of Islam and fatwas have been issued forbidding FGM, favouring it, or leaving the decision to parents but advising against it. However, FGM was introduced in Southeast Asia by the spread of Shafi'i version of Islamic jurisprudence, which considers the practice obligatory. There is mention of it on a Greek papyrus from 163 BCE and a possible indirect reference to it on a coffin from Egypt's Middle Kingdom (c. 1991–1786 BCE). It has been found among Coptic Christians in Egypt, Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia, and Protestants and Catholics in Sudan and Kenya. The only Jewish group known to have practiced it are the Beta Israel of Ethiopia.


text: Until the 1980s FGM was widely known as female circumcision, which gave the erroneous impression that it was equivalent in severity and health effects to male circumcision. In fact, FGM has only adverse health effects and is almost always more extensive than male circumcision. In 1990 the IAC began referring to it as female genital mutilation, as did the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1991. The WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA defined FGM in 1997 as "all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons". There are four WHO categories:


text: FGM is concentrated in what Gerry Mackie called an "intriguingly contiguous" zone in Africa—east to west from Somalia to Senegal, and north to south from Egypt to Tanzania. The practice is both "contiguously distributed and contagious", he writes: "It spreads across groups as more resource-endowed males encounter less resource-endowed females in circumstances of inequality." Marriageability is its "main engine of continuation". The practice's distribution in Africa meets in Nubia in the Sudan, leading Mackie to suggest that Type III FGM began there with the Meroite civilization (c. 800 BCE – c. 350 CE) to increase confidence in paternity.


text: The proposed circumcision of an Egyptian girl is mentioned on a Greek papyrus from 163 BCE. Spell 1117 of the Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts may refer to an uncircumcised girl ("'m't"), although there is disagreement about the word's meaning. Found on the sarcophagus of Sit-Hedj-Hotep, the spell dates to Egypt's Middle Kingdom (c. 1991–1786 BCE). The examination of mummies has shown no evidence of FGM.


text: Strabo (c. 64 BCE – c. 23 CE) wrote about FGM after visiting Egypt around 25 BCE, as did Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE): "the Egyptians by the custom of their country circumcise the marriageable youth and maid in the fourteenth (year) of their age, when the male begins to get seed, and the female to have a menstrual flow." Type III FGM became linked to slavery. João dos Santos wrote in 1609 of a group near Mogadishu who had a "custome to sew up their Females, especially their slaves being young to make them unable for conception, which makes these slaves sell dearer, both for their chastitie, and for better confidence which their Masters put in them".


text: The Bible does not mention FGM. Christian authorities agree that the practice has no foundation in Christianity's religious texts, and Christian missionaries in Africa were at the forefront of efforts to stop it. Indeed, they led the way in referring to it as mutilation; from 1929 the Kenya Missionary Council called it the "sexual mutilation of women", following the lead of Marion Scott Stevenson, a Church of Scotland missionary. When, in the 1930s, Christian missionaries tried to make the abandonment of FGM a condition of church membership in colonial Kenya, they provoked a far-reaching campaign in defence of the practice.


text: Despite the absence of scriptural support, women and girls within Christian communities, including in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, do undergo FGM. It has been found among Coptic Christians in Egypt, Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia, and Protestants and Catholics in Sudan and Kenya. A 2013 UNICEF report identified 17 African countries in which at least 10 percent of Christian women and girls aged 15–49 had undergone it. In Niger, for example, 55 percent of Christian women and girls had experienced it, against two percent of Muslim women and girls.


text: FGM is found mostly within and adjacent to Muslim communities. Prevalence rates among various Muslim nations depend on the ethnicity and location. In Arabic, the practice is referred to as "khafḍ" () or "khifaḍ" (). "Khitan" () means male circumcision, but it can also encompass FGM. Less severe forms of FGM, or what the World Health Organization calls Type I (removal of the clitoral hood and/or the clitoral glans), may be referred to as "sunna" (recommended). In a reported narration Muhammad made female genital cutting optional, but he warned against harming women. The above narration is designated as "weak"; according to the Islamic criteria of authenticity, it is missing a link in the chain of narrators and it is found in only one of the six undisputed hadith collections. According to Sayyid Sabiq, the author of "Fiqh-us-Sunnah", all hadiths concerning female circumcision are non-authentic.


text: Senior Muslim religious authorities agree that FGM is neither required nor prohibited by Islam. The Quran does not mention FGM or male circumcision. FGM is praised in a few "hadith" (sayings attributed to Muhammad) as noble but not required, though the authenticity of these hadith has been questioned. In addition to Sharia, the "Ijtihad" have been one of the four sources of Muslim law through the centuries. Ijtihad include "fatwas" (opinions of Muslim religious scholars), which are often widely distributed and describe behaviour that conforms to religious requirements. Fatwas have been issued forbidding FGM, favouring it, and leaving the decision to parents but advising against it.


text: Several Muslim leaders have called for an end to the practice. In 2004, after CNN broadcast images of a girl in Cairo undergoing FGM, then Grand Mufti of Egypt Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi declared that hadiths on FGM were unreliable. A conference at Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 2006 saw prominent Muslim clergy declare it unnecessary. After a 12-year-old Egyptian girl died during an FGM procedure in 2007, the Al-Azhar Supreme Council of Islamic Research in Cairo ruled, according to UNICEF, that FGM had "no basis in core Islamic law or any of its partial provisions and that it is harmful and should not be practiced". Ali Gomaa, then Grand Mufti of Egypt, stated: "It's prohibited, prohibited, prohibited." Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said in 2012 that FGM was "a ritual that has survived over centuries and must be stopped as Islam does not support it".


text: In 2018, the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland classified removal of the clitoral prepuce, a less severe form of FGM, as "sunna" (recommended). Performing FGM, including arranging for it to be performed overseas on resident Swiss girls, was outlawed in the country in 2012.


text: The various schools of Islamic jurisprudence have expressed differing views on FGM. The Hanafi and Hanbali schools of Islamic jurisprudence view it as "makruma" for women ("noble", as opposed to obligatory). The Maliki and Shafi'i schools do not differentiate its ruling from that of male circumcision; the former considering it recommended and not obligatory ("mandūb"), whilst the for the latter, it is obligatory ("wājib"). Other scholars say it has no justification at all. Egyptian scholars such as Mohammed Emara and Mohammad Salim Al-Awa argue that FGM is not an Islamic practice and is not endorsed by Islamic jurisprudence.


text: In May 2012, it was reported that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was working to decriminalize FGM. According to reporter Mariz Tadros, they "offered to circumcise women for a nominal fee as part of their community services, a move that threatens to reverse decades of local struggle against the harmful practice. ... Many of the Brothers (and Salafis) argue that while it is not mandatory, it is nevertheless "mukarama" (preferable, pleasing in the eyes of God).


text: One hadith from the Sunan Abu Dawood collection states: "A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet said to her: Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband." Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani describes this hadith as poor in authenticity, and quotes Ahmad Bayhaqi's opinion that it is "poor, with a broken chain of transmission". Yusuf ibn Abd-al-Barr commented: "Those who consider (female) circumcision a sunna, use as evidence this hadith of Abu al-Malih, which is based solely on the evidence of Hajjaj ibn Artaa, who cannot be admitted as an authority when he is the sole transmitter."


text: Another hadith used in support is in Sahih Muslim: "The Messenger of Allah said: When anyone sits amidst four parts (of the woman) and the circumcised parts touch each other a bath becomes obligatory." Mohammad Salim al-Awa states that, while the hadith is authentic, it is not evidence of support for FGM. He states that the Arabic for "the two circumcision organs" is a single word used to connote two forms of circumcision. While the female form is used to denote both male and female genitalia, it should be considered to refer only to the male circumcised organ. A hadith in Sahih Bukhari says: "I heard the Prophet saying. "Five practices are characteristics of the Fitra: circumcision, shaving the pubic hair, cutting the moustaches short, clipping the nails, and depilating the hair of the armpits." Mohamed Salim Al-Awwa writes that it is unclear whether these requirements were meant for females.


text: According to William Clarence-Smith, Islamic Southeast Asia "overwhelmingly" follows the Shafi`i school of law, the only one to make FGM obligatory. The greatest opposition in the area, he writes, is from syncretic Muslims in Java; some practitioners use the root of the turmeric plant to perform an alternative symbolic procedure.


text: Islam introduced FGM into Indonesia and Malaysia from the 13th century on. Over 80 percent of Malaysian women claim religious obligation as the primary reason for practising FGM, along with hygiene (41 percent) and cultural practice (32 percent). The practice is widespread among Muslim women in Indonesia, and over 90 percent of Muslim adults supported it as of 2003. In 2013 the Indonesian Ulema Council, Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body, ruled that it favours FGM, stating that although it is not mandatory, it is "morally recommended". The Ulema has been pushing the Indonesian government to circumcise girls, arguing that it is part of Islamic teachings.


text: Shiite religious texts, such as the hadith transmitted by Al-Sadiq, indicate circumcision is only required for men. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest-ranking Shia (Marja’) in Iraq and the leader of the Hawza (Islamic University) of Najaf, forbids FGM on his website:


text: FGM as a practice is nearly universally unknown among the orthodox Shia Muslims. In Iraq and Iran, it's carried out only among the Sunni minorities.


text: FGM is performed within the Dawoodi Bohra community in India, Pakistan, Yemen and East Africa. According to a 2015–2016 survey, over 80 percent of 365 Dawoodi Bohra women surveyed wanted the practice to end. In 2017 two doctors and a third woman connected to the Dawoodi Bohra in Detroit, Michigan, were arrested on charges of conducting FGM on two seven-year-old girls in the United States.


text: In Pakistan and India female genital mutilation is practiced by Muslims of the Dawoodi Bohra and Sheedi communities, who believe that it leads to purity.


text: Most forms of Judaism requires male circumcision, but it does not allow FGM and the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) does not mention it. The only Jewish group known to have practised FGM are the Beta Israel of Ethiopia. The Beta Israel were not familiar with the Talmud, the Mishnah, and other religious scripture, and read and spoke little or no Hebrew. Most were flown to Israel between 1984 and 1991, where they converted to Orthodox Judaism. Once in Israel, the women abandoned FGM. A study in 1997 found that one third of the 113 Beta Israel women examined had experienced it; 27 percent had undergone partial or total clitoridectomy.


text: Several animist groups in Africa, particularly Guinea and Mali, practise it. Buddhism strongly reject it. It is absent from Confucian traditions. The practice is forbidden in the Bahá'í Faith.


title: Bananarama discography

text: English group Bananarama have released 12 studio albums, two live albums, 16 compilation albums, two extended plays, 50 singles (including three as a featured artist) and four video albums.


title: Cedars of God

text: The Cedars of God ( "Arz al-Rabb" "Cedars of God"), located in the Kadisha Valley of Bsharre, Lebanon, are one of the last vestiges of the extensive forests of the Lebanon cedar that thrived across Mount Lebanon in antiquity. All early modern travelers' accounts of the wild cedars appear to refer to the ones in Bsharri; the Christian monks of the monasteries in the Kadisha Valley venerated the trees for centuries. The earliest documented references of the Cedars of God are found in Tablets 4-6 of the great Epic of Gilgamesh, six days walk from Uruk.


title: Cedars of God

text: The Phoenicians, Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, and Turks used Lebanese timber. The Egyptians valued their timber for shipbuilding, and in the Ottoman Empire their timber was used to construct railways.


title: Cedars of God

text: The mountains of Lebanon were once shaded by thick cedar forests and the tree is the symbol of the country. After centuries of persistent deforestation, the extent of these forests has been markedly reduced.


title: Cedars of God

text: It was once said that a battle occurred between the demigods and the humans over the beautiful and divine forest of Cedar trees near southern Mesopotamia. This forest, once protected by the Sumerian god Enlil, was completely bared of its trees when humans entered its grounds 4700 years ago, after winning the battle against the guardians of the forest, the demigods. The story also tells that Gilgamesh used cedar wood to build his city.


title: Cedars of God

text: Over the centuries, cedar wood was exploited by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, and Turks. The Phoenicians used the Cedars for their merchant fleets. They needed timbers for their ships and the Cedar woods made them the “first sea trading nation in the world”. The Egyptians used cedar resin for the mummification process and the cedar wood for some of “their first hieroglyph bearing rolls of papyrus”. In the Bible, Solomon procured cedar timber to build the Temple in Jerusalem. The emperor Hadrian claimed these forests as an imperial domain, and destruction of the cedar forests was temporarily halted.


title: Cedars of God

text: All early modern travelers' accounts of the wild cedars of Lebanon appear to refer to the Bsharri cedars.


title: Cedars of God

text: Pierre Belon visited the area in 1550, making him the first modern traveler to identify the Cedars of God in his ‘’Observations’’. Belon counted 28 trees:


title: Cedars of God

text: “At a considerable height up the mountains the traveler arrives at the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, which is situated in the valley. Thence proceeding four miles up the mountain, he will arrive at the cedars, the Maronites or the monks acting as guides. The cedars stand in a valley, and not on top of the mountain, and they are supposed to amount to 28 in number, though it is difficult to count them, they being distant from each other a few paces. These the Archbishop of Damascus has endeavored to prove to be the same that Solomon planted with his own hands in the quincunx manner as they now stand. No other tree grows in the valley in which they are situated and it is generally so covered with snow as to be only accessible in summer".


title: Cedars of God

text: "It is a Fobbery to say, that if one reckon the Cedars of Mount Lebanon twice, he shall have a different number, for in all, great and small, there is neither more or less than twenty three of them".


title: Cedars of God

text: Laurent d'Arvieux in 1660 counted 20 trees; and Henry Maundrell in 1697 counted 16 trees of the “very old” type:


title: Cedars of God

text: “Sunday, May 9 The noble (cedar] trees grow amongst the snow near the highest part of Lebanon; and are remarkable as well as for their own age and largeness, as for those frequent allusions made to them in the word of God. Here are some of them very old, and of prodigious bulk; and others younger of a smaller size. Of the former I could reckon up only sixteen, and the latter are very numerous. I measured one of the largest, and found it twelve yards six inches in girt, and yet sound; and thirty seven yards in the spread of its boughs. At about five or six yards from the ground, it was divided into five limbs, each of which was equal to a great tree. After about half an hour spent surveying this place, the clouds began to thicken, and to fly along upon the ground; which so obscured the road, that my guide was very much at a loss to find our way back again. We rambled about for seven hours thus bewildered, which gave me no small fear of being forc'd to spend one night more on Libanus".


title: Cedars of God

text: "They form a grove about a mile in circumference, which consists of some large cedars that are near to one another, a great number of young cedars and some pines. The great cedars, at some distance, look very like large spreading oaks; the bodies of the trees are short, dividing at the bottom into three or four limbs, some of which growing up together for about ten feet, appear something like thick Gothic columns, which seem to be composed of seven pillars, higher up they begin to spread horizontally: one that had the rounded body, tho' not the largest, measured twenty four feet in circumference, and another with a sort of triple body, as described above, and of a triangular figure, measured twelve feet on each side. The young cedars are not easily know they bear a greater quantity of fruit than the larger ones. The wood does not differ from white deal in appearance, nor does it seem to be harder; it has a fine smell, but not so fragrant as the juniper of America which is commonly called cedar; and it also falls short of it in beauty; I took a piece of the wood from a great tree that was blown down by the wind, and left there to rot; there are fifteen large ones standing. The Christians of several denominations near this place come here to celebrate the festival of the transfiguration, and have built altars against several of the large trees, on which they administer the sacrament. These trees are about half a mile to the north of the road to which we returned...”


title: Cedars of God

text: From the 19th century onwards, the number of writers recording their visits increased substantially, and the number of cedars counted by the writers was in hundreds. Alphonse de Lamartine visited the place during his travel in Lebanon (1832–33), mentioning the cedars in some texts. In 1871, Edward Henry Palmer of the Palestine Exploration Fund described the cedars as follows:


title: Cedars of God

text: Descending by a steep zigzag path to the cedars, we pitched our camp and proceeded to examine the sacred and renowned grove, and could not repress a feeling of disappointment at its small extent, and the insignificant appearance of the trees. They consist of a little clump of trees of comparatively modern growth, not more than nine of them showing any indications of a respectable antiquity, and covering only about three acres of ground. They stand on a ridge consisting of five mounds and two spurs running nearly east and west, as in the accompanying plan. The whole number of trees we estimated at about 355; their size has also been grossly exaggerated, none of them being over 80ft. high. The ground is covered with débris of cedar and white limestone, and in the centre of the clump is a hideous little building, a Maronite chapel, the appointments of which are painfully poverty-stricken and inadequate. The trees have been lopped and otherwise maltreated, especially by the irrepressible tourist, who has been at infinite pains to cut his name on every available trunk. One tree, rather a large one, has a hole in it where a branch had broken away, and this has been enlarged into a chamber. They are scrubby scanty specimens, and not half so fine as may be seen in many an English park.


title: Cedars of God

text: Concern for the protection of the biblical "cedars of God" goes back to 1876, when the grove was surrounded by a high stone wall, paid for by Queen Victoria, to protect saplings from browsing by goats. Nevertheless, during World War I, British troops used cedar to build railroads.


title: Cedars of God

text: Time, along with the exploitation of the Cedars’ wood and the effects of climate change, has led to a decrease in the number of cedar trees in Lebanon. However, Lebanon is still widely known for its cedar tree history, as they are the emblem of the country and the symbol of the Lebanese flag. The remaining trees survive in mountainous areas, where they are the dominant tree species. This is the case on the slopes of Mount Makmel that tower over the Kadisha Valley, where the Cedars of God are found at an altitude of more than . Four trees have reached a height of , with their trunks reaching .


title: Cedars of God

text: The forest is rigorously protected. It is possible to tour if escorted by an authorized guide. After a preliminary phase in which the land was cleared of detritus, the sick plants treated, and the ground fertilized, the "Committee of the Friends of the Cedar Forest" initiated a reforestation program in 1985. These efforts will only be appreciable in a few decades due to the slow growth of cedars. In these areas the winter offers incredible scenery, and the trees are covered with a blanket of snow.


title: Cedars of God

text: The Cedar Forest of ancient Mesopotamian religion appears in several sections of the Epic of Gilgamesh.


title: Cedars of God

text: The Lebanon Cedar is mentioned 103 times in the Bible. In the Hebrew text it is named and in the Greek text (LXX) it is named . Example verses include:


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Stephen Ira Cohen (born May 24, 1949) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the U.S. representative from since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the western three-fourths of Memphis. Cohen is Tennessee's first Jewish congressman.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on May 24, 1949, the son of Genevieve (née Goldsand) and pediatrician Morris David Cohen. He has two older brothers, Michael Corey and Martin D. Cohen. He is a fourth-generation Memphian and a grandson of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Poland. His immigrant grandfather owned a newsstand. Cohen contracted polio when he was five, and the disease caused him to shift his attention from sports to politics at an early age. When he was 11, John F. Kennedy made a campaign stop in Memphis, and Cohen took a picture of Kennedy sitting on a convertible. Cohen describes Kennedy as his political hero; the picture still hangs in his office.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: In 1961, Cohen's family moved to Coral Gables, Florida, where his father took a residency in psychiatry at the University of Miami. From 1964 to 1966, the Cohens lived in Pasadena, California, where Dr. Cohen completed a fellowship in pediatric psychiatry at the University of Southern California. Cohen, who had been attending Polytechnic School in Pasadena, returned to Florida in 1966 to graduate from Coral Gables Senior High School before returning to Memphis where his father had established his private psychiatry practice.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. At Vanderbilt, he was a member of the Alpha Gamma chapter of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. In 1973, he graduated from the University of Memphis School of Law of Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) with a Juris Doctor. Cohen is unmarried and lives in a Midtown neighborhood.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: From 1978 to 2006, Cohen was the sole practitioner of his own law firm, practicing civil and criminal law.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: While serving for three years as legal advisor for the Memphis Police Department, Cohen rose to political prominence when he was elected vice president of the Tennessee Constitutional Convention of 1977 at age 27. Cohen was then elected to serve as a commissioner on the Shelby County Commission, serving from 1978 to 1980. During his time at the commission, he was instrumental in the creation of The Med, a community-funded regional hospital. In 1980, Cohen served as an interim Shelby County General Sessions Court judge. He has also served as a delegate to the 1980, 1992, and 2004 through 2016 Democratic National Conventions.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen was elected to the Tennessee Senate in 1982, representing the 30th district, which includes parts of Memphis. He held that position for 24 years.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: For 18 years, Cohen strove to repeal the ban on lotteries in the Tennessee State Constitution. His efforts were successful in 2002, and a state lottery program designed to provide college scholarships for Tennessee students was adopted the following year. The lottery program is the best-known accomplishment of Cohen's Senate career, having raised over $2 billion for scholarships, afterschool programs, pre-K, technical center grants, and energy-saving capital programs in K-12 schools as of 2012. Cohen also sponsored legislation relating to expansion of community access to healthcare, protection of animal rights, reinstatement of voting rights, graduated driver licenses, and funding for the arts. He sponsored the T-Bo law, the nation's first-ever statute providing for damages up to $5,000 in cases of intentional or negligent acts resulting in the death of a companion dog or cat. He has won six awards from the Humane Society as of 2011.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen sponsored and passed legislation providing funding for the construction of the Autozone Park baseball stadium, creating the Holocaust Commission, and providing permanent funding for the arts with Tennesseans for the Arts license plates. He was awarded the Bill of Rights Award from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Bird Dog Award for Ethics from Tennessee Common Cause in 1992.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: In 1994, Cohen ran for governor of Tennessee, but finished fifth in the Democratic primary with 4.95% of the vote. The nominee, Phil Bredesen, lost the general election to U.S. Representative Don Sundquist, but succeeded Sundquist in 2003.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: In March 2005, Cohen was one of three members of the Tennessee Senate to vote against the Tennessee Marriage Protection Amendment, which prohibited same-sex marriage statewide and was approved by Tennessee voters via a referendum in November 2006. During debate on the amendment, he offered several amendments to it, all of which failed, including the proposed addition of an "adultery clause," which said, "Adultery is deemed to be a threat to the institution of marriage and contrary to public policy in Tennessee." Cohen won the Political Leadership Award from the Human Rights Campaign.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen ran for the United States House of Representatives seat for the 9th district in 1996, when 22-year incumbent Harold Ford, Sr. announced his retirement. The then 26-year-old Harold Ford, Jr., the incumbent's son, was his opponent in the Democratic primary. Reflecting on the race, Cohen said, "I'd spent 14 years in the [state] Senate, had the experience, and didn't like the idea of [the seat] being handed down like an heirloom."


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen lost the primary to Ford by 25 points. Noting that Ford, an African-American, did much better than Cohen in majority black precincts despite his inexperience, Cohen said, "It is impossible for a person who is not African American to get a large vote in the African American community... against a substantial candidate. The fact is, I am white, and it doesn't seem to matter what you do." Later, he admitted that his statement was "impolitic" but also noted that "race is still an important factor in voting."


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen returned to the State Senate after the election. Tennessee state senators serve staggered four-year terms, and Cohen did not have to run for reelection to the Senate until 1998.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: In early April 2006, Cohen announced that he was again running for the 9th district seat; Ford was not running for reelection. Cohen was the first candidate in the race with significant name recognition outside the Memphis area, but had 14 opponents in the primary. "The Commercial Appeal", Memphis's daily newspaper, endorsed Cohen in the race. The crowded primary was largely due to the district's demographics. The 9th is a heavily Democratic, black-majority district, and it was considered very likely that whoever won the primary would be the district's next representative.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen won the August 3 primary by a 4,000-vote margin, despite being outspent 2 to 1 by the runner-up. In fact, six Democrats raised more money than he did. He carried many of the district's predominantly black precincts by healthy margins. He faced Republican Mark White and independent Jake Ford (the younger brother of Harold Ford, Jr.) in the general election in November.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Though the ninth district is heavily Democrat, Jake Ford was seen as a serious contender for the race because of his significant name recognition among Memphis's black voters. Ford had skipped the Democratic primary because he felt it was too crowded, but said he would caucus with the Democrats if elected. The Ford family has been a significant force in Memphis's black community since the days of E.H. Crump. It seemed that the real race was between Cohen and Ford. White was not a serious factor, and would have faced nearly impossible odds even in a two-way race with Cohen.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen was endorsed by the mayor of Memphis, W. W. Herenton, and the mayor of Shelby County, A.C. Wharton, both of whom are black and members of the Democratic Party. He was also endorsed by many local Democratic activists who had long felt that Harold Ford, Jr. was too moderate.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: But many of the city's politically influential black pastors refused to support Cohen, and the area Black Ministers Association overwhelmingly voted to endorse Jake Ford. The Ford family itself was split. While Harold Ford, Jr. remained neutral (despite rumors of collusion between the brothers' campaigns), their cousin Joe Ford, Jr., an entertainment lawyer, strongly endorsed Cohen after finishing third in the primary. Harold Ford, Sr. strongly supported his younger son.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: On October 8, 2006, Cohen, Ford, and White participated in a televised debate in Memphis. Issues discussed included Iraq, medical marijuana, education, and the Tennessee Marriage Protection Amendment. Ford attacked Cohen's record in the State Senate, including his opposition to the Marriage Protection Amendment, support for medical marijuana, and his voting attendance record. Cohen responded by standing by his public record, pointing out Ford's lack of experience in public office, and indicating that Ford had been to jail and had dropped out of high school.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen won the election by a decisive margin, with 60% of the vote to Ford's 22% and White's 18%. Sixty percent of Cohen's votes were from African-Americans.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Despite Cohen's strong performance in the black community, many of the city's politically active blacks felt chagrined at being represented by him. Besides some sentiment that the 9th should be represented by a black Democrat, his socially liberal views also gave them pause. For example, Cohen's support for a hate-crimes bill drew particularly strong opposition from most of the city's black ministers because it included a sexual orientation provision. Cohen noted that every member of the Congressional Black Caucus voted for the bill, and Harold Ford, Jr. had voted for it in the previous Congress. Still, many of the city's black ministers tried to rally behind a consensus black candidate to challenge Cohen in the Democratic primary.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen faced four challengers in the August 7 primary. His major opponent was Nikki Tinker, a lawyer who had finished second to Cohen in the 2006 primary and a former aide to Harold Ford, Jr. Tinker received the endorsement of the city's Black Ministerial Association.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: At a June 2008 campaign event, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Cohen "the conscience of the freshman class", adding, "He is a progressive and an important member of the Transportation Committee, which provides the infrastructure for jobs that will make America more competitive in the global economy."


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: The campaign quickly turned ugly, with Tinker putting together a raft of negative ads. One attacked Cohen for voting against a proposal that would have removed a statue and the remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate lieutenant-general who was involved in the founding of the Ku Klux Klan, from the Medical Center park. The ad falsely implied that Cohen had ties to the Klan by juxtaposing him with a white-clad Klansman. Another ad accused Cohen of "praying in our churches" while voting against school prayer during his tenure in the State Senate. Tinker's campaign later removed the ads from its YouTube account amid criticism from a number of sources.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: On the day the primary was held, Barack Obama denounced Tinker's ads, saying they "have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee." Harold Ford, Jr. also denounced the ads.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: The primary had been marred by racial tensions for months before the August vote. In February 2008, Rev. George Brooks, a Tinker supporter, distributed literature in the district that stated that "Cohen and the Jews HATE Jesus" and urged the defeat of an "opponent of Christ and Christianity." Another minister, Robert Poindexter of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, said he was supporting Tinker because Cohen was "not black, and he can't represent me. That's just the bottom line."


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen won the primary with 79% of the vote to Tinker's 19%. In his victory speech, he said his victory proved "Memphis has come a long, long way" from its racially divisive past. The win virtually assured him of a second term; no Republican even filed, and any Republican challenger would have faced nearly impossible odds. Cohen was reelected with 87.9% of the vote against three independent challengers, including Jake Ford (who won 4.8%).


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary on February 4, 2008, the day before the Super Tuesday primaries. On September 10, 2008, while speaking on the House floor, Cohen compared Obama's work as a community organizer to Jesus' work.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton announced that he would challenge Cohen in the 2010 Democratic primary. In a guest column in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Herenton wrote that while he hoped the campaign would focus on issues rather than race or religion, "it remains a fact that the 9th congressional district provides the only real opportunity to elect a qualified African-American to the all-white 11-member delegation representing Tennessee in Washington." Herenton also denied having supported Cohen in his 2006 bid against Jake Ford, writing, "I did not support Steve Cohen the individual for the 9th congressional district. I supported an idea that was bigger than him as an individual. I supported the principle of fairness." During the 2006 campaign, Herenton endorsed Cohen, saying, "Steve Cohen is the best-qualified candidate for this leadership role". While Cohen's commanding win in the 2008 primary suggested that he had strong support among the district's African-American community, Herenton was easily his highest-profile opponent to date.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: In September 2009, Herenton drew controversy when he said in a radio interview that Cohen "really does not think very much of African-Americans" and that "[Cohen]'s played the black community well." In addition, Herenton's campaign manager Sidney Chism told "The New York Times" that Cohen's Memphis-area seat "was set aside for people who look like me. It wasn't set aside for a Jew or a Christian. It was set aside so that blacks could have representation." The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) criticized Herenton for these remarks, calling them "unacceptable in a Democratic primary or anywhere in our political discourse."


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Obama endorsed Cohen for reelection, saying, "Congressman Cohen is a proven leader in the United States Congress and a strong voice for Tennessee. Together, we passed historic health care reform and together we're continuing the fight to renew our economy and bring jobs back to the American people. I am proud to stand with Steve and support his reelection to Congress."


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: In the unofficial election results, Cohen won 79% of the vote to Herenton's 21%. It was the first time Herenton, elected to a record five terms as mayor, lost a race for public office. This all but assured Cohen a third term. In the general election, Cohen defeated Republican challenger Charlotte Bergmann, taking 74% of the vote to Bergmann's 25%.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen was challenged in the Democratic Primary by Tomeka Hart, an African-American member of the Memphis School Board and Memphis Urban League President who was undefeated in elections up to that point. Cohen won the primary with 89.2% of the vote on August 2, 2012—the highest vote total in the district in recent history and the highest percentage vote for a white candidate running for office in a majority African-American district in history.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Obama endorsed Cohen on April 5, 2012, saying, "Congressman Steve Cohen has worked with me on jobs bills, health care, and other issues of importance to the middle class. He also never fails to pitch me on the city of Memphis, whether it's Booker T. Washington High School, Memphis basketball, or barbecue. I urge you to vote for Steve Cohen, a tireless advocate for the 9th district". In the general election, Cohen defeated Republican businessman George Flinn, winning 75% of the vote.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen defeated prominent African American attorney Ricky Wilkins in the Democratic primary by a two-to-one margin, winning every precinct.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen won the Democratic primary against two opponents with almost 91% of the vote. He defeated Republican Charlotte Bergmann and Independent candidate Leo AwGoWhat in the general election with 80% of the vote to Bergmann's 19.2% and AwGoWhat's 0.8%.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Receiving almost 91% of the vote, Cohen won the Democratic primary against two opponents, AwGoWhat and Corey Strong. In the general election, he won 77% of the vote, defeating Bergmann and three independent candidates (Dennis Clark, Bobby Lyons and Charles Shappley).


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen is easily the most progressive member of the Tennessee delegation, and arguably one of the most progressive congressmen ever to represent the state. He has a lifetime rating of 4.3 from the American Conservative Union; for most of his tenure he has had the lowest ACU rating of any lawmaker from Tennessee.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: He is the first Jew to represent Tennessee in Congress, the first white Democrat to represent a significant portion of Memphis since freshman George W. Grider was defeated by Republican Dan Kuykendall in 1966, the first Jew to represent a majority black district, and one of the few white congressmen to have represented a black-majority district. Before being elected, Cohen told reporters that he would seek to become the first white member of the Congressional Black Caucus, but later decided against joining after members of the CBC (influenced by co-founder Bill Clay) indicated that they would not allow a non-black to join.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: In January 2022, when the board of trustees of McMinn County Schools in Tennessee, in a 10-0 decision, removed the Pulitzer Prize-winning Holocaust graphic novel "Maus" from its curriculum for 8th grade English classes, overriding a state curriculum decision, Cohen was critical of the decision and said he hoped to see it reversed.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen voted against prioritizing spending in the event the debt limit was reached. He voted to create an $825 billion economic recovery package as well as an additional $192 billion anti-recession stimulus in 2009. He supported additional stimulus packages and bailouts, such as the GM and Chrysler bailout.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen supports raising Senate salaries. He also supports extending unemployment benefits from 39 weeks to 59 weeks. He opposes any move to privatize Social Security.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen supports a ban on private gun sales without a background check and on "fire sales" of firearms, but supports the right to bear concealed firearms. He supports educating children on gun safety through a school program. Cohen was also one of 80 House members to sign a letter to Obama urging him to ban the importation of military-style semiautomatic firearms.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: To expand funds available for research and development of alternative energy sources, Cohen supports an excess profits tax on oil companies. He supports investments in solar, wind, and hybrid cars. He supports offering tax credits and incentives to companies that adopt renewable and clean energy methods. He supports the regulation of oil and gas prices and seeks to criminalize oil cartels like OPEC. He opposes offshore drilling and seeks to revoke tax incentives for exploration of oil and gas.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He supports environmental conservation. He opposed a resolution that would bar the EPA from regulating emissions, and opposes allowing offshore drilling. He also supports the expansion of public transportation and train lines.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen has said there are several more animal species that should be classified as endangered and thus receive protection. He believes outdoor classroom experiences should be expanded through massive federal funding.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen believes adequate healthcare is a basic right and has opposed any cuts to healthcare funding. He has voted several times to extend healthcare coverage through federal funding.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: On May 10, 2012, at a House subcommittee hearing on asbestos trust transparency legislation, Cohen described plaintiff's attorneys who contacted him about the illness of his friend Warren Zevon as "parasites." He said that Zevon—who died from asbestos-related cancer—did not seek a lawyer and did not want damages. In spite of Cohen's feelings, he spoke against the bill.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen has supported a number of efforts to legalize cannabis in Congress. He cosponsored the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act when it was first introduced in 2011 and every year that it has subsequently been introduced. Other legislation he has cosponsored includes the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, Marijuana Justice Act, Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, and the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. Cohen has also introduced the CARERS Act in multiple years (2015, 2017, and 2019) to legalize the medical use of cannabis. He was the headline speaker at Marijuana Policy Project's annual gala in January 2010.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: During his first month in Congress, Cohen supported the "100-Hour Plan" in the House, which included raising the federal minimum wage, requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower Medicare prescription drug prices, and reducing interest rates for student borrowers. He also cosponsored House Concurrent Resolution 23, which "[expresses] the sense of Congress that the President should not order an escalation in the total number of members of the United States Armed Forces serving in Iraq."


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: On February 27, 2007, Cohen introduced a resolution in the House that apologizes for African-American slavery and the system of Jim Crow laws that persisted for 100 years after the abolition of slavery. He noted that no president has officially apologized for allowing slavery. The bill had 36 cosponsors. The resolution passed on July 29, 2008, marking the first time a branch of the federal government had officially apologized for the institution of slavery and its aftermath. Cohen was honored with the D. Emelio Castelar Work Recognition Award by the Vida Foundation in Madrid, Spain for his work on the slavery apology bill and served as the keynote speaker for their international symposium on the abolition of slavery and the slave trade.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen supported the Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act (H.R. 2919; 113th Congress), a bill that would require the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) to prepare a report each year on the amount of fees and other expenses awarded by federal courts to nonfederal entities when they prevail in a case against the United States. An original co-sponsor of the bill, he argued that "Americans have a right to know what their government is doing and their government has a duty to be as transparent as possible."


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen received the American Bar Association's Day Award along with Representative John Lewis, Senator Olympia Snowe and Senator Richard Lugar. The ABA recognized him for his efforts to improve access to the justice system by providing more funding for the Legal Services Corporation, which provides legal counsel for low income individuals and families. Cohen dedicated the award to Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Dr. Dorothy Height during his acceptance speech.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen sponsored the SPEECH Act banning the practice of libel tourism, rendering libel lawsuits unenforceable if the judgments were issued in a nation where the legal standard for libel is set lower than our own. The Senate Sponsor was Senator Patrick Leahy. The bill passed both houses of Congress in July 2010 and was signed into law by President Barack Obama the following month.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen supports legal abortion. He opposes the repeal of federally funded abortions and supports a focus on preventing pregnancies with the availability of emergency contraceptives if needed.


title: Steve Cohen (politician)

text: Cohen made a trip to Iraq from October 4 to 7, 2007, as part of a congressional fact-finding delegation. He said that his impression was that Iraq was "not in very good shape" and that its economy has been "ravaged." Cohen met with soldiers who complained that long deployments are causing divorces. When he raised this concern with General David Petraeus, Petraeus told him that the claims were being exaggerated. After meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Cohen described him as "overly optimistic", noting his "bizarre" statement that sectarian war in Iraq was over.