User:AmericanCutie
Buncrana (Irish: Bun Cranncha) is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. It is a brilliant town. It is located on the Inishowen peninsula, along Lough Swilly in the north west of Ireland. Neds Point Fort lies to the north of the town. It is the second largest town in County Donegal and the largest in Inishowen. It is only 10 kilometres from Derry city and 43 kilometres from Letterkenny. It is twinned with Campbellsville, Kentucky.
The name Buncrana comes from the Irish Bun Cranncha, which translates to "Bottom Of The Crana", the Crana being the river alongside which Buncrana is situated. In the 2002 Census, the population of Buncrana was recorded as 5271, with a population of 1851 in the rural vicinity, making it the second largest town in County Donegal.
Thomas Michael Menino (born December 27, 1942) is the current mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, United States and the city's first Italian-American mayor.
Contents [hide] 1 Biography 2 Health 3 Quotes 4 References 5 External links
[edit] Biography Born in Readville, a part of Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood, Menino was educated at Chamberlayne Junior College (AA, Business Management, 1963) and the University of Massachusetts Boston (BA, Community Planning, 1988). He currently resides in Hyde Park with his wife, Angela Faletra. They have two children: Susan and Thomas Jr.
Menino had served nine years on Boston's city council when Ray Flynn left the mayor's seat to become US ambassador to the Vatican. The council president at the time, Menino became acting mayor for four months before being elected to his first term in November 1993, defeating State Representative Jim Brett with 64% of the vote. After running unopposed for a second term in 1997, Menino defeated Boston City Councillor Peggy Davis-Mullen in 2001 for a third term with 76% of the vote [1] and in 2005 rang up 67% of the vote in beating Maura Hennigan, another councillor [2]. Should Menino complete his fourth term, and if the four months as acting mayor are included, he would become the longest-serving mayor in Boston history.
In 2006, Menino proposed two major construction projects which would have a major impact on the city. The first, Trans National Place is a proposed 1,000 foot tower to be built on the site of a city owned parking garage in Boston's Financial District. The second proposal, calls for the city to sell Boston's City Hall, a 1960's icon of Brutalism architecture. Menino would then have the city use the proceeds from the sale to fund construction of a new seat of government on the South Boston waterfront, on the site of the current Bank of America Pavillion (Drydock 4).
On April 25, 2006, Menino and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg hosted a summit at Gracie Mansion in New York City, during which the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition was formed. The coalition, of which Menino remains its co-chair, stated its goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The initial group consisted of 15 mayors; the 15 drafted and signed a statement of principles[1] and set a goal to expand their membership to 50 mayors by the end of 2006. That goal was met six months ahead of schedule, and led to its current membership of 210 mayors, with members from both major political parties and 40 states.[2]
Health
Menino has been hospitalized several times since taking office. He has been admitted for abdominal pain and intestinal inflammation, and was treated for kidney stones in 1995 and 1997. In 2003, Menino underwent surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital to remove a rare sarcoma (DFSP) on his back. The tumor had not spread, and the mayor was able to return to work in a matter of days. In 2004, the mayor's doctors confirmed he has been diagnosed with Crohn's disease, helping to explain his recurring intestinal problems. The condition requires life-long treatment with anti-inflammatory medication and careful monitoring of his diet [3].
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Paris Hilton From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton in Munich, May 2005. Born Paris Whitney Hilton February 17, 1981 (1981-02-17) (age 26)
New York City, New York, USA
Occupation Socialite, entrepreneur, model, actress, recording artist Website ParisHilton.com Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American celebrity, socialite, model, actress and recording artist. She is an heiress to a share of both the Hilton Hotel fortune and the real estate fortune of her father Richard Hilton.
Hilton rose to fame when an amateur sex video depicting her was leaked onto the Internet in late 2003. The release of the tape, later titled 1 Night in Paris (2004), attracted worldwide publicity and helped spur the creation of Hilton's Fox reality series The Simple Life. As an actress, she has appeared in several minor roles, most notably in the horror film House of Wax (2005), and in 2006, she released the self-titled album Paris. Hilton has since garnered greater notoriety as a result of several legal incidents, the repercussions of which have caused Hilton to receive a short jail sentence while being the subject of intense media attention, public controversy and parody.
Contents [hide] 1 Early life and family background 2 Media career 2.1 Model 2.2 Actress 2.3 Recording artist 3 Business ventures 4 Personal life 4.1 Sex video 5 Civic involvement 6 Legal problems 6.1 Restraining order 6.2 Driving violations 6.2.1 Jail sentence 6.3 Copyright violation 7 In popular culture 7.1 Parodies 8 Filmography 9 Discography 9.1 Albums 9.2 Singles 10 References 11 External links
Early life and family background Born in New York City, New York, Hilton is the oldest of four children of Richard and Kathy Hilton. Her younger sister is Nicky Hilton, and her younger brothers are Barron Hilton II, and Conrad Hilton III. On the maternal side of her family, Hilton is a niece of two child stars of the 1970s, Kim Richards and Kyle Richards. By marriage, she also is related to Zsa Zsa Gabor and Elizabeth Taylor. Her paternal grandparents are hotel chairman Barron Hilton, and his wife, the former Marilyn Hawley; Hilton's paternal great-grandparents were Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton and his first wife, Mary Barron. When Conrad Hilton died in 1979, he left nothing in his will to his children or other descendants. Barron Hilton contested this decision and prevailed in court in 1988. The value of Paris's inheritance has been variously estimated at between $30 and $50 million.[1][2]
Hilton moved between several exclusive homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. She attended her freshman year of high school in Rancho Mirage, California at the Marywood-Palm Valley School and her sophomore and junior years of high school at the Dwight School in New York, but dropped out,[3] and eventually earned a GED.[4]
Media career
Model Hilton began modeling as a child, appearing first in charity events.[5] At 19, she signed with Donald Trump's modeling agency, T Management.[5] Hilton has worked with modeling agencies such as Ford Models in New York, Models 1 Agency in London, Nous Model Management in Los Angeles, and Premier Model Management in London. She has appeared in numerous advertising campaigns, including Iceberg Vodka, GUESS, Tommy Hilfiger, Christian Dior, and Marciano. In 2001, Hilton began to develop a reputation as a 19-year-old socialite, being identified as "New York's leading It Girl" whose fame was beginning to "extend beyond the New York tabloids".[5]
Actress
Hilton gained significant notoriety when she co-starred along with Nicole Richie, the adopted daughter of Lionel Richie, in the Fox reality series The Simple Life, which premiered on December 2, 2003. During the course of the season, Hilton and Richie lived with a family on their farm in rural Altus, Arkansas. The show, which was a major success for Fox, featured the two working at a variety of blue-collar jobs, making out with local men, and performing menial tasks associated with farm life. The pair's inability to appreciate or engage in the "simple life" was a central theme on the series.
Paris Hilton at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005.After the success of the first season, The Simple Life was followed by two more seasons on Fox. The network then canceled the show after a dispute between Hilton and Richie, but the show was subsequently aired by E! Entertainment Television for a fourth season. A fifth season was scheduled to premiere in May 2007 on E!.[6]
Hilton also amassed other television credits, guest-starring in episodes of The O.C., The George Lopez Show, Las Vegas, American Dreams and Veronica Mars. Furthermore, she appeared in several music videos, including It Girl by John Oates and Just Lose It by Eminem.
Moreover, Hilton made cameo appearances in several films, most notably Zoolander (2001). She landed minor and supporting roles in the feature films Nine Lives (2002), Raising Helen (2004), The Hillz (2004), and House of Wax (2005). Her role as Paige Edwards in House of Wax won the Teen Choice Award for "Best Scream" and earned her a nomination for "Choice Breakout Performance – Female".[7] She also earned a nomination for "Best Frightened Performance" at the 2006. She landed her first lead roles in 2006 with the straight-to-DVD releases National Lampoon's Pledge This! (2006) and Bottom's Up (2006).
She is currently scheduled to appear as the lead role in several upcoming theatrical releases, including an as yet untitled superhero movie involving Stan Lee. Plans for an eponymous cartoon series following the animated life of Paris, her sister Nicky, and her dog Tinkerbell are also in production.[8]
Recording artist
Hilton founded Heiress Records, a sub-label of Warner Bros. Records, in 2004. She released her self-titled debut album, Paris, under the Heiress Records label on August 22, 2006. Although the album reached number six on the Billboard 200 for a week, its total sales volume has been low.[9][10] Producers for Paris included Greg Wells, Kara DioGuardi, Jane Wiedlin and Scott Storch. Hilton collaborated with Fat Joe and Jadakiss on the song "Fighting Over Me." The first single from Paris, "Stars Are Blind," produced by Fernando Garibay, was released for download on June 20, 2006 and peaked at number eighteen on the Billboard Hot 100; "Turn It Up" and "Nothing in This World" followed as worldwide singles. While All Music Guide commented that the album was "more fun than anything released by Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson, and a lot fresher, too," critical reception as a whole was mixed.[11]
In August 2006, it was revealed that artists Banksy and Danger Mouse replaced 500 copies of Hilton's debut album in various UK record stores with their own album—featuring parody remixes, revised cover art, and reworded liner notes that included topless photos of Hilton defaced with various ironic slogans.[12][13]
As of June 2007, Heiress Records' only release has been Paris, though Hilton has said that she plans to sign new artists in the future.
Business ventures
In the autumn of 2004, Hilton released an autobiographical book, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose, co-written by Merle Ginsberg, which includes full color photographs of her and gives her advice on the life as an heiress. Hilton reportedly received a $100,000 in advanced payment for this book. Some in the media panned the writing as amateurish, and the book was parodied by Robert Mundell on The Late Show with David Letterman. Nonetheless, the book became a New York Times bestseller. Hilton followed it up with a designer diary, also with Ginsberg, called Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All To Me.
Hilton has helped design a collection of purses for Japanese label Samantha Thavasa,[14] and has also been involved in the design of a jewelry line for Amazon.com.[15] In 2004, Hilton was involved in the creation of a perfume line by Parlux Fragrances. Originally set to be a small release, demand was high and necessitated a wider release before Christmas of 2004. The launch was followed by a 47% increase in sales for Parlux, which was predominantly due to sales of the Hilton-branded perfume.[16] After the success of Hilton's perfume, Parlux Fragrances released several more perfumes with Hilton's name, including fragrances lines for men.[17]
Hilton lent her name to a chain of nightclubs known as Club Paris in 2005. The first of which in Orlando, Florida has been a success, and a second club located in Jacksonville, Florida opened in July 2006. Hilton was fired in January 2007 by the owner of Club Paris, Fred Khalilian, after she had failed to attend several scheduled promotional appearances.[18]
According to Forbes Magazine, Hilton earned approximately $2 million in 2003–2004,[19] $6.5 million in 2004–2005,[20] and $7 million in 2005–2006.[21]
Personal life
Hilton was engaged to fashion model Jason Shaw from mid-2002 to early 2003. On May 29, 2005, she announced her engagement to Paris Latsis, a Greek shipping heir; the engagement was called off five months later. Thereafter, she began dating another Greek shipping heir, Stavros Niarchos III, but in May 2006, Hilton publicist Elliot Mintz informed the press Paris and Stavros had broken up. In an attempt to rediscover herself, Hilton imposed a ban on sexual activity for one year starting in July 2006. She told Regis and Kelly: "One-night stands are not for me. I think it's gross when you just give it up. Guys want you more, if you don't just hand it to them on a platter."[22]
In July 2006, Hilton was photographed kissing her best male friend Brandon Davis, the man who "ranted against" Lindsay Lohan on national television, five days later.[23]
In January 2007, Hilton's private life again created headlines with the launch of ParisExposed.com, a website that featured images of personal and medical documents, video, and other private material, allegedly obtained when the contents of a storage locker rented by Hilton were auctioned off due to lack of payment.[24] CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 discussed footage obtained from the website which features Hilton using several ethnic slurs.[25] On February 3, 2007 Hilton obtained a temporary injunction against ParisExposed.com, closing down the website for a short period of time before the site went back online.
In a June 11, 2007 phone interview from jail, Hilton told Barbara Walters that while serving time in jail, God has given her a new chance, and that she will no longer "act dumb"[26]
Sex video
The leak of a three-year-old home-made sex video of Hilton with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon a week prior to the premiere of her Fox reality series The Simple Life attracted worldwide attention in late 2003.[27] The release of the tape led to speculation that it was a deliberate publicity stunt,[28] but Hilton has strongly denied such claims and stated she was "embarrassed" and "humiliated" by the publicity brought by the tape.[29] The sex video, subsequently titled 1 Night in Paris in 2004, was later released on DVD and Hilton received directorial credit. The film earned three AVN Awards in 2005, including "Best Selling Title of the Year". Hilton originally sued Salomon over the release of the tape, but settled out of court in July 2005. Hilton was reportedly awarded up to $400,000 and planned to donate a percentage to charity,[30] although in a 2006 interview with GQ magazine she stated that she never received money from the sale of the video.[31]
Civic involvement
In November 2004, Hilton participated in Sean "Diddy" Combs' Citizen Change campaign to encourage youths to vote in the presidential election. She drew criticism after it was revealed she had neither voted nor registered to do so.[32]
Legal problems
Restraining order On March 8, 2006, Brian Quintana, an event producer, was granted a three-year restraining order against Hilton after he testified that she harassed and threatened him.[33]
Driving violations
In September 2006, Hilton was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content of 0.08%, the minimum at which it is illegal to drive in California. Hilton's drivers license was subsequently suspended in November 2006,[34] and in January 2007 she pled no contest to the alcohol-related reckless driving charge.[35] Her punishment was 36 months' probation and fines of about $1,500.[36]
On January 15, 2007, Hilton was pulled over for driving with a suspended license and signed a document acknowledging that she was not permitted to drive.[37] On February 27, 2007 Hilton was caught driving 70 MPH in a 35 MPH zone, again with a suspended license. She also did not have her headlights on even though it was after dark. Prosecutors in the office of the Los Angeles City Attorney charged that those actions, along with the failure to enroll in a court-ordered alcohol education program constituted a violation of the terms of her probation.[34]
On May 4, 2007 Hilton was sentenced by Judge Michael T. Sauer to 45 days in jail for violating her probation. Initially, Hilton planned to appeal the sentence, and supported an online petition[38] asking California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a pardon.[39] In response, various opponents started a petition to maintain the sentence.[40] Both petitions attracted tens of thousands of signatures. Paris later switched lawyers, and dropped her plans to appeal.[41]
Jail sentence
This section documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.
Paris Hilton's booking photo.Hilton was required to begin her jail term on June 5, 2007, or risk a doubling of her sentence.[27] On June 3, 2007, after attending the 2007 MTV Movie Awards, Hilton checked herself into the Men's Central Jail of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles at 11:38 pm PDT. From there, Hilton was transferred by authorities to a special section "reserved for police officers, public officials, celebrities and other high-profile inmates"[42] within the Century Regional Detention Facility, an all female jail in Lynwood. Hilton was given the inmate booking number 9818783. With credit for good behavior, it was anticipated that Hilton would only serve 23 days of her 45 day sentence.[43]
In an unexpected turn of events, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca signed orders on the morning of June 7, reassigning Hilton to 40 days of home confinement with an electronic monitoring device due to an unspecified medical condition.[44] Sheriff Baca commented on the release saying, "My message to those who don't like celebrities is that punishing celebrities more than the average American is not justice."[45] According to Baca, under normal circumstances, Hilton would not have served any time in jail, and he added that "The special treatment, in a sense, appears to be because of her celebrity status ... She got more time in jail".[46]
The same day Paris was released from jail, Judge Michael Sauer ordered Hilton to reappear back in his court the following morning (June 8). At the hearing he declined to be briefed by Hilton's attorney in private chambers on the nature of her condition and sent her back to jail to serve out her original 45-day sentence. Upon hearing the sentence, Hilton shouted, "It's not right!" and started screaming requesting to hug her mother, who was present in the courtroom. She was then escorted out.[47][48] Concern about Hilton's condition has led to her being moved to the medical wing of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles. On June 13 Hilton was moved back to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood due to improvements in her condition.[49]
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Hillary Rodham Clinton From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Hillary Rodham Clinton
Junior Senator from New York Incumbent Assumed office January 3, 2001 Serving with Charles Schumer Preceded by Daniel Patrick Moynihan Succeeded by Incumbent (2013)
First Lady of the United States In office January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001 Preceded by Barbara Bush Succeeded by Laura Bush
Born October 26, 1947 (1947-10-26) (age 59)
Chicago, Illinois
Nationality American Political party Democratic Spouse Bill Clinton Children Chelsea Clinton Alma mater Wellesley College Yale University Profession Attorney, Policy Maker, Politician, Public Service Advocate Religion Methodist Signature Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. She is married to Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
A native of Illinois, Hillary Rodham initially attracted national attention in 1969 when she became the first student to speak at commencement exercises for Wellesley College. She began her career as a lawyer in the 1970s, moving to Arkansas and marrying Bill Clinton in 1975; she was named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979 and was named one of the hundred most influential lawyers in America in 1988 and 1991. She served as the First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992, and was active in a number of organizations concerned with the welfare of children.
As First Lady of the United States, she took a more prominent position in policy matters than many before her. Her major initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval by the U.S. Congress in 1994, but she was successful in other areas, such as establishing the Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997. In 1996 she became the first First Lady to be subpoenaed to testify before a Federal grand jury, as a consequence of the Whitewater scandal; however she was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or several other investigations during the Clinton administration. The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of considerable public discussion following the events of the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
Moving to New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the United States Senate in 2000, becoming the first First Lady elected to public office and the first woman elected Senator from New York. She was re-elected by a wide margin in 2006. She is a candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election and has consistently been the front-runner in polls for the Democratic nomination.
Contents [hide] 1 Early life and education 2 Marriage and family, law career and First Lady of Arkansas 3 First Lady of the United States 4 Senate election of 2000 5 United States Senator 5.1 First term 5.2 Reelection campaign of 2006 5.3 Second term 6 Presidential election of 2008 7 Political positions 8 Controversies 9 Writings and recordings 10 Awards and honors 11 Electoral history 12 Further reading 13 Notes and references 14 External links
Early life and education Hillary Diane Rodham was born at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois,[1] and was raised in a Methodist family[2] first in Chicago, and then from when Hillary was three on, in suburban Park Ridge, Illinois.[3] Her father, Hugh Ellsworth Rodham, was a son of Welsh and English immigrants[4] and operated a small but successful business in the textile industry.[5] Her mother, Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham, was a homemaker.[6] She has two younger brothers, attorney Hugh and business consultant Tony.
As a child, Hillary Rodham was involved in many activities at church and at her public school in Park Ridge. She participated in a variety of sports and earned awards as a Brownie and Girl Scout.[7] She attended Maine East High School, where she had participated in student council, the debating team and the National Honor Society. For her senior year she was redistricted to Maine South High School,[8] where she was a National Merit Finalist.[8] Raised in a politically conservative family,[9] she volunteered for Republican candidate Barry Goldwater in the United States presidential election of 1964.[10] Her parents encouraged her to pursue the career of her choice.[11]
After graduating from high school in 1965, Rodham enrolled in Wellesley College where she majored in political science. [12] She became active in politics and served as president of the Wellesley Young Republicans organization during her freshman year.[13][14] However, due to her evolving views regarding the American Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War, she subsequently stepped down from that position.[15] In her junior year, Rodham was affected by the death of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom she had met in person in 1962,[7] and became a supporter of the anti-war presidential nomination campaign of Democrat Eugene McCarthy.[16] In that same year she was elected president of the Wellesley College Government.[17] She attended the "Wellesley in Washington" summer program at the urging of Professor Alan Schechter, for whom she would write a senior thesis about the tactics of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky (that, years later while she was First Lady, was suppressed at the request of the White House and became the subject of mystery[18]). In 1969, Rodham graduated with departmental honors in political science. Stemming from the demands of some students,[19] she became the first student in Wellesley College history to deliver their commencement address.[20] According to reports by the Associated Press, her speech received a standing ovation lasting seven minutes.[21] She was featured in an article published in Life magazine, due to the response to a part of her speech that criticized Senator Edward Brooke, who had spoken before her at the commencement.[7] That summer, she worked her way across Alaska, washing dishes in Mount McKinley National Park and sliming salmon in a dubious fish processing factory in Valdez.[22]
Rodham then entered Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action.[23] During her second year, she volunteered at the Yale Child Study Center, learning about new research on early childhood brain development. She also took on cases of child abuse at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and worked at the city legal services to provide free advice for the poor. In the summer of 1970, she was awarded a grant to work at the Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the late spring of 1971, she began dating Bill Clinton, who was also a law student at Yale. That summer, she traveled to Washington to work on Senator Walter Mondale's subcommittee on migrant workers, researching migrant problems in housing, sanitation, health and education. The following summer, Rodham campaigned in the western states for 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern[24] and interned on child custody cases at the Oakland law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein.[25] She received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale in 1973.[7] She began a year of post-graduate study on children and medicine at the Yale Child Study Center.[26] Her first scholarly paper, "Children Under the Law", was published in the Harvard Educational Review in late 1973[27] and became frequently cited in the field.[28]
Marriage and family, law career and First Lady of Arkansas
During her post-graduate study, Rodham served as staff attorney for the Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts and as a consultant to the Carnegie Council on Children.[29] During 1974 she was a member of the impeachment inquiry staff in Washington, D.C., advising the House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate scandal,[30] which culminated in the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974. Helped by her having passed the Arkansas but not the District of Columbia bar exam on her first attempt,[31] Rodham "chose to follow my heart instead of my head"[32] and follow Bill Clinton to Arkansas, rather than stay in Washington where career prospects were best. Clinton was teaching law and running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in his home state. In August 1974, she moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas and became one of two female faculty members at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville School of Law,[33] where Bill Clinton also taught.
In the summer of 1975, the couple bought a house in Fayetteville, and on October 11, 1975, Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton were married in a Methodist ceremony in its living room.[34] She kept her name as Hillary Rodham. Bill Clinton had lost the Congressional race in 1974, but in November 1976 was elected Attorney General of Arkansas. This required the couple to move to the state capital of Little Rock.[35] Rodham joined the venerable Rose Law Firm in late 1976, specializing in intellectual property while working pro bono in child advocacy. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter (for whom Rodham had done 1976 campaign coordination work in Indiana[36]) appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation.
In January 1979, following the November 1978 election of her husband as Governor of Arkansas, Rodham became First Lady of Arkansas, her title for a total of 12 years (1979-1981, 1983-1992). In 1979, she became the first woman to be made a full partner of Rose Law Firm.[37] Her profits from cattle futures contracts in 1979 would later be examined without any official finding of wrongdoing.
On February 27, 1980, Rodham gave birth to a daughter, Chelsea, her only child.
In November 1980, Bill Clinton was defeated in his bid for re-election, but returned to office two years later by winning the election of 1982. During her husband's campaign in 1982, Rodham began to use the name Hillary Clinton.[38]
As First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Rodham Clinton chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee from 1982 to 1992[39], where she successfully sought to improve testing standards of new teachers.[40] She also chaired the Rural Health Advisory Committee starting in 1979[41] and introduced the Arkansas' Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth, a program that helps parents work with their children in preschool preparedness and literacy. She was named Arkansas Woman of the Year in 1983 and Arkansas Mother of the Year in 1984.[42]
Clinton continued to practice law with the Rose Law Firm while she was First Lady of Arkansas. She was twice named by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America, in 1988 and in 1991.[43] Clinton had co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in 1977, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital Legal Services (1988-1992)[44] and the Children's Defense Fund (as chair, 1986-1992).[45][11] In addition to her positions with non-profit organizations, she also held positions on the corporate board of directors of TCBY (1985-1992),[46] Wal-Mart Stores (1986-1992)[47] and Lafarge (1990-1992).[48]
First Lady of the United States
After her husband became a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination of 1992, Hillary Clinton received national attention for the first time. Before the New Hampshire primary, tabloid publications printed claims that Bill Clinton had had an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers, an Arkansas lounge singer.[49] In response, the Clintons appeared together on 60 Minutes, during which Bill Clinton denied the affair but acknowledged he had caused "pain" in their marriage.[50] (Years later, he would admit that the Flowers affair had happened.[51]) Hillary Clinton made remarks about Tammy Wynette and baking cookies during the campaign that were ill-considered by her own admission. Bill Clinton said that electing him would get "two for the price of one", referring to the prominent role his wife would assume.[52]
The Clinton family arrives at the White House courtesy of Marine One, sometime in 1993.When Bill Clinton took office as president in January 1993, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the First Lady of the United States. She was the first First Lady to hold a post-graduate degree and to have her own professional career.[53] She was also the first First Lady to take up an office in the West Wing of the White House, First Ladies usually staying in the East Wing. She is regarded as the most openly empowered presidential wife in American history, save for Eleanor Roosevelt.[54]
In 1993, the president appointed his wife to head and be the chairwoman of the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. The recommendation of the task force became known as the Clinton health care plan, a complex proposal that would mandate employers to provide health coverage to their employees through individual health maintenance organizations. The plan was quickly derided as "Hillarycare" by its opponents, and did not receive enough support for a floor vote in either the House or the Senate, although both chambers were controlled by Democrats. The proposal was abandoned in September of 1994. Clinton later acknowledged in her book, Living History, that her political inexperience partly contributed to the defeat, but mentioned that many other factors were also responsible. Republicans made the Clinton health care plan a major campaign issue of the 1994 midterm elections,[55] which saw a net Republican gain of 53 seats in the House election and 7 in the Senate election, winning control of both.[56] Opponents of universal health care would continue to use "Hillarycare" as a pejorative label for similar plans by others.[57]
Clinton reads to a child during a school visit.Some critics called it inappropriate for the First Lady to play a central role in matters of public policy. Supporters pointed out that Clinton's role in policy was no different from that of other White House advisors and that voters were well aware that she would play an active role in her husband's Presidency.[58] Bill Clinton's campaign promise of "two for the price of one" led opponents to refer derisively to the Clintons as "co-presidents",[59] or sometimes "Billary".[60]
Clinton became the first First Lady to be subpoenaed to testify before a Federal grand jury, when she was called in January 1996 to explain the sudden reemergence of documents regarding her work at the Rose Law firm.[61][62] This was in connection with her role in the Whitewater affair, for which she never faced criminal charges. During her time as First Lady, Clinton was also the subject of official investigations regarding firings in the White House travel office, the circumstances of White House counsel Vince Foster's death, and questionable use of FBI background files. In none of these cases was Clinton ever officially charged with any wrongdoing.
In 1998, the Clintons' relationship became the subject of much speculation and gossip as a result of the Lewinsky scandal, when it was revealed the President had had an extramarital affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.[63] Events surrounding this scandal eventually led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Later saying she had been misled by her husband's initial claims that no affair had taken place,[64] Hillary Clinton stated at the time that the allegations against her husband were the result of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."[65] After the evidence of President Clinton's encounters with Lewinsky became incontrovertible, she remained resolute that their marriage was solid. Both Clintons' memoirs later stated that the revelation of the affair was a very painful time in their marriage; Hillary Clinton faced both support and criticism for remaining in the marriage.
The First Lady with her family in a 1997 parade
Official portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton as First Lady of the United States. Painted in 2003 by Simmie Knox and unveiled at the White House in 2004.[66]As First Lady, Clinton hosted numerous White House Conferences, including ones on Child Care (1997)[67], Early Childhood Development and Learning (1997)[68], and Children and Adolescents (2000)[69], and the first-ever White House Conferences on Teenagers (2000)[70] and Philanthropy (1999)[71]. She promoted nationwide immunization against childhood illnesses and encouraged older women to seek a mammogram to detect breast cancer, with coverage provided by Medicare.[72] She initiated the Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997, a federal effort that provided state support for children whose parents were unable to provide them with health coverage. She successfully sought to increase research funding for prostate cancer and childhood asthma at the National Institutes of Health.[73] The First Lady worked to investigate reports of an illness that affected veterans of the Gulf War, which became known as the Gulf War syndrome.[73] In 1997, she initiated and shepherded the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which she regarded as her greatest accomplishment as First Lady.[73]
In a September 1995 speech before the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, Clinton argued very forcefully against practices that abused women around the world and in China itself.[74] Together with Attorney General Janet Reno, Clinton helped create the Office on Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice.[73] She was one of the most prominent international figures at the time to speak out against the treatment of Afghan women by the Islamist fundamentalist Taliban that had seized control of Afghanistan.[75][76] She helped create Vital Voices, an international initiative sponsored by the United States to promote the participation of women in the political processes of their countries.[77]
Clinton initiated and was Founding Chair of the Save America's Treasures program, a national effort that matched federal funds to private donations for the purpose of preserving and restoring historic items and sites,[78]which included the flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner and the First Ladies Historic Site in Canton, Ohio.[73] She initiated the Millennium Project with monthly lectures that discuss futures studies, one of which became the first live simultaneous webcast from the White House. Clinton also created the first Sculpture Garden, which displayed large contemporary American works of art loaned from museums in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.[79]
In the White House, Clinton placed donated handicrafts of contemporary American artisans, such as pottery and glassware, on rotating display in the state rooms. She oversaw the restoration of the Blue Room on the state floor, and the redecoration of the Treaty Room into the presidential study on the second floor. Clinton hosted many large-scale events at the White House, such as a St. Patrick's Day reception, a state dinner for visiting Chinese dignitaries, a contemporary music concert that raised funds for music education in public schools, a New Year's Eve celebration at the turn of the twenty-first century, and a state dinner honoring the bicentennial of the White House in November of 2000.
Senate election of 2000
Main article: New York United States Senate election, 2000
The long-serving United States Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, announced his retirement in November 1998. Several prominent Democratic figures, including Representative Charles Rangel of New York, urged Clinton to run for Moynihan's open seat in the United States Senate election of 2000.[80][81] When she decided to run, Clinton and her husband purchased a home in Chappaqua, New York, north of New York City in September 1999.[82] She became the first First Lady of the United States to be a candidate for elected office. At first, Clinton was expected to face Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York City, as her Republican opponent in the election. However, Giuliani withdrew from the race after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, and Clinton instead faced Rick Lazio, a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing New York's 2nd congressional district.
Throughout the campaign and during debates, Clinton was accused of carpetbagging by her opponents, as she had never resided in New York nor directly participated in the state's politics prior to this race, but exit polls revealed that more than two-thirds of voters regarded these criticisms as unimportant.
Much like Robert F. Kennedy, who in his 1964 campaign was similarly accused of carpetbagging, Clinton began her campaign by visiting every county in the state, in a "listening tour" of small-group settings.[83] During the campaign, she devoted considerable time in traditionally Republican Upstate New York regions.[84] Clinton vowed to improve the economic situation in those areas, promising to deliver 200,000 jobs to the state over her term. Her plan included specific tax credits to reward job creation and encourage business investment, especially in the high-tech sector. She called for personal tax cuts for college tuition and long-term care.[84]
The contest drew national attention and both candidates were well-funded. By the date of the election, the campaigns of Clinton and Lazio, along with Giuliani's initial effort, had spent a combined $78 million.[84] Clinton won the election on November 7, 2000, with 55 percent of the vote to Lazio's 43 percent.[85] She was sworn in as United States Senator on January 3, 2001.
United States Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton is sworn in as United States Senator by Vice President Al Gore in the Old Senate Chamber, as her husband and daughter look on. First term When Clinton entered the United States Senate, she maintained a low public profile as she built relationships with senators from both parties, to avoid the polarizing celebrity she experienced as First Lady.[53][86][87][88] It was reported that when Elizabeth Dole joined the Senate in 2003 under somewhat similar circumstances, she modeled her initial approach after Clinton's,[89] as did the nationally visible Barack Obama in 2005.[90]
In the Senate, Clinton sits on five committees with nine subcommittee assignments in all: the Committee on Armed Services (since 2003,[91] replacing an earlier assignment from 2001 on the Committee on Budget[92]), with three subcommittee assignments on Airland, on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, and on Readiness and Management Support; the Committee on Environment and Public Works (since 2001[92]), with three subcommittee assignments on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property, and Nuclear Safety, on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water, and on Superfund, Waste Control, and Risk Assessment; the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions(since 2001[92]), with two subcommittee assignments on Aging and on Children and Families; and the Special Committee on Aging.[93]
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which the World Trade Center in New York City was destroyed, Clinton sought to obtain funding for the recovery efforts and security improvements in her state. She was audibly booed in an audience of New York firefighters and police officers during her on-stage appearance at The Concert for New York City on October 20, 2001.[94] Working with New York's senior senator, Charles Schumer, she helped secure $21.4 billion in funding for the World Trade Center site's redevelopment.[95] In 2005, Clinton issued two studies that examined the disbursement of federal homeland security funds to local communities and first responders. Clinton voted for the USA Patriot Act in October 2001, as did all but one senator. In 2005, when the act was up for renewal, she worked to address some of the civil liberties concerns with it,[96] before voting in favor of a compromise renewed act in March 2006 that gained large majority support.[97]
As a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Clinton strongly supported military action in Afghanistan, saying it was a chance to combat terrorism while improving the lives of Afghan women who suffered under the Taliban government.[98] Clinton voted in favor of the Iraq Resolution, which authorized United States President George W. Bush to use military force against Iraq, should such action be required to enforce a United Nations Security Council Resolution after pursuing with diplomatic efforts. Clinton later said that she did not read the National Intelligence Estimate that was delivered 10 days before the vote to all members of Congress, but that she was briefed on the report.[99]
After the Iraq War began, Clinton made trips to both Iraq and Afghanistan to visit American troops stationed there, such as the 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum, New York. On a visit to Iraq in February 2005, Clinton noted that the insurgency had failed to disrupt the democratic elections held earlier, and that parts of the country were functioning well.[100] Noting that war deployments are draining regular and reserve forces, she co-introduced legislation to increase the size of the regular United States Army by 80,000 soldiers to ease the strain.[101] In late 2005, Clinton said that while immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be a mistake, Bush's pledge to stay "until the job is done" is also misguided, as it gives Iraqis "an open-ended invitation not to take care of themselves." She criticized the administration for making poor decisions in the war, but added that it was more important to solve the problems in Iraq.[102] This centrist and somewhat vague stance caused frustration among those in the Democratic party who favor immediate withdrawal.[103] Clinton supported retaining and improving health benefits for veterans, and lobbied against the closure of several military bases.[104]
Senator Clinton voted against the tax cuts introduced by President Bush, including the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, saying it was fiscally irresponsible to reopen the budget deficit. At the 2000 Democratic National Convention, Clinton had called for maintaining a budget surplus to pay down the national debt for future generations. At a fundraiser in 2004, she told a crowd of financial donors that "Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you" but that "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."[105]
Senator Clinton delivers an address to Families USA.
Clinton appears with her husband on the opening night of the 2004 Democratic National Convention.In Clinton's first term as senator, New York's jobless rate rose by 0.7 percent after a nationwide recession.[106] The state's manufacturing sector was especially beleaguered, losing about 170,000 jobs.[107] In 2005, Clinton and Senator Lindsey Graham cosponsored the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, which provides incentives and rewards for completely domestic American manufacturing companies.[108] In 2003, Clinton convinced the information technology firm Tata Consultancy Services to open an office in Buffalo, New York,[109] but some criticized the plan because Tata is also involved in the business of outsourcing.[110] In 2004, Clinton co-founded and became the co-chair of the Senate India Caucus[111] with the aid of USINPAC, a political action committee.[112][113]
Senator Clinton led a bipartisan effort to bring broadband access to rural communities. She cosponsored the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, which encourages research and development in the field of nanotechnology.[114] She included language in an energy bill to provide tax exempt bonding authority for environmentally conscious construction projects,[115] and introduced an amendment that funds job creation to repair, renovate and modernize public schools.[115]
In 2005, Clinton was joined by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who once led the Republican opposition to her husband's administration,[116] in support of a proposal for incremental universal health care.[117] She also worked with Bill Frist, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, in support of modernizing medical records with computer technology to reduce human errors, such as misreading prescriptions.[118]
During the 2005 debate over the use of filibusters by Senate Democrats, which prevented some of President Bush's j