Dunedin Public Libraries is a network of six libraries and two bookbuses in Dunedin, New Zealand, owned and operated by the Dunedin City Council. The Libraries' collection includes over 700,000 items, and around 30,000 books and audiovisual items plus 15,000 magazines are added each year. Members can borrow or return items from any library or bookbus in the network.

Branch history
Dunedin Public Libraries operates six libraries and two bookbus services.

City Library

Dunedin's first free public library opened on 2 December 1908, funded by a £10,000 grant from American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Situated at 110 Moray Place, the library originally offered a reference service only, but a children's reading room and lending library were opened in 1910, followed by lending services for adults in 1911. Services were expanded through the 1930s; in the 1950s, the book bus service was launched and the library's audio visual collection was established.

The library received its first major donation in 1913 when Dr Robert McNab presented some 4,200 volumes of New Zealand history and early voyages. Later donations would include the Walt Whitman Collection (from Mrs J. W. Stewart in 1927) and the Alfred and Isabel Reed Collection, which included medieval manuscripts, incunabula, Bibles, early printing and later manuscripts, works by Dickens and Johnson, and a vast quantity of manuscript letters. (Before the donation of his entire collection, Reed had been anonymously displaying some of his autograph letters in the library's entrance hall since at least 1926; he also openly donated a number of letters, magazines, and novels starting from 1926.) The vast size of the Reed Collection, in addition to the library's continual expansion, necessitated the library's removal to a new location.

Plans for the new library site were sketched in 1973, with construction commencing in 1978. The new building, at 230 Moray Pl, opened in 1981 and remains open to this day. Although the city library was originally independent from other nearby libraries, the 1989 merger of local councils and borough councils led to the creation of the Dunedin Public Libraries network, which incorporated the libraries in Mosgiel, Port Chalmers, Waikouaiti, Blueskin Bay, and Dunedin city into one entity.

Mosgiel Library
The first functioning library in Mosgiel was established in 1881 by the Athanaeum Committee. A new library administered by the Mosgiel Borough Council was opened in 1959, relocating twice before arriving at its present site on Hartstonge Ave. In 1989 the library joined the Dunedin Public Libraries network as a result of local council amalgamation. In addition to usual library resources, the Mosgiel Library operates the Mosgiel branch of the Dunedin City Council Customer Services Centre.

Port Chalmers Library

Port Chalmers Mechanics Institute started in 1864, and became the Port Chalmers Public Library under the direct control of the borough council in 1943. The library was eventually housed in the Municipal Building. In 1989 the library joined the Dunedin Public Libraries network as a result of local council amalgamation.

In 2004 the Port Chalmers Library and Service Centre was completely refurbished by the Dunedin City Council. Extensive consultation with the Historic Places Trust meant the historic facade and many interesting internal features were retained. A number of art works have been added to the library collection, including some by Ralph Hotere, David Elliot, Robyn Belton, and Pamela Brown.

Waikouaiti Library
The Waikouaiti Library was founded in 1862 by the Rev A Fenton and Miss Emily Orbell and began with 100 books, half of them given by Mr Fenton. They were housed in the school room in Beach Street. Fenton's successor the Rev A Dasent took charge in 1863 and was chairman of the library committee for 11 years. The Library moved to Mechanics' Hall in 1875 and from that time a committee of seven was elected annually by the subscribers and the subscription was lowered from one pound to ten shillings.

In 1905 a new book room measuring 24 feet by 9 feet was built as a connection between the librarian's cottage and the hall on the north side. By 1913 there were 107 subscribers and over 3000 books. In the late 1960s the county council took over responsibility for the Hall and the Library. The committee continued to meet until 1974 as a county council committee, and then the library was quite on its own. It was visibly separated from the Hall also, because in that year the books were moved across the street to the RSA Community Centre, while the former library buildings were replaced by a chemist's shop, doctors rooms, and meeting rooms.

From around 2000 issues a year in 1970 numbers were up to 22,000 by May 1988. Unfortunately the building soon began to need frequent maintenance and it was obvious it was not a suitable place for a library which was expanding dramatically now that Waikouaiti was part of Dunedin City. With amalgamation the library became part of the Dunedin Public Libraries network in 1989. The Community Centre was demolished and a new Waikouaiti Library was built in the last weeks of 1995.

Blueskin Bay Library
Blueskin Bay Library opened in the school house in 1871. It moved to a separate building in 1903 and to the public hall in 1972. Both Waitati and Waikouaiti Libraries were administered by Silverpeaks County prior to local government amalgamation in 1989. Blueskin Bay Library was constructed in 1992 as an extension to the Waitati Hall. A new library complex was opened in May 2013.

South Dunedin Community Pop-Up
The South Dunedin Community Pop-Up opened in Hillside Road in 2017. A permanent South Dunedin branch of Dunedin Public Libraries is expected to be contained within the planned 'South Dunedin Community Complex'.

Bookbuses

The Library Committee bought a passenger bus in 1949 and equipped it for use as a travelling library. The first distribution of books was made on 17 April 1950. In 1991 two new Isuzu F-Series trucks were commissioned as bookbuses. They are painted with colourful scenes, one featuring penguins and the countryside, the other a cityscape. The two bookbuses currently visit customers in 51 locations throughout the city offering fiction, non-fiction and reference books for children and adults, large print, talking books, audio-visual material (on request) and magazines. The buses are connected to online services.

Special collections
The Dunedin Public Libraries network holds a number of special collections, including two heritage collections. The heritage collections are open to the public, but items can only be used on the third floor of the City Library.

The McNab New Zealand Collection contains over 100,000 items concerning the history of the New Zealand and Pacific regions. This collection began with the donation of Robert McNab's personal library in 1913 and includes considerable newspaper and genealogical resources.

The Alfred and Isabel Reed Collection was donated in 1948; donor Alfred Reed would continue to add to the collection until his death in 1975. This collection contains around 10,000 items dating from the tenth century to the present, covering literature, religion, and the history of the book, and includes nearly 1,300 bibles. The Reed Collection's illuminated medieval manuscripts are considered one of the most outstanding assemblies of European visual art from the Middle Ages in Australasia. Reed had a personal fancy for autograph letters, many of which were bought in miscellaneous lots from London-based booksellers including Edward Friehold. The collection now boasts 5,200 autograph letters dating predominantly to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by literary, aristocratic, political and religious figures, and has been the subject of international scholarly attention. Of particular note, 41 previously unpublished letters in the Reed Collection form the core of In Her Hand, a 2013 collection that includes transcriptions, annotations, and discussions of letters by noted Romantic-era writers including Anna Barbauld, Felicia Hemans, Hannah More, Amelia Opie, and Maria Jane Jewsbury.

References

External links

1908 establishments in New Zealand
Carnegie libraries in New Zealand
Libraries in Dunedin
Education in Dunedin
Organisations based in Dunedin
1900s in Dunedin
Central Dunedin
Libraries established in 1908

Dunedin Public Libraries


The coat of arms of the Soviet Union is the symbol of the Soviet Union. It was accepted in 1923 and was used until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Design
The coat of arms has a hammer and sickle, a red star over the Earth, and two ears of wheat covered by red ribbons. Each ribbon has a different language on it, showing the motto of the Soviet Union.

History
On 6 July 1923, the Central Executive Committee (CIK) started a project to create the coat of arms. It was finished on 22 September 1923. The constitution of the Soviet Union confirmed the new coat of arms officially in 1924. At first it had six red ribbons on the ears of wheat. The motto "Workers of the World, Unite!" was written on each ribbon, each in a different language. The first six languages were Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Georgian, Armenian, and Turko-Tatar.

Over the next several years, many more languages were added. In 1937 there were 11 languages, and in 1946, there were 16. In 1956 the Finnish text from the coat of arms was removed, and up to the end of the Soviet Union there were 15 languages on the coat of arms.
Soviet Union
National symbols of the Soviet Union

Coat of arms of the Soviet Union


The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, is a protocol related to computers and networks of computers. It is referred to as DHCP for short. It was made so that computers could connect to other computers (on a network) automatically. To be able to access the Internet (or any computer network), an IP address is needed. DHCP allows for this IP address to be obtained automatically. Other data, like a DNS Nameserver, or a time server can also be obtained that way. Finally, computers that support it can even get a disk image they boot from over the network.

The address can be dynamic (it can change), or it can be static (it stays the same). After a certain time, the address lease has to be renewed.

Computer protocols
computer networking
DHCP is one of the most complicated IP protocols in networks of computers.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol


Lea Vivot is a Czech-born Canadian sculptor. She has studied at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Ontario as well as Prague, Czechoslovakia, Milan, Italy and New York City, United States. Although her main focus is sculpture, Vivot is also active in drawing and printmaking. Vivot's over life-sized bronze sculptures are figurative and often depict families, couples, mothers, children, and other subjects of humanity. Most of her sculptures include benches, which have become her trademark.

Works by Vivot
 Following the death of New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton, Vivot announced that she would create three different public statues of him, for Toronto, Ottawa, and his hometown of Hudson, Quebec.
 Tommy Douglas (Weyburn, Saskatchewan)
 The Secret Bench of Knowledge (Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa)
 Endless Bench (Located at front of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children)
 Le banc des amoureux (Montreal Botanical Garden, Montreal)
 Le banc du secret (Le 2001 McGill College, Montreal)
 Joy Of Life (1983):  Montreal 1434 Sherbrooke Ave. West
 Lavička neřesti The Bench of Vice, K Žižkovu 1851/4, Prague

Gallery

References

External links

 Maclean's article about Lea Vivot's proposed Jack layton memorial statues
 Huffington Post Three Jack Layton Statues Planned By Canadian Sculptor
 CBC: Layton's likeness to be cast in bronze
 Kiefer Sutherland unveils Tommy Douglas statue
 CZECH TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY
 leavivot.com/about_the_artist
 Lea Vivot

1954 births
Living people
Canadian sculptors
20th-century sculptors
21st-century Czech sculptors
Czech women sculptors
Czech emigrants to Canada
20th-century Canadian women artists
21st-century Canadian women artists

Lea Vivot


Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born 17 Juin 1987) is a American rapper an sangwriter. Born an raised in Compton, Californie, he embarkit on his muisical career as a teenager unner the stage name K-Dot, releasin a mixtape that garnered local attention an led tae his signin wi indie record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE). He began tae gain recogneetion in 2010, efter his first retail release, Overly Dedicated. The follaein year, Lamar independently released his first studio album, Section.80, which includit his debut single, "HiiiPoWeR". Bi that time, he haed amassed a lairge Internet follaein an collaboratit wi several airtists in the hip hop industry, includin The Game, Snoop Dogg an Busta Rhymes.

References

Freemit airtins

1987 births
21st-century American muisickers
African-American male rappers
African-American sangwriters
African-American Christians
Aftermath Entertainment airtists
Alternative hip hop muisickers
Grammy Awaird winners
Interscope Records airtists
Livin fowk
Muisickers frae Compton, Californie
Rappers frae Los Angeles
Sangwriters frae Californie
Top Dawg Entertainment airtists
West Coast hip hop muisickers

Kendrick Lamar


Singletrack (or single track) describes a type of mountain biking trail that is approximately the width of the bike. It contrasts with double-track or fire road which is wide enough for four-wheeled off-road vehicles. It is often smooth and flowing, but may also feature technical rocky sections, go over tree roots, and include berms, banked turns, switch-backs, hills, drops, jumps, and so forth. Singletrack which descends significantly, and in the most downward direction, is said to be following the fall line.

Many mountain bike riders prefer singletrack over other types of trails, as singletrack is usually designed specifically for the sport, and therefore can have elements which highlight features of the sport (whereas other trail types will usually be more straight, and not exhibit as many hills and other special features). Some singletrack includes TTF's (technical trail features) designed to challenge riders, such as log piles, log rides, skinnies, rock gardens, gap jumps, and wall-rides.

Doubletrack (or double track) contrasts with singletrack in that it has two paths, which are approximately parallel. Jeep trails and fire roads are examples of a doubletrack trail.

Trail building
There are often volunteers, both organized and informal, that maintain and create singletrack in many places. Organized volunteers coordinate with park districts or land owners to modify the natural woods or terrain to accommodate singletrack bikers. Some paths are created from scratch, while others are modified hiking paths.

In one report, the USDA highlights several potential problems when it comes to trail building: effects on natural resources, use of designated wilderness, conflict with other users, and notable safety issues. These regulations are devised to make mountain biking sustainable; the IMBA strives to promote mountain biking in a way that trails made are done so according to previously ordained regulations and the idea that if built properly, trail maintenance and environmental impact will be minimal. In one example, Singletrack Advocates (STA) is a nonprofit organization that strives to build and maintain singletrack around Anchorage. Since its beginnings in 2007, STA has prevailed in legislation and construction of over 20 miles of new trails in the Anchorage area (Alaska).

Trail maintenance
In 2000, Clemson University (South Carolina, U.S.) Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences conducted a study on mountain biking and the sustainability of the sport as it relates to the natural environment. The researchers outlined four capacities that must be met to sustain a trail or trail system: Physical Capacity, the amount of space a given activity demands, Ecological Capacity, how much damage the environment can withstand before detrimental effect, Facility Capacity, what a given population needs in order to enjoy such recreational areas; and Social Capacity, the point at which one decides how many users the trail can accommodate comfortably at any one time. Mountain biking is a sustainable sport in that once a trail or trail system is made, it can be used for many years, but like accommodating for specific carrying capacities, there are many concerns in maintenance and use. Resource managers, typically employed by private or federal agencies, are in position to make judgment on how and when trail maintenance needs to be done. Resource managers take care of outstanding trail conditions such as the following: erosion control, trail widening and or rutting, shortcuts, soil decomposition, damage to drainage structures, damage to flora, fauna and water structures. In order to preserve the sustainability and progress the mountain biking community has seen in the most recent of years, trail maintenance must be continual, from being proactive in legislation, to environmental awareness in physical maintenance.

"Rules of the Trail"

The IMBA has developed a set of rules "to promote responsible and courteous conduct on shared-use trails." Every trail may have a slightly different set of rules. Most commonly, the rules include provisions such as the following:
 Mountain bikers must yield to both hikers and riders on horses (equestrians), unless the trail is clearly designated and marked for bike-only travel. Hikers yield to equestrians.
 Downhill riders yield to uphill riders (unless the trail is clearly marked for one-way or downhill-only traffic).
 "Leave No Trace" - Mountain bikers should ride in a way that does not cause damage or ecological erosion to the trail. Riders should not cut switchbacks. If there is standing water, riders should not ride around it if it causes erosion at the side, or will cause the trail to become wider. Littering is never acceptable.
Other rules are often posted for the considerations of specific individual trails.

See also
 Fall line
 Mountain biking
 Downhill mountain biking
 Enduro (mountain biking)
 Cross-country cycling
 Glossary of cycling
 Singletrack Magazine
 IMBA (International Mountain Bicycling Association)

References

External links

IMBA Resources: Bicycle Management: The Importance of Singletrack
Single track video

Mountain biking
Trails

Single track (mountain biking)


The Persian Gulf is the name of a geographical place. Its location is in the Middle East. It is an extension of the Gulf of Oman. It is between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, and the Arabs prefer to call it the "Gulf of the Arabs".

During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Persian Gulf came into news. Both sides attacked oil tankers of each other. Later, when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991, the new war got the name of "Gulf War" but major fighting happened on land.

The water in the Persian Gulf is rich in fishes; it has long beautiful coral reefs. Deep inside the water of the Persian Gulf, there are many pearl oysters. Due to this, the area attracts a lot of activities.

In Persian language, the term khalīj-e-Fars means the Persian Gulf. In October 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organization of the United Nations registered Persian Gulf as a place of origin, based on the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration.

Geography

The sea waters of the Persian Gulf covers an area of 233,000 km2. On the east, it connects with the Gulf of Oman by Strait of Hormuz. On the west, it connects a major river delta of Shatt al-Arab. In this river delta, waters of two big rivers of the area flow into: the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers.

The length of the Persian Gulf is 989 kilometers, and the shortest distance between two land points are 56 kilometers. The waters are generally not very deep. The maximum depth is only 90 meters. The average depth is only 50 meters.

There are many countries with borders touching the Persian Gulf. If taken in a clockwise direction, these countries are from the north: Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar on a peninsula off the Saudi coast; Bahrain on an island; and Kuwait and Iraq in the northwest. Many small islands lie within the Persian Gulf.

Petroleum

The area in and around the Persian Gulf has world's largest crude oil. Industries relating to crude oil are the main industries in this area. Al-Safaniya, the world's largest offshore oil field is in the Persian Gulf. Many countries with large crude oil are in this area. They are called Persian Gulf States, that is, the countries around the Persian Gulf. These countries are Iran, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iraq (with its small portion touching the Persian Gulf) is not called a Persian Gulf State.

British control

For about 200 years, from 1763 until 1971, the United Kingdom kept some control over some of the Persian Gulf countries. These countries were the Trucial States and at various times Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar. Upon independence most of the Trucial States made a new United Arab Emirates.

References

Other websites
Persian Gulf

Middle East
Gulfs

Persian Gulf


The Bible is a collection of texts that are commonly referred to as books. Many of these books have the name of only one person. There is a controversy about how the texts of these books were fabricated. For example, there is a discussion if all the Pauline epistles have been written by Paul the Apostle.

Bible

Authors of the Bible


Charles Herbert Stockton (October 13, 1845 – May 31, 1924) was a rear admiral in the United States Navy and the U.S. Navy's first uniformed expert in international law. Stockton served as the President of the Naval War College, and later served as President of the George Washington University from 1910 to 1918

Early life and education
The son of Reverend William Rodgers Stockton and his wife, Emma Trout Gross Stockton, Charles Stockton was educated at Germantown Academy and Freeland Academy before entering the United States Naval Academy, then temporarily located at Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated from the academy in 1865.

Naval career
Stockton served on the North Pacific Station, 1865–69, then in the sloop , flagship of the European Squadron, 1870–73. After instruction at the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1873, he had a variety of ship and shore duties relating to that area, served at the Hydrographic Office, 1875–76, and lectured at the Naval War College, 1887–88. In 1890–91, he commanded the steam whaler , the first vessel to follow the entire coastline of Alaska, and published an article (1890) on this cruise in the new National Geographic Magazine as well as technical papers on Bering Strait ice conditions, before cruising off El Salvador and Guatemala during the 1890 war.

In 1891, he became President of the Naval War College and supervised construction of its first purpose-built building, Luce Hall. In 1892–93, he handed the completed building over to its returning president, Alfred Thayer Mahan, and became the college's lecturer in international law, completing Harvard Professor Freeman Snow's unfinished book on the subject in 1895. After commanding the gunboat  on the Asiatic Station, 1895–97, he returned to become president, Naval War College, 1898–1900. Recognized as the U.S. Navy's first uniformed expert on international law, he remained at the college until 1901 to write the first code of Law of Naval Warfare.

He commanded the battleship , 1901–03, and served as U.S. naval attaché in London, 1903–05.

Civilian career
Stockton retired as a serving naval officer in 1907, and, in 1908–09, was appointed as First U.S. Delegate to the London Naval Conference that resulted in the London Declaration concerning the Laws of Naval War. Upon his return from London, he became president, The George Washington University, 1910–1918. On stepping down from that post, Stockton continued as lecturer in International Law at The George Washington University until 1921.   He is commemorated in Stockton Hall at The George Washington University and in the academic chair occupied by the Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College.

Personal life
Stockton married Cornelia Carter on 23 June 1875. Less than a year later, on 1 July 1876, Cornelia died, the day after giving birth to their daughter, Cornelia Carter Stockton. Stockton married Pauline Lethilhon on 23 November 1880, and had two further children; Herbert King Stockton (b. 1882) and Helen King Stockton (b. 1886).

Dates of rank
Midshipman - 14 November 1861.
Graduated Naval Academy - September, 1865.
Ensign - 1 December 1866.
Master - 12 March 1868.
Lieutenant - 26 March 1869.
Lieutenant Commander - 15 November 1881.
Commander - 3 April 1892.
Captain - 8 July 1899.
Rear Admiral - 7 January 1906
Retired List - 13 October 1907

See Also
Fort Stockton (San Diego, California)

References
Notes

Bibliography
Hattendorf, John B., "Rear Admiral Charles Stockton, The Naval War College and the Law of Naval Warfare" in Green, Leslie C., and Schmitt, Michael N., eds. The Law of Armed Conflict: Into the Next Millennium.  International Law Blue Book series, vol. 71.  (Newport: Naval War College Press, 1998), pp. xvii-lxxii.
 Stockton, Charles H., The Laws and Usages of War at Sea: A Naval War Code. (Washington; Government Printing Office, 1900).
 Stockton, Charles H., A Manual of International Law for the Use of Naval Officers. (Annapolis: Naval Institute 1917).
 Stockton, Charles H. "Address of Mr. Charles Stockton" [A Review of the London Naval Conference, 1908-09], American Society of International Law, Proceedings. (Washington, 1909), pp. 61–84.

External links

 George Washington University Historical Encyclopedia : Charles Herbert Stockton
 George Washington University Presidential Profiles

1845 births
1924 deaths
United States Naval Academy alumni
United States Navy admirals
International law scholars
Naval War College faculty
Presidents of the Naval War College
Presidents of George Washington University
George Washington University deans
Germantown Academy alumni
Military personnel from Philadelphia

Charles Stockton


Gordon Woodbury (1863–1924) was the United States Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1920 to 1921.

Biography
Woodbury was born in New York City on September 17, 1863, and raised in Bedford, New Hampshire.  He was educated at Harvard University and then returned to New Hampshire to pursue a career in politics. At one point, he was editor of the Manchester Union, the leading Democratic paper in New Hampshire.  He was repeatedly elected to the New Hampshire General Court, but failed in his 1916 bid to become the member of the United States House of Representatives for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district, losing to Republican Cyrus A. Sulloway.

In 1920, Franklin D. Roosevelt resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in order to run for Vice President in the 1920 presidential election.  President of the United States Woodrow Wilson named Woodbury as Roosevelt's successor and he subsequently served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy from August 27, 1920 until March 9, 1921.

Woodbury remained in Washington, D. C. after stepping down as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, living at the Wardman Park Hotel.

In 1922, Woodbury planned to sail to the Mediterranean and the South Seas in his yacht, the Half Moon, but was caught in a hurricane and swept into the ocean, although all but one person survived.

Woodbury died in Manchester, New Hampshire on June 17, 1924.

References

 Profile at the Political Graveyard

1863 births
1924 deaths
United States Assistant Secretaries of the Navy
Harvard University alumni
New Hampshire Democrats
Washington, D.C., Democrats

Gordon Woodbury


The Suica is a card that people can use to pay for train fares and goods at convenience stores in mainland Japan, as well as other store types and regions. Cash amount can be added or removed electronically, simply by hovering the card over a card reader. It is convenient and faster to use than coins and bills, and magnetic stripe cards. The technology used is called RFID, and a chip by Sony is used, called FeliCa.

Tokyo

Suica


Gavrilo Princip, 25 July 1894 – 28 April 1918, was the Serb nationalist who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the wife of the Archduke, Archduchess Sophie Chotek.

Princip was born in Obljaj a poor area of Bosnia. As a young man he joined a small group who wanted the Slavs in the south of Austria-Hungary to join with Serbia in a new country. They called themselves "Young Bosnia". A group of powerful people in Serbia decided to help them. Those powerful people were called the Black Hand. They gave 'Young Bosnia' guns and small bombs.

When they heard that Franz Ferdinand was coming to Sarajevo, six of them took the bombs and guns and waited for Ferdinand to drive past. They were going to kill Ferdinand when he drove past. Every one of them failed. After they all failed, Princip went to a cafe to buy a sandwich.

When Princip came out of the cafe, he saw Ferdinand in his car. The driver of the car had driven his car the wrong way and he stalled the car while trying to turn. Princip walked up and shot Ferdinand. He wanted to shoot the general who was also sitting in the car, but Ferdinand's wife Sophie threw her arms around Ferdinand. She was in the way, and Princip shot her instead of the general.

At his trial, Princip said he did it because he loved his people. The Austrians thought it was a very bad crime, but they could not kill him because he was only 19 years old. The law in Austria-Hungary said only people older than 20 could be killed, even when the crime was as bad as killing royalty like Ferdinand. They said Princip must stay in prison for 20 years. During his time in the prison, one of his arms was amputated. He died in prison of tuberculosis and blood loss in 1918.

Because this crime happened, Austria-Hungary gave Serbia a list of things that Serbia had to do, later called the "July Ultimatum", to stop things like this from happening any more.  Serbia could not do all the things on the list fast enough, because the Austrians really wanted war with Serbia.  Their German allies also wanted a big war. This led to many of the European countries to start fighting.

References

1894 births
1918 deaths
Assassins
Deaths from tuberculosis
People who died in prison custody
Serbian people
World War I people

Gavrilo Princip


The Henry Head Battery is found on the La Perouse side of the inlet to Botany Bay near the edge of a cliff that drops down into the ocean on Henry Head, La Perouse, New South Wales, Australia.

History
This fort and bunker building was built in-between 1892 - 1895 with a large disappearing gun emplacement (a special hole in the ground that the cannon shoots from and then disappears into). The fort was used until 1910, upon which the fort became useless.

The fort that had 2 six inch gun emplacements and special lookout positions was reused during World War II to protect the entrance to Botany Bay. The underground bunker and tunnels inside the fort had vaulted weapons storage rooms with double walls and ceilings. The doubling up of walls and ceilings was a special way of stoppng the walls from collapsing if the fort suffered a direct hit from a missile (rocket) fired from an enemy ship. The battery is currently not in use.

References

Forts in Australia
Buildings and structures in Sydney
Military of Australia
1890s establishments in Australia

Henry Head Battery


Sergiu Comissiona (Hebrew: סרג'ו קומיסיונה; June 16, 1928 – March 5, 2005) was a Romanian-Israeli-American conductor and violinist.

Biography

Early life
Born in Bucharest, Romania in a Jewish family, he began violin studies at the age of five, was hired as a violinist by the Romanian State Ensemble while still in his teens, making his conducting debut at the age of 17.  In his twenties he was named principal conductor of the Romanian National Opera, which he led from 1955 to 1959.

Career
He fled the Communist regime in 1959 and emigrated to Israel.  In 1960 he founded the Ramat Gan Chamber Orchestra, which he led until 1967.  He also directed the Haifa Symphony from 1959 until 1966. He made his American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1965 and emigrated to the United States in 1968. Later he was also music director of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Sweden, from 1966 to 1977, and became chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in Hilversum, Netherlands, in 1982. He was the enlightment figure of leading the invigorating and thundering audience of  Hommage á Sibelius with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Comissiona also held music directorships with some of North America's leading ensembles, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and was also music director of the New York City Opera. Beginning in 1969 he spent 15 years with the Baltimore Orchestra and transformed it from a little-known ensemble into a nationally respected orchestra, eventually taking it on its first international tour and directing it in its first recordings. He was also the Music Director of the Asian Youth Orchestra. Comissiona was principal conductor of the Spanish national broadcasting network orchestra in Madrid, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, from 1990 to 1998.

From 1997 until his death, Comissiona served as the conductor of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music Symphony

World premiere and other notable performances
He premiered and made the first recordings of a number of modern works including symphonies by Allan Pettersson, who dedicated his Symphony No. 9 to him, as well as works by Michael Jeffrey Shapiro and Elie Siegmeister.  Comissiona conducted Siegmeister's An Entertainment for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra at the Merriwether Post Pavilion on July 2, 1976 with Ann Saslav, piano, and Isidor Saslav, the BSO's concertmaster, as soloists.  The Saslavs had commissioned the work from Siegmeister.

In 1968, Comissiona conducted the first performance of Rued Langgaard's Music of the Spheres in 46 years (since 1922), which ignited a renaissance for Langgaard's music.

Personal life
Comissiona and his wife became American citizens on July 4, 1976, at a special Bicentennial ceremony at Fort McHenry on Baltimore Harbor. He was a longtime resident of New York City.  He died of a heart attack in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma just hours before he was to perform.

Honours and awards
He was made a Knight of l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France; received a Mus D. honoris causa from the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts; was an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and founder national competition for young American conductors of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

References

Further reading

External links

Interview with Sergiu Comissiona, December 29, 1995
site conductorsguild 2008

1928 births
2005 deaths
American male conductors (music)
Romanian Jews
Romanian emigrants to Israel
Musicians from Bucharest
University of Southern California people
Romanian conductors (music)
Male conductors (music)
Romanian emigrants to the United States
Texas classical music
Prize-winners of the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors
American male violinists
20th-century American violinists
20th-century American conductors (music)
20th-century American male musicians

Sergiu Comissiona


Haberbusch i Schiele was a (now defunct) Warsaw-based brewery holding created in 1846. By the end of 19th century, the company had grown to become the largest beer producer in Warsaw and one of the largest in Poland. Destroyed in the Warsaw Uprising during World War II, the brewery was then nationalized by the communist authorities of Poland and partially rebuilt for the Browary Warszawskie company.

History
By mid-19th century beer-making in the Kingdom of Poland was neglected due to high excise taxes imposed by the Russian authorities. However, new technologies were being introduced and the industry was seen as a possible source of profit. In 1846 two Warsaw beer makers, Błażej Haberbusch and Konstanty Schiele created a company with their common father-in-law Henryk Klawe. The new Haberbusch, Schiele i Klawe partnership soon bought a bankrupt Schöffer i Glimpf brewery in central Warsaw from the Polish Bank. With Klawe's money the Haberbusch and Schiele managed to put the business back on track and in 1850 they acquired yet another brewery from a Mr. Czarnecki. The two companies were merged.

In 1865 the elderly Klawe withdrew from the firm and since then the company was known by only two surnames. About that time the Haberbusch and Schiele duo started to promote their beer. Among their original ideas was acquisition or rental of several beer gardens in various parts of the city, where the beer was served and music bands invited. They also extended their product line following the construction of a dry ice factory. Also, in 1880s the firm opened up a beer bottling factory in Kiev and started to export the beer to the Ukraine. In 1898 the firm was transformed into a joint stock company under the name of Joint Stock Society of the Steam Brewery and Dry Ice Factory "Haberbusch i Schiele".

Following the World War I and regaining of Polish independence, a new era began for the company. The period of post-war prosperity resulted in the Haberbusch i Schiele company becoming the largest Warsaw-based brewery out of several dozen firms. In 1921 the company merged with other top-five breweries (run by Edward Reych, Karol Machlejd, Seweryn Jung and the Korona brewery). The result of the merger was the creation of the United Breweries Joint-Stock Company "Haberbusch i Schiele", the largest brewery in Warsaw and one of the most influential in Poland. The position of the new company rose quickly and by 1924 it extended the range of production to coffee, vodka, liqueurs, lemonade and sauces.

During the World War II, following the occupation of Poland by the Nazis and the Soviets, the brewery continued its activities under a German management board. The production continued until the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. During the fights the granaries and depots of the company served as the granary of Warsaw, providing barley and sugar to the starving population of the besieged city. The brewery complex at Ceglana street was held by the Home Army until the very end of the uprising. In the result of the heavy fights and the German actions after the uprising had ended, approximately 70% of the brewery's infrastructure had been destroyed.

After the war the brewery was nationalized and partially rebuilt. In modern times the descendants of the Haberbusch and Schiele families are trying to reclaim their property from the modern Warka Brewery company, part of the Grupa Żywiec concern.

Notes and references

In-line:

General:

External links
 Logo of the brewery

Breweries of Poland
Defunct manufacturing companies of Poland
Manufacturing companies based in Warsaw
Food and drink companies established in 1846
Companies established in 1846
1846 establishments in the Russian Empire
1846 establishments in Poland

Haberbusch i Schiele


A truncated icosahedron is an Archimedean solid. A regular icosahedron is made of 20 faces. When a regular icosahedron is truncated, this means that each "corner" (or vertex) is replaced by a pentagon, as there are five edges at each corner.

A truncated icosahedron is made of 12 regular pentagons and 20 hexagons. It has 60 vertices, and 90 edges.

Truncated icosahedra in nature
The molecule Fullerene is made of 60 carbon atoms and looks like a truncated icosahedron.

Most soccer balls are truncated icosahedra.

Icosahedron

Truncated icosahedron


In modren astronomy, a constellation is a internaitionally defined aurie o the celestial sphere. These auries is grouped aroond asterisms (that is thairsels generally referred tae in non-technical leid as "constellations"), that is patterns furmed bi prominent starns athin apparent proximity tae ane anither on Yird's nicht sky.

Thare numerous historical constellations that isnae goamed bi the IAU or constellations goamed in regional tradeetions o astronomy or astrology, like Cheenese, Hindu an Australian Aboriginal.

Constellation


Medical evacuation, often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to wounded being evacuated from a battlefield, to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of an accident to receiving medical facilities, or to patients at a rural hospital requiring urgent care at a better-equipped facility using medically equipped air ambulances, helicopters and other means of emergency transport including ground ambulance and maritime transfers

Examples include civilian EMS vehicles, civilian aeromedical helicopter services, and military air ambulances. This term also covers the transfer of patients from the battlefield to a treatment facility or from one treatment facility to another by medical personnel, such as from a local hospital to another medical facility which has adequte medical equipment's.

In Asia, according to Aeromedical Global (M) Sdn Bhd, medical evacuations via air ambulance can be performed via a single or dual stretched setup. According to patients medical condition, Emergency Air Ambulances will be equipped with relevant equipments (ventilators, Portable O2 Concentrator and etc).

History

The first medical transport by air was recorded in Serbia in the autumn of 1915 during the First World War. One of the ill soldiers in that first medical transport was Milan Rastislav Štefánik, a Slovak pilot-volunteer who was flown to safety by French aviator Louis Paulhan.

The United States Army used this lifesaving technique in Burma toward the end of World War II with Sikorsky R-4B helicopters. The first helicopter rescue was by 2nd Lt Carter Harman, in Japanese-held Burma, who had to make several hops to get his Sikorsky YR-4B to the 1st Air Commando Group's secret airfield in enemy territory and then made four trips from there between April 25 and 26 to recover the American pilot and four injured British soldiers, one at a time.  The first medivac under fire was done in Manila in 1945 when five pilots evacuated 75-80 soldiers one or two at a time.

See also
 Aeromedical evacuation
 Air ambulance
 Air medical services
 Casualty evacuation
 Global Rescue, provider of medical evacuation services.
 "Medevac bill" (Australia, 2019)
 Medivac, Australian television series
 Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society

References

External links

 Association of Air Medical Services
 Landing in Hell: Army Medevac Today - slideshow by Life magazine

Air ambulance services
Critical emergency medicine
Military medicine
Evacuations

Medical evacuation


Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd United States attorney general from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Holder was the first African American to hold the position of U.S. attorney general.

Born in New York City to a middle class family of Barbadian origin, Holder graduated from Stuyvesant High School, Columbia College, and Columbia Law School. Following law school, he worked for the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice for twelve years. He next served as a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia before being appointed by President Bill Clinton as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and subsequently U.S. deputy attorney general.

Holder prosecuted cases involving government corruption. While U.S. attorney, he prosecuted congressman Dan Rostenkowski for corruption charges related to his role in the Congressional Post Office scandal. Following the Clinton administration, he worked at Covington & Burling, representing the firm's multinational corporate clients in litigation. Holder was senior legal advisor to Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign and one of three members of his vice-presidential selection committee. Holder was a close ally and confidant of Obama's and was selected as his first attorney general.

Holder became the first sitting attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress during an investigation of the Operation Fast and Furious ATF gunwalking scandal. The Justice Department's inspector general under Obama refused to prosecute him and later cleared him of the charges. After he was succeeded as attorney general by Loretta Lynch in April 2015, Holder returned to Covington & Burling, where he continues to practice corporate litigation, and is also involved with efforts at gerrymandering reform through the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

Early life and education
Eric Himpton Holder Jr. was born in The Bronx, New York, to parents with roots in Barbados. Holder's father, Eric Himpton Holder Sr. (October 29, 1903 – February 12, 1998), was born in Saint Joseph, Barbados, and arrived in the United States at the age of 11. He later became a real estate broker. His mother, Miriam (January 25, 1924 – August 13, 2010), was born in New Jersey, while his maternal grandparents were emigrants from Saint Philip, Barbados. Holder grew up in East Elmhurst, Queens, and attended public school until the age of 10. When entering the 4th grade he was selected to participate in a program for intellectually gifted Black students.

In 1969, he graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and attended Columbia University, where he played freshman basketball and football, and was a teammate of actor Ed Harris. During that time, he lived in Carman Hall. He earned a B.A. degree in American history in 1973. Holder received his J.D. degree from Columbia Law School, graduating in 1976. He worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund during his first summer and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York during his second summer.

In 1969, while a freshman at Columbia, Holder was one of several dozen students who staged an occupation of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps office, renaming it as the Malcolm X student center.

Career
After graduating from Columbia Law School, Holder joined the U.S. Justice Department's new Public Integrity Section, where he worked from 1976 to 1988. During his time there, he assisted in the prosecution of Democratic Congressman John Jenrette for bribery discovered in the Abscam sting operation. In 1988, President Reagan appointed Holder to serve as a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Holder stepped down from the bench in 1993 to accept an appointment as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from President Bill Clinton. He was the first Black American U.S. Attorney in that office. At the beginning of his tenure, he oversaw the conclusion of the corruption case against Dan Rostenkowski, part of the Congressional Post Office scandal. He was a U.S. Attorney until his elevation to Deputy Attorney General in 1997. Holder also served on The George Washington University's Board of Trustees in 1996 and 1997.

Deputy Attorney General

In 1997, after the retirement of Jamie Gorelick, Clinton nominated Holder to be the Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno. Holder was confirmed several months later in the Senate by a unanimous vote. During his confirmation hearing, Holder's opposition to the death penalty was questioned, but he pledged his intention to cooperate with the current laws and Reno, saying, "I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I will enforce the law as this Congress gives it to us." Holder was the first African American to serve in that position.

As Deputy Attorney General, Holder's primary responsibilities were in the areas of budget and personnel issues; this also included resolving disputes among department heads and briefing reporters on policy initiatives, national security issue, and major investigations, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigations into allegations of bribery and corruption in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Holder later advised Reno in the matters regarding the Independent Counsel statute. Reno made the decision to permit Kenneth Starr to expand his investigation into the Lewinsky affair, leading to Clinton's impeachment.

In the wake of the murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., Holder was a vocal proponent of new hate crimes laws in the United States. Holder said that the current laws placed major constraints on the ability of federal investigators and prosecutors to assist in these types of cases.

In his final days with the Clinton administration, Holder carried out his duties with Clinton's last-minute pardon of fugitive and Democratic contributor Marc Rich. Regarding discussions with the White House lawyers on the issue, Holder said he was at first "neutral" on the decision to grant Rich a pardon, but might lean in favor of it if there were national security benefits. Holder said that he was told that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had asked Clinton to grant the pardon. Holder said that, at the time, he did not give the case much thought, because he did not think the pardon would be granted, as no fugitive had ever previously been granted a presidential pardon. He later said he wished that he had looked into it more thoroughly, and expressed regret over the incident. "I wish that I had ensured that the Department of Justice was more fully informed and involved in this pardon process", he said admitting the mistake.

Republicans on the House Government Reform Committee disagreed with Holder's version and alleged that he was a knowing participant, according to a 2003 report. They said Holder failed to fully inform prosecutors of the pending pardon, and they criticized his "neutral leaning favorable" opinion to Clinton.

Former FBI director, Louis Freeh, commented on the matter in 2009, saying that the Clinton White House had "used" Holder and kept both the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the dark as to their full activities around the last minute pardons.

Holder briefly served as Acting Attorney General under President George W. Bush until the Senate confirmed Bush's nominee John Ashcroft.

Private practice
From 2001 until he became attorney general, Holder worked as an attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., representing clients such as Merck and the National Football League. He represented the NFL during its dog fighting investigation against Michael Vick.

In 2004, Holder helped negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department for Chiquita Brands International in a case that involved Chiquita's payment of "protection money" to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a group on the U.S. government's list of foreign terrorist organizations. In the agreement, Chiquita's officials pleaded guilty and paid a fine of $25 million. Holder represented Chiquita in the civil action that grew out of this criminal case. In March 2004, Holder and Covington & Burling were hired by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to act as a special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board. The investigation was subsequently canceled on May 18, 2004.

The firm represented Guantanamo inmates but Holder "never participated directly in the firm's Guantanamo work" and was not expected to recuse himself from matters pertaining to it.

In October 2004, he defended Purdue Pharma in a West Virginia court against accusations of deceptive marketing of their product OxyContin.

During his years in private practice, Holder represented the Swiss private bank UBS. Because of this, he recused himself from participating in the Department of Justice investigation of UBS's abetting of tax evasion by U.S. account-holders and the prosecution of Brad Birkenfeld. (As Attorney General, he also recused himself from the Roger Clemens contempt of Congress prosecution because the pitcher was once a client of Covington and Burling.)

While District of Columbia v. Heller was being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008, Holder joined the Reno-led amicus brief, which urged the Supreme Court to uphold Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban and said the position of the Department of Justice, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt through Clinton, was that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right to keep and bear arms for purposes unrelated to a State's operation of a well-regulated militia. Holder said that overturning the 1976 law "opens the door to more people having more access to guns and putting guns on the streets."

In late 2007, Holder joined then-Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign as a senior legal advisor. He served on Obama's vice presidential selection committee.

Nomination as Attorney General of the United States
On December 1, 2008, President-elect Obama announced that Holder would be his nominee for Attorney General of the United States. Obama praised his "toughness and independence." Obama went on to say that "[Holder] is deeply familiar with the law enforcement challenges we face: from terrorism to counter-intelligence; from white-collar crime to public corruption." Holder emphasized national security as a priority if confirmed, "We can and we must ensure that the American people remain secure and that the great Constitutional guarantees that define us as a nation are truly valued."

He was formally nominated on January 20, 2009, and was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 28 with a bipartisan vote of 17 to 2. He was officially confirmed by the entire Senate on February 2, 2009, by a vote of 75 to 21 becoming the nation's first African-American Attorney General. His installation took place on March 27, 2009, at the Lisner Auditorium of George Washington University.

Tenure as Attorney General of the United States

Terrorism

Defending U.S. drone strikes and raids
As Attorney General, Holder was a staunch opponent of legal limitations on the executive branch's ability to prosecute the War on Terror. In May 2011, Holder testified before Congress on the legality of the operation in which U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden earlier that month. Holder testified that the operation to kill bin Laden was legal, stating that international law allows for targeting enemy commanders. To support this point, Holder said that computer evidence seized from the raid demonstrated that bin Laden was still leading al-Qaeda. Moreover, Holder said, the Navy SEAL team that carried out the raid conducted itself in a manner consistent with American values, and that the parameters of the mission included capturing bin Laden.

Holder defended the legality of drone strikes against alleged terrorists. Addressing the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen who was killed by drone strike without trial, Holder said "The U.S. government's use of lethal force in self-defense against a leader of al-Qaeda or an associated force who presents an imminent threat of violent attack would not be unlawful." He outlined a three-part test to affirm the lawfulness of the strikes: the terrorist poses an imminent threat of violence to the United States, capture is not possible and the operation is conducted in a manner consistent with the principles of the law of war. At the time, al-Awlaki was an alleged leader and recruiter for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Holder later stated that "'[d]ue process' and 'judicial process' are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process." Some civil liberties advocates have described the incident as "an extrajudicial execution" that breached al-Awlaki's right to due process, including a trial.

Terrorism prosecutions
A major legacy of Holder's tenure as attorney general was a shifting of terrorism cases to the civilian federal courts. Under Holder, the DOJ successfully tried many terrorists in federal court, securing convictions and life sentences against a string of defendants, including Sulaiman Abu Ghaith (Osama bin Laden's spokesman); Ahmed Ghailani (a conspirator in the 1998 East Africa bombings); and Abu Hamza (an al-Qaeda operative). Faisal Shahzad (the attempted Times Square bomber); and Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab (the failed "underwear bomber") pleaded guilty in federal court and were sentenced to life imprisonment during Holder's term. During Holder's term, other terrorists—including Najibullah Zazi (who plotted a New York subway attack), and Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame (an al-Shabab supporter) pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government. Matt Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center from 2011 to 2014, wrote in 2015: "Through his persistence, Holder demonstrated the wisdom and value of prosecuting terrorists in civilian courts and cemented this approach for future administrations."

In November 2009, Holder announced that September 11 attack co-conspirators—Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi—would be tried in New York City on federal charges of conspiracy and murder. Holder said at the time that the five would "stand trial in our justice system before an impartial jury under long-established rules and procedures." This plan was frustrated by Congress, however, and "congressional restrictions on transferring Guantánamo detainees to federal court had delayed the case indefinitely." In April 2011, Holder was forced to drop plans for a federal trial and instead refer the five to military commissions; at the time, Holder criticized Congress for interfering in the prosecution, saying: "[Congress has] taken one of the nation's most tested counterterrorism tools off the table and tied our hands in a way that would have serious ramifications." The military commissions remain "mired in procedural delays, legal uncertainty and continued controversy" today.

International cooperation against terrorism
In July 2010, Holder attended a heads of state summit of the African Union in Kampala, Uganda, where he told African leaders that the U.S. would continue to support the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. Holder also vowed to work closer with African officials to stop terrorism, and announced that the FBI would be providing a team of forensic specialists to help assist in the investigation of the terrorist bombings in Kampala during the World Cup.

In a July 2014 speech to diplomats, academics, and national security officials in Oslo, Holder called for international cooperation against terrorism in Syria and Iraq in order to stem the flow of foreign fighters. Holder specifically urged other nations to adopt conspiracy laws; carry out better undercover operations; share traveler information through Interpol; and "seek to stop individuals from becoming radicalized in the first place by putting in place strong programs to counter violent extremism in its earliest stages."

Civil rights

Voting rights and redistricting
Holder is a vocal proponent of defending the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was reauthorized in 2006 with bipartisan support. Holder has criticized new voter ID laws in Texas, Florida and other states, which he suggests may be politically motivated. In 2011, Holder said, "The reality is that in jurisdictions across the country, both overt and subtle forms of discrimination remain all too common." He went on to  criticize Texas redistricting efforts, which were introduced when the state had increased its population by four million; Holder criticized the state for not allocating any new Congressional seats to represent Hispanic voters, arguing that the majority of the increased population were Latinos.

Under Holder's tenure, the DOJ sued Shelby County, Alabama, for a violation of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The small town of Calera had re-drawn the city council districts without receiving pre-clearance from the DOJ, which was required by Section 5 in order to ensure that Southern states do not use such redistricting to weaken political representation for minority communities. For local elections, Calera had divided the African-American part of town, submerging it into two other districts. The DOJ argued that this eliminated the city's sole African-American councilman. Calera responded by arguing that the process of pre-clearance with the DOJ should no longer be required. On September 21, 2011, the federal district court upheld the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, but the decision was overturned by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder, which effectively struck down Section 5 of the act. Before that decision, Holder had vowed to continue to enforce federal voting rights laws, regardless of how the United States Supreme Court decided in case. In 2022, Holder's book Our Unfinished March explained why the Shelby decision had convinced him to not appear in person before the Supreme Court Justices who rendered that decision, as a silent protest, as the custom had been for an AG to make at least one appearance. He further explained this in a subsequent interview.

In May 2012, with over a dozen states pushing new voter identification laws, Holder stated that he believed these new laws would hamper the ability of the elderly, students and minorities to vote. Regarding voting rights, he said, "for the first time in our [lifetimes], we are failing to live up to one of our most noble ideals." Holder pledged that the DOJ fight these laws "aggressively". He went on to say that "We have to honor the generations that took extraordinary risks" to achieve the right to vote.

In a speech before the NAACP in July 2012, Holder went on to say that the Texas voter ID laws were a "political pretext to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right." Holder compared the practices of these states to those in the era of Jim Crow segregation. Holder said, "Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them – and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes."

Arizona immigration law
In May 2010, Holder expressed concerns over reports he had received regarding Arizona SB 1070, an Arizona immigration law. He said that he feared that the law could lead to racial profiling. Holder received criticism on the political right for criticizing the law before he had read it in its entirety.

In July 2010, after the DOJ reviewed the law, Holder filed suit against Arizona on the grounds that the state law is preempted by federal law. Holder was quoted as saying, "I understand, first off, the frustration of the people of Arizona and the concerns that they have with regard to the amount of illegal immigration that occurs, but the solution that the Arizona legislature came up with is inconsistent with our federal Constitution."

A lawsuit challenging the law was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, and in June 2012, the Court struck down a majority of the law's provisions in Arizona v. United States. Holder said that although he was pleased that much of the law had been struck down, he remained concerned over the burden it might place on local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law and the possibility that it might be used to discriminate against the Latino community. He vowed to continue to monitor the impact of the law.

Holder has also stated that he supports comprehensive immigration reform, adding that it is a "matter of civil rights and human rights".

Same-sex marriage
In February 2011, Holder announced that the DOJ would no longer defend cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act in court. Holder had recommended this course of action to the President, arguing that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional, as laws that prohibit the marriage of gay couples do not meet the legal principle of strict scrutiny. Holder cited changing law in support of his action: "Much of the legal landscape has changed in the 15 years since Congress passed DOMA. The Supreme Court has ruled that laws criminalizing homosexual conduct are unconstitutional. Congress has repealed the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Several lower courts have ruled DOMA itself to be unconstitutional." This decision was prompted by legal deadlines in two federal cases in Connecticut and New York, where same-sex married couples argued that DOMA's ban on federal benefits to those in gay marriages approved by the individual states, violates the Constitution's requirement of equal treatment.

In February 2012, Holder reaffirmed his position and stated that the DOJ would not defend DOMA in a legal challenge brought by members of the U.S. military, who were seeking benefits for their same-sex spouses, including: medical insurance, visitation rights in military hospitals and survivor benefits.

Holder has also advocated for the interests of the 36,000 same-sex partnerships where Americans are in relationships with non-U.S. citizens. In May 2011, Holder set aside the decision to deport Paul Dorman, an Irish man who was in a same-sex partnership with a New Jersey citizen. Holder then asked immigration officials to reconsider their decision in order to determine whether Dorman can be considered a spouse under New Jersey law and whether Dorman would be considered a spouse under immigration law were it not for the Defense of Marriage Act. This action prompted some other immigration judges to halt the deportation proceeds of other foreigners in same-sex couples.

Criminal investigations and prosecutions

Ted Stevens case
In 2009, Holder decided to drop the corruption case against former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska after evidence of prosecutorial misconduct (specifically, the withholding of exculpatory evidence) emerged. Holder was reportedly "horrified by the failure of prosecutors to turn over all relevant materials to the defense" and was alarmed at rebukes of federal prosecutors by Judge Emmet Sullivan, a friend and former colleague of Holder. The DOJ formally moved to dismiss the indictment against Stevens (who had been convicted the previous year on seven counts, but had never been sentenced) on April 1, 2009. Holder issued a statement reading: "After careful review, I have concluded that certain information should have been provided to the defense for use at trial. In light of this conclusion, and in consideration of the totality of the circumstances of this particular case, I have determined that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial." Judge Emmet Sullivan threw out the case several days later, issuing an order stating: "There was never a judgment of conviction in this case. The jury's verdict is being set aside and has no legal effect." Holder ordered a review of the case by the Office of Professional Responsibility of DOJ. Judge Sullivan conducted an inquiry of his own, appointed two attorneys to conduct an investigation which resulted in "a blistering 514-page report" (released in May 2012) detailing what went wrong in the prosecution, and criticizing three specific federal prosecutors (one of whom committed suicide in 2010) for concealing evidence. Holder was praised for his efforts to repair the damage caused by the affair, which was seen as "a profound embarrassment for the Justice Department."

Marijuana
In 2010, in the run up to the referendum on California Proposition 19, which would have legalized marijuana use for personal recreation, Holder stated that the DOJ would continue to prosecute individuals on the federal level for possession of marijuana even if voters approved a ballot measure. However, in the run up to the successful marijuana legalization referendums on Colorado Amendment 64 and Washington Initiative 502 in 2012, Holder and the Department of Justice remained silent on how they would respond if the ballot measures were enacted by voters. On November 6, 2012, Colorado Amendment 64 and Washington Initiative 502 were passed with 55.3% and 55.7% of the votes respectively. This would lead to a new memo released by Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole on August 29, 2013. The memo instructed all United States Attorneys to not focus limited prosecutorial resources on state-authorized marijuana related activities, provided they follow eight priorities laid out by the Department of Justice.

Organized crime
On January 20, 2011, the FBI arrested 127 members of the La Cosa Nostra in New York City, including members of all Five Families of New York City and the DeCavalcante family of New Jersey. Holder spoke at a press conference afterwards, celebrating the largest single-day operation against the Mafia in United States history.

Leak investigations
Under Holder's leadership, the Department of Justice brought six leak-related prosecutions against current or former U.S. government employees, while all previous Presidential administrations combined had tried a total of three such cases. Holder was reportedly "surprised" by news reports pointing out this statistic, and was said to have told associates that he did not wish to have leak prosecutions be his legacy. Several prominent leak prosecutions under Holder involved communications between criminal defendants and journalists, and the pervasive use of traceable electronic communications between journalists and their sources provided the prosecution with a tool to determine the potential origin of published information. Under Holder, the Justice Department argued that journalists had no legal protection to maintain the confidentiality of their sources, and can be compelled by the government to reveal them, or potentially face criminal contempt charges. On September 17, 2018, the Freedom of the Press Foundation obtained documents regarding the use of FISA courts to spy on journalists.

On May 13, 2013, the Associated Press announced that the telephone records for 20 of their reporters during a two-month period in 2012 had been seized by the Justice Department as part of the 2013 Department of Justice investigations of reporters. The AP described these acts as a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into their news-gathering operation. Holder testified under oath to the House Judiciary Committee that he had recused himself from these leak investigations to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. Holder said his Deputy Attorney General, James Cole was in charge of the AP investigation and would've ordered the subpoenas. When questioning turned to the possibility of journalists being charged under the Espionage Act for reporting classified material, Holder stated: "With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that I've ever been involved in, heard of or would think would be a wise policy."

It was later reported that the DOJ monitored Fox News reporter James Rosen's activities by tracking his visits to the State Department through phone traces, timing of calls and his personal emails. NBC confirmed with the Justice Department that Holder had personally signed off on the Rosen subpoenas. The DOJ defended their decision and spoke about a balance between protecting national secrets and the 1st Amendment, stating: "After extensive deliberations, and after following all applicable laws, regulations and policies, the Department sought an appropriately tailored search warrant under the Privacy Protection Act." The revelation brought into question whether Holder had been intentionally misleading during his previous testimony. House Committee members sent an open letter to Holder, saying: "It is imperative that the committee, the Congress, and the American people be provided a full and accurate account of your involvement."

Department of Justice Smart on Crime Program

On August 12, 2013, at the American Bar Association's House of Delegates meeting, Holder announced the "Smart on Crime" program, which is "a sweeping initiative by the Justice Department that in effect renounces several decades of tough-on-crime anti-drug legislation and policies." Holder said the program "will encourage U.S. attorneys to charge defendants only with crimes "for which the accompanying sentences are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins…" Running through Holder's statements, the increasing economic burden of over-incarceration was stressed. , the Smart on Crime program is not a legislative initiative but an effort "limited to the DOJ's policy parameters."

Asset seizures
During Holder's tenure as attorney general, he prohibited the Justice Department from working with local law enforcement in asset forfeitures (confiscation of assets by law enforcement in cases where criminal wrongdoing has not been alleged) in cases that did not involve joint federal-local investigations and gun and child-porn crimes. As a consequence, asset forfeitures declined sharply in the United States.

Additional actions
In 2009, Holder announced and oversaw the federal government spending of $1 billion in grants to law enforcement agencies in every state to pay for the hiring of police officers. The money comes from the stimulus bill the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and covered the salaries of 4,699 law enforcement officers for three years.

When questioned about weapons regulations during a news conference to announce the arrest of Mexican drug cartel members, Holder stated that the Obama administration would seek to re-institute the expired Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which he strongly supports.

After the U.S. government filed suit against the Swiss bank UBS AG, whom Holder had represented during his time in private practice, the attorney general recused himself from all legal matters concerning the bank, which stands accused of conspiracy in U.S. tax fraud.

Holder presented friend and predecessor Janet Reno, Attorney General under the Clinton Administration, the American Judicature Society's (AJS) Justice Award on April 17, 2009. The award is the highest given by the AJS, and recognizes significant contributions toward improvements in the administration of justice within the United States.

After the United States diplomatic cables leak in December 2010, Holder said that "We have an active, ongoing, criminal investigation with regard to this matter. We are not in a position as yet to announce the result of that investigation, but the investigation is—is ongoing. To the extent that we can find anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law and who has put at risk the assets and the people that I have described, they will be held responsible," Holder said. "They will be held accountable." Holder's comments leave open a crucial question, which is whether the investigators are looking at how WikiLeaks obtained the documents (not unlike probing a news organization's source), or if they're looking at whether WikiLeaks staffers violated criminal law and should be the ones indicted. In May 2016, more than a year after leaving office, Holder told David Axelrod in an interview he thought Edward Snowden had "performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made", adding "I would say that doing what he did—and the way he did it—was inappropriate and illegal". Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell "lash[ed] out" at Holder, calling him "one of the worst attorneys general we've ever had" on Fox & Friends.

On December 8, 2014, Holder unveiled a new policy banning profiling on the basis of religion, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, and gender identity by federal law enforcement agencies. However, the new policy will not apply to screenings at border and airport, as well as in intelligence operations.

Opinion of Bush anti-terrorism policies
Holder has been critical of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and the NSA warrantless surveillance program, accusing the Bush administration of a "disrespect for the rule of law... [that is] not only wrong, it is destructive in our struggle against terrorism." During his confirmation hearings, he deemed waterboarding a form of torture and therefore illegal. In response, some Republican senators questioned him whether he would prosecute those who took part in waterboarding and delayed the confirmation vote on Holder.

Holder has stated that he favors closing the Guantánamo Bay detention camp; in 2002 he said that the detainees are not technically entitled to Geneva Convention protections. In March 2011, Holder left open the possibility that the Guantánamo Bay detention camp might remain open beyond President Obama's first term. Asked in a congressional hearing whether the prison would be closed by November 2012, Holder said: "I don't know." He said the Justice Department has established a task force to look at each of the 172 detainees being held at the Guantánamo prison to address how they should be dealt with. Holder's comments come just weeks after CIA Director Leon Panetta told a Senate panel that Osama bin Laden would probably be shipped to and held at the Guantánamo Bay facility if he were captured.

Holder is opposed to the Bush administration's implementation of the Patriot Act, saying it is "bad ultimately for law enforcement and will cost us the support of the American people."

Racism
Holder gave a speech on racism on February 18, 2009, during Black History Month. "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot in things racial, we have always been, and we, I believe, continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," said Holder. "Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial," he said.

The speech stirred some controversy, with some reacting favorably to Holder's comments and others sharply criticizing them. Obama later clarified Holder's comments, saying that "I think it's fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language... I think the point that he was making is that we're oftentimes uncomfortable with talking about race until there's some sort of racial flare-up or conflict, and that we could probably be more constructive in facing up to the painful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination."

New Black Panther Party voter intimidation incident

In May 2009, Holder's Department of Justice completed a civil suit originally brought by J. Christian Adams of the Bush Justice Department against the New Black Panther Party, its chairman, and two of its members for voter intimidation due to their conduct during the 2008 election. Two members of the Party had stood outside a polling station during the election in paramilitary uniforms, one carrying a nightstick. Claiming a lack of evidence, the Department of Justice dropped charges against the party, its chairman, and one of the two members who had stood outside the polling station. With the evidence presented, the Department of Justice successfully obtained a narrow injunction against the other. Former lawyers who had served under the Bush Administration have stated that the current DOJ under Holder is unwilling to prosecute minorities for civil rights violations. Three other Justice Department lawyers, in recent interviews, gave the same description of the department's culture, which department officials strongly deny. In the months after the case ended, tensions persisted. Eventually, Christopher Coates (of the Justice's Civil Rights Division) acknowledged telling attorneys at a September 2009 lunch that the Obama administration was interested in filing cases – under a key voting rights section – only on behalf of minorities.

During a meeting with a House subcommittee, Holder argued that the behavior of the New Black Panther Party was not comparable to historical voter intimidation against minorities, which often involved acts of violence and murder. Holder said, "When you compare what people endured in the South in the '60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, to compare what people subjected to that with what happened in Philadelphia… I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line for my people."

Critics have interpreted this comment as evidence of racial bias on Holder's part, with conservative James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal arguing that "If he [Holder] approaches the job with the attitude that any group smaller than all Americans is 'my people', he is the wrong man for the position." Claiming the issue was politicized from the start, Democrats have argued that those on the political right, particularly Adams, used this incident for purely political gain.

Operation Fast and Furious

In May 2011, House Oversight Committee chairman, California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley sent Attorney General Holder a letter requesting details about Operation Fast and Furious, which had been a failed federal firearms sting operation that allegedly allowed some 2,000 weapons to reach Mexican drug gangs. Grassley and Issa urged Holder to cooperate and turn over subpoenaed records that would reveal the scope of the alleged government coverup.

Contempt of Congress
In October 2011, the Justice Department released 7,600 pages of documents on Operation Fast and Furious. Republicans claimed some of those documents indicated that Holder had been sent early memos about Fast and Furious and therefore must have known about it before early 2011, which is when he had testified that he had learned about it to the House Judiciary Committee; a later report from the Justice Department's independent inspector general found that Holder had "no prior knowledge" of the operation before early 2011.

In April 2012, Issa announced that his committee was drafting a Contempt of Congress resolution against Holder in response to the committee allegedly being "stonewalled by the Justice Department" on additional documents.

On June 19, 2012, Holder met with Issa in person to discuss the requested documents. Holder said he offered to provide the documents to Issa on the condition that Issa provided his assurance that doing so would satisfy the committee subpoenas and resolve the dispute. Issa rejected the offer. Holder then told reporters "They rejected what I thought was an extraordinary offer on our part."

On June 20, 2012, the Oversight Committee voted 23–17 along party lines to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for not releasing the additional documents the committee had requested. A memo from Holder's office said of the vote: "It's an election-year tactic intended to distract attention." Although the vote was not directly relevant to gun legislation, the National Rifle Association of America announced that it would be scoring the contempt vote, due to Holder's previous stances on gun control legislation, placing political pressure on Democrats that wished to avoid repercussions from the gun lobby.

On June 20—the same date as the Oversight Committee vote—President Obama asserted executive privilege over the remaining documents requested by the committee. While Democrats argued that Holder was carrying out his constitutional role by honoring the executive privilege claim, on June 28, 2012, House Speaker John Boehner scheduled a vote on the contempt resolution anyway. Holder became the first U.S. attorney general in history to be held in both criminal and civil contempt. He was held in contempt by the House of Representatives in a 255–67 vote, with 17 Democrats voting for the measure, 2 Republicans voting against the measure. The remaining Democrats refused to vote and marched out of the House, led by Nancy Pelosi, as a means of protesting the actions of Republicans. Holder responded to the vote, describing it as "the regrettable culmination of what became a misguided and politically motivated investigation in an election year."

The congressional action evoked reactions from across the political spectrum. Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry called on Holder to resign, stating "America simply cannot tolerate an attorney general who arms the very criminals he is supposed to protect us from". Republican Sen. John Cornyn, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security also called on Holder to resign. Among those opposing the contempt citation, Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member on the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said, "Holder has acted honorably; he's done everything he could to allow us to do our job, which is to investigate this matter."

The Justice Department declined to prosecute the attorney general on the contempt charge, citing the fact that President Obama had asserted executive privilege.

In September 2012, after a nineteen-month review, the United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General cleared the Attorney General of any wrongdoing with regard to Fast and Furious, stating that there was "no evidence" that Holder knew about the operation before early 2011. The report did cite fourteen lower ranking officials for possible disciplinary action. Holder responded to the internal investigation, saying "It is unfortunate that some were so quick to make baseless accusations before they possessed the facts about these operations – accusations that turned out to be without foundation and that have caused a great deal of unnecessary harm and confusion."

In retrospect, David Weigel of Bloomberg Businessweek called the contempt of Congress vote "both popular and stunningly ineffective, enraging Holder and turning him into a more outspoken and implacable foe of Republican policies on voting rights and policing."

In August 2014, federal judge Amy Berman Jackson  ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with a list of the previously withheld documents. In October 2014, Jackson rejected a House bid to hold Holder in contempt of court, stating that it was "entirely unnecessary." In January 2016, Jackson tossed out Obama's executive privilege claims but stressed that her ruling wasn't based on the merits of the claim, but instead on the fact that many of the documents had by then become public as part of the 2012 inspector general's report.

Operation Choke Point

Operation Choke Point was an ongoing initiative of the United States Department of Justice that was announced in 2013 and investigated banks in the United States and the business they did with payment processors, payday lenders, and other companies believed to be at higher risk for fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing. This operation, first disclosed in an August 2013 Wall Street Journal story was controversial for the potential threat to due process, as the government was pressuring financial institutions to cut off a company's access to banking services without first having shown that the targeted companies were in fact violating the law.

Refusal to prosecute financial institutions

On March 6, 2013, Holder testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the size of large financial institutions has made it difficult for the Justice Department to bring criminal charges when they are suspected of crimes, because such charges can threaten the existence of a bank and therefore their interconnectedness may endanger the national or global economy. (See financial contagion). "Some of these institutions have become too large," Holder told the committee, "It has an inhibiting impact on our ability to bring resolutions that I think would be more appropriate."

In a January 29, 2013 letter to Holder, Senators Sherrod Brown and Charles Grassley had criticized this Justice Department policy citing "important questions about the Justice Department's prosecutorial philosophy." After receipt of a DOJ response letter, Brown and Grassley issued a statement saying, "The Justice Department's response is aggressively evasive. It does not answer our questions. We want to know how and why the Justice Department has determined that certain financial institutions are 'too big to jail' and that prosecuting those institutions would damage the financial system."

Prosecution rates against crimes by large financial institutions are at 20-year lows. Holder has also endorsed the notion that prosecutors, when deciding to pursue white-collar crimes, should give special consideration to "collateral consequences" of bringing charges against large corporate institutions, as outlined in a 1999 memorandum by Holder. Nearly a decade later Holder, as head of the Department of Justice, put this into practice and has demonstrated the weight "collateral consequences" has by repeatedly sought and reached deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements and settlements with large financial institutions such as J.P. Morgan Chase, HSBC, Countrywide Mortgage, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and others where the institution pays a fine or penalty but faces no criminal charges and admits no wrongdoing. Whereas in the previous decade the Bush administration's Department of Justice often sought criminal charges against individuals of large institutions regardless of "collateral consequences" such as cases involving Enron, Adelphia Communications Corporation, Tyco International, and others.

In September 2014, he described the department's rationale in a speech at New York University:

According to a 2016 report prepared by Republican staff of the House Committee on Financial Services, Holder and other Justice Department officials had overruled the recommendation of prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against HSBC for its alleged role in money-laundering, instead settling with the bank for the then-record amount of $1.9 billion.

Resolution proposing articles of impeachment
On November 14, 2013, Representative Pete Olson (R-TX), along with 19 Republicans, introduced a resolution proposing articles of impeachment against Holder. The articles cited Holder for his alleged role in Operation Fast and Furious, refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, failing to prosecute anyone involved in the IRS targeting of groups based on name and political theme, and for allegedly perjuring himself by stating that he had no knowledge of any potential prosecution of members of the media for disclosure of classified material. There were 29 co-sponsors to the bill. The bill was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary on November 14, 2013, but no further action was taken.

Resignation
Holder announced his resignation on September 25, 2014, citing personal reasons. He remained in office until the Senate confirmed his successor, Loretta Lynch.

Return to private practice

In July 2015, Holder rejoined Covington & Burling, the law firm at which he worked before becoming attorney general. The law firm's clients have included many of the large banks Holder declined to prosecute for their alleged role in the financial crisis. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone opined about the move, "I think this is probably the single biggest example of the revolving door that we've ever had."

In early 2016, Holder was hired by the MTN Group, a South Africa-based telecommunications company as a part of its efforts to combat a $3.9 billion fine handed to the MTN Group by the government of Nigeria. Rather than attempt to negotiate with the regulatory body that issued the fine, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Holder worked with the Nigerian Attorney General Abubakar Malami to reach a compromise. While the NCC initially rejected a proposal from Malami for a reduced fine, it later decided to reduce the fine by more than half. The MTN Group paid the reduced amount, which totaled around $1.7 billion.

In October 2016, Holder announced that he would chair the newly incorporated National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a group aiming to support Democratic candidates in state races ahead of the redistricting that will follow the 2020 Census.

In February 2017, Uber hired Holder to help lead an investigation into claims of sexual harassment and discrimination made public by Susan Fowler, a former employee. In June, Holder delivered a 13 page document outlining his recommendations for Uber. This led to Uber firing over 20 employees. Emil Michael, who was CEO Travis Kalanick's right-hand man, also left the company. Kalanick himself was forced into taking an indefinite leave of absence, and a week later, under pressure from investors, resigned as the CEO.

During 2018, Holder suggested on several occasions that he might run for the presidency in 2020. In July, he told CNN he thought a presidential candidate needed five qualities—the ability to inspire others, a vision for the job, the ability to meet both the physical and mental strains of the job, and appropriate experience. Holder added that he believed he possessed those five qualities, but noted that his wife would be involved in his decision. In October 2018, Holder was one of multiple individuals targeted by mailed pipe-bombs sent to Democratic lawmakers and officials. On March 4, 2019, Holder announced that he would not seek the White House in 2020 but would continue his work with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee to help elect a Democratic candidate who had the five qualities he thought were necessary.

In 2023, Holder was one of the lawyers representing Tennessee politicians Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, who were expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives for leading a protest in favor of gun control on the House floor.

Personal life

Holder is married to Sharon Malone, an obstetrician. The couple has three children. Malone's sister was Vivian Malone Jones, famous for her part in the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, which led to integration at the University of Alabama. Holder has been involved with various mentoring programs for inner-city youth. He is also an avid basketball fan and the uncle of former NBA All-Star Jeff Malone. Holder and his wife live in Washington, D.C.

Awards
In May 2008, while he was still in private practice, Legal Times magazine named Holder as one of the "Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Past 30 Years," describing him as one of the "Visionaries." Also in that year, Holder was named by The National Law Journal as one of "the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America." The National Law Journal commended Holder's practice in the areas of civil litigation and white-collar defense, as well as his work as a national co-chair for Obama's campaign.

On May 16, 2010, Holder delivered the commencement address at Boston University, for both the all-university ceremony and the School of Law. In addition, he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

On May 22, 2011, Holder delivered the commencement address at the University of Virginia School of Law. Holder encouraged the graduates to emulate Virginia Law alumnus Robert F. Kennedy's legacy of service. On May 19, 2009, Holder was chosen by his alma mater, Columbia College, to be its Class Day Speaker.

In May 2009, Holder visited Barbados and met with government representatives from across the Caribbean. The government renamed the Tamarind Hall municipal building located at Tamarind Hall, Blackmans, St. Joseph after Holder. Now known as the Eric Holder Jr. Municipal Complex, this centre was constructed by Government of Barbados to house a Magistrate's Court, a police station, a branch of the public library, in addition to the St. Joseph district Post Office. The centre was officially opened on May 22, 2009, by the U.S attorney general, Mr. Eric Holder Jr. while on a visit. In June 2009, the Government of Barbados announced that it would begin a project to determine the first 100 Great Barbadians, who would be selected by the public of Barbados. At the announcement of the project it was announced that Holder was the first candidate nominated for the final list.

In 2012, Holder received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

In August 2012, the National Urban League named Holder as a recipient of their "Living Legend" award, along with singer Stevie Wonder.

In April 2013, Holder acknowledged having the position of the President's 'wing-man' and being there as the President's 'boy' during a radio interview with Tom Joyner.  These awards and recognition are noteworthy because they contradict Holder's own public position that there should be "...a distance between [an Attorney General] and the president."

Holder delivered the commencement address at Harvard Law School in May 2012, the UC Berkeley School of Law in May 2013, and the UCLA School of Law in June 2020. Holder is set to speak at the University of Wisconsin–Madison commencement in May 2023.

Holder received an honorary Doctor of Laws from his alma mater, Columbia University, in May 2017.

Publications

See also
 Barack Obama Supreme Court candidates
 List of African-American United States Cabinet members

References

Further reading

External links

 Profile at the United States Department of Justice

 Contemporary Black Biography
 Covington & Burling
 The History Makers
 Homeland Security Policy Institute
 Eric Holder's federal campaign contribution report at NewsMeat
 Authenticated text, audio, video of Eric Holder Speech at the Department of Justice African American History Month Program AmericanRhetoric.com

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1951 births
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Eric Holder