Black Wednesday (or the 1992 sterling crisis) was a financial crisis that occurred on 16 September 1992 when the UK Government was forced to withdraw sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), following a failed attempt to keep its exchange rate above the lower limit required for the ERM participation. At that time, the United Kingdom held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The crisis damaged the credibility of the second Major ministry in handling of economic matters. The ruling Conservative Party suffered a landslide defeat five years later at the 1997 general election and did not return to power until 2010. The rebounding of the UK economy in the years following Black Wednesday has been attributed to the depreciation of sterling and the replacement of the ERM with an inflation targeting monetary stability policy.

Prelude

When the ERM was set up in 1979, the United Kingdom declined to join. This was a controversial decision, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Geoffrey Howe, was staunchly pro-European. His successor, Nigel Lawson, whilst not at all advocating a fixed exchange rate system, nevertheless so admired the low inflationary record of West Germany as to become, by the mid-eighties, a self-styled "exchange-rate monetarist," one viewing the Sterling-Deutschmark exchange rate as at least as reliable a guide to domestic inflation and hence to  the setting of interest rates as any of the various M0-M3 measures beloved of those he labelled as "Simon Pure" monetarists. He justified this by pointing to the dependable strength of the Deutsche Mark and the reliably anti-inflationary management of the Mark by the Bundesbank, both of which he explained by citing the lasting impact in Germany of the disastrous hyperinflation of the inter-war Weimar Republic. Thus, although the UK had not joined the ERM, at Lawson's direction (and with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's reluctant acquiescence), from early-1987 to March 1988 the Treasury followed a semi-official policy of "shadowing" the Deutsche Mark. Matters came to a head in a clash between Lawson and Thatcher's economic adviser Alan Walters, when Walters claimed that the Exchange Rate Mechanism was "half baked".

This led to Lawson's resignation as Chancellor; he was replaced by former Treasury Chief Secretary John Major who, with Douglas Hurd, the then Foreign Secretary, convinced the Cabinet to sign Britain up to the ERM in October 1990, effectively guaranteeing that the UK Government would follow an economic and monetary policy preventing the exchange rate between the pound and other member currencies from fluctuating by more than 6%. On 8 October 1990, Thatcher entered the pound into the ERM at DM 2.95 to £1. Hence, if the exchange rate ever neared the bottom of its permitted range, DM 2.773 (€1.4178 at the DM/Euro conversion rate), the government would be obliged to intervene. In 1989, the UK had inflation three times the rate of Germany, higher interest rates at 15%, and much lower labour productivity than France and Germany, which indicated the UK's different economic state in comparison to other ERM countries.

From the beginning of the 1990s, high German interest rates, set by the Bundesbank to counteract inflationary effects related to excess expenditure on German reunification, caused significant stress across the whole of the ERM. The UK and Italy had additional difficulties with their double deficits, while the UK was also hurt by the rapid depreciation of the United States dollar – a currency in which many British exports were priced – that summer. Issues of national prestige and the commitment to a doctrine that the fixing of exchange rates within the ERM was a pathway to a single European currency inhibited the adjustment of exchange rates. In the wake of the rejection of the Maastricht Treaty by the Danish electorate in a referendum in the spring of 1992, and an announcement that there would be a referendum in France as well, those ERM currencies that were trading close to the bottom of their ERM bands came under pressure from foreign exchange traders.

In the months leading up to Black Wednesday, among many other currency traders, George Soros had been building a huge short position in sterling that would become immensely profitable if the currency fell below the lower band of the ERM. Soros believed the rate at which the United Kingdom was brought into the Exchange Rate Mechanism was too high, inflation was too high (triple the German rate), and British interest rates were hurting their asset prices.

The currency traders act
The UK government attempted to prop up the depreciating pound to avoid withdrawal from the monetary system the country had joined only two years earlier. John Major authorised the spending of billions of pounds worth of foreign currency reserves to buy up sterling being sold on the currency markets. These measures failed to prevent the pound falling below its minimum level in the ERM. The Treasury took the decision to defend sterling's position, believing that to devalue would promote inflation.

Remarks by Bundesbank President Helmut Schlesinger triggered the attack on the pound. An interview of Schlesinger by the Wall Street Journal was reported by the German financial paper Handelsblatt. On the evening of Tuesday, 15 September 1992, the headline was already circulating. Schlesinger said he thought he was speaking off the record. He told the journalist that "a more comprehensive realignment" of currencies would be needed, following a recent devaluation of the Italian lira. Schlesinger later wrote that he stated a fact and this could not have triggered the crisis. This remark hugely increased pressure on the pound leading to large sterling sales.

Currency traders began a massive sell-off of pounds on Wednesday, 16 September 1992. The Exchange Rate Mechanism required the Bank of England to accept any offers to sell pounds. However, the Bank of England only accepted orders during the trading day. When the markets opened in London the next morning, the Bank of England began their attempt to prop up their currency, as decided by Norman Lamont (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Robin Leigh-Pemberton (Governor of the Bank of England). They began accepting orders of £300 million twice before 8:30 am, but to little effect. The Bank of England's intervention was ineffective because traders were dumping pounds far faster. The Bank of England continued to buy, and traders continued to sell, until Lamont told Prime Minister John Major that their pound purchasing was failing to produce results.

At 10:30 am on 16 September, the British government announced an increase in the base interest rate, from an already high 10%, to 12% to tempt speculators to buy pounds. Despite this and a promise later the same day to raise base rates again to 15%, dealers kept selling pounds, convinced that the government would not keep its promise. By 7:00 pm that evening, Lamont announced Britain would leave the ERM and rates would remain at the new level of 12%; however, on the next day the interest rate was back to 10%.

It was later revealed that the decision to withdraw had been agreed at an emergency meeting during the day between Lamont, Major, Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, President of the Board of Trade Michael Heseltine, and Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke (the latter three all being staunch Pro Europeans as well as senior Cabinet Ministers), and that the interest rate hike to 15% had only been a temporary measure to prevent a rout in the pound that afternoon.

Aftermath
Other ERM countries such as Italy, whose currencies had breached their bands during the day, returned to the system with broadened bands or with adjusted central parities.

Some commentators, following Norman Tebbit, took to referring to ERM as an "Eternal Recession Mechanism" after the UK fell into recession during the early 1990s.  While many people in the UK recall Black Wednesday as a national disaster that permanently affected the country's international prestige, some Conservatives claim that the forced ejection from the ERM was a "Golden Wednesday" or "White Wednesday", the day that paved the way for an economic revival, with the Conservatives handing Tony Blair's New Labour a much stronger economy in 1997 than had existed in 1992 as the new economic policy swiftly devised in the aftermath of Black Wednesday led to re-establishment of economic growth with falling unemployment and inflation. Monetary policy switched to inflation targeting.

The Conservative Party government's reputation for economic excellence had been damaged to the extent that the electorate was more inclined to support a claim of the opposition of the time – that the economic recovery ought to be credited to external factors, as opposed to government policies implemented by the Conservatives. The Conservatives had recently won the 1992 general election, and the Gallup poll for September showed a small lead of 2.5% for the Conservative Party. By the October poll, following Black Wednesday, their share of the intended vote in the poll had plunged from 43% to 29%. The Conservative government then suffered a string of by-election defeats which saw its 21-seat majority eroded by December 1996. The party's performances in local government elections were similarly dismal during this time, while Labour made huge gains.

Black Wednesday was a major factor in the Conservatives losing the 1997 general election to Labour, who won by a landslide under the leadership of Tony Blair. The Conservatives failed to gain significant ground at the 2001 general election under the leadership of William Hague, with Labour winning another landslide majority. The Conservatives did not take Government again until David Cameron led them to victory in the 2010 general election, 13 years later. Five years later in 2015, the party won its first overall majority 23 years after its last in 1992, five months before the crisis.

George Soros made over £1 billion in profit by short selling sterling.

The cost of Black Wednesday
In 1997, the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.14 billion, which was revised to £3.3 billion in 2005, following documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (earlier estimates placed losses at a much higher range of £13–27 billion). Trading losses in August and September made up a minority of the losses (estimated at £800 million) and the majority of the loss to the central bank arose from non-realised profits of a potential devaluation. Treasury papers suggested that, had the government maintained $24 billion foreign currency reserves and the pound had fallen by the same amount, the UK might have made a £2.4 billion profit on sterling's devaluation.

See also

Impossible trinity
Sale of UK gold reserves, 1999–2002
 Sterling crisis (disambiguation), other currency crises in British history

Footnotes

External links
Black Wednesday, bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
open.edu 24, September 2009 , Martin Upton, head of the Centre for Financial Management at The Open University Business School tells Ione Mako about the upside of Black Wednesday.

1990s economic history
September 1992 events in the United Kingdom
Economic history of the United Kingdom
George Soros
John Major
Short selling
Wednesday
Black days
Stock market crashes
1992 in economics
History of pound sterling

Black Wednesday


Like most states of the African Sahel, Chad has suffered desertification—the encroachment of the desert. Traditional herding practices and the need for firewood and wood for construction have exacerbated the problem. In the early 1980s, the country possessed between 135,000 and 160,000 square kilometres of forest and woodlands, representing a decline of almost 14% from the early 1960s. To what extent this decline was caused by climatic changes and to what extent by herding and cutting practices is unknown. Regulation was difficult because some people traditionally made their living selling wood and charcoal for fuel and wood for construction to people in the urban center. Although the government attempted to limit wood brought into the capital, the attempts have not been well managed, and unrestricted cutting of woodlands remained a problem.

See also

Agriculture in Chad
Economy of Chad

References

Chad
Economy of Chad
Agriculture in Chad
Chad

Forestry in Chad


Alexander Jesus Torres Matos (born December 8, 1987) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres and New York Mets.  He is known as the first pitcher in Major League Baseball to take advantage of the league rules allowing pitchers to wear protective headgear full-time.

Professional career

Los Angeles Angels
Torres was signed on January 12, 2005, by Los Angeles Angels scout Carlos Porte, as an international free agent, and was assigned to the Angels' Dominican Summer League Angels that season. He spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons with the Angels' rookie-level Arizona League Angels, as well as the beginning of the 2008 season before earning a promotion to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in the Class A-Advanced California League.

In 2009, Torres was again assigned to Rancho Cucamonga, where he earned minor league Pitcher of the Month honors for the Angels organization in both June and July. He held a stretch of 19 consecutive scoreless innings pitched (June 9–29, 2008) and won his final 5 starts before being promoted again to the Arkansas Travelers in the Double-A Texas League on July 31, 2009.

Tampa Bay Rays
On August 28, 2009, Torres was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays along with infielders Sean Rodriguez and Matthew Sweeney for pitcher Scott Kazmir, and he was assigned to the Montgomery Biscuits in the Double-A Southern League. Following the 2009 season, the Rays added Torres to the 40-man roster on November 19 to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Torres started 27 games for Montgomery in 2010, posting a 3.47 ERA and 150 strike-outs in 142 innings.

For the 2011 season, Torres was promoted to the Durham Bulls in the Triple-A International League. He was promoted to the Major League for the first time on July 18, 2011.  He pitched in a single game on July 18, giving up one hit and three walks in one inning, before he was returned to Triple-A.  He was called up to the Rays again in September, pitching in 3 more games in relief.  For the season in Triple-A, he started 27 games, had a 3.08 ERA and 156 strike-outs in 146 innings.

Torres began 2012 as a starter for the Durham Bulls, but he struggled with control and was sent to the bullpen after 5 starts with a 10.38 ERA.  He made 11 relief appearances, allowing 11 earned runs in 20 innings, and then returned to the starting rotation in mid-June.  He continued to struggle in 8 more starts, allowing 24 earned runs in 24 innings, before he was placed on the disabled list and then sent to the rookie-level Gulf Coast League Rays in Port Charlotte, Florida to work with pitching coach Marty DeMerritt.  Torres returned to make the final start of the year in Durham, pitching 5 scoreless innings and striking out 10.  He then pitched in the winter leagues in his native Venezuela.

Torres again opened 2013 with the Triple-A Durham Bulls as he was eligible for a fourth option year after being added to the 40-man roster in 2009. He pitched to a 3.52 ERA in 9 starts in Durham in 2013.

Torres was called up the Rays in mid-May when David Price went down with an injury. He appeared in 2 games out of the bullpen, including a scoreless four-inning stint, and was sent back down to Durham.  He was recalled on June 1 to add depth to the bullpen.  There was discussion in June about turning Torres into a starter, but manager Joe Maddon opted to keep him in the bullpen.  Torres remained with the big league club for the remainder of the season, accumulating a 1.71 ERA and 62 strike-outs in 58 innings and 39 games.

San Diego Padres
On January 22, 2014, the Rays traded Torres and Jesse Hahn to the San Diego Padres for Logan Forsythe, Brad Boxberger, Matt Andriese, Maxx Tissenbaum and Matt Lollis. On June 21, 2014, Torres became the first Major League Baseball pitcher to wear the isoBLOX protective cap introduced early in the year. MLB approved the product in January, nearly a year and a half after pitcher Brandon McCarthy was struck in the head by a line drive and suffered life-threatening brain injuries. Other pitchers with traumatic injuries includes Juan Nicasio, Alex Cobb and Aroldis Chapman, which led MLB to ramp up efforts to better protect pitchers. Torres accumulated a 3.33 ERA over 54 innings in 70 appearances in 2014, striking out 51 and walking 33.

New York Mets
On March 30, 2015, the Padres traded Torres to the New York Mets for Cory Mazzoni and a player to be named later. Torres pitched to a 3.15 ERA, but walked 26 batters in  and allowed left-handed hitters a .268 batting average against. All of this combined with the fact that Torres was out of minor league options ultimately led the Mets to designate him for assignment on August 4. Torres cleared waivers and was reassigned to the Mets' triple-A club in Las Vegas.

Atlanta Braves
Torres signed a minor league contract with the Atlanta Braves on December 31, 2015. On March 30, 2016, he was released.

Gunma Diamond Pegasus
He signed with the Gunma Diamond Pegasus of the Baseball Challenge League.

Tigres de Quintana Roo
On January 15, 2020, Torres signed with the Tigres de Quintana Roo of the Mexican League. On April 6, 2020, Torres was released.

See also
 List of Major League Baseball players from Venezuela

References

External links

1987 births
Living people
Arizona League Angels players
Arkansas Travelers players
Águilas del Zulia players
Cardenales de Lara players
Caribes de Anzoátegui players
Durham Bulls players
Gulf Coast Rays players
Las Vegas 51s players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Major League Baseball players from Venezuela
Montgomery Biscuits players
Navegantes del Magallanes players
New York Mets players
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes players
Sacramento River Cats players
San Diego Padres players
Baseball players from Valencia, Venezuela
Tampa Bay Rays players
Tiburones de La Guaira players
Tigres de Aragua players
Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Japan
Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in the United States
World Baseball Classic players of Venezuela
2013 World Baseball Classic players

Alex Torres (baseball)


Cadherin EGF LAG seven-pass G-type receptor 1 also known as flamingo homolog 2 or cadherin family member 9  is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CELSR1 gene.

Function

The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the flamingo subfamily, part of the cadherin superfamily. The flamingo subfamily consists of nonclassic-type cadherins; a subpopulation that does not interact with catenins. The flamingo cadherins are located at the plasma membrane and have nine cadherin domains, seven epidermal growth factor-like repeats and two laminin G-like domains in their ectodomain. They also have seven transmembrane domains, a characteristic unique to this subfamily. It is postulated that these proteins are receptors involved in contact-mediated communication, with cadherin domains acting as homophilic binding regions and the EGF-like domains involved in cell adhesion and receptor-ligand interactions. This particular member is a developmentally regulated, neural-specific gene which plays an unspecified role in early embryogenesis.

See also
 Flamingo (protein)

References

External links

Further reading

Adhesion G protein-coupled receptors
Chemokine receptors

CELSR1


Heinrich August Ritter (; 21 November 1791 – 3 February 1869) was a German philosopher and historian of philosophy.

He was born in Zerbst, and studied philosophy and theology at the University of Göttingen and Berlin until 1815. In 1824 he became an associate professor of philosophy at Berlin, later transferring to Kiel, where he occupied the chair of philosophy from 1833 to 1837. He then accepted a similar position at the University of Göttingen, where he remained till his death. Friedrich Schleiermacher was a major influence in his thinking.

Works
Ritter's chief work was a history of philosophy (Geschichte der Philosophie) published in twelve volumes at Hamburg from 1829 to 1853. This work was the product of a wide and thorough knowledge of the subject aided by an impartial critical faculty, and its value was underscored by its translation into almost all the languages of Europe. He wrote also accounts of ancient schools of philosophy, such as the Ionians, the Pythagoreans and the Megarians.

Beside these important historical works, he published a large number of treatises of which the following may be mentioned:

 Abriss der philosophischen Logik (1824).
 Geschichte der Philosophie (1829–1853; 2nd edition, vols. i–iv, 1836–1838) — its 1st section, "Geschichte der philosophie alter zeit", was translated into English by Alexander J.W. Morrison and published as: The history of ancient philosophy (1838–46).
 Ueber das Verhältnis der Philosophie zum Leben (1835).
 Historia philosophiae Graeco-Romanae (in collaboration with Ludwig Preller, 1838; 7th edition, 1888).
 Kleine philosophische Schriften (1839–1840).
 Versuch zur Verständigung über die neueste deutsche Philosophie seit Kant (1853).
 System der Logik und Metaphysik (1856).
 Die christliche Philosophie bis auf die neuesten Zeiten (2 volumes, 1858–1859).
 Encyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften (1862–1864).
 Ernest Renan, über die Naturwissenschaften und die Geschichte (1865).
 Ueber das Böse und seine Folgen (1869).

Notes

References

1791 births
1869 deaths
People from Zerbst
German philosophers
University of Göttingen alumni
Academic staff of the University of Göttingen
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin
Academic staff of the University of Kiel
German male writers

Heinrich Ritter


The ring-repique is a percussion instrument originated in Brazil. It's a small drum commonly made of aluminum, and unlike the Hand-repique, has two drumheads (top and bottom, commonly made out of animal skin), and a different, much deeper timbre. In Brazil this instrument is used mainly to play Samba and its variants, such as Pagode. The ring-repique has this name because traditionally, the musician wears one or more rings to play it, striking the body of the instrument with his fingers and using his thumb to play on the bottom or top skins. Normally the free hand hits the top skin, and this technique allows the player to perform more than one rhythm. The ring-repique was invented in the 1970s by musician "Doutor".

See also
Repinique
Hand-repique

Brazilian percussion
Hand drums

Ring-repique


Pat Choate (; born April 27, 1941) is an American economist who is most known for being the 1996 Reform Party candidate for Vice President of the United States, the running-mate of Ross Perot. Following the 1996 election, the Federal Election Commission certified the Reform Party as a national political party eligible for federal campaign matching funds, a historic first.

Life and career
Choate was born in Maypearl, Texas, the son of Bettie Lee (Simpson) and Frank William Choate. He is the director of the Manufacturing Policy Project, which studies long-term U.S. economic policy.  He previously worked as Director of Research and Planning for the Oklahoma Industrial Development Commission; as Tennessee's first Commissioner of Economic and Community Development; as the Director of the Appalachian and then Southern Regional Offices of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA); as Director of the EDA Office of Economic Research; as the Senior Economist in the Office of Management and Budget's Trade Reorganization Project; as a Fellow at the Battelle Institute's Academy for Contemporary Problems and as Vice President of Public Policy at TRW, Inc.  He has served on several Presidential and Congressional commissions on education, infrastructure and national security.

He was a co-founder of the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute (CELI) in 1986 and served as its Chair or Co-Chair for 18 years.  Choate is married to Kay Casey and has one grown stepson. Pat Choate and his wife live near Washington, Virginia.  He has a BA from the University of Texas at Arlington and an MA and PhD from the University of Oklahoma, all in economics.  In 1994, the University of Oklahoma named him the Arthur Barto Adams Alumni Fellow in recognition of his continuing scholarship. He has taught a course called Advanced Issues Management at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. He is known for work on development economics, including infrastructure and intellectual property, and his strong stance against unfettered globalism. He is also on the Board of Directors for the American Innovators for Patent Reform.

He hosted a weekly radio show called The Week Ahead from 1994 to 1996 and the Pat Choate Show from 1997 to 2000.

Electoral history
1996 United States presidential election
Bill Clinton/Al Gore (Democratic) (Inc.) – 47,402,357 (49.2%) and 379 electoral votes (31 states and D.C. carried)
Bob Dole/Jack Kemp (Republican) - 39,198,755 (40.7%) and 159 electoral votes (19 states carried)
Ross Perot/Pat Choate' (Reform) - 8,085,402 (8.4%) and 0 electoral votes

Bibliography
He has authored and co-authored dozens of reports and several books, including:

 Agents of Influence
 The High Flex Society with Juyne Linger
 America in Ruins with Susan Walters
 Thinking Strategically with Susan Walters
 Being Number One: Rebuilding the U.S. Economy with Gail Garfield Schwartz
 Save Your Job, Save Our Country: Why NAFTA Must Be Stopped Now with Ross Perot
 Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization
 Dangerous Business:  The Risks of Globalization to America (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. August 2008)
 Saving Capitalism: Keeping America Strong''

References

External links
 CNN's All Politics Profile of Dr. Choate

1941 births
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American television talk show hosts
George Washington University faculty
Living people
People from Ellis County, Texas
Reform Party of the United States of America vice presidential nominees
1996 United States vice-presidential candidates
University of Oklahoma alumni
University of Texas at Arlington alumni
Economists from Texas
21st-century American economists
Candidates in the 1996 United States presidential election

Pat Choate


Speedy deletion notice for this page because:
 it is pure nonsense,
 it is too short or has empty links and no one is in a hurry to work on it,
 it is made by a vandal.

If you have a different opinion about it, write it down on the discussion page (alea).

Db-laupisi/en


Ben Wyvis distillery was a producer of single malt Scotch whisky that operated between 1965 and 1977.

History
The first distillery to use the name "Ben Wyvis" operated between 1879 and 1926 in Dingwall (just south along what is now the A862 road). It was founded by D. G. Ross, but was then sold to Scotch Whisky Distillers in 1887. When Scotch Whisky Distillers was liquidated, the Ben Wyvis distillery was sold to the Ferintosh Distillery Co. Ltd., which was owned by Kirker, Greer & Co. in Belfast. The name was then changed to "Ferintosh". As of 2010, no whisky from this distillery  is known to exist. A residential development on the original site is "Wyvis House".

The Ben Wyvis distillery that began operation in 1965 was started by the Invergordon distillery, and was built on the Invergordon grain distillery complex. It was intended primarily to produce whisky for use in Invergordon blends, but did produce a very small number of single malts. When Ben Wyvis was demolished in 1977, the stills were saved and eventually used by the Glengyle distillery.

Single malts
Legitimate single malt bottlings from the distillery's 1965-1977 operation are exceptionally rare. Years after the distillery had closed, Invergordon offered a single malt under the "Ben Wyvis" name, but for a retail price approximately £20. This led to at least one incident where such a bottle was placed in an auction with estimates meant to imply that it was an original Ben Wyvis single malt: on 28 March 2007, McTear's Auctioneers offered Lot 166 (a 10-year-old Ben Wyvis) with an estimated value of £400-£600, and the auction closed with a sale price of £360. After significant public-relations pressure developed over the possible misrepresentation of the whisky, McTear's offered to cancel the sale.

References

External links
Malt Madness
Scotch Whisky

1965 establishments in Scotland
1977 disestablishments in Scotland
Scottish malt whisky
Distilleries in Scotland
Invergordon
British companies disestablished in 1977
British companies established in 1965

Ben Wyvis distillery


Gale William McGee (March 17, 1915April 9, 1992) was a United States Senator of the Democratic Party, and United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS). He represented Wyoming in the United States Senate from 1959 until 1977. To date, he remains the last Democrat to have represented Wyoming in the U.S. Senate.

Early life
McGee was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on March 17, 1915. He attended public schools, and had planned to study law in college, but was forced by the Great Depression to attend the State Teachers College in Wayne, Nebraska, instead. He graduated from the Teachers College in 1936, and worked as a high school teacher while studying for a master's degree in history at the University of Colorado. He continued as a college instructor at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Iowa State College, and Notre Dame. In 1946, McGee received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago.

University of Wyoming
Shortly after he received his Ph.D., McGee accepted a position as a professor of American history at the University of Wyoming. Soon after, he founded and served as chair of the University's Institute of International Affairs, which brought national dignitaries every summer through a Carnegie Foundation grant. Twenty-one teachers from Wyoming high schools were selected each summer to participate.  For the next 12 years, the Institute brought international foreign policy thinkers such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Hans Morgenthau, and Henry Kissinger.

In 1952, McGee took a one-year leave of absence from the University of Wyoming to serve as a Carnegie Research Fellow in New York with the Council on Foreign Relations, where he was assigned to research the mysteries of Soviet intentions.

In 1956, because of the connections he made during his Carnegie fellowship, McGee led a group of teachers on a trip to the Soviet Union; it was the first trip of its kind.

Political career

1958 election
Active in Democratic Party politics, McGee was asked to run for the United States Congress in 1950, but declined, saying he wanted to get more in touch with Wyoming and its people. In 1955–56 he took a leave of absence from the university to work as top aide to Wyoming Democratic Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney.

In 1958 McGee left the university to make his bid for the U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Frank A. Barrett. He ran on a program of youth and new ideas. The race between McGee and Barrett attracted the attention of national party leaders on both sides. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson of Texas, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, Senator-elect Edmund Muskie of Maine, Congressman Joseph M. Montoya of New Mexico, and former President Harry S. Truman came to the state to support McGee, whose campaign slogan was "McGee for Me!". Lyndon Johnson pledged that, if Wyoming sent McGee to Washington, he would appoint him to the prestigious Appropriations Committee. Eleanor Roosevelt even conducted a national fund-raising drive for him.  Barrett received assistance from national leaders as well, including Vice President Richard Nixon. McGee ultimately defeated Barrett by a margin of 1,913 votes out of a total of 116,230 votes cast in the election.

He won the majority of the votes in seven of the 23 counties. These were the southern "Union Pacific" counties (Albany, Carbon, Laramie, Sweetwater, Uinta) Platte, just north of Cheyenne, and Sheridan in the north. McGee won the endorsement of the Wyoming AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) and the labor vote played an important part in the election.

He became a member of the Democratic class of 1958, which was elected in the middle of President Eisenhower's second term.

First Senate term
After his victory McGee was appointed to the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee and Senate Majority Leader Johnson kept his promise and appointed him to the prestigious Appropriations Committee. McGee and his fellow Senate freshmen, Thomas J. Dodd and Robert C. Byrd, were the first freshmen ever to receive such an appointment.

The confirmation of Lewis Strauss (1959)
In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated Lewis Strauss to serve as Secretary of Commerce. Previously, Strauss had served in numerous government positions in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. At the time, the 13 previous nominees for this Cabinet position won Senate confirmation in an average of eight days. However, because of both personal and professional disagreements with Strauss, Senator Clinton Anderson took up the cause of making sure the Senate would not confirm him. Anderson found an ally in McGee on the Senate Commerce Committee, which had jurisdiction over Strauss' confirmation. During and after the Senate hearings, McGee charged Strauss with "a brazen attempt to hoodwink" the committee.
After 16 days of hearings the Committee recommended Strauss' confirmation to the full Senate by a vote of 9-8. In preparation for the floor debate on the nomination, the Democratic majority's main argument against the nomination was that Strauss' statements before the Committee were "sprinkled with half truths and even lies ... and that under rough and hostile questioning, [he] can be evasive and quibblesome."
Despite an overwhelming Democratic majority, the 86th United States Congress was not able to accomplish much of their agenda since President Eisenhower had immense popularity and a veto pen. With the 1960 elections nearing, congressional Democrats sought issues on which they could conspicuously oppose the Republican administration. The Strauss nomination proved tailor made.

On June 19, 1959 just after midnight, the Strauss nomination failed by a vote 46-49. At the time, It marked only the eighth time in U.S. history that a Cabinet appointee had failed to be confirmed.

1960 Democratic Convention

From Harper's Magazine:

CODEL to Africa
in the winter of 1960, McGee initially canceled his participation in a scheduled 32-day African fact-finding trip but reconsidered upon realizing Africa's significance to the incoming Kennedy administration. Joined by other Senators and President-elect Kennedy's younger brother Ted Kennedy, they embarked on the tour.

During the trip, they visited several African nations and witnessed the challenges of independence and the Cold War's influence. They met charismatic leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and encountered situations of political unrest, like witnessing the arrested Patrice Lumumba in the Congo.

The Senators witnessed the poverty and struggles faced by the people, but they also saw enthusiastic young revolutionaries eager to develop their countries. After their return, McGee met with President Kennedy and urged him to support the independence movements in Africa and distance the U.S. from colonial policies.

Relationship with President Kennedy
By nature of their service together in the Senate, Senator McGee continued to enjoy a good relationship with President Kennedy while in the White House.  President Kennedy provided a recorded tribute to Senator McGee for a dinner in the Senator's honor in Wyoming in July 1963.  President Kennedy referred to him as "an old friend", and "an asset and a leader in this country."

As part of a nationwide tour in September 1963, President Kennedy made a stop in Cheyenne, and then boarded a smaller plane for the flight to Laramie. Senator McGee, as is protocol for a United States Senator, escorted the President in his travels throughout Wyoming. In a video of the President's tour (at the 4 minute, 50 second mark), Senator McGee can be seen disembarking with President Kennedy upon arrival in Laramie. President Kennedy then delivered remarks at the University of Wyoming.

Rise of the John Birch Society
As Bircher influence grew in Wyoming in the 1960s, McGee emerged as a prominent national figure challenging the John Birch Society. The media, impressed by his speeches, began scrutinizing Founder Robert Welch and his tactics. McGee's appearance on a combative talk show, "Open End," further fueled the debate.  He criticized the JBS founder on the Senate floor and warned about their infiltration into communities.

Bircher followers disrupted events, and the society advertised aggressively in Wyoming, dominating local radio.  McGee actively engaged in debates with Birchers, intentionally putting himself in their crosshairs. Despite facing threats and violence, he continued his fight against right-wing extremism.

McGee cautioned President Kennedy not to deal with the extremists prematurely, believing it could be a winning issue for 1964. He warned about the appeal of the extreme right-wing ideology to the population in the West.

Food Marketing Study (Public Law 88-354)
McGee expressed concerns for Wyoming cattlemen, farmers, and consumers due to falling cattle prices and record-high food prices driven by large national grocers. He believed that chain stores were monopolizing the food distribution market and engaging in unfair practices at the expense of the western communities.

In 1963, McGee proposed legislation authorizing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the practices of large chain stores for possible violations of antitrust laws.  The Senate Commerce Committee held hearings on the proposal, during which witnesses testified about the intimidating tactics used by the chains.

President Johnson endorsed the proposal but preferred to create a bipartisan commission to study the changes in the food industry.  The final commission report, issued in June 1966 after an 18-month investigation, failed to address antitrust violations directly. Instead, it pointed to various factors, including promotions and amenities, for rising consumer prices. However, the report did express concerns about the concentration of the food industry in the hands of a few corporations and recommended increased scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions. The commission also suggested "group marketing" through Agricultural Marketing Boards to empower farmers and ranchers in their marketing efforts.

1963 railroad strike
In 1963, Congress acted for the first time in peacetime to impose compulsory arbitration in a major labor dispute. President Kennedy sent Congress a bill to submit a dispute over the railroads' attempts to eliminate "featherbedding" to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was to impose an interim solution binding on the parties for two years.

During Congressional consideration of the President's legislation, McGee offered an amendment to remove these less controversial questions from arbitration and make the Senate bill conform with the House bill, thereby expediting passage to avoid the strike.  Congress on cleared the bill on August 28, 1963 that created a seven-member board to arbitrate the major issues in the dispute and prohibited the railroads from issuing "anti-featherbedding" rules. The arbitrated settlement was imposed for two years, and no strikes or lockouts were allowed during that time. The President signed the bill into law (PL 88-108) six hours before the strike was to begin on August 29, 1963.

1964 election
In the historically Republican state of Wyoming, the 1964 election proved exceptional as Democrats nearly matched Republicans in financing and ran a highly effective campaign. Despite being the only incumbent above the county level, McGee was re-elected, and Democrats also gained control of the state House of Representatives and secured the single seat in the United States House of Representatives.

The shift in Wyoming's political behavior was not solely due to President Johnson's landslide victory. Two years prior, Wyoming Republicans focused on defeating Senator McGee and overlooked other races. Their preoccupation with McGee's defeat weakened their overall campaign. In contrast, McGee's strategy concentrated on discrediting the Wyoming Republican party and its actions, such as the passage of a right-to-work law, supporting a Court of the Union, repealing the income tax law, and aligning with Barry Goldwater, which led to the party's defeat.

Organized labor played a significant role in the election, working closely with effective Democratic county organizations to help Senator McGee secure a significant plurality. Media, especially television, also played a major role in the campaign, with McGee using a documentary and effective advertising to his advantage.

The election also saw increasing political self-consciousness among minority ethnic groups, such as the Native American vote in Fremont County. City voting patterns showed increasing Democratic margins, hinting at a potential shift in traditional Republican control.

Second Senate term
He strongly supported President Lyndon B. Johnson's views on the Vietnam War.  On March 6, 1965, CBS News aired an hour-long TV special titled "Vietnam: Hawks and the Doves" that featured a debate between McGee and Senator George McGovern for the full hour. It was moderated by Charles Collingwood.  Hanson Baldwin of the New York Times and former Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (1963–64) Roger Hilsman also participated.  During the debate, McGee called for "planned escalation;" Baldwin contemplated massive bombing campaign and a naval blockade of North Vietnam.  It appeared that Hilsman agreed that troops should be sent, but didn't think it would make a difference.  McGovern was all alone in arguing against military intervention.  At the conclusion on the debate, Collingwood summarized that McGee was a "hawk" on Vietnam, McGovern a "dove" and Hilsman was a "chicken hawk."

Also that year, after over 10 years as a member of the Appropriations Committee, McGee was named chairman of the Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee.

In March 1966, McGee was appointed to the Foreign Relations Committee where he would serve until 1967 and then was reappointed in 1969 and served until he left the Senate.  He believed in the policy of containing communism, and his pro-military views were accented by his firm support for foreign aid.  Johnson strongly considered appointing Senator McGee to be Ambassador to the UN after the resignation of Arthur Goldberg.

In 1968, McGee wrote The Responsibilities of World Power, which warned against isolationism and urged the United States to accept its power and position imposed upon it in the aftermath of World War II. The book further argued that the U.S. had a responsibility to be a Pacific power, to act as a counterweight to China, and to support free nations in their efforts to remain nonaligned or western allies but not to fall into the Communist fold. The work was nominated for a Woodrow Wilson Foundation award.

  In 1969, McGee became chairman of the Post Office and Civil Service Committee.  As chair this Committee, he fought for greater equity in pay and benefits for those federal workers.  He was also directly involved in the passage of the Postal Reorganization Act which was influenced by the U.S. postal strike of 1970, the largest wildcat strike in history.  The Act abolished the then United States Post Office Department, which was a part of the cabinet, and created the United States Postal Service, a corporation-like independent agency with an official monopoly on the delivery of mail in the United States.

1970 election
McGee's bid for reelection in 1970 was targeted by Republicans as one of the top seven races in the country.  Republican leaders recruited Congressman John Wold to again take on McGee, despite Wold being defeated by McGee in the 1964 election.

McGee faced a primary challenger for the Democratic nomination because of McGee's support for continued military action in Vietnam.  McGee won nomination overwhelmingly by 24,508 votes.

McGee again promoted his seniority in the Senate and his committee assignments (Appropriations, Foreign Relations, and Post Office and Civil Service) that benefited the State.  To charges that he was a big spender of federal monies, he pointed out that he helped bring over $349 million in federal aid to Wyoming in the previous year and that if that was big spending he was "for it."

Vice President Spiro Agnew supported Wold's campaign but never specifically mentioned McGee by name. The Denver Post chided the Vice President for speaking against McGee considering it was McGee who helped Nixon solve a major postal strike and continued to support military action in Vietnam.  The same newspaper reported that in 1969, McGee voted with the Nixon Administration 69 percent of the time and 24 percent against, while Wold only supported the Administration on issues 49 percent of the time, and opposed 28 percent.

McGee won re-election receiving 67,207 votes to Wold's 53,279.  McGee won eleven of the 23 counties he picked up in 1964 but added for others and increased his margin of victory in Natrona County, Wyoming – a moderately strong Republican county and Wold's home base.  McGee continued to have strong support of organized labor, carrying big margins in the southern "Union Pacific" counties.

Third Senate term
In his third term he continued to be a leading member of the committees on which he served. He was Chairman of Western Hemisphere Affairs subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee.

McGee was a voice of moderation in the affairs of the Watergate scandal and the impeachment proceedings of President Richard Nixon. Against the wishes of many of his constituents, McGee stood on principle and fought hard for positions unpopular in Wyoming in support of gas rationing and the 55-mile per hour speed limit in the era of the first Arab oil embargoes.

"Champion" of Congressional recess
In 1965, Senator McGee began calling for a mandated August recess for Congress. It was not until 1969 that his idea gained enough support amongst his colleagues that they gave it a test run - the Senate recessed from August 13 to September 3.  Finally, on August 6, 1971, as mandated by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970, the Senate began its first official August recess.

Clear Cutting of Timber
During the 92nd Congress, McGee pushed vigorously for the implementation of his bill which would impose a two-year moratorium on clearcutting of timber on public lands until a study of the practice could be conducted by an independent commission. Clearcutting is a timber harvest method whereby all trees and the undergrowth in a given area are completely destroyed. Al- though McGee did not obtain passage of his bill, it was on the basis of his legislation that the Senate Interior Subcommittee on Public Lands demanded that the U.S. Forest Service stop permitting the timber industry to clear-cut at will in the National Forests. McGee has termed the recent action by the Senate Interior Subcommittee on Public Lands as "but one more step toward the establishment of a national policy setting down guidelines restricting the use of clearcutting as an accept- able timber harvest practice when such use would be detrimental to the environment, recreation, wildlife, and other concerns.

Protection of bald and golden eagles
In his third Senate term, McGee gave up the gavel of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee to become Chairman of Agriculture, Environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriations Subcommittee.  He would remain Chairman of that subcommittee until he left the Senate.  At an August 1971 hearing held by McGee's subcommittee, a Wyoming helicopter pilot testified that sheep ranchers paid him to fly near eagles which they killed with shotguns. About 500 bald eagles were destroyed in this manner, the pilot said.  The Wyoming Woolgrowers Association had claimed that 8,000 lambs were lost to eagles annually, and the group's president declared he had seen eagles kill grown sheep and antelope.  Conservationists disputed the figures and said that eagles seldom touched lambs unless they were already dead. A University of Montana study of prey items collected from 40 golden eagle nests over a three-year period found evidence of only one dead lamb and one dead sheep, with no proof they had been killed by eagles.  In October 1972, Congress approved legislation strengthening the penalties imposed for violations of Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940.

Voter registration by mail
In 1972, McGee introduced S. 352, which would allow eligible voters to register by mail in federal elections. The bill would establish a new Voter Registration Administration as part of the U.S. Census Bureau to administer the registration program. Under the procedure, postcard forms would be mailed to all postal addresses and residences, and the cards would have to be returned to local registration agents no later than 30 days before a federal election. Processing of the forms would be paid for by the Voter Registration Administration. McGee believed and argued that existing methods discouraged registration citing the fact that 62 million people did not vote in 1972 election, nearly half of all Americans eligible to vote.

Opponents believed that the proposal would destroy the two-party system, lead to increased fraud, and cost too much to implement. The Nixon administration formally opposed the bill citing the potential for fraud and cost but McGee's committee reported the bill with only Hiram Fong, the Committee's ranking Republican member, opposing. During floor debate In spring 1973, the bill was filibustered for almost a month.  The 13th successful cloture vote since in the Senate came after two earlier attempts to terminate a four-week filibuster on the voter registration bill (S 352) failed. Had the May 9 vote also fallen short, McGee had warned opponents of S. 352 during floor debate that there would have been another cloture vote, and "if necessary there'll be another and another and another."

The nearly 100 per cent attendance for the May 9 vote, plus three switches in favor of cloture on the third try, gave the cloture motion the necessary two-thirds vote. John C. Stennis (D Miss.) was the only senator to miss the vote. Earlier efforts to shut off the talkathon on the bill failed by two and three votes, respectively. The April 30 vote was 56-31; the May 3 vote was 60-34. On May 9, cloture succeeded by a one-vote margin, 67-32.  Two Republicans and one Democrat switched from opposition to support for cloture on the May 9 67-32 vote. The Republicans were Robert T. Stafford (Vt.) and Milton R. Young (N.D.); both had voted against cloture on the two previous cloture motions. The Democrat was Russell B. Long (La.), who opposed cloture on the May 3 vote. In addition, supporters of cloture gained four of five new votes of members who did not vote May 3: Alan Bible (D Nev.), Mark O. Hatfield (R Ore.), Joseph M. Montoya (D N.M.) and William B. Saxbe (R Ohio). John Sparkman (D Ala.), one of the other two members (along with Stennis) who did not vote May 3, cast the only additional vote against cloture.  Final passage of S. 352 was successful on May 9, 1973 by a vote of 57-32.

The legislation died after the House failed to take action on the bill.

27th U.N. General Assembly (1972)
A long-time supporter of the United Nations, McGee was appointed by President Richard Nixon to a four-member congressional delegation to represent the United States at the United Nations' 27th General Assembly in 1972.  His chief assignment at the Assembly was to get the United Nations members to agree to lower the U.S.'s share annual dues  from 31 percent to 25 percent - a difference of $13 million.  Both the House and Senate had already passed measures to limit the United States' contribution to the U.N.  But each country's share is ultimately decided by a majority of the 130 member nations.  Through the efforts of McGee, along with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. George Bush, the U.N. assembly approved the reduction, with 80 nations voting to support the resolution.

Candidate for Director of Central Intelligence (CIA)
A July 10, 1975 memo from then White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld to President Gerald Ford listed McGee as one of many potential candidates to be Director of Central Intelligence.  Rumsfeld listed "pros and cons" of each candidate (including George Bush, Lee Iacocca, and Byron White and others).  The memo thought McGee was a strong defender of the intelligence community, respected within the foreign affairs community, and well-regarded for his independence.   On November 4, 1975, William Colby was replaced as CIA Director by George Bush in a major shakeup of President Ford's administration termed the Halloween Massacre.

1976 election
In his 1976 bid for a fourth term, McGee was defeated by Republican challenger Malcolm Wallop, who ran an expensive television advertising campaign attacking McGee for, among other positions, his opposition to state right-to-work laws, and problems with the U.S. Postal Service, based on McGee's chairmanship of the U.S. Senate committee overseeing the Postal Service.  The margin of defeat was almost ten percentage points.

McGee-authored Legislation (or Legislation including McGee-authored provisions) Signed into Law
April 29, 1960 -  Public Law (P.L.) 86-444: To revise the boundaries and change the name of the Fort Laramie National Monument, Wyoming to the Fort Laramie National Historic Site.  Expanded the Fort Laramie National Historic Site to 563 acres.

May 5, 1960 -  P.L. 86-448: To permit the Secretary of the Interior to continue to deliver water to lands in the Third Division, Riverton Federal reclamation project.

May 6, 1960 -  P.L. 86-450: To place in trust status certain lands on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming

August 17, 1961 -  P.L. 87-151 to provide for the disposal of certain Federal property on the Minidoka project, Idaho; Shoshone project, Wyoming; and Yakima project, Washington.

August 30, 1961 -  P.L. 87-175 authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to exchange certain lands in the State of Wyoming with the town of Afton, Wyoming Land was to be used for municipal park.

March 20, 1962 -  P.L. 87-422 authorize and direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey to the State of Wyoming for agricultural purposes certain real property in Sweetwater County, Wyoming.  McGee introduced the Senate companion legislation, S. 875.  The law transferred farmland located near Farson, Wyoming from the USDA to the State of Wyoming.  Land was used for demonstration of livestock and crop methods in areas of high altitude and short grazing seasons

June 8, 1962 -  P.L. 87-479: to Authorize continued delivery of water for the years 1962 and 1963 to land of the third division, Riverton Federal reclamation project, Wyoming.

July 2, 1962 -  P.L. 87-516: To adjust certain irrigation charges against non-Indian-owned lands within the Wind River irrigation project, Wyoming. McGee introduced the Senate companion legislation, S. 536.

April 18, 1963 -  P.L. 88-10 to permit the Secretary of the Interior to continue to deliver water to lands in the third division, Riverton Reclamation Project, Wyoming

March 26, 1964 -  P.L. 88-291 to defer certain operation and maintenance charges of the Eden Valley Irrigation and Drainage District.

July 2, 1964 -  P.L. 88-354 To establish a National Commission on Food Marketing to study the food industry from the producer to the consumer.  It authorized the Federal Trade Commission to conduct an investigation of purchasing, processing, marketing and pricing practices of large chain stores to determine whether there may have been any violation of antitrust laws. Special emphasis was to be given to why a sharp drop in meat producers' income since January 1963 had not been reflected in consumer prices, which had generally remained level since a rise in 1962.

August 26, 1964 -  P.L. 88-494 to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to relinquish to the State of Wyoming jurisdiction over those lands within the Medicine Bow National Forest known as the Pole Mountain District

August 30, 1964 -  P.L. 88-507 Fiscal Year 1965 Independent Offices Appropriations Act.  McGee secured over $5 million for construction of the Post office and Federal Building in Casper, Wyoming.  In 1998, Congress designated the building as the Dick Cheney Federal Building, as part of the FY1999 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations bill (P.L. 105-277).

September 2, 1964 -  P.L. 88-568 To provide for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the Savery-Pot Hook, Bostwick Park, and Fruitland Mesa participating reclamation projects under the Colorado River Storage Project Act.

March 8, 1966 -  P.L. 89-364 to cancel any unpaid reimbursable construction costs of the Wind River Indian irrigation project, Wyoming, chargeable against certain non Indian lands

October 16, 1966 -  P.L. 89-664 to provide for the establishment of the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, and for other purposes;

November 5, 1966 -  P.L. 89-760 to provide for reimbursement to the State of Wyoming for improvements made on certain lands in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, if and when such lands revert to the United States.  Law provided $25,000 (equivalent to almost $220,000 in 2022 dollars) to reimburse Wyoming for improvements made to the Farson Pilot Farm

November 5, 1966 -  P.L. 89-763 to amend the act approved March 18, 1950, providing for the construction of airports in or in close proximity to national parks, national monuments, and national recreation areas, and for other purposes.  Law provided $1.5 million (equivalent to almost $13.1 million in 2022 dollars) for the Jackson Hole Airport

April 13, 1966 -  P.L. 89-387, the Uniform Time Act, to make uniform dates for daylight savings time

May 24, 1968 -  P.L. 90-317 to place in trust status certain lands on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming

October 1, 1968 -  P.L. 90-540 to establish the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in the States of Utah and Wyoming, and for other purposes.

December 30, 1969 -  P.L. 91-187 To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide for additional positions in grades GS-16. GS-17, and GS-18. These were eliminated under the provisions of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and replaced by the Senior Executive Service.

April 15, 1970 -  P.L. 91-231 to increase the pay of Federal employees

August 12, 1970 -  P.L. 91-375, Postal Reorganization Act, to improve and modernize the postal service, to reorganize the Post Office Department, and for other purposes.

September 25, 1970 -  P.L. 91-409 to reauthorize the Riverton extension unit, Missouri River Basin project, to include therein the entire Riverton Federal reclamation project

September 25, 1970 -  P.L. 91-418 to provide that the Federal Government shall pay one-half of the cost of health insurance for Federal employees and annuitants.  Altered the determination of the government's share of premiums by creating the "big six" formula, calculated separately for individual and family plans Set the government's share at 40% of the simple average of premiums for the six health plans.

October 26, 1970 -  P.L. 91-510, The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970.  Sec. 132(a) Provided for a set Congressional recess during the summer, long championed by McGee.

March 9, 1972 -  P.L. 92-243 to amend chapter 83 of title 5, United States Code, relating to adopted child

October 9, 1972 -  P.L. 92-476 to designate the Stratified Primitive Area as a part of the Washakie Wilderness,
heretofore known as the South Absaroka Wilderness, Shoshone National Forest, in the State of Wyoming, and for other purposes. The law set aside 208,000 acres of wilderness for protection under the National Wilderness Preservation Act.  It also designated a 30,000-acre tract in the upper drainage of DuNoir Creek as a special management area to be studied for 5 years.

October 23, 1972 -  P.L. 92-537 to establish the Fossil Butte National Monument in the State of Wyoming.  Fossil Butte National Monument preserves the best paleontological record of Cenozoic aquatic communities in North America and possibly the world.

July 23, 1974 -  P.L. 93-354, National Diabetes Mellitus Research and Education Act, to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for greater and more effective efforts in research and public education with regard to diabetes mellitus.  The Act established the National Commission on Diabetes. This group established the first long-term plan to address diabetes prevention and treatment in the US, leading to improved funding for related research, treatment programs, and eventually the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP).  This commission's recommendations resulted in federal policies that addressed the US diabetes epidemic.

United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States
After his defeat by Malcolm Wallop, McGee was nominated by President Jimmy Carter as United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States.  After approval by the Senate, he was sworn in on March 30, 1977 at a ceremony in the Roosevelt Room in the White House by Judge John Sirica.  His former colleague from the U.S. Senate, Vice President Walter Mondale, was in attendance as were former U.S. secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and William P. Rogers, former United States Ambassador to South Vietnam Ellsworth Bunker, Under Secretary of State Warren Christopher, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and senators John Sparkman and William Fulbright.

During his tenure, McGee headed the U.S. delegation to four OAS assemblies and lobbied for the successful approval of the 1978 Panama Canal Treaty.

Life after public service
- In 1981, McGee formed Gale W. McGee Associates, a consulting firm specializing in international and public affairs activities. The firm offered a broad range of political and economic services to both domestic and international companies with a special emphasis on developing new business opportunities with the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean. He was also president of the consulting firm of Moss, McGee, Bradley, Kelly & Foley, which was created with former U.S. Senator Frank Moss.  McGee later served as president of the American League for Exports and Security Assistance, Inc. in 1986. He was a senior consultant at Hill & Knowlton, Inc. from 1987 to 1989.

- In 1985, Secretary of State George Shultz asked McGee to serve on a panel headed by Robert D. Ray to review U.S. policy towards Indochinese refugees. In the wake of the 1975 collapse of the South Vietnamese government, more than 1.6 million Indochinese people had become refugees.  The panel issued recommendations in 1986.

The Papers of Gale McGee are available to researchers at the The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. Collection includes digital materials relating to McGee's career as a U.S. Senator, his work at the University of Wyoming and the Organization of American States, and his post public service and personal life.

Personal life
McGee married Loraine Baker in 1939 and together they had four children: David, Robert, Mary Gale and Lori Ann. Senator McGee died on April 9, 1992, in Washington, D.C. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Posthumous recognition

Congressional
In January 2007, the Wyoming congressional delegation introduced federal legislation (H.R. 335, S. 219) to rename the U.S. Post Office in Laramie, Wyoming as the "Gale W. McGee Post Office." The United States House of Representatives passed the legislation by voice vote on January 29, 2007. The United States Senate passed the legislation by Unanimous consent on February 7, 2007. The President signed the bill into law on March 7, 2007.

Biography
In 2018, Potomac Books/Nebraska press published McGee's biography, The Man in the Arena: The Life and Times of U.S. Senator Gale McGee written by Rodger McDaniel.  The book won Best Nonfiction Book of the Year from the Wyoming State Historical Society

Movie Portrayal
McGee was portrayed by Harry Groener in the 2023 film Oppenheimer.

References

External links

1915 births
1992 deaths
Wyoming Democrats
Permanent Representatives of the United States to the Organization of American States
Democratic Party United States senators from Wyoming
University of Wyoming faculty
Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
20th-century American politicians

Gale W. McGee


Eastern State Hospital, located in Lexington, Kentucky, is the second oldest Psychiatric Hospital in the United States. It operates today as a psychiatric hospital with 239 beds providing inpatient care. Eastern State Hospital is owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, operated by the University of Kentucky's UK HealthCare and falls under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

The facility has been known as:
Fayette Hospital (1817–1822),

Lunatic Asylum (1822–1844),

The Kentucky Lunatic Asylum (1844–1849),

Lunatic Asylum of Kentucky (1850–1852),

The Lunatic Asylum (1850–1852),

The Eastern Lunatic Asylum (1852–1855),

The Eastern Lunatic Asylum of Kentucky (1855–1858),

The Kentucky Eastern Lunatic Asylum (1858–1864),

Eastern Lunatic Asylum (1864–1867),

The Kentucky Eastern Lunatic Asylum (1867–1873),

The First Kentucky Lunatic Asylum (1873–1876),

Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum (1876–1894),

Eastern Kentucky Asylum for the Insane (1894–1912),

Eastern State Hospital (from 1912 onwards).

History

From 1792 until 1824, the mentally troubled residents of Kentucky were boarded out with individuals at public expense. A few were sent to Eastern State Hospital at Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1816, a group of public-spirited citizens in Lexington, banded together to establish a hospital called the Fayette Hospital. It was established to help the poor, disabled and "lunatic" members of society. A building's construction was initiated, and in 1817 Henry Clay gave an oration at the dedicatory ceremony; however, the building was never finished or occupied. On December 7, 1822, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky passed the Act to Establish a Lunatic Asylum. Ten acres of land, along with the unfinished building of the Fayette Hospital, was purchased and the hospital was established. The first patient was admitted May 1, 1824.

Samuel Theobald, M.D., a physician on the hospital staff, and a member of the faculty of Transylvania University Medical School in Lexington, wrote a dissertation in 1828 arguing that the goal of the hospital was "the custodial care of the insane and the protection of society. Most of the lunatics admitted were incurable cases, as non-violent insane were to be maintained in private homes, being sent to the hospital when no longer tame enough to be kept at home…" In these early years, even the custodial treatment was less than ideal and barely met the minimal needs of the residents. There was no medical staff directly associated with the hospital at this time. Any severe medical problems were treated by physicians in the community, or by faculty and students of Transylvania College School of Medicine. In 1844, Eastern State Hospital welcomed its first medical superintendent, John Rowan Allen, M.D.: Eastern State Hospital has been under a full-time director ever since. With this change began an era of "moral treatment" during which the hospital staff strove to treat the residents humanely. "Moral treatment" meant compassionate and understanding treatment. Dorothea Dix, one of America's great philanthropists interested in the better treatment of the insane, visited the hospital in 1847, and again in 1858. Restraints including straitjackets, leather cuffs, chains, etc. were originally used and were accepted treatment for the mentally ill. Beginning with Dr. Allen's administration, the use of such measures was largely eliminated.

Following the discontinuance of Transylvania University Medical School around the end of the Civil War, the hospital's fortunes declined. The patient population increased, there was much over-crowding, and the use of restraints was re-activated. During the late 1800s and the early 1900s, modes of treatment often changed, usually as a direct reflection of the degree of interest and support provided by the public. In general, hospital staff attempted to give the best treatment possible with the current knowledge and with the resources made available by the public. In its first years, because of it being the only facility of its kind in the area, Eastern State Hospital admitted people from all over Kentucky and from nearby states. The census of the hospital has varied over the years.

Throughout the years, deletions, improvements, and additions have been made in the physical facilities and in the treatment programs. Metrazol-shock therapy and electric shock therapy were introduced in the 1940s. Metrazol-shock was used for a very short period. In the early 1950s, insulin therapy was used. In 1954, when tranquilizing drugs (used in conjunction with other therapies) were introduced, there was a decrease in insulin therapy; and by 1957, it was discontinued.

In 1945, the hospital was very crowded with a population of 2,000; as late as 1967, there were over 1,000 residents. Eastern State Hospital was an isolated institution, separate from the surrounding community. Many employees lived on the grounds in cottages, dormitories, separate rooms in the main hospital building, or with the residents. Residents did most of the work required to operate the hospital. Among the many jobs they performed were farm work; grounds and building maintenance; custodial work; cooking, serving, and dishwashing; laundry, sewing, and mending service. The hospital grew and prepared most of its foodstuffs on the hospital grounds. At one time, Eastern State Hospital grounds consisted of 400 acres, and most of this acreage was farmland. In 1956, over 300 acres were sold to IBM; at present, 88 acres make up the Eastern State Hospital grounds.

Then, in 1993, the non-profit organization Bluegrass Regional Mental Health-Mental Retardation Board, Inc. became concerned about the possible closing of the hospital. Many states had implemented health care reform that included cost containment and/or cost reduction features that were realized by rapid closing of inpatient facilities. It appeared that Kentucky could soon be faced with too few inpatient options and limited alternatives to inpatient care. Bluegrass Regional MH-MR pursued the possibility of taking over management of the hospital. Planning sessions with consumers and family members, community members, staff, state officials and other concerned parties provided information that was integral to the development of a hospital management plan.

In September 1995, Bluegrass Regional MH-MR took over management of Eastern State Hospital under a contract with the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Negotiations had taken nearly two years and implementation occurred in just over two months.

In 2013, Representative Jimmy Lee, D-Elizabethtown, a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives who was integrally involved with the new hospital, said the House of Representatives thought Bluegrass Regional needed help because of the expanded services offered by the hospital by bringing in UK Healthcare to operate the facility. On September 13, 2013, Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Audrey Tayse Haynes revealed that UK Healthcare signed a letter of intent to operate the hospital under a new $43 million contract with the Cabinet. Governor Steve Beshear approved the contract in later in 2013.

Location
There were three main buildings where the treatment units were located on the former campus: The Main Building (a section of which is the original building; the remainder was built between 1835 and 1870); the Wendell Building, which was occupied in 1953; and the Allen Building, occupied in 1957. When it was first established, the name of the hospital was the Lunatic Asylum. In 1876, it was called Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum. On January 2, 1912, the General Assembly, Commonwealth of Kentucky, officially renamed the facility Eastern State Hospital. During the 1960s there was a growth of the community mental health system throughout Kentucky until there was a center in most counties. These centers treated many people as outpatients thereby reducing the number of persons needing admission to an inpatient facility. In 1970, Kentucky state mental institutions converted to the geographic unit system. In the past, hospital residents had been placed according to their problem or diagnosis. Under the geographic unit system, residents were placed onwards according to the geographic area of the state from which they came. This facilitated hospital and comprehensive care staff communication. In 1975, the hospital was again reorganized into treatment services based on patient need.

On September 10, 2013, the hospital moved to its new facility. Under contract with the University of Kentucky's UK HealthCare, Eastern State has built a $129 million facility in which they will now house their patients (roughly 250–300). The facility is one large building with three large, three-story towers, named after the old buildings from the 4th Street campus (Gragg, Allen, and Wendell). Most of the original buildings were demolished by December 2013. All that remains are the administration and laundry buildings despite preservation attempts.

Cemetery
Patients who were unknown, had families unable to pay to have their relative brought home, or patients who went unclaimed were buried on the hospital property from 1824 until 1954. The cemeteries were moved at least twice to the current location behind the Hope Center in 1984. The state acknowledges about 4,400 remains in the cemetery, but the number might be higher. The number of unmarked graves on the property is unknown. As work progresses on the property, any remains found there will be re-interred at this cemetery.

See also
 Albert B. Chandler Hospital
 Commonwealth of Kentucky

References

External links
 Historic Information with photos
 Eastern State Hospital Cemetery at Find a Grave
 Eastern State Hospital's history at Kentucky Historical Institutions

Hospital buildings completed in 1817
National Register of Historic Places in Lexington, Kentucky
Psychiatric hospitals in Kentucky
Teaching hospitals in Kentucky
Buildings at the University of Kentucky
1817 establishments in Kentucky
Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky

Eastern State Hospital (Kentucky)


William Kenzo Nakamura (January 21, 1922-July 4, 1944)  was a United States Army soldier. He received the Medal of Honor because of his actions in World War II.

Early life
Nakamura was born in Seattle to Japanese immigrant parents. He is a Nisei, which means that he is a second generation Japanese-American.

His family was interned in Minidoka in Idaho during World War II.

Soldier
Nakamura joined the US Army in July 1943.

Nakamura volunteered to be part of the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team.  This army unit was mostly made up of Japanese Americans from Hawaii and the mainland.

For his actions in July 1944, Nakamura  was awarded the Army's second-highest decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC).  In the 1990s, there was a review of service records of Asian Americans who received the DSC during World War II.  Nakamura's award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. In a ceremony at the White House on June 21, 2000, his family was presented with his medal by President Bill Clinton. Twenty-one other Asian Americans also received the medal during the ceremony, but only seven of them were still alive.

Medal of Honor citation
Nakamura's Medal of Honor recognized his conduct in frontline fighting in central Italy in 1944.  He silenced a machine gun nest and he stayed behind to provide covering fire as his unit withdrew.

The words of Nakamura's citation explain:
Private First Class William K. Nakamura distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 4 July 1944, near Castellina, Italy. During a fierce firefight, Private First Class Nakamura's platoon became pinned down by enemy machine gun fire from a concealed position. On his own initiative, Private First Class Nakamura crawled 20 yards toward the hostile nest with fire from the enemy machine gun barely missing him. Reaching a point 15 yards from the position, he quickly raised himself to a kneeling position and threw four hand grenades, killing or wounding at least three of the enemy soldiers. The enemy weapon silenced, Private First Class Nakamura crawled back to his platoon, which was able to continue its advance as a result of his courageous action. Later, his company was ordered to withdraw from the crest of a hill so that a mortar barrage could be placed on the ridge. On his own initiative, Private First Class Nakamura remained in position to cover his comrades' withdrawal. While moving toward the safety of a wooded draw, his platoon became pinned down by deadly machine gun fire. Crawling to a point from which he could fire on the enemy position, Private First Class Nakamura quickly and accurately fired his weapon to pin down the enemy machine gunners. His platoon was then able to withdraw to safety without further casualties. Private First Class Nakamura was killed during this heroic stand. Private First Class Nakamura's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

Nakesake
Nakamura is the namesake of the William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse in Seattle.

Related pages
 List of Medal of Honor recipients for World War II
 List of Asian American Medal of Honor recipients
 Posthumous recognition

References

Other websites
 "Army Secretary Lionizes 22 World War II Heroes" at Defense.gov

1922 births
1944 deaths
People from Seattle
United States Army Medal of Honor recipients
American people of World War II
Military people from Washington (state)

William Nakamura


The dorsal raphe nucleus is one of the raphe nuclei. It is situated in the brainstem at the midline. It has rostral and caudal subdivisions:
 The rostral aspect of the dorsal raphe is further divided into interfascicular, ventral, ventrolateral and dorsal subnuclei.
 The projections of the dorsal raphe have been found to vary topographically, and thus the subnuclei differ in their projections.

Anatomy

Efferents
The DRN issues serotonergic efferents to the hippocampal formation, limbic lobe, and amygdala (these efferents are involved in regulation of memory processing).

Neurophysiology

Serotonergic neurotransmission
The dorsal raphe is the largest serotonergic nucleus and provides a substantial proportion of the serotonin innervation to the forebrain.

Serotonergic neurons are found throughout the dorsal raphe nucleus and tend to be larger than other cells.  A substantial population of cells synthesizing substance P are found in the rostral aspects, many of these co-express serotonin and substance P.  There is also a population of catecholamine synthesizing neurons in the rostral dorsal raphe, and these cells appear to be relatively large.

The dorsal raphe nucleus is rich in pre-synaptic serotonin 5-HT1A autoreceptors, and it's believed that the action of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in this region is responsible for the latency of their antidepressant effect.

Research

Naloxone-induced morphine withdrawal
The dorsal raphe nucleus has also been implicated in naloxone-induced morphine withdrawal. It is known that endogenous opioid receptors exist on the dorsal raphe nucleus, and that it is a focal point as an ascending and descending regulator. Pourshanazari et al. showed in their 2000 paper that electrical stimulation of the dorsal raphe nucleus can partially alleviate morphine withdrawal symptoms via electrical stimulation of the raphe nucleus in question.

These are fascinating results; however no control was provided for the spread of electrical charge to other parts of the brain stem. It is quite possible that the charge spread to the nucleus raphes magnus and induced analgesia upon the rats. Knowing that the spread of charge across such a short area is very plausible, as is an alternate connection to the raphe magnus, these results could be called into question.

Narcolepsy
Wu M.F. et al. studied the dorsal raphe nucleus as it pertained to narcolepsy. This is logical, as the raphe nuclei have been known to play a role in the sleep/wake cycle. Cataplexy is the symptom of narcolepsy when full awareness of the environment is maintained, but all muscle tone is lost. This has thought to be a dissociation of what normally happens during REM sleep, when all muscle tone is lost except for the eyes. The dorsal raphe nucleus has been known to project to the lateral hypothalamus, along with the locus coeruleus and the tuberomammillary nucleus. The neurotransmitters of these three aforementioned nuclei, which project to the lateral hypothalamus, are serotonin, norepinephrine and histamine respectively. These neurotransmitters are fully active during waking hours, partially active during non-REM sleep, and have almost ceased during REM sleep. In cats with pontine lesions, their normal atonia is not present, the dorsal raphe nucleus is fully active, as opposed to the cessation of action under normal conditions. A muscle relaxant, known as Mephenesin, reduces activity of the dorsal nucleus, as well as microinjections of carbachol (which induces atonia while awake).

Depression and suicide
The rostral raphe nuclei, both the median raphe nucleus and particularly the dorsal raphe nucleus have long been implicated in depression. Some studies have suggested that the dorsal raphe may be decreased in size in people with depression and, paradoxically, an increased cell density in those who die by suicide.

Other animals
An increased number of cells in the lateral aspects of the dorsal raphe is characteristic of primates (including humans).

Rat

Research
Ten percent of the axons from the dorsal raphe nucleus of the rat have been shown to project to the amygdala, while only medium cells seem to project to the caudate and putamen and olfactory bulb.

See also
 Raphe nuclei

References

External links
 NIF Search - Dorsal Raphe Nucleus via the Neuroscience Information Framework

Brainstem nuclei
Serotonin

Dorsal raphe nucleus


Wiesbaden Ost (east) station is situated on the Frankfurt–Wiesbaden line (line number 3603; timetable section 645.1) in the German state of Hesse. It was opened as part of the Taunus Railway, which was opened in 1839/40. The station was opened as part of the last stage of construction of the line to Wiesbaden and was opened on 19 May 1840.

History

Originally the station was called "Biebrich Curve" and it was later called "Biebrich Ost". After the incorporation of Biebrich into Wiesbaden, "Wiesbaden" was added to its name in 1927, but "Biebrich" was deleted in 1934 and only "Ost" was maintained in the station name. This led to a geographically incorrect name as the station is located in the south of Wiesbaden.

On 3 August 1840, a 1.5 kilometre spur line was opened that branched off from here to the Biebrich Rhine station in Biebrich to connect the Taunus Railway with the free port on the Rhine. The Sackbahnhof (sack station) on the Rhine shore was in the immediate vicinity of Nassau's main customs office and from 1839 allowed the immediate clearance of goods transported from Höchst am Main (the temporary rail head on the Taunus Railway) to Biebrich through customs for shipping on the Rhine. This led to a dispute in 1841 with the neighbouring Grand Duchy of Hesse (including an incident called the Nebeljungenstreich—fog prank—when Mainz merchants sabotaged the port at Biebrich), as Mainz was at a disadvantage because it lacked of a direct rail connection to Frankfurt. The railway was horse-drawn until 1872 and shut down in 1907. Part of the line is used as a siding.

From 18 September 1862 there was a connection from Curve station to the Nassau Rhine Railway of the Nassau Rhine Railway Company (Nassauische Rhein Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft), which since 1856 had run down the Rhine through the Rheingau and later connected to Oberlahnstein and Bad Ems.

The neo-baroque entrance building that was built in 1906 is now privately owned.

Igelstein connecting curve
The northwestern part of the station connects to the East Rhine Railway, which has very heavy freight train traffic. These trains run through Wiesbaden Ost on the western side of the platforms and connect to the southern tracks of the Taunus Railway towards Mainz-Kastel. The section between Wiesbaden Ost and Kostheim junction is characterized by chronic congestion, since in addition to Rhine-Main S-Bahn lines S 1 and S 9, Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund line 10 runs to Frankfurt Central Station. To eliminate this bottleneck, a single-track connecting curve from the former Igelstein junction on the Mainz freight bypass to the East Rhine Railway has been under construction since early 2011 under the "seaport hinterland transport emergency program" (Sofortprogramms Seehafenhinterlandverkehr). According to the tender, this involves a 1,200 m long single-track connection, including two ground frames. The curve allows all freight trains through the district of Mainz-Kastel to run via the bypass, avoiding conflict with regional passenger services. Although, for reasons of capacity, not all freight transport will be able to use both the connecting curve and the freight bypass, a marked decrease in the current potential for conflict between freight and passenger traffic is expected. Only S-Bahn S 9 line will in future run between Kostheim junction and Mainz-Bischofsheim station, sharing the line over Kostheim bridge with freight trains.

At the beginning of 2011, decontamination began on soil in the area of the junction to Kaiser Bridge. Around this football field-sized area there was formerly a works for producing coal gas. The primary measures include the replacement and disposal of soil contaminated with chlorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Work on this has been largely completed by the end of the summer of 2011. The remediation of groundwater will still take several years to complete. After the completion of all work the area will be landscaped and serve as an ecological compensation area for the area taken for Igelstein curve.

As a further preparatory action, a set of points was installed in October 2011 to give freight trains access in the future to the connecting curve. The construction of the actual curve has been postponed for an indefinite time. Although the construction of the line has a valid planning approval, it is not clear when this work will be undertaken.

Operations

The station formerly had a freight yard with a small hump, but it had an unfavourable layout. The passenger station is a stop for the S-Bahn lines S1, S8 and S9 of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (Rhine-Main Transport Association, RMV). The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station. The station would be involved in the proposed Wiesbaden Stadtbahn, which is still in the planning stage.

Buses
The following lines of ESWE and MVG serve the station: 6, 6A, 33, 33B, 39.

Notes

References

Rhine-Main S-Bahn stations
Railway stations in Wiesbaden
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1840

Wiesbaden Ost station