Elifaz () is a kibbutz in the Arava valley, near Eilat, in the far south of Israel. It is under the jurisdiction of the Hevel Eilot Regional Council. In  it had a population of .

History
Elifaz was founded in January 1983 by a group of Nahal members from Jerusalem, Bat Yam, Haifa and Nahariya. The kibbutz is affiliated with the Kibbutz HaArtzi movement. The name "Elifaz" was inspired by  Eliphaz in the Book of Job (f.e. Job 2:11). In the Negev there are also kibbutzim with the names of the two other "friends" of Job; former Mahane Bildad, since 2001 named Tzukim, and Tzofar.

In 2012 it became the first kibbutz in Israel to accept Druze residents; Haza and Nibal Tafesh were unanimously approved as full-fledged members, making them the first Druze in Israel to join a kibbutz.

In 2014, the solar energy developer Arava Power Company inaugurated six solar fields in the Arava and Negev, generating a total of 36 megawatts of electricity. One of these solar fields is in Kibbutz Elifaz.

See also
Solar energy in Israel

References

External links
Official website

Kibbutzim
Kibbutz Movement
Nahal settlements
Populated places established in 1983
Populated places in Southern District (Israel)
1983 establishments in Israel


Kevin McKay (born 1966) is a self-taught Australian artist whose skills attracted a great deal of early attention. Pictured below are some of his rare early paintings.  "Lazarus" and "Feiheit" are three dimensional paintings.

McKay won his first major art prize when he was just 15 - the prize was presented by artist Clifton Pugh.  In 1985, at age 19, he won the International Youth Art Prize for his naïve work "A New Beginning", a modern interpretation of Noah's Ark. The prize was presented by Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who was so impressed with the work that he used it for the Hawke family Christmas cards.

References

Australian painters
1966 births
Living people


Steve Mason is an American broadcast personality based in Southern California since 1992. He is co-host with John Ireland of the "Mason and Ireland" weekday show on ESPN Los Angeles 710 KSPN and previously hosted the pregame show for the stations broadcasts of the Los Angeles Lakers team until 2010.

Mason's career began on WGOR radio based in Toledo, Ohio. He first moved to Los Angeles to present in 1992, before moving to present The Late Late Radio Show between 1996 and 1998. Since then, Mason has been heavily involved in sports talk shows in Southern California, best known for his work alongside John Ireland.

He is also a regular contributor on Good Day L.A. on FOX 11 in Los Angeles.

Early life
Mason was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania and raised in Maumee, Ohio. He graduated from Maumee High School in 1983 chosen as "Most Likely to Succeed" by his friends on the yearbook staff (there was no actual student vote). In 1982, he was chosen as the outstanding high school student in the state of Ohio and was awarded a full academic scholarship to Bowling Green University, where he was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. In 1986, he was elected to the National Board of Directors for Sigma Phi Epsilon, serving a one-year term. He graduated from BGSU with honors in 1987.

Career
Mason's radio career started while he was still in high school, presenting a 5-minute sportscast on WGOR radio based in Toledo, Ohio. The sportscast ran for around 2 years, before Mason secured an overnight deejay slot on WRQN-FM, 93.5. After impressing in the role, Mason was promoted to the morning drive show, "Mason & Pam" with Pam Gilbert. By 1988, Pam Gilbert was replaced to become "Mason & Diane."

The morning radio show became one of the best-known in Ohio state, eventually becoming Steve Mason's Morning Zoo. While presenting the morning show, he interviewed the likes of Jay Leno, Cher and President Jimmy Carter. After graduating from Bowling Green University, Mason spent a year working in film production. He returned to presenting in 1988, with the morning show regaining first position as the most successful morning show in Ohio. WRQN's parent company, ABS Communications, Inc. then hired Mason aged 33 as its vice president.

In 1992, Mason moved to Southern California where be began working at XTRA 690 in San Diego. It was in San Diego that he first teamed with John Ireland, a San Diego television sports reporter, in what eventually became The Big Show with Mason & Ireland.  The show ran for over five years and for a time also aired on Fox Sports West cable television.

Between 1996 and 1998, Mason co-hosted The Late Late Radio Show with Tom Snyder and Steve Mason for the CBS Radio network. The success of The Late Late Show, led Mason to be a candidate for Later on NBC.

After co-hosting The Late Late Radio Show, it was announced that Mason would be moving to New York City to become the morning talk show host at WNEW. While presenting at WNEW, there were discussions about changing the format from solely music, to a talk radio format. He and Sue Kolinsky were co-talk show hosts of the morning show on WNEW at the time, meaning Mason frequently appeared in the NYC press in 1999 to discuss the fate of the radio network. By June 1999, WNEW had dramatically changed its format across most shows, with Mason and Kolinsky playing a major role in the stations transition with their "Anti-Show". Now rebranded FM Talk@102.7, the NY Post reported that Mason and Kolinsky "given free rein in the all-talk format — have created a comfortable on-air chemistry from 6 to 10 a.m. with their Anti-Show."

In 2000, Mason teamed up with Jim Lampley on the Fox Sports Radio Network ("We Are There with Steve Mason & Jim Lampley). The show ran until 2003. In 2003, Mason and Ireland would re-team in The Big Show with Mason & Ireland, now in Los Angeles for the local ESPN radio outlet, AM710 KSPN. Until late 2007, they had the weekday afternoon 4-7pm drive time slot. In November 2007, in a shuffling of on air talent, Ireland was let go by the station, and Mason was moved to his present 1 to 4pm early afternoon shift. ESPN announced in 2007 that Mason would be filling in for talk show host Dan Patrick, while he was away from work. In 2006 and 2008, Mason was anchor for the coverage of the Winter and Summer Olympics.

In 2008, it was announced that Mason and John Ireland would be reuniting to present a few show in June of that year. The show would remain on ESPN radio, where they previously worked together between 2003 and 2007. By 2009, ESPN 710 stated they had listening figures of around half a million people, but that was expected to grow after ESPN announced they would be broadcasting live LA Lakers games. Mason and Ireland in the 11am to 3pm slot would then focus on Southern Californian sport, but a large chunk of the talk show at the time was taken up by Lakers fans.

With the success of his ESPN radio talk show, Mason began to appear on TV on a more regular basis. Between 2012 and 2014, he was a regular sports guest on Good Day L.A..

The Mason & Ireland show won the Southern California Broadcasters award in 2015, for the best sports talk show in the region. They retained the award a year later, winning it again in 2017. In 2016, he appeared on Westwood One radio, commentating on the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Steve Mason gained critical acclaim for his work in sports broadcasting when he said,  "five words....I believe in Mark Sanchez" on ESPN'S flagship show First Take. Sanchez and the Jets would eventually fall apart later that season, capped off by the infamous butt fumble. Steve Mason continues broadcasting and has been subsequently re-invited to host ESPN'S First Take.

Other ventures
Mason served as an announcer for two Olympics, as part of NBC television's coverage of the Olympics. During the 2002 Winter Olympics he commentated on both bobsledding and ski jumping events. He returned to commentating two years later for the 2004 Summer Olympics, as commentator for shooting events.

As part of his 50th birthday celebrations, Mason took part in the 2015 Indy car series, Grand Prix of Long Beach.

In recent years, Mason has appeared, written and directed a number of films. His first was in 2009, where he wrote, directed and performed in the film, Little Devil. He produced and co-starred in It's Over in 2010, followed by co-starring in Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus in the same year.

Cinema ventures
Between 1995 and 2015, Mason owned 3 movie theatres in the state of California. Between 1996 and 1998, Mason owned a movie theatre in Saipan. From 2003 onwards, Mason was part owner of the Cinemas Palme d'Or brand, along with actor Bryan Cranston. The brand ran a number of specialist theatres in the Los Angeles area.

In 2006, the cinema brand began an antitrust lawsuit against Cinemark. They believed that the third largest cinema company in the United States was making deals with distributors making it impossible for smaller theatres to compete. Cranston and Mason continued to pursue the antitrust lawsuit against Cinemark. In May 2016, a court of appeals reinstated the antitrust lawsuit, which opened up the opportunity for the case to be heard in front of a jury.

In 2016, it was announced that a lawsuit with a major cineplex firm meant that the company could no longer operate, with the cinemas closing their doors on June 30, 2016. The issue arose when the indie cinema group couldn't secure deals to show major titles, accusing Cinemark of circuit dealing and securing films and an uncompetitive rate. This was one major case in an ongoing battle between individual/small cinema groups and large cinema groups in the United States. The ownership of the indie cinemas was taken up on July 1, 2016 to rescue the cinema.

As part of his interest in cinema and films, Mason set up a venture in predicting box office revenues and incomes. He ran the blog, Fantasy Moguls, which is modeled on fantasy football prediction leagues.

Personal life
In March 2016, Mason announced that he was gay, while on-air at ESPN radio. Mason and his co-talk show host John Ireland were in the middle of a segment of the show, when Mason mentioned his orientation in passing. It was stated after the event that many people close to Mason knew he was gay. During an interview, he stated having numerous discussions with his boss about talking about it on air. Mason stated in an interview that the delay in making the announcement was due to his worry that being gay might have damaged his career, but hoped it would allow professional athletes to be open about their sexuality.

References

External links
 Mason and Ireland on KSPN homepage
 Steve Mason's homepage

American sports radio personalities
Living people
Bowling Green State University alumni
1955 births
People from Altoona, Pennsylvania
People from Maumee, Ohio


Alianza F.C. has had a total of  50 coaches in its history.

The first coach was  Gregorio Bundio, who he was at the club from 1959 until 1960.

The majority of coaches Alianza have had have been Salvadorians. Of the 50 coaches to have managed Alianza, 19 have been Salvadorians and 31 foreigners.  In some cases, the Salvadorian coaches have been former players of the club that agreed to take charge after the sacking of the regular coach that season.

The main nationalities of the coaches of Alianza barring Salvadorians have been Uruguayan (8 coaches), Argentina (8 coaches), and Chilean (4).  The club has also had two Serbian coaches, 2 Brazilians, 2 Colombians, a Mexican, an Italian, a Paraguayan, and a Spanish.

Managers
Only first-team competitive matches are counted.
Statistics are updated up to 19 November 2022.

Table key

List of Head Coaches of Alianza F.C. from when the club was formed:

By number of trophies
Only managers who have won at least one trophy are mentioned.

Alianza F.C.


Wallgrove Army Base was an Australian Army camp and base at Wallgrove, (renamed Eastern Creek), New South Wales, Australia.

The camp was utilised as a staging and training area during World War II.

After World War II, the camp was utilised as an army wireless chain and as a migrant hostel.

Wallgrove Army Base was on the site of the now defunct amusement park called Wonderland Sydney. The site has recently been redeveloped to build an industrial park. Eastern Creek Raceway, the M4 Motorway and the M7 Motorway have also been built on or near the site.

Australian Army units based at the Wallgrove Army Base

21st Light Horse Regiment – 1940
2/19th Battalion – July 1940
3rd Infantry Battalion – December  1940
9th Australian Division – February 1943
53rd Anti-Aircraft (Composite) Regiment – August 1943
2/25th Australian Infantry Battalion – April 1944
2/31st Australian Infantry Battalion – April 1944
6th Machine Gun Battalion

Post-war, the 176 Air Dispatch Company was based there.
5 Signal Regt. 610 Sig troop transmitting station 1960?–1977 then RAAF

References
 Pacific War Wreck Database
 OzatWar website

Military history of Sydney during World War II
Migrant hostels in Australia


The NOFV-Oberliga Nord is the fifth tier of the German football league system in the northern states of the former East Germany and West Berlin. It covers the German states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and northern Saxony-Anhalt. It is one of fourteen Oberligas in German football. Until the introduction of the 3. Liga in 2008 it was the fourth tier of the league system, and until the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 the third tier.

Overview
The NOFV-Oberliga Nord was formed in 1991 when, along with the political reunification of Germany, the former East German football league system was integrated into the unified German one.

The abbreviation NOFV stands for Nordostdeutscher Fußballverband, meaning North East German Football Association.

Along with this league, two other NOFV-Oberligas were formed, the NOFV-Oberliga Mitte and the NOFV-Oberliga Süd.

The league was formed from clubs from five different leagues: Three clubs from the Oberliga Nordost, the former DDR-Oberliga, eight clubs from the NOFV-Liga, the former East German second division, one club from the Bezirksliga Schwerin, one of the regional leagues of the old East German third league level, one from the Verbandsliga Brandenburg, a new league, and six clubs from the Amateur-Oberliga Berlin, the West German third division for the city of Berlin. The league accommodated therefore a wide mix of clubs from the east and west of Germany. With the FC Berlin, the former BFC Dynamo, and Vorwärts Frankfurt, it held two former East German champions as well. It was also the first time since 1950 that clubs from eastern and western Berlin played in the same league.

The league became one of the then ten Oberligas in the united Germany, the third tier of league football. Its champion was however not directly promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga but had to take part in a promotion play-off. In 1993 the league champion was successful in this competition, in 1992 and 1994 they failed.

For the duration of the league and onwards, the leagues below it are:

 Berlin-Liga
 Brandenburg-Liga
 Verbandsliga Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
 Verbandsliga Sachsen-Anhalt (northern clubs only, since 1994)

In 1994, the German football league system saw some major changes. The four Regionalligen were introduced as an intermediate level between the 2nd Bundesliga and Oberligen, relegating the Oberligen to fourth tier from now on. In the east of Germany, the Regionalliga Nordost was formed, a league covering the area of former East Germany and western Berlin. Six clubs from the NOFV-Oberliga Nord were admitted to the new league:

 BSV Brandenburg, now FC Stahl Brandenburg
 Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl
 Reinickendorfer Füchse
 Berliner FC Dynamo
 Spandauer SV
 FSV Optik Rathenow

The NOFV-Oberliga Mitte was disbanded and its clubs spread between the two remaining Oberligas in the east. Five clubs from the former league were added to the NOFV-Oberliga Nord, three of them from Berlin and two from the northern part of Saxony-Anhalt. The league now became the only Oberliga with clubs from Berlin.

From 1995 to 1999, the champions of the league were directly promoted to the Regionalliga Nordost. In 1997 and 1999, the runners-up were eligible for promotion too.

With the reduction of the number of Regionalligen to two, the league came under the Regionalliga Nord. Five clubs were relegated that season from the now disbanded Regionalliga Nordost. The regulations about promotion kept on changing and until 2006, the league champion had to play-off with the champion of the southern league for one promotion spot. Only in 2004 did the northern champion come out as a winner of this contest. From the 2006 season onwards, direct promotion was awarded again.

The league changes in 2008 with the introduction of the 3rd Liga meant the Oberligen was now the fifth tier of league football in Germany. The top three teams of the league in 2007–08 gained entry to the Regionalliga, the fourth placed team had to play-off against the fourth placed team from the south for one more spot, these clubs being:

 Hertha BSC II
 Hansa Rostock II
 Türkiyemspor Berlin
 Greifswalder SV qualified for play-offs

Otherwise, the setup of the league did not change and its champion was directly promoted from the 2008–09 season onwards.

Another league reform, decided upon in 2010, saw the reestablishment of the Regionalliga Nordost from 2012 onwards, with the two NOFV-Oberligas feeding into this league again. With the league champions, F.C. Hansa Rostock II being ineligible for promotion TSG Neustrelitz, FSV Optik Rathenow and 1. FC Union Berlin II were directly promoted to the new Regionalliga while Torgelower SV Greif achieved promotion through a play-off round.

Founding members of the league
The founding members of the league in 1991 were:

From the Oberliga Nordost:
 Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl
 FC Berlin, renamed Berliner FC Dynamo
 FC Vorwärts Frankfurt/Oder, now 1. FC Frankfurt

From the Verbandsliga Brandenburg:
 FSV PCK Schwedt, later 1. FC Schwedt, disbanded in 1996, reformed as FC Schwedt
From the Bezirksliga Schwerin:
 Blau-Weiß Parchim, now SC Parchim

From the Amateur-Oberliga Berlin:
 Tennis Borussia Berlin
 Spandauer SV, now defunct
 Reinickendorfer Füchse
 Spandauer BC
 Wacker 04 Berlin, now defunct
 BFC Preussen

From the NOFV-Liga Staffel A:
 Greifswalder SC, went bankrupt, reformed as Greifswalder SV
 Bergmann-Borsig Berlin, joined SV Preußen Berlin
 Motor Eberswalde, now Preussen Eberswalde
 MSV Post Neubrandenburg, now 1. FC Neubrandenburg 04
 Stahl Hennigsdorf, now FC 98 Hennigsdorf
 Rot-Weiß Prenzlau, defunct
 Hafen Rostock

Champions of the NOFV-Oberliga Nord
The league champions:

 Because the 2010-11 champions and runners-up declined promotion to the Regionalliga, the third placed Berliner AK 07 were promoted instead.

Placings in the league
The complete list of clubs in the league and their final placings:

Key

Notes
 1 In 1999 Spandauer SV withdrew from the Regionalliga to the Verbandsliga.
 2 In 2001 Tennis Borussia Berlin II had to withdraw from the league because of the first team's relegation.
 3 In 2007 FC Schönberg 95 withdrew from the league.
 4 During the 2007–08 season SV Yeşilyurt withdrew its team and merged with Berliner AK.
 5 During the 1997–98 season FSV Velten declared insolvency and folded.
 6 FC Viktoria 1889 Berlin was formed in 2013 from a merger of BFC Viktoria 1889 and Lichterfelder FC.
 7 At the end of the 2013–14 season VSG Altglienicke withdrew from the league.
 8 At the end of the 2011–12 and 2016–17 seasons SV Germania Schöneiche withdrew from the league.
 9 At the end of the 2014–15 season SV Waren 09 and FC Pommern Greifswald both withdrew from the Oberliga while 1. FC Union Berlin II was withdrawn from competitive league football altogether.
 10 1. FC Frankfurt was formed in 2012 from a merger of Frankfurter FC Viktoria and MSV Eintracht Frankfurt.
 11 Greifswalder FC was formed in 2015 from a merger of Greifswalder SV 04 and FC Pommern Greifswald.
 12 At the end of the 2018–19 season SV Altlüdersdorf withdrew from the league.
 13 At the end of the 2020–21 season FC Strausberg withdrew from the league.
 14 At the end of the 2021–22 season Torgelower FC Greif withdrew from the league.

References

Sources
 Kicker Almanach,  The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937. Kicker Sports Magazine.
 Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik 1945-2005  History of German football from 1945 to 2005 in tables. DSFS. 2006.

External links
 Weltfussball.de Round-by-round results and tables of the NOFV-Oberliga Nord from 1994 onwards
 NOFV-Oberliga Nord at fussballdaten.de
 Nordostdeutscher Fußballverband (NOFV)

NOFV-Oberliga
Oberliga (football)
Football competitions in Berlin
Football competitions in Brandenburg
Football competitions in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Football competitions in Saxony-Anhalt
1991 establishments in Germany
Sports leagues established in 1991


1 of the Girls  was a Cleveland-based R&B group discovered by Gerald Levert. The group's self-titled album was released in 1993, and featured the single "Do da What", which only achieved moderate success. Another single, "Handle with Care" as also released from that album.

1 of the Girls group member Nina Creque appeared on 8Ball & MJG's Gold release single "Space Age Pimpin'" and "Love Hurts" and she also appeared on "Running out of Bud" with Dave Tolliver of Men at Large. Ra-Deon Kirkland appeared on Walter Beasley's single "Don't Say Goodnight" on his album For Her. She is also a featured soloist with Pastor Ron Williams and Voices of Koinonia, appearing on multiple albums, some as Ra-Deon Sledge. Singles include "They that Trust" on Straight out of Zion and "I Love the Name" on Straight out of Zion, Vol. II: Churchin' at the Tabernacle. Marvelous Miles currently works in television production, working behind the scenes on series produced by VH1 and Bravo! networks.

Nina Creque, died in February 2019 from an "undisclosed illness" .

Members

 Nina Creque (the daughter of jazz musician Neal Creque)
 LaShawn Sykes
 Marvelous Miles
 Ra-Deon Kirkland

Albums

 Name: 1 of the Girls (1993)

 Tracks:
Ain't Giving Up Nothing	4:30
Do da What	5:11
Talkin' Loud	4:02
No Can Do	3:47
Handle with Care	5:11
Sorry Didn't Do It	6:41
Gotta Go	4:43
When We Kiss	4:54
Giving the Best of My Love	5:48
Will You Be Mine	5:19
I Don't Want Your Man	4:12

 Extra credits:

Singles

References

American contemporary R&B musical groups
American girl groups


The Independent Soldiers (otherwise known as the IS gang) is an organized crime group based in British Columbia, Canada that is engaged in organized crime across the nation and in Canadian prisons.

Origins
The Independent Soldiers are a gang, that was said to have been formed by a group of Indo-Canadians from South Vancouver and Metro Vancouver municipalities. ". They had come together during the 1990s under the name "Sunset Boys". The Sunset Boys were a group of mostly Indo-Canadians whose favorite meeting was the Sunset Community Centre and Sunset Park. One of the founding members of the Sunset Boys who later became the leader of the Independent Soldiers was Randy Naicker.

The gang were initially petty criminals, but started to work for the Punjabi Mafia in the 1990s as street level drug dealers. As the group chose to assert its independence after the murder of Bindy Johal in 1998, the name Independent Soldiers was chosen as a way to emphasis their independence from the Punjabi Mafia. Like most gangs in the Lower Mainland, the members of the Independent Soldiers came mostly from middle-class families, which was not the norm with the rest of Canada. The colors of the Independent Soldiers are red and black. Members of the gang wear red and black clothing in public together the initials I.S. stamped on their jackets and baseball hats. Naicker founded the Independent Soldier clothing brand in 2004. Naicker, an Indo-Fijian immigrant always insisted that the Independent Soldiers were just a clothing line he had started and he had nothing to do with crime.

Rise to prominence
The Canadian scholar Mark Totten wrote the Independent Soldiers gang were typical of the gangs in the Lower Mainland which started out as an ethnocentric gang and became more diverse with the passage of time. Totten wrote the Independent Soldiers were mostly a single-generational gang, were not especially territorial and did not have the elaborate rituals that other gangs had. Totten wrote the Independent Soldiers were a mid-level gang in the Lower Mainland, and together with the Red Scorpions and the United Nations gangs are one of the largest gangs in the Vancouver area. Totten noted the Independent Soldiers were an unstable gang with a "fluid" membership and frequent leadership changes. The gang is organized in cells and primarily sells cocaine.

By the early 2000s, the favorite meeting place for the leaders of the Independent Soldiers were the Loft Six nightclub in Gastown. On 16 August 2003, the Independent Soldiers in the Loft Six nightclub were involved in a shoot-out with the Hells Angels on the dance floor sparked by the presence of John "JJ" Johnson, a man associated with the Hells Angels who had beaten up an Independent Soldier earlier that year. One witness recalled: "A fight broke out, and all of the sudden bullets started flying. We just ran. We were right in the line of fire. We couldn't see anybody; we didn't know who was shooting, and people began crawling over top of each other to get out of the way". When the shoot-out was over, 3 people had been killed and 8 were wounded. Johnson was killed alongside Mahmound Alkhalil of the Independent Soldiers and Jon Popovich, the DJ at the club who was killed in the crossfire. The Independent Soldier Gerpal Singh "Paul" Dosanjh, the first cousin to the Dosanjh brothers, was shot in the head, but survived his wound, albeit with serious brain damage. Dosanjh was murdered in March 2004 while eating at the Gourmet Castle Restaurant in Vancouver.

Hells Angels puppet gang
After the Loft Six incident, many of the original members of the gang ended leaving the gang as it was felt to be too dangerous. The new members who joined the gang were much willing to work for the Hells Angels and the journalist Jerry Langton wrote "...the Independent Soldiers steadily became less and less independent". At the same time, the Independent Soldiers became more multi-ethnic with the influx of new members. The Independent Soldiers were reduced down to being a puppet gang for the Hells Angels. Randy Naicker was one of the pro-Angel leaders of the Independent Soldiers and emerged as a major force within the gang by 2005.

When a puppet gang for the Hells Angels in Prince George known as "the Crew" were broken up by police arrests, the Hells Angels had the Independent Soldiers establish a chapter in Prince George as the replacement puppet gang for "the Crew". The Prince George chapter of the IS were made up of mostly white or First Nations people. The Independent Soldier chapter in Prince George came to dominate the drug trade in that city alongside the Renegades who were also "Hells Angels flunkies", which led to a rivalry with the Game Tight Soldiers. The Game Tight Soldiers disbanded with some joining the Renegades with the rest moving to Winnipeg to join the Rock Machine.

The first leader of the gang, Sukhvinder Singh Dosanjh, was killed in an automobile accident in 2005. By 2005, the IS were operating across British Columbia and Alberta. The IS was mainly made up of Punjabi-Canadians but over the years they became more multicultural and accepted other ethnicities in the lower ranks as the Independent Soldiers.

In January 2005, Randy Naicker along with Harpreet Narwal, Roman Narwal and Sarpreet Johal had kidnapped and beat Harpreet Singh after he refused to pay extortion money to the Independent Soldiers. On 7 December 2006, Naicker together with Independent Soldier Barry Espadilla were arrested attending a gang meeting at the Castle Fun Park in Abbotsford after a passer-by noticed one of the men had a handgun on him. Also arrested at the Castle Fun Park meeting that evening were Jamie Bacon along with Anton Hooites-Meursing, Justin Prince, Dennis Karbovanec, and Jeff Harvey of the Red Scorpions. The Castle Fun Park meeting was a part of a take-over of the Red Scorpions by the Hells Angels with Bacon acting as their proxy. Langton wrote the Independent Soldiers were "...a gang that had once been all Indian Canadian, but had since become just another Hells Angel puppet club". Both Naicker and Espadilla were representing the Angels at the Castle Fun Park meeting.

Gang war
On 9 August 2007, the Fortune Happiness Restaurant in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Vancouver was the scene of a shooting. Two masked gunmen stormed into the Fortune Happiness and opened fire on a group eating at a table. Two men were killed while six were wounded. The well known gangster Hung Van "Sonny" Bui took six bullets in his chest, but survived his wounds. The attack is believed to have been the work of the Independent Soldiers. As the Hells Angels took control the Independent Soldiers, two members, namely Michael Justin Lal and his brother Corey Jason Lal, both left the Independent Soldiers to found their own gang, the Lal crew. The Lal crew were wiped out in the Surrey Six massacre of October 2007.

On 15 April 2008, Joseph "J Money" Krantz, the owner and manager of World Extreme Fighting Club, was arrested by the police. Found inside of his home were 4.5 ounces of cocaine, 2 ounces of heroin, 8.7 ounces of crack, a .380 handgun, a 9mm handgun plus clothing and paraphernalia bearing the logos of the Independent Soldiers and the Hells Angels. It was later confirmed that Krantz was a member of the Independent Soldiers and that his World Extreme Fighting Club was popular with the Independent Soldiers. On 20 October 2008, Krantz was locking the doors of his Extreme Fighting Club in Abbotsford at about 9 pm when he was shot dead. It is believed he was killed out of the fear that he might make a plea bargain with the Crown for a reduced sentence in exchange for testifying against his suppliers. During the ensuring gang war for control of the drug trade in the Lower Mainland, the Independent Soldiers served as proxies for the Hells Angels.

On 6 August 2008, a shooting took place on Upland street in Prince George with a man, known as W.B. due to a court order, being seriously injured. Arrested and charged for the shooting were three Independent Soldiers, namely Jesse Bird, Eric West and Fabian Charlie while another three Independent Soldiers were arrested, but not charged. The fact that the three were who not charged were all white while the three who were charged were all First Nations people became the object of some dispute in the Prince George media. Two of the witnesses to the shooting, Garret McComb and his girlfriend, Brittany Giese, were found murdered inside their house on 7 October 2008, being shot several times. In October 2009, Justice Karen Walker dismissed the charges against West, Bird and Charlie after W.B. refused to testify while she found that the Crown's sole remaining witness to be unreliable.

The leader of the Independent Soldiers, Parminder Singh "Peter" Adiwal was shot several times and badly wounded in an attack by a member of the Red Scorpions gang in April 2009 that left him a paraplegic. In April 2009, Naicker became the new leader of the Independent Soldiers. While in jail following his arrest at the Castle Fun Park meeting, he had a member of the United Nations gang beaten in his cell block. Following his conviction for the assault and kidnapping of Harpreet "Happy" Singh in 2005, Naicker was sentenced to a prison term. Naicker admitted while applying for parole that he was the man behind the Independent Soldiers clothing brand, but he denied being a gangster, saying that his business had been "ruined" when Independent Soldiers gangsters starting wearing his branded clothing without his permission. Naicker was able to make day parole, but the parole board did not accept his claim his claim to be an innocent businessman who was only guilty of only making clothing popular with gangsters, denying him full parole. While Naicker was living at a half-way house in Vancouver as part of his day parole, two armed men burst into the house on 29 September 2009 and stated that they were looking for Naicker who just left accordingly to the sign-out book for a local convenience store. The clerk had mistaken Naicker for Raj Soomel. The two gunmen raced over to the convenience store and shot Soomel dead out of the belief that he was Naicker.

Ken Yaretz was a drug dealer in Kamloops who during a police stop in August 2008 had been found inside of the car of Jayme Russell, the president of the Kamloops chapter of the Independent Soldiers. Yaretz together with his best friend Damien Marks had just moved into a new basement apartment when both men went missing on 17 April 2009. In May 2009, the corpses of Marks and Yaretz were found buried on the house at Knouff Lake owned by Roy Fraser. It was stated by locals that it was "common knowledge" that Fraser was a drug dealer whose remote house had a marijuana grow-opt owned by the Hells Angels. Fraser was charged with murder, but fled while on bail. Brittney Irving of Kelowna was a 24-year old healthcare professional who was addicted to Oxycontin. To pay for her addiction, she worked as a marijuana dealer for both the local chapters of the Independent Soldiers and the Hells Angels. On 6 April 2010, she went to meet an Independent Soldier drug dealer, Joelon "Joey" Verma and vanished. Her corpse was discovered by the police on 25 May 2010. During the police investigation of Irving's murder, Verma rammed a gun into the belly of another man, Mike Roberts, and told him: "You have to take the fall for this [Irving murder]...If you don’t I have no choice but to kill you, your wife, your children and your grandchildren. I’m sorry, that’s just how we do business." Verma was charged with her murder. On 17 October 2013, Verma was convicted of Irving's murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison with no chance of parole. Verma broke down in tears as the guilty verdict was announced in the courtroom.

After Russell was arrested, the new president of the Independent Soldier Kamloops chapter was Jeffery Oldford. Oldford had been convicted of theft in April 2010 while also facing charges of sexual assault laid in December 2010 and another for trafficking in April 2011. On 5 August 2011, a group of men armed with guns and baseball bats broke into the house of a small-time drug dealer Steve Bodie. Bodie was robbed and beaten bloody with the bones in his chest, hands and fingers all being broken. Bodie was dumped by a highway in the Rocky Mountains and finally had one of his hands run over by a truck. After Bodie went to a farmhouse to report the attack, the police entered Bodie's house and found two Independent Soldiers looking for drugs. The police charged Oldford together with Adam Colligen, Brett Haynes, Greg Brotzel and David Byford of the Independent Soldiers' Kamloops chapter.

The Wolfpack Alliance
In 2010, Naicker together with another Independent Soldier, James Riarch, became a founding member of the Wolfpack Alliance alongside Larry Amero of the Hells Angels and Jonathan Bacon of the Red Scorpions. On 16 October 2010, Gurmit Singh Dhak, the co-boss of the Dhak-Duhre group was murdered with his corpse being found in his BMW automobile in the parking lot of the Metrotown Mall in Burnaby. The cause of Dhak's death was being shot in the face. Kim Bolan, the crime correspondent of The Vancouver Sun newspaper wrote in 2018: "Dhak’s execution was the flashpoint for a near decade-long war that has raged across the province and left many dead and wounded in its wake. Few of those behind the violence have been held to account."

Suhhveer "Sukh" Dhak, the younger brother of Gurmit, believed that the Wolfpack gang and that Amero and Bacon in particular were the ones responsible for his brother's murder. Amero had called a summit of the Wolfpack leaders at the Grand Delta Okanagan Resort and Hotel in Kelowna for the weekend of 13–14 August 2011 that was attended by Bacon and Riarch. Amero, Bacon and Riach had a brunch at the Grand Delta on 14 August and had decided to leave via Amero's Porsche. Amero was driving with Bacon besides him in the passenger seat and Riach in a rear seat together with two women Leach Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black. At about 2: 45 pm on 14 August 2011, Amero's Porsche Cayenne was leaving the parking lot of the Delta Grand Hotel, when a group of four masked gunmen opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles. The gunmen fired at least 30 shots into the Cayenne, killing Bacon, wounding Amero, and leaving a 21-year waitress, Leah Hadden-Watts, a quadriplegic as she took a bullet straight through her neck, severing her spinal cord. Black took two bullets through both her thighs, but unlike Hadden-Watts, she was able to walk again. Riarch fled from the scene, bleeding and in panic. Riarch ended up going to the Philippines under the grounds that Canada was too dangerous for him. Despite fleeing Canada, Riarch was promoted up from the Independent Soldiers to join the Hells Angels.

On 17 January 2012, Sandip "Dip" Duhre, the co-boss of the Dhak-Duhre group was shot dead while leaving a Vancouver hotel in a revenge attack for the Delta Grand Hotel incident. Two hitmen from the Dhak-Duhre organization were able to enter the underground parking lot of the apartment complex that Naicker lived via an access fob and placed a GPS tracking device on the bottom of Naicker's car.  On 25 June 2012, Naicker was shot dead outside of a Starbucks in Port Moody. His killers were from the rival Dhak-Duhre group who following him via the GPS device and were waiting for a moment to get a clear shot at him. As Naicker left the Starbucks, the killers who were waiting outside shot him dead and then jumped into a SUV parked outside of the Starbucks to flee the scene.  On 19 November 2012, Suhhveer "Sukh" Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel were murdered in Vancouver.

In January 2014, Riarch was arrested in the Philippines on charges of smuggling drugs into the Philippines from Mexico. An Independent Soldier and Wolfpack member, Sukhvir Singh Deo moved to Toronto to escape the hitmen of the Dhak-Duhre group, but remained active in smuggling cocaine, causing tensions with the Musitano family of Hamilton, who saw him as an intruding on their own territory. In March 2014, Deo was arrested for smuggling cocaine, but was able to post bail. After posting bail, Deo went into hiding. On 23 May 2016, Deo made the news when he was attended a Toronto Raptors basketball game and started to abuse the referees for supposedly favoring the Cleveland Cavaliers so violently that he was ejected from the Rogers Center. Deo's abuse of the referees led to several YouTube videos being made about him as an example of an obnoxious Toronto Raptors fan. On 7 June 2016, Deo was murdered in Toronto by two killers disguised as construction workers. Deo had parked his automobile in the alley known locally as Cowbell Lane at the corner of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue and seemed to be waiting for someone. Two men dressed as construction workers appeared to be deep in conversation as they walked down Cowbell Lane and then suddenly opened fire on Deo, putting 14 bullets into him. It is believed that the YouTube videos and news clips had drawn the attention of Deo's enemies. It remains unclear if his murder was work of the Musitano family or the Dhak-Duhre group. Deo's murder made the headlines of newspapers in his native India with The Times of India for example making his murder frontpage news under the headline "A Gangster and a NBA Fan".

In 2018, Riach was convicted of drug trafficking in the Philippines and sentenced to life imprisonment. Since 29 June 2021, Amerco and another Wolfpack leader Rabih "Robby" Alkhalil have been on trial in Vancouver for the murders of Sandip Duhre and Suhhveer Dhak with the Crown alleging the two hired the hitman Dean Michael Wiwchar to kill Dhak and Duhre. On 11 May 2017, Alkhalil and Wiwchar were both convicted of first-degree murder for the 2012 murder of Toronto gangster Johnny Raposo. In July 2022, Alkhalil escaped from the North Fraser Pretrial Center jail and is now a free man.

Timeline of noteworthy events

 December 2007 - In Prince George, the leader of the local chapter of the Independent Soldiers was arrested on suspicion of murder following a gang-related shooting in that city.
 August 2011 - An Independent Soldier member in James Riach was in a vehicle with known Hells Angels and Red Scorpion gang members that had been targeted by rival gangs in a brazen, broad daylight shooting outside the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort hotel in Kelowna.
 2013 to present - There have been multiple arrests and seizing of property by police of alleged IS members from the Okanagan region of BC and Alberta.

See also
2009 Vancouver gang war
Indo-Canadians in Greater Vancouver
Indo-Canadians in British Columbia
Punjabi Canadians

Books

References

Street gangs
Gangs in Vancouver
Indo-Canadian organized crime


Ouvrage Galgenberg forms a portion of the Fortified Sector of Thionville of the Maginot Line. It is situated in the Cattenom Forest, near the gros ouvrage Kobenbusch and petit ouvrage Oberheid.  The ouvrage was tasked with controlling the Moselle Valley and as such was called the "Guardian of the Moselle." Galgenberg did not see significant action in 1940 or 1944.  After a period of reserve duty in the 1950s and 1960s, it was deactivated.  It is now a museum.

Design and construction
The Galgenberg site was surveyed by the Commission d'Organisation des Régions Fortifiées (CORF), the Maginot Line's design and construction agency, in 1930. Work began the next year, and the position became operational in 1935, at a cost of 48 million francs. The contractor was Verdun-Fortifications. The site occupies the heights of the Galgenberg. Ouvrage Sentzich is close by the side of the Galgenberg massif, overlooking the town of Sentzich and the road to the north.

Description
The ouvrage comprises two entries and six combat blocks:
Ammunition entry: at grade, two automatic rifle cloches (GFM) and one machine gun/47 mm anti-tank gun (JM/AC47) embrasure.
Personnel entry: shaft, one GFM cloche and one JM/AC47 embrasure.
Block 1: Infantry block with one JM/AC47 embrasure and one GFM cloche.
Block 2: Infantry block with one JM/AC47 embrasure, one JM embrasure, and two GFM cloches.
Block 3: Infantry block with machine gun turret and one GFM cloche.
Block 4: Artillery block with 81 mm mortar turret and one GFM cloche.
Block 5: Observation block with one GFM cloche, one machine gun cloche (JM), and one observation cloche (VDP).
Block 6: Artillery block with 135 mm gun turret, one grenade launcher cloche (LG) and one GFM cloche.

Galgenberg has a small "M1" main magazine compared to other 'gros ouvrages.

 Casemates and shelters
The Observatoire de Cattenom is located behind Galgenberg, near the Casernement de Cattenom, which provided above-ground peacetime quarters for the garrisons of the nearby ouvrages. The observation point was armed with one GFM cloche and an observation cloche.  Flanking Galgenberg to the north is the Casemate du Sonnenberg, armed with one JM/AC37 embrasure, one JM embrasure and one GFM cloche. None of these are connected to the ouvrage or to each other. All were built by CORF

 Manning
The 445 men and 15 officers of the 167th Fortress Infantry Regiment (RIF) and the 151st Position Artillery Regiment (RAP) were under the orders of Captain Guillaume de la Teyssoniére. The units were under the umbrella of the 42nd Fortress Corps of the 3rd Army, Army Group 2. The Casernement de Cattenom provided peacetime above-ground barracks and support services to Galgenberg and other ouvrages in the area.

 History See Fortified Sector of Thionville for a broader discussion of the events of 1940 in the Thionville sector of the Maginot Line.Galgenberg did not see significant action in  the Battle of France in 1940, nor in the Lorraine Campaign of 1944. In 1940 Galgenberg fired on German infiltrators in the area. An accident with an 81 mm mortar projectile damaged a mortar tube on 14 June 1940, which was repaired after three days. The Germans largely bypassed the valley of the Moselle, advancing along the valley of the Meuse and Saar rivers, threatening the rear of the Thionville sector. An order to fortress troops by sector commander Colonel Jean-Patrice O'Sullivan to prepare for withdrawal on 17 June was reversed by O'Sullivan. The garrison therefore remained in place. Following negotiations, the positions on the left bank of the Moselle finally surrendered to the Germans on 30 June 1940.

 Renovation
In the 1950s the French government became concerned about a possible invasion by the Warsaw Pact through Germany.  The Maginot Line, while obsolete in terms of its armament, was viewed as a series of useful deeply buried and self-sufficient shelters in an era of air power and nuclear weapons.  A number of the larger ouvrages were selected to form defensive ensembles or môles around which a defence might be organised and controlled. Galgenberg was nominated as a communications station, in concert with the command posts at Rochonvillers, Soetrich and Molvange.

 Current condition
The ouvrage has been maintained by the Association Ligne Maginot du Secteur Fortifié du Bois de Cattenom (LMSFBC), which also maintains Bois Karre, since 1987 and portions of the ouvrage are open to visits during the summer months. The combat blocks are not accessible, but work is continuing to restore the fortification.Kaufmann 2011, p. 221

 See also
 List of all works on Maginot Line
 Siegfried Line
 Atlantic Wall
 Czechoslovak border fortifications

 Notes

 References

 Bibliography
Allcorn, William. The Maginot Line 1928-45. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2003.
Degon, André; Zylberyng, Didier, La Ligne Maginot: Guide des Forts à Visiter, Editions Ouest-France, 2014.
Kaufmann, J.E. and Kaufmann, H.W. Fortress France: The Maginot Line and French Defenses in World War II, Stackpole Books, 2006.
Kaufmann, J.E., Kaufmann, H.W., Jancovič-Potočnik, A. and Lang, P. The Maginot Line: History and Guide, Pen and Sword, 2011.
Mary, Jean-Yves; Hohnadel, Alain; Sicard, Jacques. Hommes et Ouvrages de la Ligne Maginot, Tome 1. Paris, Histoire & Collections, 2001.
Mary, Jean-Yves; Hohnadel, Alain; Sicard, Jacques. Hommes et Ouvrages de la Ligne Maginot, Tome 2. Paris, Histoire & Collections, 2003.
Mary, Jean-Yves; Hohnadel, Alain; Sicard, Jacques. Hommes et Ouvrages de la Ligne Maginot, Tome 3. Paris, Histoire & Collections, 2003.
Mary, Jean-Yves; Hohnadel, Alain; Sicard, Jacques. Hommes et Ouvrages de la Ligne Maginot, Tome 5.'' Paris, Histoire & Collections, 2009.

External links
 La Ligne Maginot en Lorraine: le Galgenberg
 Site de l'association du Galgenberg
 Galgenberg at fortiff.be
 Galgenberg at Chemins de mémoire
 Bunkertours - Galgenberg
 L'ouvrage du Galgenberg at alsacemaginot.com

GALG
Maginot Line
World War II museums in France


Nesika Beach is census-designated place and unincorporated community in Curry County, Oregon, United States. It is located  north of Gold Beach on the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 432.

Nesika means "we", "us", or "our" in Chinook Jargon.

Demographics

Education
It is in the Central Curry School District, which operates two schools: Riley Creek Elementary School (K-8) and Gold Beach High School.

The entire county is in the Southwestern Oregon Community College district.

Climate

See also
Ophir Beach

References

Unincorporated communities in Curry County, Oregon
Census-designated places in Oregon
Census-designated places in Curry County, Oregon
Unincorporated communities in Oregon
Populated coastal places in Oregon
Oregon placenames of Native American origin


Little Italy, Connellsville is an area on the west side of Connellsville, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

History
Between 1880 and 1930, a flood of immigrants from Italy and many other European countries arrived in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, and its  vicinity, primarily to work in the coal, coke, steel, and locomotive industries.  Many of the Italian immigrants, mainly from the regions of Campania (cities of Naples and Avellino), Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily, settled in the neighborhoods of the west side of what is now known as the city of Connellsville. Originally, the part of Connellsville west of the Youghiogheny River was incorporated as the borough of New Haven, but by a charter of 1909, New Haven was annexed by the city of Connellsville.  The neighborhood, formerly known as "New Haven Hill," and now as "West Side Hill," was heavily populated by Italian immigrants, and their Italian-American descendants.  Because of this, the area has earned the title "Little Italy."  In the Roman Catholic tradition, the neighborhood has a patron saint, that being Saint Rita of Cascia (IT:Santa Rita da Cascia).

Location
Little Italy in Connellsville is formally bounded by West Crawford Avenue to the south, Maple Street to the north, North 12th Street to the west, and West Crawford Avenue (which makes a 90 degree angle) to the south, though the Italian-American population has always had a strong presence beyond the formal boundaries, including Brookvale, Trotter, Hickory Bottom, Robinson Falls, Limestone Hill, and the lower West Side, where one of the most central places of the Italian-American culture in Connellsville is situated: Saint Rita of Cascia Roman Catholic Church (La Chiesa Cattolica Romana di Santa Rita da Cascia), located at the merging of South 2nd Street and South 1st Street.

Note: There is also a strong Italian-American presence in the city's Association Grounds and North End neighborhoods, on the east side of the Youghiogheny River.

Festivals

Annual Italian festival
Each year on the weekend prior to the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (La Beata Vergine di Monte Carmelo), the church hosts its annual Italian festival, known famously throughout the city as "Saint Rita's Street Fair."  There, you will find traditional Italian delicacies, such as cavatelli, manicotti, pasta fagioli, sausage and peppers, pizza, and fried dough (zeppole), as well as other festivities, such as games of chance, bingo, a large 50/50 drawing, and traditional Italian and Italian-American music.  Thousands of people from all over come each year to enjoy the festivities.

Annual West Side Hill Italian Bash
Every year in July, Little Italy on West Side Hill in Connellsville, is the scene of a large festival to celebrate the Italian American heritage, known as the "Annual West Side Hill Italian Bash."  The celebration is held on Banning Avenue, between North 11th Street and North 10th Street.  Highlights include a flag raising and singing of the Italian National Anthem, Il Canto degli Italiani, commonly known as "Inno di Mameli," to signify the commencement of the festival, traditional Italian food, wine sampling, selections by the Molinaro Band (formerly the Royal Italian Band), a 50/50 drawing, traditional Italian music, a prize raffle, and a display of fireworks, to signify the end of the celebration.

Italian feast days
Similar festivals are also celebrated on popular Italian Feast Days, such as the Feast of Saint Rita of Cascia (La Festa di Santa Rita da Cascia), which is held on May 22, the Feast of Saint Anthony of Padua (La Festa di Sant'Antonio di Padova), which is celebrated on June 13, and the Feast of Our Lady of the Hill (La Santissima Madonna del Colle)*, which coincides with the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (La Santissima Madonna Addolorata), and is celebrated on September 15.

The Feast of Saint John the Baptist (La Festa di San Giovanni Battista), which is celebrated on June 24, the Feast of Saint Rocco (La Festa di San Rocco), which is celebrated on August 16, and the Feast of Saint Amato (La Festa di Sant'Amato), which is held on September 30, are also popular amongst the Italian-Americans of Connellsville, especially amongst those whose ancestors originated in the Avellino province of Italy.

The Feast of Madonna del Colle (Our Lady of the Hill) originated in Lenola, Italy. This is also the town where the founder of the Molinaro Band, Giovanni Molinaro, was born. His brother Michael brought the tradition to America when he emigrated in 1913. The band has been led by members of the Molinaro family for 96 years and is currently under the direction of Henry F. (Angelo) Molinaro. Henry has also directed the St. Rita's choir for the past 55 years.

Geography of Fayette County, Pennsylvania
Italian-American culture in Pennsylvania
Little Italys in the United States


Punct may refer to:

Punct (magazine), Romanian art magazine
PÜNCT, two-player strategy board game


Jalan Serkat (Johor state route J111) is a major road in Johor, Malaysia.

List of junctions

Roads in Johor


The Maine Department of Corrections is a government agency in the U.S. state of Maine that is responsible for the direction and general administrative supervision, guidance and planning of both adult and juvenile correctional facilities and programs within the state. The agency has its headquarters in Augusta. As of January 2016, the Maine DOC had 2,223 inmates in its custody.

History
In early 1823 the legislature authorized the construction of the first state prison. The facility was built in Thomaston atop the site of a limestone quarry.

Adult institutions

 Bolduc Correctional Facility (inmate capacity 222)
 Mountain View Correctional Facility (inmate capacity 375)
 Maine Correctional Center (inmate capacity 662)
 Southern Maine Reentry Center (inmate capacity 64 Women)
 Maine State Prison (inmate capacity 916)
 Downeast Correctional Facility. Closed but under construction to house fifty residents for work release.
 Transitional Living Program about to be open for clients under probation supervision who receive assistance in housing and job searches.

Juvenile institutions
The Division of Juvenile Services operates juvenile reformatories. The headquarters of the division is in the Elkins Building in Augusta.
Long Creek Youth Development Center (South Portland) - The Arthur R. Gould School (ARGS) is the educational program for the inmates.
It has both male and female inmates. It began receiving female inmates after the Stevens School closed in 1976. It was established  by the Maine Legislature in 1853 as the Boys Training Center.
Mountain View was closed to juveniles and all juveniles moved to Long Creek. It is now an adult facility.

See also

 List of law enforcement agencies in Maine
 List of United States state correction agencies
 List of U.S. state prisons
 Prison

References

External links
 Maine Department of Corrections

State law enforcement agencies of Maine
State corrections departments of the United States
Lists of United States state prisons
Prisons in Maine
Juvenile detention centers in the United States


This partial list of city nicknames in Florida compiles the aliases, sobriquets and slogans that cities in Florida are known by (or have been known by historically), officially and unofficially, to local people, outsiders or their tourism boards or chambers of commerce. City nicknames can help in establishing a civic identity, helping outsiders recognize a community or attracting people to a community because of its nickname; promote civic pride; and build community unity. Nicknames and slogans that successfully create a new community "ideology or myth" are also believed to have economic value. Their economic value is difficult to measure, but there are anecdotal reports of cities that have achieved substantial economic benefits by "branding" themselves by adopting new slogans.

Some unofficial nicknames are positive, while others are derisive. The unofficial nicknames listed here have been in use for a long time or have gained wide currency.

Nicknames by city
Apopka – Indoor Foliage Capital of the World
Aventura – The City of Excellence
Bartow
 City of Oaks and Azaleas
 The City of Oaks
 The 'Tow
Belle Glade – Muck City
Boca Raton – A City for All Seasons
Boynton Beach – Btown
Bradenton – The Friendly City
Cape Coral – Waterfront Wonderland
Clewiston – America's Sweetest Town
Coconut Creek – Butterfly Capital of the World
Coral Gables – The City Beautiful
Coral Springs – Everything Under the Sun
Crestview – Hub City
DeLand – The Athens of Florida
Deltona – Florida's Bright Spot
Destin – The World's Luckiest Fishing Village
Eustis – The City of Bright Tomorrows
Fernandina Beach – Shark's Tooth Capital of the World
Fort Lauderdale – Venice of America
Fort Myers – The City of Palms
Fort Pierce – The Sunshine City
Fort Walton Beach
Billfish Capital of the World
Emerald Coast
Gainesville
Hogtown
The Tree City
Rainesville
Gator Country
Haines City – The Heart of Florida
Hialeah – City of Progress
Jacksonville
Jax
 Where Florida Begins
 Bold New City of the South
 River City
 Murder Capital of Florida
Key West
Conch Republic
Southernmost City In The Continental United States
Lakeland
Swan City
Largo
Dime City
Melbourne – The Harbor City
Miami
The Magic City
Vice City
Navarre
Florida's Best Kept Secret
Florida's Most Relaxing Place
Florida's Playground
Ocala
The Brick City
Horse Capital of the World (with Marion County) – the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association, obtained the trademark on behalf of Ocala and Marion County in the late 1990s. The title is disputed with Lexington, Kentucky, which also claims to be the "Horse Capital of the World."
Ocoee – The Center of Good Living
Okeechobee – Speckled Perch Capital of the World
Orlando
The City Beautiful
O-Town
Ormond Beach – Birthplace of Speed
Panama City Beach – The World's Most Beautiful Beaches
Pensacola – City of Five Flags
Plant City
Strawberry Capital of the World
Winter Strawberry Capital of the World
Port St. Lucie
PSL
A City for All Ages
St. Petersburg
Always in Season
The Burg
Sunshine City
St. PeteJenny Deam, Clearwater Times (St. Petersburg Times)"St. Pete Beach begins to address name change", accessed January 27, 2011
Sarasota – We Live Where You Vacation
Sebring – City on the Circle
Stuart – Sailfish Capital of the WorldDouglas Waitley, Best Backroads of Florida: Coasts, Glades, and Groves (2001). Pineapple Press: p. 35.
Tallahassee
Tally
TallanastyNicholas Gonzalez, Busting the myth of Tallanasty , FSU News (Jan. 9, 2012).
Tampa
The Big Guava
Cigar CityYbor City: Cigar Capital of the World , National Park Service, accessed April 12, 2007.
Lightning Capital of the WorldPorter, Arthur. "Looking back on fond years in Tampa Bay as the green, green grass of home beckons" , Tampa Bay Business Journal, January 26, 2007, accessed April 12, 2007. "I will have been in Tampa for four years in May, and I remember my first day -- one of the typical Tampa days in May.... "Welcome to the lightning capital of the world," my new colleagues declared."
Champa Bay, after multiple local pro sports franchises won championships in 2020 and 2021
Tarpon Springs – Sponge Capital of the World
Venice – Shark Tooth Capital of the World
West Palm Beach – Orchid City

See also
List of city nicknames in the United States
List of cities in Florida

References

External links
a list of American and a few Canadian nicknames
U.S. cities list

Florida cities

Nicknames of cities


Edith Jiménez (1918–2004) was a distinguished Paraguayan plastic artist.

She was born in Asunción in 1918, to Eulogio Jiménez and de Silvia González.

Beginnings

She began her painting studies with the teacher Jaime Bestard in 1943. This exponent of the painting in his country taught her the use of composition and colour which she will later use in her paintings.

In 1952 she had her first individual painting exposition in the Agustin Barrios Gallery in the “Centro Cultural Paraguayo Americano”. A year later she was nominated the official representative in painting in the second Biennial in São Paulo and participated in the organized sample of the historic revolutionary group of Paraguayan plastic “Arte Nuevo” in Palma Street, in the centre of Asunción.

She evolved with her artistic production and continued with the presentations of her works to the audience participating in numerous collective samples in Asunción, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Montevideo and in country sides of Paraguay.

In 1956 she began her engraved studies in the Brazilian Cultural Mission with the teacher Livio Abramo. In 1958 she received a scholarship from Brazil government  to study engraving in São Paulo, in the Modern Art Museum and in the “Gravura” studio, always under de directions of Livio Abramo. It was only a one-year scholarship but it extended to three. In 1959 she had expositions in São Paulo and Asunción.

Trajectory

Josefina Plá writes : “Edith, today’s and yesterdays painter, engraver since a long time and always, continues her career cover by her pride, in her labour she gives it all, in which, remaining true to herself, can offer us something new in her sample”. And Livio Abramo: “ If we don’t find that unity of style in these series of painting, characteristic in Edith paintings, we find, on the other side, a really notable wealth of solutions and we belief the announcement of new ambitious goals. Dangerous and unknown roads….but fascinant.

As you can see, the expositions that she offered in the country and in many parts of the World positions her as the most important Paraguayan Plastic Artist in the 20th century, all of that added to the fact that her work has reached the highest recognitions and that her pieces are part of  prestigious collections like the modern art museum in Nueva York, the Estampa museum in Buenos Aires, the National Library  of Paris, the Smith College Museum of the United States and the most important museums in Paraguay.

Last years

Short time before his death and for the initiative of the plastic artist Luis Alberto Boh, it was declared by the “Junta Municipal” of Asunción as the “Dilect daughter in Asunción” with the great sculpture Hermann Guggiari.

He died on the 7 October 2004, when he was eighty six years old. Receiving the public recognition for his humanistic and artistic gifts.

References
 Centro Cultural de la República
 Diccionario Biográfico "FORJADORES DEL PARAGUAY", Primera Edición Enero de 2000. Distribuidora Quevedo de Ediciones. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

External links
onlinedmad.com.py
onliinemad.com.py/ficha tecnica

Paraguayan engravers
1918 births
2004 deaths
20th-century engravers
21st-century engravers
Women engravers
20th-century women artists
21st-century women artists
20th-century Paraguayan painters


Barrier Canyon Style (BCS) describes a distinctive style of rock art which appears mostly in Utah, with the largest concentration of sites in and around the San Rafael Swell and Canyonlands National Park, but the full range extends into much of the state and western Colorado.  The term was first applied by Polly Schaafsma (The Rock Art of Utah, 1971) to describe a handful of similar sites known at the time, including several along Barrier Creek in Horseshoe Canyon (formerly known as Barrier Canyon).  Barrier Canyon Style rock art panels are mostly pictographs (painted) but there are also several petroglyphs (pecked)  in the style.  These panels are believed to have been created during the archaic period (probably late archaic) and are estimated (from direct and indirect carbon 14 dates) to be somewhere in the range of 1500 to 4000 years old, possibly older -- clay figurines of a similar style found in Cowboy Cave (in a tributary canyon to Horseshoe Canyon) have been dated to over 7000 years old.

Sites

 Horseshoe Canyon
 Buckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel
 Courthouse Wash Pictographs in Arches National Park
 Sego Canyon

References

 Traces of a Lost People, By Kurt Repanshek, Smithsonian magazine, March 2005
 Canyonlands National Park - Archeology of Horseshoe Canyon, National Park Service
 Barrier Canyon Style Rock Art Gallery and Singing Desert Barrier Canyon Style pages, photos of Barrier Canyon Style rock art by Doak Heyser.

Rock art in North America
Petroglyphs in Utah


Wallgrove Aerodrome was a Royal Australian Air Force satellite and emergency airfield at Doonside, New South Wales, Australia during World War II.

The aerodrome was built in 1942 and the runway was 5000 ft (1524m) long and 150 ft (45.72m) wide running NW-SW. After World War II the aerodrome was closed in 1946 and reverted to farmland.

A number of former revetments are still in existence and the runway can still be located. An industrial area has been built over the southern end of the aerodrome.

Parent Aerodrome
Fleurs Aerodrome

References
OzatWar website

Former Royal Australian Air Force bases
Military history of Sydney during World War II


The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad (LBR) was an  long 19th century railroad that ran between Scranton and Northumberland in Pennsylvania in the United States. Incorporated in 1852, the railroad began operation in 1856 and was taken over by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1873. The western end of the line, from Northumberland to Beach Haven, is still in operation as the shortline North Shore Railroad.

Course
Beginning in Scranton in Lackawanna County, the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg line followed the west shore of the Lackawanna River through the Wyoming Valley, passing through Old Forge on the way to Duryea in Luzerne County. At Duryea, the Lackawanna River flows into the Susquehanna River and the railroad crossed the Susquehanna into West Pittston. The line followed the north shore of the Susquehanna River for the rest of its length, passing through Luzerne and Kingston, and crossing into Columbia County at Berwick. In Columbia County the line also passed through Bloomsburg, before crossing into Montour County and Danville there. The line ended in Northumberland in Northumberland County, where there was a connection to the Pennsylvania Railroad line. The course of the railroad is still followed closely by U.S. Route 11.

Construction
The railroad was incorporated by a charter from the Pennsylvania state legislature in April, 1852. However, there were problems with the initial charter that led to amendments being made to it in 1853. Construction began in Scranton in 1854. The first line ran from Scranton to Kingston, a distance of , and opened on the morning of June 24, 1856. The first train carried some 300 passengers and regular service ran three times a day. Kingston was an unincorporated village within Kingston Township at the time, but the increase in population led to the village incorporating as a borough less than a year and a half later, on November 23, 1857. Kingston Station was  across the Susquehanna River from the city of Wilkes-Barre, and the increased traffic to Kingston led to the founding of the "Wilkes-Barre and Kingston Passengers Railway", chartered on April 14, 1859. This is believed to have been the first public transit line in Kingston, and operated until November 15, 1949.

The line reached Berwick in 1858, and was the first railroad to reach Bloomsburg in the same year. On May 31, 1860, the first locomotive from Danville reached the western terminus in Northumberland and the line was complete. The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad had  of track by the end of 1856, built  in 1857, and added an additional  in 1860. The total length of the line was .

Operation and legacy
The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg carried 269,564 passengers in 1867, almost 82,000 more than its competitor, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. The Wyoming Valley was a major anthracite coal mining region and the railroad carried much of the coal, as well as iron ore to the Bloomsburg iron industry.

By June 1873 the line had come under the control of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and became known as the Bloomsburg Branch of DL&W. The DL&W merged with the Erie Railroad in 1960, forming the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, and was absorbed into Conrail in 1976. In 1984, after Conrail decided to abandon the line, it became the short line North Shore Railroad, which runs as far as Salem Township in Luzerne County. The eastern terminus of the line is now between the village of Beach Haven and Shickshinny, east of Berwick and the Columbia County - Luzerne County line. The Western end of the line survives intact, but out of service from Pittston Junction to Kingston PA.

See also

Bloomsburg and Sullivan Railroad
Susquehanna, Bloomsburg, and Berwick Railroad
List of Pennsylvania railroads
Catawissa Railroad

References

Defunct Pennsylvania railroads
Predecessors of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
Railway companies established in 1852
Railway companies disestablished in 1873
1852 establishments in Pennsylvania
American companies established in 1852
American companies disestablished in 1873


Et vir is a Latin phrase meaning "and husband". It is used in legal literature to indicate a couple comprising an identified woman and her otherwise unidentified husband. The U.S. Supreme Court case Troxel et vir v. Granville is an example of modern legal usage of the Latin phrase. Additionally, many property deeds would list the owners in the form "Jane Doe et vir" when appropriate.

See also
 Et uxor

References

Latin legal terminology


Joseph Anthony "Uncle Joe" Ligambi (born August 9, 1939) is an American mobster and former acting boss of the Philadelphia crime family. Ligambi is known among law enforcement circles to have a more "old school" approach, in sharp contrast to boss Joseph Merlino's, flamboyant, high-profile style. Ligambi was credited by the Philadelphia Police Department's Criminal Intelligence Unit with "quietly bringing stability back to the troubled Philadelphia-South Jersey branch of the American Mafia" during the 2000s. The New York Mafia families have been pleased with Ligambi and his approach, as well as his ability to turn the Philadelphia crime family back into a stable group.

Early life
Ligambi was born on August 9, 1939, in South Philadelphia, one of four children born to Italian immigrant parents. His father was a cab driver. He attended South Philadelphia High School before dropping out his junior year to join the United States Air Force, where he eventually earned his high school diploma. Ligambi is the uncle of Philadelphia mobster George Borgesi.

Early criminal career
Unlike many other gangsters who started their careers in crime as teenagers or young adults, Ligambi didn't have a criminal record before age 32 when he was arrested for cigarette smuggling. In the 1970s, he started to associate himself with mobster brothers "Yogi" and Salvatore "Chuckie" Merlino and worked as a bartender at a frequent mobster hangout. Ligambi would become a protege of Merlino who in turn was close to powerful crime family member Nicodemo Scarfo. During this time, Ligambi started making money helping run illegal book making operations for the Merlino crew. He earned a reputation as an expert in sports handicapping, particularly for football. By 1981, the Philadelphia crime family was being led by Scarfo, with Merlino serving as his underboss.

In 1985, Scarfo ordered the murder of Mafia associate Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso for refusing to pay tribute to him. When Philadelphia mobsters Thomas DelGiorno and Eugene Milano became government witnesses, they testified in court that on July 23, Ligambi and Philip Narducci were the triggermen in the broad daylight hit and Frank Narducci (Philip's brother) was the driver. DelGiorno, Milano, Merlino and Francis "Faffy" Iannarella helped plan the murder. Ligambi became a made man in the Philadelphia crime family in 1986, at the age of 47.

Murder conviction and acquittal
In 1987, Ligambi was arrested alongside Scarfo and others for the D'Alfonso murder. On April 5, 1989, Ligambi, Chuckie Merlino, Nicodemo Scarfo Sr, Francis Iannarella, Frank Narducci and Phil Narducci were convicted of the murder and were all given life sentences. In 1992, an appellate court panel overturned the murder convictions, citing prosecutorial misconduct and trial-court error. At the retrial in 1997, Ligambi and his fellow defendants were acquitted of the murder.

Acting boss
At the time of Ligambi's release in 1997, the family was being run by Ralph Natale and Joey Merlino, the son of Ligambi's mentor Salvatore. While Ligambi was in prison, Merlino led a crew of young mobsters who fought a war and took over the Philadelphia crime family. One of these young mobsters was George Borgesi, Ligambi's nephew. After the arrest of Merlino, Borgesi and several others in 1999, Ligambi was chosen to take over as acting boss of the family. In 2001, Merlino was sentenced to 14 years in prison. After Ligambi took over, he remained in the shadows, rarely being mentioned in the media, while taking a much less "trigger-happy" approach to running the family.

Ligambi had a no-show job with Top Job Carpeting run by fellow Philadelphia crime family member, Mauro Goffredo.

On May 23, 2011, Ligambi and 14 other members and associates of the crime family were indicted by the FBI on racketeering charges related to illegal gambling operations, video poker gambling machines and loan sharking. In February 2013, Ligambi was denied bail after the jury dismissed gambling and extortion charges. On January 28, 2014, two juries were hung on the racketeering charges, and Ligambi and Borgesi were acquitted and released.

In 2020 court documents, Ligambi was identified as the consigliere of the Philadelphia crime family.

References

1939 births
Living people
American gangsters of Italian descent
Philadelphia crime family
American crime bosses
United States Air Force airmen
People acquitted of racketeering
American people convicted of murder
People acquitted of murder
Consiglieri
Gangsters from Philadelphia
South Philadelphia High School alumni


The Hattiesburg Black Sox are a semi-professional baseball team located in Palmer's Crossing, outside Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The team started in 1941 by Milton Barnes as part of the independent Negro leagues. It was not until the mid-1980s that Barnes made the decision to integrate the team. In 1993, Barnes made a call to Trey Aby, who at the time was a catcher with William Carey College.

After years of playing for the Sox, Barnes decided it was time to pass the torch to Aby. In 2003, Aby purchased the Hattiesburg Black Sox for an undisclosed amount. During the first season under Aby's leadership, the team had an outstanding record of 41-7, but finished last in the NSPBA World Series held in Evansville, Indiana. In 2004, the Sox went 57-6 and came in runner-up at the NSPBA World Series in Evansville, Indiana. In 2005, the Sox were 59-5, winning the NSPBA World Series. In 2006, the Black Sox finished 59-6, winning the Disney Classic held at the Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.

In 2007, Hattiesburg Black Sox stepped it up, capturing various titles. The team won the 2007 MJMBL League - in early July.
Then on July 28, they won the ASPBA World Series (aluminum bat). One week later, the same guys won the NSPBA World Series (wood bat) thereby becoming the first team to win both a wood bat and aluminum bat title in the same year.

The Black Sox have won the Mississippi Baseball Congress Semi Pro Tournament 7 times: 2008, 2009, 2011, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020.

The Black sox have won 12 Magnolia Baseball League Titles : 2005-2011, 2013, 2016-2019

External links
 Team's website
 Hattiesburg American website
 Hattiesburg American website article
 Hattiesburg American website article

Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Negro league baseball teams
Semi-professional sports clubs and teams
Defunct baseball teams in Mississippi


The Demopolis Historic Business District, currently officially known as Demopolis Historic District, is a historic district in the city of Demopolis, Alabama, United States.  Demopolis had its beginnings in 1817 with the Vine and Olive Colony.  The historic district is a ten block area, roughly bounded by Capitol Street, Franklin Street, Desnouettes Street, and Cedar Avenue.

The district boundaries were increased, and name was changed to the actual one in October 2014.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Marengo County, Alabama
Historic districts in Marengo County, Alabama
Buildings and structures in Demopolis, Alabama
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama


The state of Texas has had many hurricanes affect it. It is the US state with the second-most hurricanes affecting it, only behind Florida. Storms affecting it go back to 1527.

Pre-1900

1900–1949

1950–1979

1980–present

See also
 List of United States hurricanes

References

Texas
Hurricanes


Eriogonum arborescens is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Santa Cruz Island buckwheat.

Description
Eriogonum arborescens is a woody shrub that grows from  in height, and sprawling from  in diameter.

The stems have shreddy maroon-brown bark. They bear narrow, fuzzy green leaves at the ends of the branches, each 2 to 5 centimeters long and sometimes with edges rolled under.

The frilly inflorescences of densely clustered flowers erect on nearly naked peduncles. Each flower is only a few millimeters wide, very light pink in color, with nine protruding stamens.  The bloom period is from April to October.

Distribution and habitat
This shrub is endemic to the northern Channel Islands of California except San Miguel Island.

It is found in coastal sage scrub and chaparral habitats, between .

Uses
This species, and most buckwheats (Eriogonum sp.), are of special value to butterflies and native bees.

Cultivation
Eriogonum arborescens is cultivated as an ornamental plant, for planting in native plant, drought tolerant, and in butterfly gardens and other wildlife gardens;  and for larger designed natural landscaping and habitat restoration projects.

See also

References

External links
  Calflora Database: Eriogonum arborescens (Santa Cruz Island buckwheat)
Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of Eriogonum arborescens
UC Photos gallery of Eriogonum arborescens (Santa Cruz Island buckwheat)

arborescens
Endemic flora of California
Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands
Natural history of the Channel Islands of California
Taxa named by Edward Lee Greene
Garden plants of North America
Drought-tolerant plants
Flora without expected TNC conservation status


Sergei Vasilievich Makovetsky (, born 13 June 1958) is a Soviet and Ukrainian-born Russian film and stage actor.
Sergei Makovetsky disapproved Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Filmography

Film

1982: To take live!
1983: Ekipazh mashiny boevoy - Grisha Chumak
1985: Polosa prepyatstviy - Lyokha
1986: Zaveshchanie - Aleksey Ugarov v molodosti
1988: Topinambury
1989: The Initiated - Liokha
1990: Chernov/Chernov
1991: Sons of Bitches - Borya Sinyukhaev
1992: Prorva - Vanya's Friend
1993: Rebyonok k noyabryu - Lyosha
1992: Patrioticheskaya komediya - Ilyin
1992: Nash amerikanskiy Borya
1993: Malenkie chelovechki Bolshevistskogo pereulka, ili Khochu piva
1993: Makarov - Aleksandr Sergeyevich Makarov
1994: Trotsky - Leon Trotsky

1994: Burnt by the Sun - Captain
1995: A Play for a Passenger - Oleg
1996: Operation Happy New Year
1997: Three Stories - Tikhomirov
1998: Of Freaks and Men - Iogan
2000: Brother 2 - Valentin Belkin
2000: Russkiy Bunt - Alexey Shvabrin
2001: Mechanical Suite — Plyuganovskiy
2003: Key from the bedroom - Ivanickiy
2004: 72 Meters - Chernenko
2005: The Fall of the Empire - Nesterovsky
2005: Dead Man's Bluff - Koron
2006: It Doesn't Hurt Me - Doctor
2007: Gloss
2007: Roly-poly toy (film) - Semenych
2007: Duska - Duska
2007: Temptation
2007: Russian Game - Hvoshnev
2007: Luster
2007: 12 - 1st Juror
2008: I consider: one, two, three, four, five...
2009: The Priest - Alexander
2009: The Miracle
2010: Alice in Wonderland - The White Rabbit (Russian dubbing)
2010: Burnt by the Sun 2: Exodus - Captain
2011: Burnt by the Sun 2: Citadel - Captain
2012: The Girl and Death
2015: POETIC PORTRAITS AT GIFT FESTIVAL documentary film by shota kalandadze

Series
2002: Failure Poirot (TV)(Poirot's Misfortune - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd)
2007: Likvidatsya - Fima Petrov
2012: Life and Fate
2015: Rodina - Anna's boss
2020: The Terrible - Ivan the terrible

References

External links

Russian male actors
Soviet male actors
Living people
1958 births
Russian male television actors
Russian male voice actors
State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates
Honored Artists of the Russian Federation
Male actors from Kyiv
Recipients of the Nika Award
Academicians of the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Russia
Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class
Russian activists against the Russian invasion of Ukraine


Thomas Michael "Tommy" Gavin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the FX television series Rescue Me. He is portrayed by Denis Leary. For his portrayal, Leary was nominated for the Golden Globe Award (2005) and the Primetime Emmy Award (2006, 2007) for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. The character's name was created by Denis Leary and Peter Tolan, after Leary met a Bronx police officer named Tommy Gavin.

Biography
Thomas Michael "Tommy" Gavin (born December 19, 1963) is a third generation New York City Fire Department Firefighter with an Irish Catholic upbringing, although a Lapsed Catholic into adulthood.

Tommy followed in his father's footsteps and became a firefighter in 1986. Tommy was first assigned as a "Probie" or Probationary Firefighter to a firehouse in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. Throughout his career, Tommy has transferred several times to firehouses in both Brooklyn and Uptown Manhattan. Tommy is currently the Senior Firefighter, or "Senior Man" of New York City Fire Department Ladder Company 62 (a.k.a. "62 Truck"), quartered with Engine Company 99 and the Chief of the 15th (later 30th) Battalion in northern Harlem, Manhattan. During one season of the show, Tommy was temporarily transferred to Engine Company 336/Ladder Company 73, a firehouse on Staten Island.

Tommy's fire company and firehouse lost four men during the attacks of 9/11, one of whom was Tommy's cousin and best friend, Jimmy Keefe. Jimmy had been the Senior Man of 62 Truck prior to his death. Tommy also personally knew fifty-six other firefighters who were killed on 9/11. Tommy is also a motivational speaker/consultant for the New York City Fire Academy, as seen in the pilot and final episodes. Tommy is a working class, blue collar personality with skills in carpentry, mechanics and plumbing as well as his firefighting career. Tommy likes to drive pickup trucks as his personal vehicle including a mid 90s Ford F-150, a new Cadillac Escalade (briefly, after being given it as a gift by Jimmy's widow Sheila), and a Dodge Ram 1500. Tommy has also shown skill in hand-to-hand combat and firearms usage.

Tommy is married to his high school sweetheart Janet Gavin, who became pregnant with their oldest daughter, Colleen, when she was only seventeen. The two are "separated" numerous times, but the announcement is occasionally followed by Tommy stating that they never filed for divorce, making the couple technically still married throughout the entire series. Their relationship is mostly estranged; however at some points they appear to be friendly. They've had five children together, two girls (Colleen and Katy) and three boys (Wyatt, Shea, and the late Connor). Connor was killed in a hit-and-run accident, putting further strain on Tommy and Janet's relationship, and causing Tommy to become a fully relapsed alcoholic. Wyatt, however, is strongly believed by both Tommy and Janet to be the product of Janet's affair with Tommy's brother, NYPD Detective Johnny Gavin, who had been killed in the line of duty, although a paternity test was never done. Tommy is also throughout the series in an off-and-on affair with his dead cousin's widow, Sheila Keefe. The two are seen sleeping together numerous times on the basis of sharing mutual grief over Jimmy Keefe's death, fueled by Tommy's troubled relationship with Janet. (Tommy was punished by the subordinate firefighters in his house for it in the season 1 finale, as "widow banging" was a forbidden act in the FDNY, however, despite the continuing of it throughout the series, no further discipline ever happened.)

Tommy is a tortured character. He is a relapsed alcoholic, as well as a chain-smoker and a prescription-drug addict due to his role as a first responder to the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. Throughout the series, a recurring theme is that Tommy is highly mentally and emotionally disturbed as a result of what he witnessed on 9/11. Because of the painful loss he endured, Tommy suffers from survivor's guilt and severe PTSD. Tommy is often visited by "ghosts," deceased people from his past - most frequently his cousin Jimmy and other firefighters who died on 9/11 - as well as fire victims he could not save. It is left ambiguous whether these are real ghosts or figments of Tommy's imagination.

For the first, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons, Tommy lives in Queens. During the second, third, and fourth season, Tommy lived in various apartments in Manhattan.

Season 1
Throughout the first season of Rescue Me, Tommy lives across the street from his estranged wife Janet in Queens. In the premiere, he gives a speech about being a firefighter and he is the first Commanding Officer of 62 Truck. His cousin, Jimmy Keefe, a firefighter from Tommy's company who died on 9/11, visits him as a ghost. Tommy and Sheila (his cousin Jimmy's widow) are having an affair. When confronted about their relationship, he refuses to end it because Sheila is pregnant. At the end of the season, he requests a transfer after a breakdown during a rescue that resulted in injury to his co-worker, Firefighter Franco Rivera. His wife and children leave their home and move.

Season 2
Tommy is working at a different firehouse on Staten Island. Sheila miscarries, but does not tell him. He and his brother Johnny discover that during their childhood, their father had a long-term affair that produced two children. They suspect that their half-brother, a priest, is a pedophile. Tommy and his family reconcile. Tommy's son Connor is tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident involving a drunk driver. Johnny finds out that the driver may not do time, so Tommy's uncle, retired FDNY Firefighter, Teddy Gavin kills him inside Hoboken Terminal, and is thus sent to prison.

Season 3
Tommy is again living on his own. He discovers that his brother Johnny is having an affair with Janet, and that his co-worker, Firefighter Sean Garrity is in a relationship with his mentally unstable sister Maggie Gavin. During Janet's affair with Johnny, Tommy forces himself on her. Thus, when Janet becomes pregnant, the paternity of the baby is in question. Johnny is killed while investigating a drug case as an NYPD detective. In the last episode of the season, Sheila drugs Tommy, rapes him, and then accidentally sets her Long Island beach house on fire. Tommy is rescued by a female volunteer firefighter.

Season 4
Tommy is living with his wife and children again. Janet is suffering from postpartum depression, so Tommy "sells" her son Wyatt to Sheila. Tommy then shares custody with Sheila. Battalion Chief Jerry Reilly commits suicide after being forced to retire and due to his frustration at having a newly married gay son. Tommy begins fighting fires during his off hours wearing Jimmy Keefe's gear, prompting Battalion Chief Sidney Feinberg to write him up for a department section 8. The last scene in the last episode shows Tommy and his father, also a retired FDNY Firefighter, watching a Newark Bears minor league baseball game. Tommy tries to get the attention of his father only to realize that he has passed on, so Tommy puts his arm around his father and continues to watch the game.

Season 5
Tommy has his section 8 hearing and the doctor, who has a bitter history with Feinberg, lets Tommy off without thinking twice. Lou and Tommy get into a brawl after Lou decides to have Needles be his best man at his wedding. Also, Tommy's wife, Janet, has a new lover, Dwight (Michael J. Fox), who has a disability from an accident that occurred years previously. Tommy is disdainful towards Dwight, but does not accept Dwight's drug addiction. Tommy has completed one full year without a drink, but relapses due to grief at a restaurant near the site of the September 11 attacks when being interviewed by a French journalist interested in writing a book about Tommy's and other firefighters' experiences during the 9/11 tragedy. Tommy leaves behind his twelve-month sobriety chip at the bottom of his glass. After a failed intervention by his family to stop his relapse, Tommy ends up convincing most of them to start drinking again as well. This results in the death of Teddy's wife Ellie in a car crash. Teddy holds Tommy responsible and shoots Tommy twice in the shoulder at the bar where they work after hours, and forces his friends at gunpoint to watch him bleed out on the floor. The episode fades out without the viewer knowing if Tommy lives or survives.

Season 6
Season 6 deals with the aftermath of Tommy's near-death experience, including his ongoing battle with alcoholism, his oldest daughter's own drinking problem, and an increasingly strained relationship with his wife. During this season, Tommy struggles to make things right and become a better person, having realized that he went to hell after what he saw during his near-death experience. Tommy's firehouse is temporarily closed by the city due to budget cuts, but after Needles gets into a quarrel with one of the Chiefs and tells about the bravery of his men, the firehouse is re-opened after the men's heroic actions in saving children trapped in a burning school nearby the firehouse on their day off. Near the end of the season, probationary firefighter Damien Keefe, Sheila and Jimmy Keefe's son, who recently was assigned to Ladder 62, suffers a traumatic head injury while fighting a fire, which leaves him severely brain-damaged and unable to walk or communicate.

Season 7
Season 7 is the final season and deals with Janet's fifth pregnancy, and the unlikely reconciliation and friendship between Sheila and Janet. When Tommy gives an interview about Jimmy to a news reporter, the reporter asks cheap-shot questions which lead Tommy to go on a rant involving swearing and obscene gestures on national television, leading to Tommy's indefinite suspension. Following the interview, Franco considers leaving the firehouse before his own life becomes too tainted. After Franco gets into a fight with Needles, he gets into a fight with Tommy. Tommy's suspension was later lifted with Sheila's help, as well as Tommy's hockey opponents on the NYPD who have dirt on the reporter.

Tommy walks his daughter Colleen down the aisle (alongside Teddy) as she marries Black Sean. Moments later, Janet and Tommy renew their vows after Tommy promises to quit drinking, smoking, and reluctantly retire from active firefighting and take a safer job in the FDNY. A day after the wedding, during one of Tommy's last tours of duty as a New York City Firefighter, the crew responds to a devastating four-alarm fire. They initially have a means of escape, but they hear children inside and Tommy attempts to run in after them (with the crew boldly following Tommy's backside). After the crew finds the children, they lose their point of extraction and try to find another way up to the roof. But after busting open the trapdoor, they find out the exit is sealed by a brick wall. Chief Nelson makes the call to evacuate the building, as the crew of Ladder 62 tries hard to find their way out. As Tommy goes up to find an escape, Lieutenant Lou Shea, Tommy's best friend, tells Tommy "Just go, we'll be fine, Trust me." Seconds later, an explosion guts the building.

It is revealed in the series finale that Lieutenant Ken ("Lou") Shea is killed in the explosion, with the other members of Ladder 62 surviving the explosion with relatively minor injuries. (The episode starts, however, as if it's the other way around, with Lou walking with a cane to give a eulogy for the other guys, only to find it to be a dream Tommy was having.) After he assumes the Lieutenant's position and completes the scene of the fire report, Tommy puts in his retirement papers and announces his intention to retire from active duty. An altercation at a playground to which he had taken Wyatt calls into question his ability to adapt to civilian life. After delivering his infant son at the family's apartment, Janet encourages Tommy to return to 62 Truck.

The final scenes following Lou's funeral show Tommy giving a passionate speech about courage and the call of being a firefighter to a group of FDNY recruits at the New York City Fire Academy, as the other members of 62 Truck look on. Tommy turns over the floor to his new commanding officer, the newly promoted Lieutenant Franco Rivera, who begins to berate the probies as Tommy drives off in his truck while having a conversation with Lou's ghost.

Controversial storyline
Leary's character was involved in a controversial storyline in Rescue Mes third season.  In the episode "Sparks", first aired on June 20, 2006, Tommy sexually forces himself on Janet. At first Janet fights back, but then appears to accept the situation and enjoys it.  Tommy smirks when he leaves the house.  Television reviewers, bloggers, and fans complained about the scene.  There was debate about whether Tommy had raped Janet. Janet's reaction and Tommy's expression caused as much reaction as the assault itself, with critics saying that it made rape look unimportant, unrealistic, and that Tommy's actions were condoned.  Leary did not apologize, saying that what happened between the characters was not rape, and that the scene made sense in the context of Tommy's dysfunctional relationship with Janet. In other episodes, Tommy is drugged and sexually assaulted by Sheila on two different occasions.

Peter Tolan, co-creator of Rescue Me and co-writer of the episode, discussed the storyline in a forum on the website Television Without Pity. He defended the scene, but acknowledged that some viewers may not have interpreted the scene in the way he and Leary had intended. John Landgraf, the president of FX, stated that he knew that the scene might be controversial when the scripts were being written. Leary stated that he was glad the show was on FX rather than a broadcast network that would not have supported the storyline.

References

External links

Sony Pictures Rescue Me Site
Sky One Rescue Me site
Rescue Me on TV Squad
FX Original Rescue Me site

Fictional alcohol abusers
Fictional firefighters
Catholicism in fiction
Fictional characters from New York City
Television characters introduced in 2004
Fictional bullies
Fictional rapists