Aiding and abetting the periodically frantic life in the Gildersleeve home was family cook and housekeeper Birdie Lee Coggins (Lillian Randolph). Although in the first season, under writer Levinson, Birdie was often portrayed as saliently less than bright, she slowly developed as the real brains and caretaker of the household under writers John Whedon, Sam Moore and Andy White. In many of the later episodes Gildersleeve has to acknowledge Birdie’s commonsense approach to some of his predicaments. By the early 1950s, Birdie was heavily depended on by the rest of the family in fulfilling many of the functions of the household matriarch, whether it be giving sound advice to an adolescent Leroy or tending Marjorie’s children.

By the late 1940s, Marjorie slowly matures to a young woman of marrying age. During the 9th season (September 1949-June 1950) Marjorie meets and marries (May 10) Walter “Bronco” Thompson (Richard Crenna), star football player at the local college. The event was popular enough that Look devoted five pages in its May 23, 1950 issue to the wedding. After living in the same household for a few years with their twin babies Ronnie and Linda, the newlyweds move next door to keep the expanding Gildersleeve clan close together.

Leroy, aged 10–11 during most of the 1940s, is the all-American boy who grudgingly practices his piano lessons, gets bad report cards, fights with his friends and cannot remember to not slam the door. Although he is loyal to his Uncle Mort, he is always the first to deflate his ego with a well-placed “Ha!!!” or “What a character!” Beginning in the Spring of 1949, he finds himself in junior high and is at last allowed to grow up, establishing relationships with the girls in the Bullard home across the street. From an awkward adolescent who hangs his head, kicks the ground and giggles whenever Brenda Knickerbocker comes near, he transforms himself overnight (November 28, 1951) into a more mature young man when Babs Winthrop (both girls played by Barbara Whiting) approaches him about studying together. From then on, he branches out with interests in driving, playing the drums and dreaming of a musical career.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Gildersleeve

Duration : 1:29:31

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The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California.

The LAPD has been copiously fictionalized in numerous movies, novels and television shows throughout its history. The department has also been associated with a number of controversies, mainly concerned with racial animosity, police brutality and police corruption.

radio show Calling All Cars hired LAPD radio dispacher Jesse Rosenquist to be the voice of the dispatcher. Rosenquist was already famous because home radios could tune into early police radio frequencies. As the first police radio dispatcher presented to the public ear, his was the voice that actors went to when called upon for a radio dispatcher role.

The iconic television series Dragnet, with LAPD Detective Joe Friday as the primary character, was the first major media representation of the department. Real LAPD operations inspired Jack Webb to create the series and close cooperation with department officers let him make it as realistic as possible, including authentic police equipment and sound recording on-site at the police station.

Due to Dragnet’s popularity, LAPD Chief Parker “became, after J. Edgar Hoover, the most well known and respected law enforcement official in the nation”. In the 1960s, when the LAPD under Chief Thomas Reddin expanded its community relations division and began efforts to reach out to the African-American community, Dragnet followed suit with more emphasis on internal affairs and community policing than solving crimes, the show’s previous mainstay.

Several prominent representations of the LAPD and its officers in television and film include Adam-12, Blue Streak, Blue Thunder, Boomtown, The Closer, Colors, Crash, Columbo, Dark Blue, Die Hard, End of Watch, Heat, Hollywood Homicide, Hunter, Internal Affairs, Jackie Brown, L.A. Confidential, Lakeview Terrace, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Life, Numb3rs, The Shield, Southland, Speed, Street Kings, SWAT, Training Day and the Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour and Terminator film series. The LAPD is also featured in the video games Midnight Club II, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, L.A. Noire and Call of Juarez: The Cartel.

The LAPD has also been the subject of numerous novels. Elizabeth Linington used the department as her backdrop in three different series written under three different names, perhaps the most popular being those novel featuring Det. Lt. Luis Mendoza, who was introduced in the Edgar-nominated Case Pending. Joseph Wambaugh, the son of a Pittsburgh policeman, spent fourteen years in the department, using his background to write novels with authentic fictional depictions of life in the LAPD. Wambaugh also created the Emmy-winning TV anthology series Police Story. Wambaugh was also a major influence on James Ellroy, who wrote several novels about the Department set during the 1940s and 1950s, the most famous of which are probably The Black Dahlia, fictionalizing the LAPD’s most famous “cold case”, and L.A. Confidential, which was made into a film of the same name. Both the novel and the film chronicled mass-murder and corruption inside and outside the force during the Parker era. Critic Roger Ebert indicates that the film’s characters (from the 1950s) “represent the choices ahead for the LAPD”: assisting Hollywood limelight, aggressive policing with relaxed ethics, and a “straight arrow” approach.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAPD

Duration : 1:28:39

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http://thefilmarchive.org/ DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RT7TA6/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=doc06-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B002RT7TA6

During the 1948 Israel War of Independence, International Red Cross reports raised suspicion that the Jewish Haganah militia had released Salmonella typhi bacteria into the water supply for the city of Acre, causing an outbreak of typhoid among the inhabitants. Egyptian troops later claimed to have captured disguised Haganah soldiers near wells in Gaza, whom they executed for allegedly attempting another attack. Israel denies these allegations.

During the Cold War, US conscientious objectors were used as consenting test subjects for biological agents in a program known as Operation Whitecoat. There were also many unpublicized tests carried out on the public during the Cold War.

Considerable research on the topic was performed by the United States (see US Biological Weapon Testing), the Soviet Union, and probably other major nations throughout the Cold War era, though it is generally believed that biological weapons were never used after World War II. This view was challenged by China and North Korea, who accused the United States of germ warfare in the Korean War (1950–1953).

Cuba has also accused the United States of spreading human and animal disease on their island nation.

At the time of the Korean War the United States had only weaponized one agent, brucellosis (“Agent US”), which is caused by Brucella suis. The original weaponized form used the M114 bursting bomblet in M33 cluster bombs.

While the specific form of the biological bomb was classified until some years after the Korean War, in the various exhibits of biological weapons that Korea alleged were dropped on their country nothing resembled an M114 bomblet. There were ceramic containers that had some similarity to Japanese weapons used against the Chinese in World War II, developed by Unit 731.

Some of the Unit 731 personnel were imprisoned by the Soviets, and would have been a potential source of information on Japanese weaponization. The head of Unit 731, Lieutenant General Shiro Ishii, was granted immunity from war crimes prosecution in exchange for providing information to the United States on the Unit’s activities.

The Korean War allegations also stressed the use of disease vectors, such as fleas, which, again, were probably a legacy of Japanese biological warfare efforts. The United States initiated its weaponization efforts with disease vectors in 1953, focused on Plague-fleas, EEE-mosquitoes, and yellow fever – mosquitoes (OJ-AP). However, US medical scientists in occupied Japan undertook extensive research on insect vectors, with the assistance of former Unit 731 staff, as early as 1946.

The United States Air Force was not satisfied with the operational qualities of the M114/US and labeled it an interim item until the United States Army Chemical Corps could deliver a superior weapon. The Air Force also changed its plans and wanted lethal biologicals.

The Chemical Corps then initiated a crash program to weaponize anthrax (N) in the E61 1/2-lb hour-glass bomblet. Though the program was successful in meeting its development goals, the lack of validation on the infectivity of anthrax stalled standardization.

Around 1950 the Chemical Corps also initiated a program to weaponize tularemia (UL). Shortly after the E61/N failed to make standardization, tularemia was standardized in the 3.4″ M143 bursting spherical bomblet. This was intended for delivery by the MGM-29 Sergeant missile warhead and could produce 50% infection over a 7-square-mile (18 km2) area.

Unlike anthrax, tularemia had a demonstrated infectivity with human volunteers (Operation Whitecoat). Furthermore, although tularemia is treatable by antibiotics, treatment does not shorten the course of the disease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriological_warfare

Duration : 1:21:22

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January 8, 2013

In December 2012, Biden was named by Obama to head the Gun Violence Task Force, created to address the causes of gun violence in the United States in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Later that month, during the final days before the country fell off the “fiscal cliff”, Biden’s relationship with McConnell once more proved important as the two negotiated a deal that led to the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 being passed at the start of 2013. It made permanent much of the Bush tax cuts but raised rates on upper income levels.

The debt ceiling was increased on February 12, 2010, to $14.294 trillion. On April 15, 2011, Congress finally passed the 2011 United States federal budget, authorizing federal government spending for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2011, with a deficit of $1.48 trillion, without voting to increase the debt ceiling. The two Houses of Congress were unable to agree on a revision of the debt ceiling in mid-2011, resulting in the United States debt-ceiling crisis. The impasse was resolved with the passing on August 2, 2011, the deadline for a default by the U.S. government on its debt, of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which immediately increased the debt ceiling to $14.694 trillion, required a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment, and established several complex mechanisms to further increase the debt ceiling and reduce federal spending.

On September 8, 2011, one of the complex mechanisms to further increase the debt ceiling took place as the Senate defeated a resolution to block a $500 billion automatic increase. The Senate’s action allowed the debt ceiling to increase to $15.194 trillion, as agreed upon in the Budget Control Act. This was the third increase in the debt ceiling in 19 months, the fifth increase since President Obama took office, and the twelfth increase in 10 years. The August 2 Act also created the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction for the purpose of developing a set of proposals by November 23, 2011, to reduce federal spending by $1.2 trillion. The Act requires both houses of Congress to convene an “up-or-down” vote on the proposals as a whole by December 23, 2011. The Joint Select Committee met for the first time on September 8, 2011.

The debt ceiling was raised once more on January 30, 2012, to a new high of $16.394 trillion.

At midnight on Dec. 31, 2012, a major provision of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) is scheduled to go into effect. The crucial part of the Act provided for a Joint Select Committee of Congressional Democrats and Republicans — the so-called ‘Supercommittee ‘— to produce bipartisan legislation by late November 2012 that would decrease the U.S. deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. To do so, the committee agreed to implement by law — if no other deal was reached before Dec. 31 — massive government spending cuts as well as tax increases or a return to tax levels from previous years. These are the elements that make up the ‘United States fiscal cliff.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_ceiling

Duration : 0:50:21

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http://thefilmarchive.org/

January 25, 2011

The 2011 State of the Union Address was a speech given by President Barack Obama at 9 p.m. EST on January 25, 2011, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives. In this joint session Obama outlined his “vision for an America that’s more determined, more competitive, better positioned for the future—an America where we out-innovate, we out-educate, we out-build the rest of the world; where we take responsibility for our deficits; where we reform our government to meet the demands of a new age.”

According to a White House fact sheet published by NMD Newswire US-President Obama underscored in his 2011 State of the Union Address “the need to maintain America’s leadership in a rapidly changing world so that our economy is competitive — growing and working for all Americans.” In order to achieve this Obama outlined “a plan to help the United States win the future by out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building our global competition. At the same time, the President understands the need to reform the way our government does business and take responsibility for our deficit – by investing in what makes America stronger and cutting what doesn’t.”

Revenue/savings

A five-year freeze in domestic spending projected to save $400 billion over the next decade.
Elimination of billions in tax breaks for oil companies. The president has previously sought to bring in more than $36 billion over the next decade through tax increases on oil and gas companies, but so far has been unable to win congressional support.
Reductions in health care costs, including Medicare and Medicaid. Obama said he’s willing to consider medical malpractice reform to “rein in frivolous lawsuits” and presumably drive down health care costs to the government in return. Though that proposal so far has not moved far beyond talking points, the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation in 2009 estimated that tort reform could reduce federal government health care costs by $41 billion over 10 years.
Reform for Social Security. Obama did not offer specifics.
Ending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans once the latest extension expires in two years. Before the rate was extended, the Obama administration estimated it would cost $700 billion over the next decade.
A proposal to “merge, consolidate and reorganize the federal government.” Obama said he will submit that proposal to Congress “in the coming months.”
A ban on congressional earmarks.
A proposal to lower the corporate tax rate. Obama pitched this as part of a broader effort to simplify the tax code—he pledged the changes would not add to the deficit

Expenses

Pledge to provide 80 percent of Americans with high-speed rail access in 25 years.
Pledge to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
Pledge to have 80 percent of the country’s electricity come from clean-energy sources by 2035.
New investment in biomedical research, information technology and clean-energy technology.
A continuation of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top incentive program offering competitive federal grants to local school systems. Bruce Randolph School was mentioned as a success.
A call to “redouble” efforts to repair America’s aging roads and bridges.
A call to make a $10,000 tuition tax credit permanent.

Other topics and goals

A challenge to pursue innovation in “our generations’ Sputnik moment.”
Replace No Child Left Behind with another form of education reform. A good amount of time was directed towards education during the address.
The President announced that he will be taking a trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador in the spring, to sign trade deals, which will help create tens of thousands of new jobs.
Remain committed to the War in Afghanistan, the War on Terror, and on pressuring regimes like Iran, which is pursuing nuclear weapons, and North Korea, which has nuclear weapons.
Continue alliance with the United Kingdom, Israel, and Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_State_of_the_Union_Address

Duration : 1:7:31

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