News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.

Etymology

One theory claims that the English word "news" developed in the 14th century as a special use of the plural form of "new". In Middle English, the equivalent word was ''newes'', like the French ''nouvelles'' and the German ''neues''. Similar developments are found in the Slavic languages – the Czech and Slovak ''noviny'' (from ''nový'', "new"), the cognate Polish ''nowiny'' and Russian ''novosti'' – and in the Celtic languages: the Welsh ''newyddion'' (from ''newydd'') and the Cornish ''nowodhow'' (from ''nowydh'').

History

Before the invention of newspapers in the early 17th century, official government bulletins and edicts were circulated at times in some centralized empires.

The first documented use of an organized courier service for the diffusion of written documents is in Egypt, where Pharaohs used couriers for the diffusion of their decrees in the territory of the State (2400 BC). This practice almost certainly has roots in the much older practice of oral messaging and may have been built on a pre-existing infrastructure.

In Ancient Rome, ''Acta Diurna'', or government announcement bulletins, were made public by Julius Caesar. They were carved in metal or stone and posted in public places.

In China, early government-produced news sheets, called tipao, circulated among court officials during the late Han dynasty (second and third centuries AD). Between 713 and 734, the ''Kaiyuan Za Bao'' ("Bulletin of the Court") of the Chinese Tang Dynasty published government news; it was handwritten on silk and read by government officials. In 1582 there was the first reference to privately published newssheets in Beijing, during the late Ming Dynasty;

In Early modern Europe, increased cross-border interaction created a rising need for information which was met by concise handwritten newssheets. In 1556, the government of Venice first published the monthly ''Notizie scritte'', which cost one gazetta. These avvisi were handwritten newsletters and used to convey political, military, and economic news quickly and efficiently to Italian cities (1500–1700) — sharing some characteristics of newspapers though usually not considered true newspapers. Due to low literacy rates, news was at times disseminated by town criers.

Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, from 1605, is recognized as the world's first newspaper.

The oldest news agency is the Agence France-Presse (AFP). It was founded in 1835 by a Parisian translator and advertising agent, Charles-Louis Havas as Agence Havas.

In modern times, printed news had to be phoned in to a newsroom or brought there by a reporter, where it was typed and either transmitted over wire services or edited and manually set in type along with other news stories for a specific edition. Today, the term "breaking news" has become trite as commercial broadcasting United States cable news services that are available 24-hours a day use live satellite technology to bring current events into consumers' homes as the event occurs. Events that used to take hours or days to become common knowledge in towns or in nations are fed instantaneously to consumers via radio, television, mobile phone, and the Internet.

Newspapers

Most large cities in the United States historically had morning and afternoon newspapers. As the media evolved and news outlets increased to the point of near over-saturation, most afternoon newspapers were shut down. Morning newspapers have been gradually losing circulation, according to reports advanced by the papers themselves. Commonly, news content should contain the "Five Ws" (who, what, when, where, why, and also how) of an event. There should be no questions remaining. Newspapers normally place hard news stories on the first pages, so the most important information is at the beginning. Busy readers can read as little or as much as they desire. Local stations and networks with a set format must take news stories and break them down into the most important aspects due to time constraints. Cable news channels such as BBC News, Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN, are able to take advantage of a story, sacrificing other, decidedly less important stories, and giving as much detail about breaking news as possible.

News organizations are often expected to aim for objectivity; reporters claim to try to cover all sides of an issue without bias, as compared to commentators or analysts, who provide opinion or personal point-of-view. Several governments impose certain constraints or police news organizations against bias. In the United Kingdom, for example, limits are set by the government agency Ofcom, the Office of Communications. Both newspapers and broadcast news programs in the United States are generally expected to remain neutral and avoid bias except for clearly indicated editorial articles or segments. Many single-party governments have operated state-run news organizations, which may present the government's views.

Even in those situations where objectivity is expected, it is difficult to achieve, and individual journalists may fall foul of their own personal bias, or succumb to commercial or political pressure. Similarly, the objectivity of news organizations owned by conglomerated corporations fairly may be questioned, in light of the natural incentive for such groups to report news in a manner intended to advance the conglomerate's financial interests. Individuals and organizations who are the subject of news reports may use news management techniques to try to make a favourable impression. Because each individual has a particular point of view, it is recognized that there can be no absolute objectivity in news reporting.

Newsworthiness

Newsworthiness is defined as a subject having sufficient relevance to the public or a special audience to warrant press attention or coverage.

In some countries and at some points in history, what news media and the public have considered "newsworthy" has met different definitions, such as the notion of news values. For example, mid-twentieth-century news reporting in the United States focused on political and local issues with important socio-economic impacts, such as the landing of a living person on the moon or the cold war. More recently, the focus similarly remains on political and local issues; however, the news mass media now comes under criticism for over-emphasis on "non-news" and "gossip" such as celebrities' personal social issues, local issues of little merit, as well as biased sensationalism of political topics such as terrorism and the economy. The dominance of celebrity and social news, the blurring of the boundary between news and reality shows and other popular culture, and the advent of citizen journalism may suggest that the nature of ‘news’ and news values are evolving and that traditional models of the news process are now only partially relevant. Newsworthiness does not only depend on the topic, but also the presentation of the topic and the selection of information from that topic. Daily trends update

New ecology of news

“Everything we thought we once knew about journalism needs to be rethought in the Digital Age”, professor of Sociology and Communication Michael Schudson points out. Today the work of journalism can be done from anywhere and done well. It requires no more than a reporter and a laptop. In that way, journalistic authority seems to have become more individual- and less institution-based. But does the individual reporter always have to be an actual journalist? Or can journalistic work be done from anywhere and by anyone? These are questions that refers to the core of journalistic practice and the definition of “news” itself. As Schudson has given emphasis to, the answer is not easily found; “the ground journalists walk upon is shaking, and the experience for both those who work in the field and those on the outside studying it is dizzying”.

Schudson has identified the following six specific areas where the ecology of news in his opinion has changed: 1. The line between the reader and writer has blurred 2. The distinction among tweet, blog post, newspaper story, magazine article, and book as blurred 3. The line between professionals and amateurs has blurred, and a variety of “pro-am” relationships has emerged 4. The boundaries delineating for-profit, public, and non-profit media have blurred, and the cooperation across these models of financing has developed 5. Within commercial news organizations, the line between the news room and the business office has blurred 6. The line between old media and new media has blurred, practically beyond recognition

These alterations inevitably has fundamental ramifications for the contemporary ecology of news. “The boundaries of journalism, which just a few years ago seemed relatively clear, and permanent, have become less distinct, and this blurring, while potentially the foundation of progress even as it is the source of risk, has given rise to a new set of journalistic principles and practices”, Schudson puts it. It is indeed complex, but it seems to be the future.

See also

References

Further reading

Stephens, Mitchell. "The History of News - 3rd Ed" Oxford University Press, New York, 2007.

External links

Category:Television terminology

af:Nuus ar:أخبار arc:ܛܐܒܐ roa-rup:Evenimente di tora zh-min-nan:Sin-bûn be:Навіны be-x-old:Навіны bg:Новини bn:সংবাদ ca:Notícia cv:Хыпарсем ceb:Balita cs:Zpravodajství cy:Newyddion de:Nachrichten es:Noticia eo:Novaĵo fa:اخبار fo:Núverandi hendingar fr:Actualité fy:Nijs ko:뉴스 ilo:Agdama a paspasamak id:Berita os:Ног хабæрттæ is:Frétt it:Notizia he:אקטואליה ka:ახალი ამბები sw:Habari lo:Current events la:Nuntius lv:Ziņas lb:Aktualitéit lt:Naujienos li:In 't nuujs hu:Hír mg:Current events mr:बातमी ms:Berita mn:Мэдээ na:Imwin nl:Nieuws ja:ニュース no:Nyhet nn:Nyhende oc:Actualitat or:ସମ୍ବାଦ om:News pap:Eventonan aktual pt:Jornalismo#Notícia ro:Știre ru:Новости scn:Nutizzi simple:News sk:Aktuality sr:Вест fi:Uutinen sv:Nyhet tl:Balita ta:செய்தி th:ข่าว tr:Haber uk:Новини ur:خبریں vi:Tin tức vo:Jenots nuik fiu-vro:Miä sünnüs wa:Wikinoveles yi:נייעס zh-yue:新聞 zh:新闻

Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
Name	William Norman Grigg
Birth date	February 04, 1963
Birth place	Burley, Idaho
Residence	Payette, Idaho
Other names	"Blarney con Carne""Cuchulain Cuauhtemoc"
Occupation	Editor, author
Religion	Mormon (–2003)non-denominational Christian (2003–present)
Spouse	Korrin Weeks Grigg }}

William Norman Grigg (born February 4, 1963) has authored several books from a Constitutionalist perspective. He used to be a senior editor of ''The New American'' magazine.

Biography

Born in Burley, Idaho on February 4, 1963, Grigg graduated from Utah State University, majoring in political science. He served as ''Provo Daily Herald'' columnist and Washington journalist before "seeing the light" and starting work in 1993 as a correspondent, researcher, and senior editor for ''The New American'', the official biweekly magazine of the John Birch Society (JBS). Based at the JBS's Appleton, Wisconsin, office, Grigg covered United Nations summits and conferences from 1994 to 2001, and wrote ''Freedom on the Altar'' (1995), a study of UN family policy.

Associate Kevin Bearly, a minister and former police officer, conducted JBS summer youth camps in the 1990s at which Grigg and others promoted conservative causes. Grigg has also spoken frequently on conspiracies and Clinton impeachment in Las Vegas, Colorado Springs, and Salt Lake City. Grigg was associate director for Activate Congress To Improve Our Nation (ACTION), a committee incorporated by JBS to promote the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, with chapters in 50 states.

Split with the John Birch Society

In 2005, Grigg called for the resignation of the JBS president and CEO, G. Vance Smith, who had promoted two sons to leadership positions; Smith was narrowly deposed in a September 2005 Board of Incorporators vote. The new CEO, Arthur R. Thompson, and other leaders initiated a staff blog to which Grigg contributed heavily.

Grigg's writing reflects views heavily influenced by Constitutionalism, libertarianism, and anti-communism; Ward Churchill favorably quoted Grigg's observation that totalitarianism is defined by abundance and unintelligibility of laws. While Grigg's polemical style in print and blogs has been termed "verbal pugilism", ''The New American'' uses a modified AP Stylebook, avoiding overuse of emotional or satirical terms. Grigg is also younger than the other senior JBS officials. Grigg's articles as edited and accepted for publication by ''The New American'' have been regarded as less emotionally charged than those he has submitted to other publications; he has written for LewRockwell.com since June 2004, and has contributed increasingly to ''The American Conservative'', notably in its February 12, 2007 issue.

The new JBS leadership launched the U.S. immigration issue as a major campaign in 2005. Grigg, of Mexican and Irish descent, had often in JBS publications called for controls on immigration. His ''New American'' article "Revolution in America", a study of immigration problems and issues, was reprinted for its "current and incisive" rhetorical qualities by a McGraw-Hill college text. Grigg has promoted the concept that "white Leninists" desired to send "millions of Mexicans across the border with the idea of having each kill 10 Americans".

But by 2006 Grigg had decided that the immigration issue had been overplayed by the Republican Party as a driving cause to keep big-government, pro-war Republicans in control of the U.S. Congress. He argued that an attack on personal liberties by the George W. Bush administration and the Republican Party was a more serious impediment to personal liberty, charging the administration with committing torture, detention without trial, warrantless surveillance, and wars of empire. Grigg considered a "wave" of media attention on immigration to be "nothing more than the swirl in the bowl after the chain has been pulled" on the Republican Party.

Grigg formed a personal blog, "Pro Libertate", in August 2006, saying that JBS leadership had deleted some of his posts from their blog, such as a June comparison of immigration debate to professional wrestling. He stated that he was fired by JBS on October 3, 2006, officially for unstated reasons.

Welch Foundation

The Robert W. Welch Foundation (Right Source Online), founded in 1997 by former California JBS members, adopted Grigg's Pro Libertate blog and made him a weekly cohost (December 30, 2005 – May 4, 2007) on the nationally syndicated afternoon radio show "The Right Source" with Kevin Shannon (Bearly's pseudonym). It also launched the ''Pro Libertate'' e-zine, where Grigg brought in writers such as James Bovard and fellow LewRockwell.com columnist Scott Horton. It commissioned Grigg's 2007 book alleging Bush and Clinton attacks on liberty, ''Liberty In Eclipse''.

Other activities

Grigg has recorded the radio spot "A Liberty Minute" weekdays since February 19, 2007, which, since July 2, has used the tagline, "Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free" (Galatians 5:1).

Grigg is also a studio musician who served as lead guitarist in the Wisconsin band "Slick Willie and the Calzones" until his 2005 move to Idaho. The band's 2001 CD, ''Green and Gold'', featured rock, country, and jazz homages to the Green Bay Packers, such as the novelty song "Tailgate Polka".

Grigg and his wife Korrin have six children. He cited his wife's 2006 illness as a reason for suspending his secondary guitar activities.

Books

References

External links

Will Grigg's Liberty Minutes

Pro Libertate blog

Pro Libertate e-zine

Archives on LewRockwell.com

Notes on the Jerry Seinfeld Society

Bio at The John Birch Society

William Grigg at The American View Forum

Category:1963 births Category:American Christians Category:American libertarians Category:Former Latter Day Saints Category:John Birch Society Category:Living people Category:American writers of Mexican descent Category:People from Burley, Idaho Category:Utah State University alumni Category:Hispanic and Latino American journalists

da:William Norman Grigg

Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
Name	William Norman
Birth date	1832
Death date	13 March 1896 (aged 63-64)
Birth place	Warrington, Lancashire
Death place	Salford, Lancashire
Placeofburial	Weaste Cemetery, Salford
Allegiance
Rank	Corporal
Branch
Unit	7th Regiment of Foot
Battles	Crimean WarUmbeyla Campaign
Awards	Victoria Cross
Laterwork	}}

William Norman VC (1832 – 13 March 1896) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Details

Norman was about 22 years old, and a private in the 7th Regiment (later The Royal Fusiliers), British Army during the Crimean War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 19 December 1854 at Sebastopol, in the Crimea, Private Norman was placed on single sentry duty some distance in front of the advanced sentries of an outlying picquet in the White Horse Ravine, a post of much danger and requiring great vigilance. The Russian picquet was posted about 300 yards in front of him, and three Russians came reconnoitring under cover of the brushwood. Private Norman single-handed, took two of them prisoner without alarming the Russian picquet.

Further information

He later served in the Umbeyla Campaign and achieved the rank of corporal. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Fusiliers Museum in the Tower of London, England.

References

"Elegant Extracts" - The Royal Fusiliers Recipients of the VC (J.P. Kelleher, 2001)

Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)

The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)

External links

Location of grave and VC medal ''(Manchester)''

Category:1832 births Category:1896 deaths Category:People from Warrington Category:Royal Fusiliers soldiers Category:British recipients of the Victoria Cross Category:Crimean War recipients of the Victoria Cross Category:British Army personnel of the Crimean War Category:British military personnel of the Umbeyla Campaign

Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
name	Jimmy Hoffa
birth name	James Riddle Hoffa
birth date	February 14, 1913
birth place	Brazil, Indiana, United States
disappeared date
disappeared place	Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan, United States
disappeared status	Declared dead in absentiaJuly 30, 1982
occupation	Labor union leader, author
spouse	Josephine Hoffa, ''nee'' Poszywak
children	James P. HoffaBarbara Ann Crancer }}

James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975, declared legally dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader and author.

Hoffa was involved with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, as an organizer from 1932 to 1975. He served as the union's General President from 1958 to 1971. He secured the first national agreement for teamsters' rates in 1964, and played a major role in the growth and development of the union, which eventually became the largest single union in the United States, with over 1.5 million members during his terms as its leader. Hoffa, who had been convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, and fraud in 1964, was imprisoned in 1967, sentenced to 13 years, after exhausting the appeal process. It was not until mid-1971 that he officially resigned the Teamsters' presidency, an action that was part of a pardon agreement with U.S. president Richard Nixon, in order to facilitate his release later that year. Nixon blocked Hoffa from union activities until 1980; Hoffa was attempting to overturn this order and to regain support.

Hoffa was last seen in late July 1975, outside the Machus Red Fox, a suburban Detroit restaurant.

Early life

Hoffa was born in Brazil, Indiana, on February 14, 1913. His paternal ancestors were partially "Pennsylvania Dutch" (German). His father, a coal miner, died in 1920 when Hoffa was seven years old, and the family moved to Detroit in 1924, where Hoffa was raised and lived the rest of his life. Hoffa left school at age 14, and began full-time manual labor to help support his family.

Hoffa began union organizational work at the grassroots level through his employment as a teenager with a grocery chain, which paid substandard wages and offered poor working conditions with minimal job security. The workers were displeased with this situation and tried to organize a union to better their lot. Although Hoffa was young, his bravery and approachability in this role impressed fellow workers, and he rose to a leadership position. By 1932, after being dismissed from the grocery chain—in part because of his union activities—Hoffa joined and became involved with Local 299 of the Teamsters in Detroit.

He married Josephine Poszywak in 1936, and bought a modest home in Detroit. The couple had two children: a daughter, Barbara Ann, and a son, James. The Hoffa family later had a summer property at Lake Orion, Michigan, north of Detroit.

Growth of the Teamsters

The Teamsters union, founded in 1903, had only 75,000 members in 1933. As a result of Hoffa's work with other union leaders to consolidate local union trucker groups into regional sections and then into one gigantic national body—work that Hoffa ultimately completed over a period of two decades—membership grew to 170,000 members by 1936. Three years later, there were 420,000; and the number grew steadily during World War II and through the post-war boom to top a million members by 1951.

The Teamsters organized truck drivers and warehousemen first throughout the Midwest, and then nationwide. Hoffa played a major role in the union's skillful use of "quickie strikes", secondary boycotts, and other means of leveraging union strength at one company, to then move to organize workers, and finally to win contract demands at other companies. This process, which took several years from the early 1930s, eventually brought the Teamsters to a position of being one of the most powerful unions in the United States.

Hoffa's rise to power

Hoffa worked to defend the Teamsters unions from raids by other unions, including the CIO, and extended the Teamsters' influence in the Midwestern states, from the late 1930s to the late 1940s. Although he never actually worked as a truck driver, he became president of Local 299 in December 1946. He then rose to lead the combined group of Detroit-area locals shortly afterwards, and advanced to become head of the Michigan Teamsters groups sometime later. During this time, Hoffa obtained a deferment from military service in World War II, by successfully making a case for his union leadership skills being of more value to the nation, by keeping freight running smoothly to assist the war effort.

By 1952, Hoffa rose to national vice-president of the Teamsters' IBT union, which was on its way to becoming the largest and most powerful single union in the United States. At the IBT convention in Los Angeles, he was selected by incoming president Dave Beck, successor to Daniel J. Tobin, who had been president since 1907. Hoffa quelled an internal revolt against Beck by securing Central States region support for Beck at the convention. In exchange, Beck made Hoffa a vice-president.

The IBT moved its headquarters from Indianapolis to Washington, DC, taking over a large office building in the US capital in 1955. IBT staff was also enlarged during this period, with many lawyers hired to assist with contract negotiations. Following his 1952 election as vice-president, Hoffa began spending more of his time away from Detroit; either in Washington or traveling around the US for his expanded responsibilities.

Teamsters Union Presidency

Hoffa took over the presidency of the Teamsters in 1957, at the convention in Miami Beach, Florida. His predecessor, Dave Beck, had appeared before the John Little McClellan-led US Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor or Management Field in March 1957, and took the Fifth Amendment 140 times in response to questions. Beck was under indictment when the IBT convention took place, and was convicted on fraud charges later that year at a trial held in Seattle, and imprisoned.

Teamsters union expelled

The 1957 AFL-CIO convention, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, voted by a ratio of nearly 5-1 to expel the IBT from the larger union group. President George Meany gave an emotional speech, advocating removal of the IBT, and stating that he could only agree to further affiliation of the Teamsters if they would dismiss Hoffa as their president. Meany demanded a response from Hoffa, who replied through the press, "We'll see." At the time, IBT was bringing in over $750,000 annually to the AFL-CIO.

National Master Freight Agreement

Following his re-election as president in 1961, Hoffa worked to expand the union. In 1964, he succeeded in bringing virtually all over-the-road truck drivers in North America under a single national master-freight agreement, in what may have been his finest achievement in a lifetime of union activity. He then tried to bring the airline workers and other transport employees into the union, with limited success. During this period, he was facing immense personal strain as he was under investigation, on trial, launching appeals of convictions, or imprisoned for virtually all of the 1960s.

Prison sentence

In 1964, Hoffa was convicted in Chattanooga, Tennessee, of attempted bribery of a grand juror and was sentenced to eight years. This case resulted from an earlier matter, the Test Fleet case, which had been held in Nashville, Tennessee. Hoffa was implicated by one of his close associates, Edward Grady Partin, a Louisiana teamster, who went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with the information that led to Hoffa's conviction. Hoffa was also convicted of fraud later that same year for improper use of the Teamsters' pension fund, in a trial held in Chicago. He received a five-year sentence to run consecutively to his bribery sentence. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who had pursued Hoffa for years—since the John Little McClellan-led U.S. Senate Labor industry hearings of 1957—stepped down as Attorney General in 1964, after the second Hoffa conviction, to run successfully for the New York seat in the November 1964 United States Senate election.

Hoffa spent the next three years unsuccessfully appealing his 1964 convictions. Appeals filed by his chief counsel, St. Louis defense attorney Morris Shenker, reached the U.S. Supreme Court. He began serving his sentences in March 1967 at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. Just before he entered prison, Hoffa appointed Frank Fitzsimmons as acting Teamsters president. Fitzsimmons was a Hoffa loyalist, fellow Detroit resident, and a longtime member (since the 1930s) of Teamsters Local 299 in Detroit, who owed his own high position in large part to Hoffa's influence. Despite this, Fitzsimmons distanced himself from Hoffa's influence and control after 1967, to Hoffa's displeasure. Fitzsimmons also decentralized power somewhat within the Teamsters' union administration structure. During the Hoffa era, Hoffa had kept most power in his own hands.

Post prison

On December 23, 1971, less than five years into his 13-year sentence, Hoffa was released from the Lewisburg, Pennsylvania prison, when President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to time served. Hoffa had served nearly 58 months, or just over one-third of his original sentence. Following his release from prison, Hoffa was awarded a Teamsters' pension of $1.7 million, delivered in a one-time lump sum payment. This type of pension settlement had not occurred before with the Teamsters.

The IBT endorsed Richard Nixon, the Republican Party's candidate, in his presidential re-election bid in 1972; in prior elections, the IBT union had supported Democratic Party nominees. Suspicions were soon raised of a deal for Hoffa's release being connected with the IBT's support of Nixon in 1972. Following Nixon's resignation as president in disgrace over the Watergate scandal in August, 1974, Nixon avoided public life for over a year; his first public event was a charity fundraising golf tournament in California on October 9, 1975, at the La Costa Resort and Spa, which was heavily attended by Teamsters' leaders and associates, including IBT President Frank Fitzsimmons and Allen Dorfman; Hoffa had disappeared ten weeks earlier.

While glad to regain his freedom, Hoffa was displeased with the condition imposed on his release by President Nixon that restricted Hoffa from participating in union activities until 1980. He accused the Nixon administration senior figures, including Attorney General John N. Mitchell and White House Counsel Charles W. Colson, of depriving him of his rights by initiating this clause; though both Mitchell and Colson denied this. It was likely imposed upon Hoffa as the result of requests from senior Teamsters' leadership, although IBT President Frank Fitzsimmons also denied this.

Hoffa was planning to sue to invalidate the non-participation restriction, in order to reassert his power over the Teamsters; but he faced immense resistance to this course of action from many quarters, and had lost much of his earlier support, even in the Detroit area. As a result, he intended to begin his comeback at the local level, with Local 299 in Detroit, where he retained some influence.

In 1975, Hoffa was working on an autobiography titled ''Hoffa: The Real Story'', which was published a few months after his disappearance. He had earlier published a 1970 book titled ''The Trials of Jimmy Hoffa''.

Disappearance

Hoffa disappeared at, or sometime after, 2:45 pm on July 30, 1975, from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, a suburb of Detroit. According to what he had told others, he believed he was to meet there with two Mafia leaders—Anthony Giacalone from Detroit, and Anthony Provenzano. Provenzano was also a union leader with the Teamsters in New Jersey, and had earlier been quite close to Hoffa. Provenzano was a national vice-president with IBT from 1961, Hoffa's second term as Teamsters' president.

Upon Hoffa's failure to return home from the restaurant by late that evening, his wife called police to report him missing. When police arrived at the restaurant, they found Hoffa's car, but no sign of Hoffa himself, nor any indication of what had happened to him. Extensive investigations into the disappearance began immediately, and continued over the next several years by several law enforcement groups, including the FBI. However, the investigations failed to conclusively determine Hoffa's fate. For their part, Giacolone and Provenzano were each found not to have been in the vicinity of the restaurant that afternoon, and each of them denied that they had scheduled any meeting with Hoffa.

Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982, on the seventh anniversary of his disappearance.

Recent events

Hoffa's son, James P. Hoffa, is the Teamsters' current leader, serving since 1999 in that position. His daughter, Barbara Ann Crancer, currently serves as an associate circuit court judge in St. Louis, Missouri.

On May 17, 2006, acting on a tip, the FBI searched a farm in Milford Township, Michigan, for Hoffa's remains. Nothing was found. The farm had previously belonged to former Hoffa associate Rolland McMaster.

On June 16, 2006, the ''Detroit Free Press'' published in its entirety the so-called "Hoffex Memo", a 56-page report the FBI prepared for a January 1976 briefing on the case at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Although not claiming to conclusively establish the specifics of his disappearance, the memo indicates that law enforcement's belief is that Hoffa was murdered at the behest of organized crime figures who deemed his efforts to regain power within the Teamsters to be a threat to their control of the union's pension fund. The FBI has called the report the definitive account of what agents believe happened to Hoffa.

The television show ''MythBusters'' featured an episode involving the possible burial of Hoffa at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Ground-penetrating radar revealed no disturbances beneath the playing field. Giants Stadium has since been demolished.

Film and television

Hoffa was portrayed by Robert Blake in the 1983 TV-film ''Blood Feud'', Trey Wilson in the 1985 television miniseries ''Robert Kennedy & His Times'', and by Jack Nicholson in the 1992 film ''Hoffa''. In the 1978 film ''F.I.S.T.'', Sylvester Stallone portrays Johnny Kovak, a character based on Hoffa.

See also

American Mafia

List of people who disappeared mysteriously

References

Moldea, Dan. ''The Hoffa Wars: Teamsters, Rebels, Politicians and the Mob''. New York & London: Paddington Press, 1978. ISBN 0-448-22684-7.

Sloane, Arthur A. ''Hoffa'', MIT Press, 1991.

Further reading

''Jimmy Hoffa's Hot'', by John Bartlow Martin, 1959, Fawcett Publications, Greenwich, Conn.

''The Enemy Within: The McClellan Committee's Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa and Corrupt Labor Unions'', by Robert F. Kennedy, 1960, Harper and Brothers, New York.

''The State of the Unions'', by Paul Jacobs, 1963, Atheneum, New York.

''Tentacles of Power'', by Clark Mollenhoff, 1965, World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York.

''Hoffa! Ten Angels Swearing'', by Jim Clay, 1965, Beaverdam Books, Beaverdam, Va.

''Hoffa and the Teamsters: A Study of Union Power'', by Ralph James and Estelle James, 1965, Van Nostrand, New York.

''The Trials of Jimmy Hoffa'', by James R. Hoffa as told to Donald I. Rogers, 1970, Henry Regnery, Chicago.

''Kennedy Justice'', by Victor Navasky, 1971, Atheneum, New York.

''The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa'', by Walter Sheridan, 1972, Saturday Review Press, New York.

''Hoffa: The Real Story'', by James R. Hoffa as told to Oscar Fraley, 1975, Stein and Day, New York.

''The Strange Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa'', by Charles Ashman and Rebecca Sobel, 1976, Manor Books, New York.

''The Teamsters'', by Steven Brill, 1978, Simon & Schuster, New York, ISBN 0-671-22771-8.

''Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy'', by John H. Davis (author), 1989, McGraw-Hill, New York.

''Hoffa'', by Arthur A. Sloane, 1991, MIT Press, Boston, ISBN 0-262-19309-4.

''The Hoffa Wars: Teamsters, Rebels, Politicians and the Mob'', second edition, by Dan Moldea, 1993, SPI, New York.

''Mob Lawyer'', by Frank Ragano and Selwyn Raab, 1994, Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0-684-19568-2.

''Out of the Jungle: Jimmy Hoffa and the Remaking of the American Working Class'', by Thaddeus Russell, 2001, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, ISBN 0-375-41157-7

''Legacy of Secrecy'', by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann, trade paperback (updated) edition, 2009, Counterpoint, Berkeley, California, ISBN 978-1-58243-535-0.

External links

Category:1913 births Category:Missing people Category:People from Clay County, Indiana Category:People from Detroit, Michigan Category:American people of German descent Category:People convicted of bribery Category:American labor leaders Category:American labor union officials convicted of crimes Category:American memoirists Category:Presidents of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Category:Recipients of American presidential pardons Category:Unsolved deaths or murders Category:People declared dead in absentia Category:American people convicted of fraud Category:Abuse of the legal system

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Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
name	Nicholas Shaxson
birth date
birth place	Malawi
nationality	British
occupation	Author
notableworks	''Poisoned Wells'', ''Treasure Islands''
website	}}

Nicholas Shaxson (*1966) is a British author, journalist, tax dodger, and an Associate Fellow of Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London). He is best known for his investigative books ''Poisoned Wells'' (2007) and ''Treasure Islands'' (2011). He is a full-time writer and researcher for the Tax Justice Network, an expert-led group focused on tax and tax havens.

Biography

Shaxson was born in Malawi and has lived at various times in India, Brazil, England, Lesotho, Spain, Angola, South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands. Since 1993 he has written extensively on global business and politics for the Financial Times, Reuters, the Economist and its sister publication the Economist Intelligence Unit, International Affairs, Foreign Affairs, American Interest, the BBC, Africa Confidential, African Energy, and others. His areas of expertise are the politics and economics of oil-producing countries in the Gulf of Guinea, particularly Angola, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Shaxson currently lives with his partner and their two children in Zürich, Switzerland.

Bibliography

References

External links

Treasure Islands's website

"The City of London and its Tax Haven Empire": presentation by Nicholas Shaxson and Maurice Glasman at the LSE, 1 February 2011. Shaxson begins speaking approximately 2 min into the recording, and jointly answers questions after the 54 min mark.

Category:1966 births Category:Old Bedford Modernians Category:British non-fiction writers Category:Living people