Cllr Jim Hume MSP
Member of the Scottish Parliament for South of Scotland
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 May 2007
Personal details
Born	(1962-11-04) 4 November 1962 (age 49) Peebles, Tweeddale, Scottish Borders
Political party	Scottish Liberal Democrats
Relations	married
Alma mater	Edinburgh University
Website	[1]

Jim Hume MSP (born 4 November 1962) is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician and Member of the Scottish Parliament for the South of Scotland region since 2007.

Background[link]

Hume was born in Peebles but raised in Selkirkshire and currently lives on a farm in the valley of the Yarrow Water. His previous jobs include Chairman of "Environment and Land Use" for the National Farmers Union of Scotland and was President of Lothians and Borders NFU, with 1,300 members. He was very active during the Foot-and-mouth crisis throughout his whole term in the NFU. Before becoming an MSP, he was also on the board of Scottish Enterprise Borders, Chaired The Borders Foundation for Rural Sustainability and was a Trustee of The Borders Forest Trust.

Member of the Scottish Parliament[link]

He was elected to the Scottish Parliament to represent the South of Scotland region at the 2007 election. He was also elected councillor of the Galashiels and District region of Scottish Borders Council on the same night. He is the first ever Liberal Democrat MSP for the South of Scotland region since the Scottish Parliament was created in 1999.

Career timeline[link]

• 1967-1974: Yarrow Primary School
• 1974-1980: Selkirk High School
• 1983: Edinburgh School of Agriculture, Diploma in Agriculture
• 1997: University of Edinburgh, Masters in Business Administration (MBA)
• 1998–Present: Farmer, partner, John Hume and Son (farming firm, Sundhope Farm, Yarrow, Selkirk)
• 2004-2006: Director of the National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS) President of Lothian & Borders NFUS
• 2000-2006: Trustee Borders Forest Trust (BFT)
• 2000-2001: Trustee Borders Foundation for Rural Sustainability (BFRS)
• 2001-2007: Chairman Borders Foundation for Rural Sustainability
• 2003-2007: Director Scottish Enterprise Borders (SEB)
• 2005-2007: Member of Forestry Commission Scotland's South of Scotland Regional Forum.
• February 2007- 4 May 2007: Director of the National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS): Chairman of NFUS Environment & Land Use.
• 2007–Present: Member of the Scottish Parliament for South of Scotland
• 2007-2011: Scottish Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for the Environment
• 2007-2008: Member of The Scottish Parliament's Audit Committee
• 2008-2011: Member of The Scottish Parliament's European & External Relations Committee
• 2008-2011: Scottish Liberal Democrat Deputy Spokesperson on Environment, Rural Development and Energy
• 2009 - March 2011: Head of Scottish Parliamentary Campaigns
• 2011–Present: Scottish Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Rural Affairs, Environment, Climate Change, Housing and Transport
• 2011-Present:. Member of the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs, Climate Change & Environment Committee.
• 2011-Present: The Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs, Climate Change & Environment Committee's European Reporter.
• 2011-Present: Member of The European Union's Committee of Regions

External links[link]

• Jim Hume MSP official biography at the Scottish Parliament website
• Jim Hume MSP profile at the site of Scottish Liberal Democrats website
• Jim Hume MSP Jim Hume MSP Official Site
• BBC Profile

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William Richards Bennett, PC, OBC (born August 18, 1932), commonly known as Bill Bennett, was the 27th Premier of the Canadian province of British Columbia 1975–1986. He is a son of the former Premier, W. A. C. Bennett. He was a 3rd cousin, twice removed, of R.B. Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada.

Following his father's resignation, Bill Bennett was elected on September 7, 1973, as the British Columbia Social Credit League Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly for South Okanagan.

To distinguish him from his famous father, also named William - though usually called "W.A.C." in the media or "Ceece" by his friends^{[citation needed]} - he was usually called simply Bill Bennett. One media term coined to describe the younger Bennett was "Mini-Wac,"^{[citation needed]} derived from another of his father's nicknames, one created by his enemies but ultimately embraced by some supporters - "Wacky".

Leader of Social Credit Party[link]

He was elected the leader of the Socred Party in November 1973, at a convention in Whistler, British Columbia. This same convention also altered the name of the party to the British Columbia Social Credit Party. Bennett set about establishing a political organization modeled closely on Bill Davis's Ontario "Big Blue Machine." Bennett's organization was called the "Baby Blue Machine." He embraced a new coalition of Liberals, social conservatives, and the corporate sector, rather that appealing to the populist base as his father had done.

Premier of British Columbia[link]

He became premier of the province in the 1975 election when his party defeated the New Democratic Party of Premier David Barrett. In the election of December 11, 1979, the Social Credit Party was re-elected with a reduced majority, followed by another one in the 1983 election. He served until August 6, 1986.

His cabinet included a vast array of politicians new to the provincial scene who would soon become some of BC's most prominent political players. These included Grace McCarthy, Bill Vander Zalm, Garde Gardom and Rafe Mair.

Inspired by conservative economist Milton Friedman, his government passed a series of laws, known as the "Restraint" program, which slashed social services and gutted labour laws in response to economic woes in 1983, provoking a general strike which further crippled the economy. To justify massive education cuts, Bennett blamed many of the province's difficulties squarely on the shoulders of public school teachers, an argument that deeply split the electorate. In several television interviews, he labeled those who disagreed with his policies as "Bad British Columbians."

On the other hand, his ostensibly anti-socialist government ironically spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bring the 1986 World Exposition to Vancouver, distributed free shares to British Columbians for the British Columbia Resources Investment Corporation or BCRIC, and spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing the Coquihalla Highway with the controversial^{[citation needed]}, non-union Kerkhoff Construction Company as the main contractor. His government also spent over $1 billion on the Northeast coal project to create jobs. Critics noted that by creating only 1,000 jobs, each job cost taxpayers $1 million. The coal project was a very successful venture after it was reviewed in 2000 by the press: Northeast Coal returned twice the revenues than were expended over its lifetime. The mass media acknowledged this point in its review of the project in 2000 - check the news reports from Global BC.

Retirement[link]

Though still reviled by the left, Bennett remains generally highly respected among conservatives in BC, who view his rule as a "golden era" before the corruption of the Vander Zalm government and the NDP that succeeded him. In recent years Bennett has advised current BC Premier Gordon Campbell, who has openly stated his desires to emulate the policies associated with Bennett's government.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007 Bennett was awarded the Order of British Columbia, B.C.'s highest award for achievement. The new replacement bridge across Okanagan Lake in Kelowna is named after him.^[1]

Controversies[link]

In 1996, Bill Bennett was convicted under B.C. securities laws of insider trading involving the sale of shares in a Duncan, B.C., company two years after he stepped down as premier. This was known as the Doman Scandal.^[2] A British Columbia Securities Commission panel imposed trading sanctions against Russell James Bennett and Harbanse Singh Doman and ordered them along with former B.C. premier William Richards Bennett to pay the commission $1 million to cover the costs of an insider trading case that spanned 11 years.^[3]

British Columbia Resources Investment Corporation (BCRIC or "Brick") (Social Credit Party), a holding company formed under the government of William R. Bennett, was a public boondoggle involving publicly-distributed and soon-worthless shares of a former Crown Corporation.

Bennett's tenure also included mega-projects such as the Coquihalla Highway, which cost approximately $848 million.^[4]

References[link]

v t e Premiers of British Columbia McCreight · De Cosmos · Walkem · Elliott · Walkem · Beaven · Smithe · A.E.B. Davie · Robson · T.E. Davie · Turner · Semlin · Martin · Dunsmuir · Prior · McBride · Bowser · Brewster · Oliver · MacLean · Tolmie · Pattullo · Hart · Johnson · W.A.C. Bennett · Barrett · B. Bennett · Vander Zalm · Johnston · Harcourt · G. Clark · Miller · Dosanjh · Campbell · C. Clark

Jim Quinn
Jim Quinn MC'ing at a Pittsburgh Tax Day Tea Party
Born	February 26, 1943 New Jersey
Show	The War Room with Quinn and Rose
Station(s)	WPGB
Time slot	Weekdays, 6am to 9am EST
Country	USA
Website	www.Warroom.com

Jim Quinn (born February 26, 1943) is an American radio talk show host based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His program, The War Room with Quinn and Rose, is aired on 12 stations across the U.S. and is also heard on XM Satellite Radio Channel 166 from 6–9 a.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

Disk jockey and novelty host[link]

Before beginning his political morning show, Quinn spent a number of years doing voiceover work for WPGH-TV 53 and as a disc jockey at KQV in the 1960s and 1970s, where he would befriend his eventual political mentor Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh worked at KQV and WIXZ/McKeesport, PA as a disc jockey under the name Jeff Christie.

Quinn is best remembered in the Pittsburgh area as the nighttime screamer on KQV radio in the 1960s, during the station's peak as a Top 40 power. Quinn was hired from WING/Dayton in 1967 and had an immediate impact on the market. In 1968, he jumped at an opportunity to take a job in Philadelphia, but was back at KQV in less than a year. He stayed until 1972, then spent time in New York City at WPIX-FM.^[1]

He then moved to Buffalo, New York where in the late 1970s he became known to listeners throughout the northeast on WWKB (WKBW-AM at the time), a 50,000 watt station that took requests from as far away as Norway.^[2] Quinn's final hour included a trivia game called "Stump The Audience," where the answers had been kept "in a sealed envelope on Funk and Wagnalls' doorstep since noon today." In an emotional farewell as he returned to Pittsburgh, Quinn said, "May I get lockjaw if I ever forget how much I appreciate the people who listen."

A Pittsburgh station, 13Q or WKTQ, lured him back in 1977 to capture the adults who had grown up listening to him on KQV. During his tenure at 13Q, Quinn issued a parody 45-record of the then Top 40 hit "Undercover Angel" entitled "Undercover Pothole"; the parody lamented the atrocious condition of Pittsburgh roads during that period of time. Quinn later moved to the midday slot at WTAE radio, an adult contemporary station in Pittsburgh, under the watch of General Manager, Ted Atkins ("Captain Showbiz"). In 1983, he became half of "The Quinn and Banana Show" on B-94 FM, which ran in Pittsburgh, PA, until 1993. Their format was bathroom humor. After a course of conduct, wherein they implied that News Director Liz Randolph was promiscuous, she sued the station and Quinn and Banana for defamation and sexual harassment. On Valentine's Day, 1990, Ms. Randolph won on all counts, and a jury awarded her $694,000. Three years later, his FM morning show was canceled. Quinn largely credits this lawsuit with "opening his eyes" and inducing his conversion to political conservatism.

Talk show host[link]

After Quinn's program was canceled on B-94, he adopted his current political talk format, a conservative talk radio program. John Lorinc, currently an anchor/editor at CNNRadio did news and traffic for Quinn's show from 1998 through 2000. The program was moved to WPGB radio in 2004 when that station adopted an all talk format.

Quinn claims to be a proponent of a constitutional government that adheres to the guiding principles of the nation's founders. He claims to champion a smaller federal government and free markets. He regularly equates modern Left Liberalism (not classical liberalism) with Marxism. He commonly refers to "Quinn's Laws," a collection of statements that sum up his world view, such as "Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent" (i.e., the War on Poverty has led to even greater poverty)." ^[3] He also has many personal cliches he is fond of saying, such as "liberty is the solution to the human condition".

The show, broadcast with co-host Rose Somma Tennent (aka "Radio Rose"), is live weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST on certain affiliates and on XM Satellite Radio Channel 166; others replay the first hour after 9. It can be heard worldwide on the Internet via ^[4]

Quinn authored a so-called "liberal version" of The Ant and the Grasshopper in 1994.^[5]

References[link]

• WRRK morning host points to lawsuit as turning point in philosophy, career by Dmitri Vassilaros in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since January 2010. It may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since May 2009.

Alexander Britton "Brit" Hume (born June 22, 1943) is an American political commentator and television journalist. For twenty years he was a correspondent for the American Broadcasting Company, including Chief White House Correspondent. He then spent ten years as the Washington, D.C. managing editor of the Fox News Channel and the anchor of Special Report with Brit Hume. Since 2008, he has been the senior political analyst for Fox News and a regular public affairs panelist on Fox News Sunday.

Early life[link]

Alexander Britton Hume was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Virginia Powell (née Minnigerode) Hume and George Graham Hume. He attended St. Albans School at the same time as Al Gore and graduated from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1965.^[1][2]

Career[link]

Hume first worked for The Hartford Times, and later for United Press International and the Baltimore Evening Sun.^[3] He then worked for syndicated columnist Jack Anderson from 1970 to 1972,^[4] and later for Richard Pollak, founding editor of [MORE] (a monthly media review published in the 1970s), as a Washington Editor during the mid-1970s.

Hume reported a story for Anderson's "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column that after ITT Corporation had contributed $400,000 to the 1972 Republican National Convention the Nixon Department of Justice had settled the antitrust case against ITT. Anderson published a series of classified documents indicating the Nixon administration, contrary to its public pronouncements, had tilted in favor of Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. After those revelations, Anderson and his staff, including Hume and his family were briefly under surveillance by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1972.^[5][6] The agents code-named Hume "eggnog" and observed his family going about their daily business. These documents came to light during the Ford administration during Congressional hearings, and more recently as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and the so-called 'Family Jewels' revelations.

Hume started working for ABC News in 1973 as a consultant and in 1976 was offered a job as a correspondent, covering the House for 11 years. He was assigned to cover Walter Mondale's presidential campaign in 1984 and Vice President George H.W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. In 1989, he became ABC's chief White House correspondent,^[3] covering the administrations of Bush and Bill Clinton and working closely with Peter Jennings and Charlie Gibson.^[7]

In January 1997, he left ABC for Fox News, where his wife had recently become the chief of the network's Washington bureau.^[3] At his last news conference as ABC's chief White House correspondent, President Clinton told him, "I think all of us think you have done an extraordinary, professional job under Republican and Democratic administrations alike."^[7] Hume became Fox News's Washington managing editor and was in discussions about starting a Washington-based news show in the 6 p.m. timeslot. The Lewinsky scandal broke in January 1998, and Hume's wife told him the story was so hot that he should start the show immediately; Special Report with Brit Hume was launched that evening.^[7]

On December 16, 2008, Hume appeared as a guest on The O'Reilly Factor and announced his retirement from the anchor position. When asked how he would spend his time in retirement, Hume stated "Three Gs: God, granddaughters and golf."

On December 23, 2008, he hosted his final episode as anchor of Special Report, announcing that Bret Baier, then the chief White House correspondent for Fox News, would be his replacement. Hume also announced that he would remain with Fox News as a senior political analyst and regular panelist on Fox News Sunday.

On January 3, 2010, Hume generated some controversy when on Fox News Sunday he advised embattled golfer Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity to attempt to get his life back on track. Hume's comments came in the wake of the revelation of Woods' habitual adultery and the resulting deterioration of his relationship with his family. Hume stated on the show that:^[8]

Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person I think is a very open question, and it's a tragic situation for him. I think he's lost his family, it's not clear to me if he'll be able to have a relationship with his children, but the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal – the extent to which he can recover – seems to me to depend on his faith. He's said to be a Buddhist; I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'

Hume reiterated his remarks the following day on The O'Reilly Factor with Bill O'Reilly. Hume insisted to O'Reilly that he never meant to insult Buddhism, and stated that:^[9]

I was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about Christianity than I was about anything else. I mentioned the Buddhism only because his mother is a Buddhist and he has apparently said that he is a Buddhist. I’m not sure how seriously he practices that.

Hume gave reason for his strong feelings on Christianity in an interview where he explained how he committed his life to Jesus Christ "in a way that was very meaningful" to him in the aftermath of his son's death by suicide in 1998.^[10]

Political beliefs[link]

Regarding his political beliefs, in 2006 Hume said, "Sure, I'm a conservative, no doubt about it. But I would ask people to look at the work."^[7] In accepting the William F. Buckley, Jr. Award for Media Excellence from the conservative Media Research Center, he expressed his gratitude for

the tremendous amount of material that the Media Research Center provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report. I don't know what we would have done without them. It was a daily, sort of a buffet of material to work from, and we – we – we certainly made tremendous use of it.^[11]

Personal life and religious views[link]

Previously married to and divorced from Clare Jacobs Stoner, Hume is married to Kim Schiller Hume, Fox News vice president and former Washington bureau chief.^[12][13]

His son Washington journalist Sandy Hume was a reporter for The Hill and broke the story of the aborted 1997 coup against Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In February 1998, Sandy Hume committed suicide. The National Press Club honors his memory with its annual Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism.^[7][14][15] Over a decade later, upon his 2008 departure from Special Report, Hume commented on part of the impact of his son's death:^[16]

"I want to pursue my faith more ardently than I have done. I'm not claiming it's impossible to do when you work in this business. I was kind of a nominal Christian for the longest time. When my son died, I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me. If a person is a Christian and tries to face up to the implications of what you say you believe, it's a pretty big thing. If you do it part time, you're not really living it."

Awards[link]

Hume is the recipient of several awards including:^[17]

• Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalist (2003)
• Emmy Award for coverage of the Gulf War (1991)
• American Journalism Review "Best in the Business" award (twice) for White House coverage

Books[link]

• Hume, Brit (1971). Death and the Mines – Rebellion and Murder in the United Mine Workers. New York: Grossman. ISBN 0-670-26105-X. http://lccn.loc.gov/75106294. Retrieved 2008-12-31. 
• Hume, Brit (1974). Inside Story (1st ed.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-06526-4. http://lccn.loc.gov/73083640. Retrieved 2008-12-31.  (a memoir of his days working with Jack Anderson)

References[link]

Specific references:

General references:

External links[link]

• Biography from Fox News
• C-SPAN Q&A interview with Hume, July 20, 2008

Greta Van Susteren
Born	(1954-06-11) June 11, 1954 (age 58) Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S.
Education	University of Wisconsin-Madison Georgetown University Law Center
Occupation	Host of On the Record (Fox News Channel)
Years active	1991–present
Religion	Scientology
Spouse	John P. Coale
Website
Bio on FoxNews.com

Greta Van Susteren (born June 11, 1954) is an American commentator and television personality on the Fox News Channel, where she hosts On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren. A former criminal defense and civil trial lawyer, she appeared as a legal analyst on CNN co-hosting Burden of Proof with Roger Cossack from 1994 to 2002, playing defense attorney to Cossack's prosecutor.

Early life[link]

Van Susteren was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, and is of Dutch, French, Irish, Icelandic and German ancestry on her paternal side.^[1] Van Susteren's father, Urban Van Susteren, an elected judge, was a longtime friend of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, and a campaign strategist for him, although Urban later broke with him.^[2]

Van Susteren's sister, Lise, is a forensic psychiatrist in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2006, Lise was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.^[3] Her brother, Dirk Van Susteren, was a journalist and long-time editor of the Vermont Sunday magazine, jointly published, until folding in 2008, by the Rutland Herald and the Barre-Montpelier-Times Argus.^[4]

Career[link]

Van Susteren graduated from Xavier High School in Appleton in 1972 and the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1976, where she studied geography and economics. She later earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1979 and prior to the start of her television work returned to Georgetown Law as an adjunct faculty member in addition to her full-time legal career.

During coverage of the O. J. Simpson murder trial, she appeared regularly on CNN as a legal analyst.^[5] This led to her stint as co-host of CNN's Burden of Proof and The Point.

In 2002, Van Susteren switched to the Fox News Channel after a highly publicized contract bidding war. According to People Magazine, Van Susteren has utilized cosmetic surgery to enhance her screen presentation.^[6] Since then, she has hosted the current affairs show On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren.

Personal life[link]

Van Susteren married tort lawyer John P. Coale in 1988.^[7] Coale, a self-described "ambulance chaser", became known as "Bhopal Coale" for his solicitation of clients among victims of the Bhopal disaster.^[8] He has served as an adviser for Sarah Palin.^[9]

Van Susteren and her husband are members of the Church of Scientology.^[7][10]

Since 2006, she has been part owner of a restaurant, the Old Mill Inn, in Mattituck, New York, on the North Fork of Long Island.^[11]

In recognition of her Dutch heritage she was asked to assume the role of Honorary Chairperson of the Little Chute Windmill Committee. The windmill, an authentic reproduction of a Dutch one, will be built in Little Chute, Wisconsin, where Van Susteren's family lived for some time.^[12]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Greta Van Susteren

• FOX News Bio of Greta Van Susteren
• On the Record w/Greta Van Susteren, from FOXnews.com
• Blog
• Greta Van Susteren at the Internet Movie Database