John Thune

John Randolph Thune (born January 7, 1961) is the senior United States Senator from South Dakota and a member of the Republican Party. He previously served as a United States Representative for South Dakota's at-large congressional district. He became South Dakota's Senior senator with the retirement of Tim Johnson in 2015.

Early life, education, and early political career

Thune was born in the small town of Murdo, South Dakota, the son of Yvonne Patricia (maiden name Bodine), and Harold Richard Thune. Thune's paternal grandfather, Nicholas Thune, was an immigrant from Norway who partnered with his brother Matt to start Thune Hardware stores in Mitchell and Murdo, South Dakota. His maternal grandfather is from the province of Ontario in Canada, and Thune's mother was born in Saskatchewan. Thune has a brother named Richard Thune that lives in California. Thune was a star athlete in high school, and was active in basketball, track, and football and also played college basketball at Biola University. Thune remains athletically active and frequently competes in running events. A 2012 feature by "Runner's World Magazine" noted that Thune has "been the fastest man in Congress since 2009."

TMZ

TMZ is a celebrity news website that debuted on November 8, 2005. It was a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. The name TMZ stands for thirty-mile zone, the historic "studio zone" within a 30-mile (50 km) radius centered at the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

TMZ's managing editor is Harvey Levin, a lawyer-turned-journalist who was previously a legal expert for the Los Angeles television station KCBS-TV. The site claims that it does not pay for stories or interviews; however, Levin has admitted that TMZ does "sometimes pay sources for leads on stories". Levin has stated that "everything is researched and vetted for accuracy." A companion television series, TMZ on TV, debuted on September 10, 2007.

Development

Seven months prior to the official launch of TMZ, America Online (AOL) had hinted that it was planning to launch a Hollywood and entertainment-centric news site that would be produced in conjunction with Telepictures Productions and had shown interest in launching a website featuring a focus mainly on celebrities. At the time of the launch, AOL confirmed that the site would primarily feature and consist of Hollywood gossip, including interviews, photos and video footage of celebrities and information pertaining to industry news on movies, television shows, etc. The site was described as "an effort to further feed the current American obsession with celebrities". Mike Shields of MediaWeek.com wrote, "the site also boasts of an expansive collection of archived star photos and videos", allowing fans to "trace changing hairlines and waistlines of their favorites performers over the years".

Republican National Convention

The Republican National Convention (RNC) is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S. presidential election, and to adopt the party platform and rules for the election cycle.

Like the Democratic National Convention, it signifies the end of a presidential primary season and the start of campaigning for a general election. In recent years, the nominee has been known well before the convention, leading many to oppose the convention as a mere public relations event and coronation.

Historically, the convention was the final determinant of the nomination, and often contentious as various factions of party insiders maneuvered to advance their candidates. Since the almost universal adoption of the primary election for selecting delegates in the last quarter of the 20th century, however, the convention's significance has diminished. The national party focuses on the convention as a unity point to bring together a party platform and state parties by having delegates vote on issues, which the nominee can then incorporate into their presidential campaign.

National Convention

The National Convention (French: Convention nationale) was a single-chamber assembly in France from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 (4 Brumaire IV under the Convention's adopted calendar) during the French Revolution. It succeeded the Legislative Assembly and founded the First Republic after the insurrection of 10 August 1792. The Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI and the convocation of a National Convention which was to draw up a constitution. At the same time it was decided that deputies to that convention should be elected by all Frenchmen twenty-five years old or more, domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labor. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by universal male suffrage, without distinctions of class.

Elections

The election took place from 2 to 6 September 1792 after the election of the electoral colleges by primary assemblies on 26 August. Owing to the abstention of aristocrats and anti-republicans and the fear of victimization the voter turnout in the departments was low – 11.9% of the electorate, compared to 10.2% in the 1791 elections, in spite of the fact that that the number of eligible to vote had doubled. Therefore, universal suffrage had very little impact. On the whole, the electorate returned the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in 1791.

Thune

Thunes Mekaniske Værksted A/S, Thune for short, was a Norwegian manufacturing company that among other things built locomotives. The production facilities were last located at Skøyen.

History

It traced its roots to a workshop founded by Anders Paulsen Thune in 1815 in Drammen. Anders Paulsen Thune was a blacksmith by profession. His son took over the enterprise, and in 1851 they moved to Christiania. By 1870 the production facilities were located in the street Ruseløkkveien. In 1871 Andreas Lauritz Thune, grandson of the founder, took over. The facilities were almost immediately moved to the nearby street Munkedamsveien. He started production of agricultural machinery and steam engines.Locomotive production began in the 1890s.

Eventually, the locale in Munkedamsveien became too small for large-scale industrial production. Located in the centre of the city, it was difficult to expand. Instead, Thune bought the property Kjellebekk at Skøyen in Aker, a more rural municipality that surrounded Kristiania. In addition, Skøyen was served by a railway station. Thune moved to Skøyen in 1901, and all activity in Munkedamsveien was ceased by 1903. After moving to Skøyen, production of turbines was started.