Topps

Topps made its first foray into the world of games in July 2003 by acquiring the game company WizKids for $28.4 million in cash. Similarly, many American high schools maintain extensive sports programs, and in some areas of the country, high school football and basketball competitions are major local events. The Topps Pokémon cards were purely for entertainment and collecting, but a new niche of collectible card games was also developing during this period (a Pokémon trading card game was produced simultaneously by Wizards of the Coast). American colleges often support wide-ranging sports programs, including track and field and more eclectic sports such as water polo. Pokémon cards would accomplish the same feat for a few years starting in 1999. American college sports are nearly as popular as professional sports, particularly college football and college basketball. For a period beginning in 1973, the Wacky Packages stickers managed to outsell Topps baseball cards, becoming the first product to do so since the company's early days as purely a gum and candy maker. During times of extreme popularity certain teams have been (unofficially) crowned "America's team." The New York Yankees, the Chicago Bulls and the Dallas Cowboys are examples of teams that have reached this status.

Although baseball cards have been Topps's most consistently profitable item, certain fads have occasionally produced spikes in popularity for non-sports items. For details see United States at the Olympics. Kennedy. topped the medals table with a record 103 medals (35 gold, 39 silver and 29 bronze). Topps has also covered celebrities and other cultural phenomena ranging from The Beatles to the life story of John F. The United States generally fares fairly well in the Olympics especially the Summer Olympics: in 2004, the U.S. Examples of the latter include The Waltons, The Mod Squad, Emergency!, Welcome Back Kotter, Mork and Mindy, and many others. Eight Olympic Games have been hosted in the U.S., more than in any other nation.

Topps has also issued trading card series for movies, including the Star Wars and Star Trek series, and a number of popular television programs. Snowboarding is the only one of the three to become an Olympic event, beginning with the Winter Olympics in 1998. Among Topps's most notable achievements in this area have been Wacky Packages, a takeoff on various household consumer products, and a series of stickers called Garbage Pail Kids, a parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. Skateboarding and snowboarding are completely modern American inventions, and all three have given rise to national competitions and a large dedicated subculture. These artistic talents carried over into more general efforts at parody as well. While first practiced by native Hawaiians, Americans were almost solely responsible for creating surfboarding's worldwide popularity. The 1962 Mars Attacks cards, sketched by Wood and Powell and painted by Norman Saunders, later inspired a Tim Burton movie. The three popular board-based recreational sports - surfboarding, skateboarding and snowboarding were created in The United States.

Drawing on their previous work, these artists were adept at things like mixing humor and horror, as with the Funny Monsters cards in 1959. The United States also developed a unique shooting sport in the 1980s called cowboy action shooting. Some artists might work only on a project or two; others were regulars, like Art Spiegelman, who worked for Topps for over twenty years. Several organizations (such as the National Rifle Association) maintain national leagues or participate in international leagues such as the ISSF. They also brought in others from the underground comix movement, including Bill Griffith and Kim Deitch. Competitions on marksmanship and other firearm related skills are a regular feature at many shooting ranges. Topps creative directors Woody Gelman and Len Brown capitalized by hiring a number of artists from the industry, such as Jack Davis, Wally Wood, and Bob Powell. The number of gun owners in America has given widespread popularity to shooting sports as an amateur pastime.

The shift from sports to other topics better suited the creative instincts of the artists and coincided with turmoil in the comic book industry over regulation by the Comics Code Authority. Other combat sports based on Asian martial arts, such as karate competitions, maintain large national leagues and hold frequent competitions. Many Topps artists came from the world of comics and continued to work in that field as well. The United States has produced many champion boxers who have become public figures in their own right. Topps has continued to create collectible cards and stickers on a variety of subjects, often centered around movies, TV shows, musicians, and other entertainment phenomena. In the 20th century, the United States became the center of the two most popular Western combat sports—boxing, which is popular as both a spectator sport and a gambling event, and professional wrestling, which is more scripted entertainment than a true sport. For example, the Space Race prompted a set of "Space Cards" in 1958. Grand Prix and the Indy 500 currently take place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

As its sports products relied more on photography, Topps redirected its artistic efforts toward editorial trading cards on themes inspired by popular culture. However, the visually similar Indy 500 is the nation's most famous racing event, and both the U.S. Under pressure by shareholders, the company considered selling off its confectionery business in 2005, but was unable to find a buyer to meet its price and decided to cut management expenses instead. is the United States Grand Prix. One particular focus has been lollipops, such as Ring Pops. The only Formula One event currently in the U.S. In recent years, Topps has added more candy items without gum. market.

Sales declined significantly in the 1970s, however, when this relatively hard gum was challenged by Bubble Yum, a new, softer form of bubblegum from Lifesavers. Formula One, while dominant in the rest of the world, has only made limited inroads into the U.S. For quite a few years, the company stuck within familiar confines, and virtually all of these products involved gum in some way. The most popular form of auto racing is NASCAR. Even though baseball cards became the company's primary focus during this period, Topps still developed a variety of candy items. Open). In 1953, Topps began selling smaller penny pieces with the Bazooka Joe comic strip on the wrapper as an added attraction. The United States hosts some of the premier events in other sports such as golf (including three of the four majors), and tennis (the U.S.

Unlike the gum sold with baseball cards, it was of better quality and capable of selling on its own merit. Other European sports such as polo and cricket, while not popular, do attract players and have established leagues. Bazooka was introduced in 1947 as a bar of gum that sold for five cents. Rugby Union has also established itself as a popular sport with a loyal following. The longest-lived Topps product line remains Bazooka bubblegum, small pieces of gum in patriotic red, white, and blue packaging. Horse racing is popular as a gambling event and the United States hosts several world renowned horse racing events, including the Kentucky Derby. Its best-selling title was The X-Files, based on the Fox TV show. The United States also hosts large followings of traditional European sporting events.

Topps Comics specialized in licensed titles, particularly movie and television series tie-ins, though it also published a smattering of such original series as Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and several based on concepts by then-retired industry legend Jack Kirby. The majority of the world's highest paid athletes play team sports in America [5]. This division of the company published comic books from 1993 — during the first half-decade's comics-industry boom, which attacted many investors and new companies — through 1998. Professional sports in America is very big business and its athletes are very well compensated. In imitation of Bowman and other competitors, Topps eventually also began producing trading cards and other collectibles for a variety of topics unrelated to sports. did host the World Cup in 1994. Other gum and candy products followed. Nevertheless, the U.S.

Originally, Topps was purely a gum company, and its first product was simply called "Topps gum". in contrast to its extreme popularity in most other countries. In a more recent addition to its lineup, Topps began producing cards for soccer in 1996, in partnership with Major League Soccer. Although it is currently one of the most played sports amongst American youth, soccer does not have a particularly large following in the U.S. Topps finally returned to basketball cards in 1992, several years after its competitors. Ice hockey is also popular in the U.S., especially in the Upper Midwest and Northeast. It started again in 1969 and continued until 1982, then abandoned the market for another decade. American football, baseball (often called "The National Pastime"), auto racing (especially NASCAR), and basketball, are the top four main sports in America.

Topps first sold cards for basketball in 1957, but stopped after one season. The major team sports in America are home-grown. This ultimately left the sport to Upper Deck, which emerged as the sole licensee when the league resumed play. Others include Duluth, Minnesota, Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.
. However, anticipating the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Topps allowed its license for hockey to expire after the 2003-04 season. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Topps then acquired the rights to use the O-Pee-Chee name on sports cards after that company was sold to Nestlé. In terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport.

O-Pee-Chee had already obtained a license to print Topps baseball cards for the Canadian market, and for a number of years the two companies would produce often-identical cards for both sports, but each under its own brand for its respective market. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. After Parkhurst disappeared from the market in the 1960s, Topps then reached an agreement with O-Pee-Chee, another Canadian company, to jointly produce hockey cards. Air travel is the preferred means of travel for long distances. Topps did not make a serious effort to take on Parkhurst Products, the leading Canadian hockey card manufacturer, for a couple more years. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. at the time (Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, and New York Rangers). The largest of them, New York City, operates one of the world's most heavily used subway systems.

After football, its next venture was into ice hockey, with a 1954 set featuring players from the four National Hockey League franchises located in the U.S. Some cities still provide usable mass-transit systems. Topps also makes cards for other major American professional sports. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. The situation continued until growth in the sports card market generally prompted two new companies, Pro Set and Score, to start making football cards in 1989. There is also a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. In spite of the lack of competition, or perhaps to preempt it, Topps also created two sets of cards for the short-lived United States Football League in the 1980s. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn.

After the AFL-NFL Merger was agreed to, Topps became the only major football card manufacturer beginning in 1968. These highways were commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Although more competitive for a time, the football card market was never as lucrative, so the other companies did not fight as hard over it. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system. Philadelphia Gum then secured the NFL rights for 1964, forcing Topps to go for the AFL and leaving Fleer with no product in either baseball or football. cities through a subsidiary called National City Lines. Fleer produced a set for the AFL in 1960, then featured both leagues for one year before focusing on the AFL again. The automobile industry was quick to attain influence in government and media alike, and was also the force behind the dismantling of the electric rail transport systems or trolleys in over 40 U.S.

However, the emergence of the American Football League in 1960 to compete with the established National Football League also allowed Topps's competitors, beginning with Fleer, to make inroads. urban areas has taken place around the concept of creating cities and residential areas to suit the needs of road vehicles. Since then, Topps has sold football cards every season. Because the automobile industry took off very early in United States (when compared to other Western nations) much of the development of U.S. After buying out Bowman, Topps took over the market the following year.
. For football cards Bowman dominated the field, and Topps did not try again until 1955, when it released an All-American set with a mix of active players and retired stars. But by doing so it, unlike other nations, leaves some of its young citizenry in substantial debt, although many upper and middle-class students' parents foot the bill, while lower-class students generally receive mostly grants.

In addition to baseball, Topps also produced cards for American football in 1951, which are known as the Magic set. It does however, provide financial aid in the form of grants and loans to eligible students for university education. The 1964 set issued cards for 2 then-recently-dead players--Ken Hubbs of the Cubs with a different "In Memoriam" front design compared the the standard cards, and Colts pitcher Jim Umbricht's regular card with a special note on its back about his April 1964 death (from cancer). It should be noted that the United States is one of the few industrialized countries to not provide a free university education to its citizenry. The 1959 set had card 550 as "Symbol Of Courage - Roy Campanella", with a color photo of the paralyzed former Dodger in his wheelchair and a black-and-white photo of him in uniform inserted to the upper left. American colleges and universities range from highly competitive schools, both private (such as Harvard University and Princeton University) and public (such as the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Virginia), to hundreds of high-quality local community colleges with open admission policies. On rare occasions, Topps issued special cards for players who had either died or had been injured. It is not uncommon for students to join the workforce or the military before attending college; both the military and many private employers may subsidize post-secondary education.

It involved the clearly-readable obscenity on the bottom of the bat of Orioles infielder Billy Ripken. Tuition at private universities tends to be much higher than at public universities. The most celebrated error in baseball-card history was not printed by Topps, but by competitor Fleer in 1989. Public universities receive funding from the federal and state government but students still pay tuition, which can vary depending on the university, state, and whether the student is a resident of the state or not. The photo's cropping captured only the last 3 letters of one sign, so that the word "ASS" appears in vivid letters behind Sadecki. After high school, students may choose to continue their schooling at a public/state university or a private university. The full-figure pitching-pose of Sadecki is normal; the problem was with the advertising signs on the outfield fence that he posed in front of. Public schools are highly decentralized with funding and curriculum decisions taking place mostly at the local level through school boards.

The prime example of this was the Topps 1964 card for Cardinals' pitcher Ray Sadecki (#147). Parents may educate their own children at home (with varying degrees of state oversight), send their children to a public school, which is funded with tax money, or to a private school, where parents must pay tuition. Yet another class of card is the "unintentional error," in which something in the photo makes it look as if an actual error has occurred. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18 (although in some states, students are permitted to drop out upon the age of 16 with the permission of their parents/guardians). This gives the card a "3-D" look. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. An interesting type of error is the print separation. In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably.

These are generally considered "ghost cards".
. Another error type is when the back stats are overprinted on the front of the card. The ten largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:. Anticipating that possibility, Topps substituted the term "Washington Nat'l League" onto early-series Padres' cards, since the nickname of the potentially re-located team was not known. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. This came about when there was a strong possibility that the San Diego Padres might move to Washington after the 1973 season. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged.

The 1974 "Washington Nat'l League" cards are considered errors too, but were corrected during the run. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. In addition, misspelled words/names, print blotches, missing border sections, and different colored backgrounds (like the 1973 manager cards) are all considered errors although relatively few of these are corrected. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. Another type of card that is considered an error is the blankback (or blankfront) Most likely however, these are first run proofs from the company not intended for distribution. The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. It is possible to find a centered back and off center front. territory.

Most wrongbacks have the backs off center. As of 2004, the United States was the home of approximately 336 languages (spoken or signed), of which 176 are indigenous to U.S. This occurs when the sheet is mated with a back which is up side down or reversed. The primary signed language is American Sign Language (ASL). Another type of error is the "wrongback." You can find these in just about any year. Spanish is the first language of Puerto Rico. The Reniff card's number was still incorrect in this second printing, so a third, corrected one of his was produced, resulting in 1 'true' Reniff card and 2 errors (each error card with a different photograph). German is the primary spoken language in some areas of the Amish.

All remaining photos were re-cropped for the re-printing (e.g., some photos were moved a bit to one side, and others moved up or down), thus giving every card in the series an error card. Spanish and German follows English as the second-most spoken languages primarily due to the influence of Latin American, German, Austrian and Swiss immigrants. The entire series was re-printed and re-distributed, with the photo inks in proper proportion and with 8 photos replaced with different poses (Reniff's among them). Twenty-seven individual states have adopted English as their official language, and three of those—Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Mexico—have also adopted a second official language (Hawaiian, French and Spanish, respectively). All the photos were somewhat out of focus, and card number 159 (Yankees Pitcher Hal Reniff) was incorrectly numbered as 139. English is the language generally used for official pronouncements, though there is legislation that assists non-English speakers, such as the Voting Rights Language Assistance Act of 1992, which prohibits covered States and political subdivisions from providing English-only voting materials. The set's entire second series (the 87 cards numbered 110 through 196) was first printed and distributed without the proper amount of ink for the photographs; the result has been known ever since as the "Green Tint" series, for the sky and dirt in the backgrounds of some cards are decidedly green, rather than blue or brown. The United States does not have an official language at the federal level.

The Topps 1962 baseball set saw the 'grandaddy' of all error situations. Many holidays recognize events or people of importance to the nation's history; as such, they represent significant cultural observance. The result was that said cards occur in two variations, based on the back color. American holidays are variously national and local. The photographs and information on the cards themselves were not in error. This development is a result of both contributions by private philanthropists and government funding. Certain cards were printed on two different types of cardstock; one produced a white back, and the other a darker gray. plays host to the gamut of human intellectual and artistic endeavor in nearly every major city, offering classical and popular music; historical, scientific and art research centers and museums; dance performances, musicals and plays; outdoor art projects and internationally significant architecture.

One example of "variations" happened in the 1959 and 1960 Topps baseball sets. Nearing the mid-point of its third century of nationhood, the U.S. Some errors are corrected and re-printed within the print runs of the same set, resulting in an "Error Card;" others are not corrected, and are referred to among collectors as "Uncorrected Errors.". This is in stark contrast to the early days of the republic, when the country was viewed by Europeans as an agricultural backwater with little to offer the culturally advanced world centers of Asia and Europe. Topps and other card publishers were not immune to production 'glitches,' and such mistakes gave collectors unusual items to seek for their collections. movies (primarily embodied in Hollywood) and television shows can be seen almost anywhere except the most totalitarian places. In 1993, Topps finally managed again to incorporate a player photo on the back as well as the front of the card, after some competitors had been doing so for a number of years. U.S.

These appeared on card backs as late as 1982, but gradually declined in the prominence of their placement and the proportion of cards on which they appeared. New York, Seattle, and San Francisco are worldwide leaders in graphic design and New York and Los Angeles compete with major European cities in the fashion industry. This primarily involved using various types of cartoons drawn by its stable of artists. Another export of the last 20 years is hip hop music, which began in New York and is growing in influence as it branches into the fashion, food and drink, and movie industries. Before statistics, biographical information, and commentary became the dominant element on the backs of cards, Topps also featured artwork there. Nashville is the center of the country music industry. These problems diminished as Topps's selection of photographs gradually improved. New York City is a hub for international operatic and instrumental music as well as the world-famed Broadway plays and musicals.

In a few cases, a misidentification meant that the player didn't even appear in the picture. Many famous Western classical musicians and ensembles find their home in the U.S. The photos were sometimes out of focus or included several players, making it difficult to pick out the player who was supposed to be featured on the card. music is heard all over the world, and it is the sire of such forms as blues and jazz and had a primary hand in the shaping of modern rock and roll and popular music culture. When used for the cards of individual players, some of the early action photography had awkward results. U.S. Since that time, Topps has mixed game photography with posed shots in its sets. popular culture has a significant influence on the rest of the world, especially the Western world.

Starting in 1960 a few cards showed true game action, primarily highlights from the World Series, but the photographs were either in black-and-white or hand-tinted color until 1971. U.S. In the absence of real action photography, Topps still occasionally used artwork to depict action on a handful of cards. Medical bills are the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the United States, and it is estimated that roughly 45 Million Americans have no health coverage. (Cards for 'rookies' were also prepared by airbrushing over their minor-league uniforms in photos.). It should also be noted that providing emergency care if needed is required by law of any licensed emergency care facility regardless of the patient's ability to pay. Another was to paint out, by airbrush, the former team logo on both cap and uniform, or to paint on their new team cap logo. Health insurance in the United States is traditionally a benefit of employment, and in many cases this is mandated by law.

One way was to show the player without any team cap. Even so, government spending on health care is the highest of any country in the world with major programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Topps used various ways to cope with players changing teams before the company could issue a card of them in their new uniform. Unlike in most western countries, the government does not provide universal health insurance for all citizens. Photographs did not appear in sharp focus and natural color until 1962. The United States has several public health problems: widespread obesity, unhealthy diets, progressing HIV-AIDS epidemic and cigarette smoking among over quarter of the population. If using such a prop, the player might pose in a position as if he were in the act of batting, pitching, or fielding. The largest Sikh populations in the United States are in California, New York, New Mexico and Oregon.

From 1957 on, virtually all cards were posed photographs, either as a head shot or together with a typical piece of equipment like a bat or glove. Sikhs first arrived in 1896 and today there are about 600,000 to 1 million in United States. The close-up head shots of some individual players were reused each year. This reflects a growing diversification of religious belief in the United States over the last few decades. For 1956, the close-up tinted photo was placed against a tinted full-background 'game-action' photo of the player. According to census figures and related polls, neo-paganism is the fastest growing organized religion in the United States though its numbers of adherents are rated below 800,000 in the United States as of 2000. The same basic format was used in 1955, this time with the full-length photo also hand-tinted. The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

After starting out with simple portraits, in 1954 Topps put two pictures on the front of the card--a hand-tinted 'color' close-up photo of the player's head, and the other a black-and-white full-length pose. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The cards themselves had been in color from the beginning, though for the first few years this was done by using artist's portraits of players rather than actual photographs. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. Although the 1971 set was an aborted experiment in terms of putting photos on card backs, that year was also a landmark in terms of baseball card photography, as Topps for the first time included cards showing color photographs from actual games. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. The practice of showing complete career statistics became permanent in 1963, except for one year, 1971, when Topps sacrificed the full statistics in order to put a player photo on the back of the card as well. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity.

Over the next few years, Topps alternated between this format and merely showing the past season plus career totals. The largest single sect of Christianity in the United States is Roman Catholicism (about 26%), followed by the Baptist Christian faith (about 18%). For the first time in 1957, Topps put full year-by-year statistics for the player's entire career on the back of the card. The other 18 % is comprised of people of no religion and other religions, such as Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. Bowman promptly imitated this by putting statistics on its own cards where it had previously only had biographical information. About 2 % of Americans follow Judaism. the 1951 season for cards in the 1952 set) and another with the player's lifetime totals. While Christianity is growing in America, it is not growing as fast as the general population resulting in a 10 % decline from 90 % as recently as 1990.

The cards originally had one line for statistics from the most recent year (i.e. There is no official Religion in the United States, but polls estimate that 80 % of Americans are Christians of various denominations. It also had some pedagogical benefit by encouraging youngsters to take an interest in the underlying math. For example, a dual ancestry person was counted in the Italian and the Irish ancestry group or a biracial person was counted in the White and Black groups. Those who played with baseball cards could study the numbers and use them as the basis for comparing players, trading cards with friends, or playing imaginary baseball games. For the first time ever, American citizens were able to list all of the racial, ethnic, or ancestry groups which they felt was appropriate for them. While baseball cards themselves had been around for years, including statistics was a relative novelty that fascinated many collectors. About 35% live on Indian reservations.

At the time, complete and reliable baseball statistics for all players were not widely available, so Topps actually compiled the information itself from published box scores. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 1% of the population (2000 census). One of the features that contributed significantly to Topps's success beginning with the 1952 set was providing player statistics. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Some of these were the company's own innovations, while some were ideas borrowed from others that Topps helped popularize. Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. In addition to establishing a standard size, Topps developed various design elements that are considered typical of baseball cards. Asian Americans, including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, are a third significant minority (4% of the population in 2000).

Although Topps did not invent the concept of baseball cards, its dominance in the field basically allowed the company to define people's expectations of what a baseball card would look like. African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their proportional population is largest in the South. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, but Topps charged a $3.7 million after-tax loss on its books in connection with the sale. Approximately 12.9% (2000 census) of the American people designated themselves as Black alone or in combination with some other race(African American). This undertaking was not very successful, however, and Topps unloaded the site on Naxcom in January 2006. People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. The purchase was for $5.7 million cash in August 2001 after Topps had earlier committed to invest in a round of venture capital financing for the company. Hispanics comprise 13% of the population (2000 census).

Topps also acquired ThePit.com, a startup company that earlier in 2000 had launched a site for online stock-market style card trading. Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are second only to the German-American population. After a sale, the cards are held in a climate-controlled warehouse unless the buyer requests delivery, and the cards can be traded online without changing hands except in the virtual sense. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. The quantity sold depends on how many people offer to buy, but is limited to a certain maximum. Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. These cards are sold exclusively online through individual "IPOs" in which the card is offered for a week at the IPO price. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%).

Working in partnership with eBay, Topps launched a new brand of sports cards called etopps in December 2000. This majority--69% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. Although most of its products were distributed through retail stores and hobby shops, Topps also attempted to establish itself online, where a significant secondary market for sports cards was developing. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived after the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). The union announced that for 2006, licenses would only be granted to Topps and Upper Deck, the number of different products would be limited, and players would not appear on cards before reaching the major leagues. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The resulting glut of different baseball sets caused the MLBPA to take drastic measures as the market for them deteriorated. The United States is a very racially diverse country.

Topps continued adding more sets and trying to distinguish them from each other, as did its competitors. The West Coast is now home to approximately half of all American citizens of Asian ancestry (5 of the 10 million; increasing 52.4% in number during the 1990s). The initial Topps effort at producing a premium line of cards, in 1991, was called Stadium Club. The West Coast has been the residence of choice for immigrating Asians, particularly from China. Following Topps's example, other manufacturers now began to diversify their product lines into different sets, each catering to a different niche of the market. Major demographic trends include the mass immigration of Hispanics from Latin America into the Southwest, which is home to 60 % (21 of the 35 million) of the nation's Hispanics (their numbers increased 57.9% nationally in the 1990s). Also beginning in 1989 with the entry of Upper Deck into the market, card companies began to develop higher-end cards using improved technology. Between 1990 and 2000, 19 of the 20 fastest-growing states were in these two regions.[4].

As a further step in this race, Topps resurrected its former competitor Bowman as a subsidiary brand in 1989, with Bowman sets similarly chosen to include a lot of young players with bright prospects. Growth in some parts of the nation have been particularly extreme such as the fastest growing metropolitan area, Las Vegas, Nevada, which went from 273,288 people in 1970 to about 1,650,671 in 2004. This card from the 1984 squad appeared in Topps's regular 1985 set, but by the next Olympic cycle the team's cards had been migrated to the "Traded" set. The fastest growing region is the West, followed by the South. Olympic baseball team and thus produced the first card of Mark McGwire, one that would become quite valuable to collectors. population continues to drift farther west and south. For example, Topps obtained a license to produce cards featuring the U.S. The mean center of the U.S.

Increasingly, they also included highly touted minor league players who had yet to play in the major leagues. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history.". Since a "rookie card" is typically the most valuable for any given player, the companies now competed to be the first to produce a card of players who might be future stars. It always has. In order to fill out a 132-card set (the number of cards that fit on a single sheet of the uncut cardboard used in the production process), it would contain a number of rookie players who had just reached the major leagues and not previously appeared on a card. The former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[3] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. While "Traded" or "Update" sets were originally conceived to deal with players who changed teams, they became increasingly important for another reason. Regionally, the southern states have the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England have the highest.

In response to the competition, Topps began regularly issuing additional "Traded" sets featuring players who had changed teams since the main set was issued, following up on an idea it had experimented with a few years earlier. Among racial groups; American Indians and Alaska Natives have the lowest median income while Asians have the highest. Other manufacturers later followed, but Topps remains one of the leading brands in the baseball card hobby. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Fleer and Donruss began making large, widely distributed sets to compete directly with Topps, although they still avoided packaging their cards with gum. America's poverty line, defined for a family of four as an income of less than $19,157, is at 12.7% of the general population. The Topps monopoly on baseball cards was finally broken by a lawsuit that let Fleer and another company, Donruss, enter the market in 1981. (See List of countries by income equality.).

Topps appears not to have considered the Kellogg's cards a threat and took no action to stop them. The richest 10% make 15.9 times as much as the poorest 10%, and the richest 20% make 8.4 times as much as the poorest 20%. The Kellogg's sets contained fewer cards than Topps sets, and the cards served as an incentive to buy the cereal rather than being the intended focus of the purchase, as tended to be the case for cards distributed with smaller items like candy or gum. The United Nations Development Programme Report 2005 ranks income the United States as the 74th most equal out of 124 countries, as measured by the Gini coefficient. A semblance of competition returned to the baseball card market in the 1970s when Kellogg's began producing "3-D" cards and inserting them in boxes of breakfast cereal (originally Corn Flakes, later Raisin Bran and other brands). Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two — Ohio and Kansas — are below; and six do not have state laws. In addition, Topps is the only manufacturer able to produce cards of players who worked as replacement players during the 1994-95 baseball strike, since they are barred from union membership and participation in the group licensing program. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35.

Topps, however, can negotiate individually and was belatedly able to create a 2004 card of Bonds. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. On the other hand, if a player opts out of group licensing, as Barry Bonds did in 2004, then manufacturers who depend on the MLBPA system will have no way of including him. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynesian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. Players who decline to sign individual contracts will not have Topps cards even when the group licensing system allows other manufacturers to produce cards of the player, as happened with Alex Rodriguez early in his career. Since the 1980s, the U.S. The difference has occasionally affected whether specific players are included in particular sets. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign liabilities of over $12,000,000 million as of 2004; and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually.

This contrasts with other manufacturers, who all obtain group licenses from the MLBPA. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000 million or 6% of gross domestic product. As a byproduct of this history, Topps continues to use individual player contracts as the basis for its baseball card sets today. There have been few strikes in recent years. Although Fleer declined the proposal, by the end of the year Topps had agreed to double its payments to each player from $125 to $250, and also to begin paying players a percentage of Topps's overall sales. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. After continued discussions went nowhere, the union before the 1968 season asked its members to stop signing renewals on these contracts, and offered Fleer the exclusive rights to market cards of most players (with gum) starting in 1973. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers.

At this time, Topps had every major league player under contract, generally for five years plus renewal options, so Shorin declined. See Labor history of the United States. MLBPA executive director Marvin Miller then approached Joel Shorin, the president of Topps, about renegotiating these contracts. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. After initially putting players on Coca-Cola bottlecaps, the union concluded that the Topps contracts did not pay players adequately for their rights. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Struggling to raise funds, the MLBPA discovered that it could generate significant income by pooling the publicity rights of its members and offering companies a group license to use their images on various products. More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries.

That same year, however, Topps faced an attempt to undermine its position from the nascent players' union, the Major League Baseball Players Association. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). The decision gave Topps an effective monopoly of the baseball card market. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. However, Fleer chose not to pursue such options and instead sold its remaining player contracts to Topps for $395,000 in 1966. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The Commission concluded that because the contracts only covered the sale of cards with gum, competition was still possible by selling cards with other small, low-cost products. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system.

A hearing examiner ruled against Topps in 1965, but the Commission reversed this decision on appeal. The Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; and the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Stymied, Fleer turned its efforts to supporting an administrative complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that Topps was engaging in unfair competition through its aggregation of exclusive contracts. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry. However, Topps held onto the rights of most players and the set was not particularly successful. Silicon Valley is the country's largest high technology hub, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. Two of these sets were produced before Fleer finally tried a 67-card set of currently active players in 1963. For example, New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries.

Williams retired the next year, so Fleer began adding around him other mostly retired players in a Baseball Greats series, which was sold with gum. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being concentrated in certain cities or regions. Fleer signed star Ted Williams to an exclusive contract in 1959 and sold a set of cards oriented around him. The manufacturing sector produces goods such as cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. The next company to challenge Topps was Fleer, another gum manufacturer. In agriculture, it is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, rice and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. This left Topps as the dominant producer of baseball cards for a number of years. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc.

The competition, both for consumer attention and player contracts, continued until 1956, when Topps bought out Bowman. economy is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the work force. As the contract situation was sorted out, several Topps sets during these years had a few "missing" cards, where the numbering of the set skips several numbers because they had been assigned to players whose cards could not legally be distributed. The largest sector of the U.S. The contract issue proved more difficult because it turned on the dates when a given player signed contracts with each company, and whether the player's contract with one company had an exception for his contract with the other. (Borrowings as of November 2005 are 8.1 trillion.). The court rejected Bowman's attempt to claim a trademark on the word "baseball" in connection with the sale of gum, and disposed of the unfair competition claim because Topps had made no attempt to pass its cards off as being made by Bowman. The cap as of 2004 stands at 8.2 trillion.

The lawsuit alleged infringement on Bowman's trademarks, unfair competition, and contractual interference. Federal borrowings are subject to borrowing caps to theoretically prevent fiscal irresponsibilty. federal court. This is financed via taxes and borrowings in the money and capital markets. Bowman responded by adding chewing gum "or confections" to the exclusivity language of its 1951 contracts, and also sued Topps in U.S. As in all market-oriented economies, private individuals and business firms in the US make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. Topps also tried to establish exclusive rights through its contracts by having players agree not to grant similar rights to others, or renew existing contracts except where specifically noted in the contract. The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita annual gross domestic product of $41,747 (as of Q2 2005 [2]).

However, because Bowman had signed many players in 1950 to contracts for that year, plus a renewal option for one year, Topps included in its own contracts the rights to sell cards with gum starting in 1952 (as it ultimately did). The United States often faces criticism from Western governments and NGOs concerning its use of the death penalty, lengthy detention without trial, alleged forced confessions, torture, and mistreatment of prisoners as well as some restrictions on freedoms of speech and the press, as being violations of human rights. To avoid the language of Bowman's existing contracts, Topps sold its 1951 cards with caramel candy instead of gum. The American military, in terms of physical resources, is actually smaller now than it was twenty years ago, despite being larger than it was five years ago, for example. The language of these contracts focused particularly on the rights to sell cards with chewing gum, which had already been established in the 1930s as a popular product to pair with baseball cards. It should be noted that the United States' focus on military expenditures has ranged very broadly, due to regularly changing ideologies inherent in its political system. Bowman had become the primary maker of baseball cards and driven out several competitors by signing its players to exclusive contracts. defense expenditure is estimated to be greater than the next twelve largest national military budgets combined.

This promptly brought Topps into furious competition with Bowman Gum, another company producing baseball cards. U.S. The later acquisition of rights to additional players allowed Topps to release its second series. The 2006 defense budget will amount to nearly $440 billion, the highest ever. Topps first became active in this process through an agent called Players Enterprises in July 1950, in preparation for its first 1951 set. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, an increase of 4% over 2004 and 35% since 2001, with over 50% being spent in research & development. During this period, baseball card manufacturers generally obtained the rights to depict players on merchandise by signing individual players to contracts for the purpose. It is considered dominant on water, land, air, and space.

It was finally dropped from baseball card packs in 1992. The American armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) in the world, and their force projection capabilities are unrivalled. In fact, the gum eventually became a hindrance because it tended to stain the cards, thus impairing their value to collectors who wanted to keep them in pristine condition. Military conscription ended in 1973. The combination of baseball cards and bubblegum was popular among young boys, and given the mediocre quality of the gum, the cards quickly became the primary attraction. The combined United States armed forces comprise 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. The last series in 1952 started with card #311, which is Topps' first card of Mickey Mantle and remains the most valuable Topps card ever. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of Defense in times of war.

As a result, cards with higher numbers from this period are rarer than low numbers in the same set, and collectors will pay significantly higher prices for them. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. In later years, Topps either printed series in smaller quantities late in the season or destroyed excess cards. Canada, Germany, and other nations, are participating in the Afghanistan theater but not in Iraq. Topps was left with a substantial amount of surplus stock in 1952, which it largely disposed of by dumping many cards into the Atlantic. The United States currently enjoys a positive relationship with the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and Poland, among several others, in that these nations are participating as active military allies with, or logistical supporters of, the United States in all theaters. However, the later series did not sell as well, as the baseball season wore on and popular attention began to turn towards football. It has also embarked upon a War on Terrorism.

The cards were released in several series over the course of the baseball season, a practice Topps would continue with its baseball cards until 1974. The United States is currently involved in a war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, and an intervention in Haiti. This set became a landmark in the baseball card industry, and today the company considers this its first true baseball card set. The United States presently occupies 702 military bases worldwide in 132 different countries. (In 1957, Topps shrank the dimensions of its cards slightly, to 2-1/2 inches by 3-1/2 inches, setting a standard that remains the basic format for most sports cards produced in the United States.) The cards now had a color portrait on one side, with statistical and biographical information on the other. The military force of the United States has been decisive in several major foreign wars, most notably World War II and, to a lesser degree, World War I. The company also decided that its playing card model was too small (2 inches by 2-5/8 inches) and changed the dimensions to 2-5/8 inches by 3-5/8 inches with square corners. Traditionally, the greatest military ally of the United States has been the United Kingdom, though the earliest alliance the nation formed was with France (see Franco-American relations).

Topps changed its approach in 1952, this time creating a much larger (407 total) set of baseball cards and packaging them with its signature product, bubblegum. Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States of America (1777). The other side featured the portrait of a player within a baseball diamond in the center, and in opposite corners a picture of a baseball together with the event for that card, such as "fly out" or "single". In 1812, Venezuela, fighting for its independence from Spain, suffered a severe and damaging earthquake, prompting Congress to appropriate $50,000 to help the victims. Also like playing cards, the cards had rounded corners and were blank on one side, which was colored either red or blue (hence the names given to these sets). The first nation to receive foreign aid from the United States was Venezuela. Each set contained 52 cards, like a deck of playing cards, and in fact the cards could be used to play a game that would simulate the events of a baseball game. The same range of opinions is also found within the United States, with many Americans either supporting or strongly criticizing United States foreign policy.

In 1951, Topps produced its first baseball cards in two different sets known today as Red Backs and Blue Backs. Reactions towards American foreign policy by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from admiration to fierce criticism. Management was left in the hands of the Shorin family throughout all of these maneuverings. The immense military and economic strength of the United States has made its foreign relations an especially important topic in international politics. In this incarnation, the company was incorporated in Delaware for legal purposes, but company headquarters remained in New York. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty. The new ownership group again made Topps into a publicly traded company in 1987, now renamed to The Topps Company, Inc. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing.

The company returned to private ownership when it was acquired in a leveraged buyout led by Forstmann Little & Company in 1984. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. After being privately held for several decades, Topps offered stock to the public for the first time in 1972 with the assistance of investment banking firm White, Weld & Co. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. In 1994, the headquarters would move to One Whitehall Street in Manhattan. Seen like this, the Supreme Court in 1901 would have decided in favor of George III of the United Kingdom. Corporate offices remained at 254 36th Street in New York, a location in the Brooklyn waterfront district by the Gowanus Expressway. This had been the precisely the quarrel between American colonies and Great Britain that resulted in the founding of the United States.

The entire company originally operated out of Brooklyn, but production facilities were moved to a plant in Duryea, Pennsylvania in 1965. Islands gained by the United States in the war against Spain at the turn of the 20th century were no longer to be considered foreign territory; on the other hand, the United States Supreme Court declared that they were not automatically covered by the Constitution and that it was up to Congress to decide what portions of the Constitution, if any, applied to them. It later incorporated under New York law in 1947. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The company began its existence as Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., a partnership between the four Shorin brothers. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. Topps then added baseball cards as a product, which quickly became its primary emphasis. is divided into three distinct sections:.

Starting in 1950, the company decided to try increasing gum sales by packaging them together with trading cards featuring Western character Hopalong Cassidy. The U.S. Topps's most successful early product was Bazooka bubblegum, which was packaged with a small comic on the wrapper. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. At the time, chewing gum was still a relative novelty sold in individual pieces. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The chosen field was the manufacture of chewing gum, selected after going into the produce business was considered and rejected. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50.

To do this, they relaunched the company as Topps, with the name meant to indicate that it would be "tops" in its field. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. Shorin's sons, Abram, Ira, Philip, and Joseph, decided to focus on a new product but take advantage of the company's existing distribution channels. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. American Leaf Tobacco encountered difficulties as World War I cut off Turkish supplies of tobacco to the United States, and later as a result of the Great Depression. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. (American Leaf Tobacco should not be confused with the American Tobacco Company, which monopolized US-grown tobacco during this period.). Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence.

imported tobacco to the United States and sold it to other tobacco companies. With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be polities modeled after the European states of the time. Founded in 1890 by Morris Shorin, the American Leaf Tobacco Co. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies. Topps itself was founded in 1938, but the company can trace its roots back to an earlier firm, American Leaf Tobacco. In New England, towns operate in a direct democratic fashion, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. . The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor.

It is best known as a leading producer of baseball cards and other sports-related trading cards. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The Topps Company, Inc. NASDAQ: TOPP is a publicly traded company based in New York City that manufactures candy and collectibles. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. New York: Warner Books. Tribal citizenship (and voting rights) is generally restricted to individuals of Native descent, but tribes are free to set whatever membership requirements they wish. Topps Baseball Cards: The complete picture collection, a 40 year history. Tribes are empowered to form their own governments, with power resting in elected tribal councils, elected tribal chairpersons, or religiously appointed leaders (as is the case with pueblos).

Slocum, Frank & Red Foley (1990). Tribal capacity to operate robust governments varies, from a simple council used to manage all aspects of tribal affairs, to large and complex bureaucracies with several branches of government. ISBN 0-312-32222-4. Hundreds of laws, executive orders, and court cases have modified the governmental status of tribes vis-à-vis states, but have kept the two officially distinct. Martin's Press. Georgia, Indian tribes are considered "domestic dependent nations" that operate as sovereign governments subject to Federal authority but, generally, outside of the influence from state governments. New York: St. As a result of the Supreme Court case Worcester v.

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics. See state court for more information. Schwarz, Alan (2004). In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. Chicago Reader, 25 June 2004. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, the highest being the state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. "Culture Jamming for the Swingset Set". Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people.

Schwartz, Ben. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the voters of the state. 1953). The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. 904 (E.D.N.Y. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between individual states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. Topps Chewing Gum Co., 112 F.Supp. Each state has its own written constitution, government, and code of laws.

v. The state governments have the greatest influence over most Americans' daily lives. Haelan Laboratories, Inc. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question (an issue arising under the US Constitution, or laws/treaties of the United States); the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution. 1953). Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., 202 F.2d 866 (2d Cir. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law.

v. The court deals with matters pertaining to the Federal Government and interpretation of the United States Constitution, and can declare legislation or executive action made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Haelan Laboratories, Inc. The highest court is the Supreme Court, which currently consists of nine justices. 1981). Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., 658 F.2d 139 (3d Cir. George W.

v. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. Fleer Corp. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. 1980). The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. Pa. (The Constitution does not specify that the State of the Union address be delivered in person; it can be in the form of a letter, as was the practice during most of the 19th century.) Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'.

485 (E.D. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress from time to time (usually once a year). Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., 501 F.Supp. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. v. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote (by two-thirds majority in favour). Fleer Corp. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote fromboth houses.

Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., 103 F.Supp. However, the consent of both Houses is required to make any law. v. Each House has particular exclusive powers - the Senate must give "advice and consent" to many important Presidential appointments, and the House must introduce any bills for the purpose of raising revenue. Bowman Gum, Inc. There are a total of 100 senators (as there are currently 50 states), who serve six-year terms (one third of the Senate stands for election every two years). House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population.