Teena Marie, who had hits like "Lovergirl," "Square Biz," and "Fire and Desire" with mentor Rick James, has died. She was 54.The confirmation came from a publicist, Jasmine Vega, who worked with Teena Marie on her last album. No other details were available. Teena Marie, known as the "Ivory Queen of Soul," was certainly not the first white act to sing soul music, but she was arguably among the most gifted and respected, and was thoroughly embraced by the black audience.
She was first signed to the legendary Motown label back in 1979, working with James, with whom she would have a long, turbulent but musically magical relationship.The cover of her album, "Wild and Peaceful," did not feature her image, with Motown apparently fearing backlash by audiences if they found out the songstress with the dynamic voice was white. But Marie had her first hit, "I'm A Sucker for Your Love," and was on her way to becoming one of R&B's most revered queens. During her tenure with Motown, the singer-songwriter and musician produced passionate love songs and funk jam songs like "Need Your Lovin'," "Behind the Groove" and "Ooh La La La."
Marie had a daughter and had toured in recent years after overcoming an addiction to prescription drugs.
Kwanzaa or Kwanza, secular seven-day festival in celebration of the African heritage of African Americans, beginning on Dec. 26. Developed by Maulana Karenga and first observed in 1966, Kwanzaa is based in part on traditional African harvest festivals but particularly emphasizes the role of the family and community in African-American culture. Each day is dedicated to a particular principle (unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith), and on each day one of the candles on a seven-branched candelabrum is lighted. The celebration also includes the giving of gifts and a karamu, or African feast.
The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa [Nguzo Saba] 1) Umojo (Unity) To Strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. 2) Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ouselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. 3) Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together. 4) Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together. 5) Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. 6) Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. 7) Imani (Faith) To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Employers are more optimistic about hiring in the first quarter of 2011 than at any time in more than two years. Overall 9% more of them expect to be adding staff than expect to be reducing it. Some cities have an exceptionally positive outlook, while others present a bleaker picture.
Employment services firm Manpower ( MAN - news - people ) surveyed more than 18,000 employers in 100 metropolitan areas to find out who's hiring, who's firing and who plans to maintain their current staff levels. The survey revealed that the metropolitan area with the most optimistic forecast of all for hiring this winter is Baton Rouge, La.
Louisiana's capital tops the list this with an 18% net employment outlook, which is the percentage of employers who expect to add employees (22%) minus the percentage who expect to reduce their workforce (4%). Another 71% said they anticipated no change, and 3% didn't know.
"Over the last 24 months we have seen significant economic development in a lot of sectors," says Adam Knapp, president and chief executive officer of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. "The region has been cited in various rankings over the past year for having one of the strongest growth economies." He says Baton Rouge stayed strong throughout the recession: "Unlike a lot of regions, the firms here aren't adding jobs now because they cut back during the economic downturn. We are adding to what we already had, and starting new firms entirely."
Baton Rouge is enjoying growth in digital media, biofuels and wood products and construction. Three hospitals are building new facilities, so new jobs are expected in health care too. The city won't be adding government jobs, though, as the state budget won't allow it.
In fact the Manpower survey found that government hiring is expect to remain flat in all 50 states between January and March 2011. Job prospects are looking the best in industries like leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, information and wholesale and retail trade.
"Information technology and gaming, international trade, life services, health care and professional services are the areas anticipating the most growth in the greater Seattle area," says George Allen, senior vice president of government relations at the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area is the second-most optimistic metropolitan area, with a 15% net employment outlook.
The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce issued its own jobs sector survey in July; 1,200 employers were polled, and the results were upbeat. Fifty-six percent of King County employers anticipated that business would be better in 2011, and 41% expected to hire more. "We found there is a sweet spot for hiring," Allen says. "The small companies aren't planning to hire, the big companies are looking to decrease hiring, and the mid-sized companies are the ones really looking to grow."
The Milwaukee area trails close behind Seattle with a 14% net employment outlook for the winter. Milwaukee was once known almost exclusively for its brewing and manufacturing industries, but major developments over the years like Miller Park and the Frontier Airlines Center have helped to broaden both its image and its employment opportunities. Milwaukee is home to the headquarters of major corporations including Harley-Davidson ( HOG - news - people ), Johnson Controls ( JCI - news - people ) and Kohl's ( KSS - news - people ). CONTINUE READING...
WASHINGTON — A massive bipartisan tax package preventing a big New Year's Day tax hike for millions of Americans is on its way to President Barack Obama for his signature Friday.
The measure would extend tax cuts for families at every income level, renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and enact a new one-year cut in Social Security taxes that would benefit nearly every worker who earns a wage.
The president is expected to sign the bill Friday afternoon.
In a remarkable show of bipartisanship, the House gave final approval to the measure just before midnight Thursday, overcoming an attempt by rebellious Democrats who wanted to impose a higher estate tax than the one Obama agreed to. The vote was 277-148, with each party contributing an almost identical number of votes in favor (the Democrats, 139 and the Republicans, 138).
In a rare reach across party lines, Obama negotiated the $858 billion package with Senate Republicans. The White House then spent the past 10 days persuading congressional Democrats to go along, providing a possible blueprint for the next two years, when Republicans will control the House and hold more seats in the Senate.
"There probably is nobody on this floor who likes this bill," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "The judgment is, is it better than doing nothing? Some of the business groups believe it will help. I hope they're right."
Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said that with unemployment hovering just under 10 percent and the deadline for avoiding a big tax hike fast approaching, lawmakers had little choice but to support the bill.
This is just no time to be playing games with our economy," said Camp, who will become chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee in January. "The failure to block these tax increases would be a direct hit to families and small businesses."
Sweeping tax cuts enacted when George W. Bush was president are scheduled to expire Jan. 1 — a little more than two weeks away. The bill extends them for two years, placing the issue squarely in the middle of the next presidential election, in 2012.
The extended tax cuts include lower rates for the rich, the middle class and the working poor, a $1,000-per-child tax credit, tax breaks for college students and lower taxes on capital gains and dividends. The bill also extends through 2011, a series of business tax breaks designed to encourage investment that expired at the end of 2009.
Workers' Social Security taxes would be cut by nearly a third, going from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, for 2011. A worker making $50,000 in wages would save $1,000; one making $100,000 would save $2,000.
"This legislation is good for growth, good for jobs, good for working and middle class families, and good for businesses looking to invest and expand their work force," said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Some Democrats complained that the package is too generous to the wealthy; Republicans complained that it doesn't make all the tax cuts permanent.
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., called it "a bipartisan moment of clarity."
The bill's cost, $858 billion, would be added to the deficit, a sore spot among budget hawks in both parties.
"I know that we are going to borrow every nickel in this bill," Hoyer lamented. CONTINUE READING...
Tax Bill Heads to House Having passed the Senate, Obama's tax plan moves to the House, where Democratic leaders hope to keep recalcitrant members from derailing the bill. Read original story in The Wall Street Journal | Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010
House Votes to End DADT, Again The lower chamber voted once more to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" law by a wide margin on Wednesday. Read original story in The Washington Post | Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010
Sarah Palin Re-engages with "Lamestream" Media After retreating to the warm embrace of the conservative media, Sarah Palin has re-emerged, ready to face the caustic questioning of Barbara Walters. Read original story in POLITICO | Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010
French Couples Say "Oui" to Civil Unions The majority of civil unions in France are between straight couples, with the French choosing civil unions over marriage 40 percent of the time. Read original story in The New York Times | Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010
Justice Department Sues BP The federal government claims that BP and eight other companies should "be held liable without limitation" for billions of dollars in cleanup costs and other damages related to the Gulf oil spill. Read original story in MSNBC | Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010
START Clears Senate Hurdle Eight Republicans crossed the aisle, allowing debate to begin on the nuclear treaty Thursday morning. Read original story in The Washington Post | Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010
Justice Dept. Sues School District for Denying Teacher Leave for Hajj In 2008, a Chicago-area teacher requested almost three weeks of unpaid leave so she could make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The district refused, she quit, and now the Justice Department says her employer illegally forced her to choose between her job and her religion. Read original story in The Associated Press | Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010
Marine Commandant: DADT Repeal Could Cause Casualties Gen. James Amos tells reporters openly gay Marines could be "a distraction," and "distractions cost Marines' lives." But a new survey says eight in 10 Americans believe DADT should be repealed. Read original story in The Washington Post | Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010
Facebook to Introduce Facial Recognition for Tags Facebook is rolling out new technology that will recognize faces and suggest tags, though it may be confounded by the homogenizing "duckface" epidemic. Read original story in AFP | Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010
George Clinton, a veteran funk singer, has sued the Black Eyed Peas, saying the hip hop group used elements of his old group Funkadelic's 1979 song "(Not Just) Knee Deep" in remixes of its track "Shut Up" without his permission.
Singers Fergie and will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and its record label, Universal Music Group, were named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed on Friday, the Associated Press said. They have not commented.
Clinton is seeking copyright infringement damages and wants to ensure there are no more sales of the remixes.
The Black Eyed Peas is one of the most popular contemporary groups in the world and has topped charts all over the world with singles such as "My Humps", "I Gotta Feeling" and "Boom Boom Pow. The group is set to play the 2011 Super Bowl half-time show on February 6 at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas, marking the first time a non-rock act has performed on the biggest stage on television in seven years.
The 2003 single "Shut Up" has sold at least five million copies worldwide and topped the charts in many countries. One remix of the track can be found on the Black Eyed Peas' fifth studio album, "The E.N.D.". Elements of "(Not Just Knee Deep" are said to be heard on songs by LL Cool J, Tone Loc and Snoop Dogg. They are not named in Clinton's lawsuit.
The Black Eyed Peas recently released the song "The Time (Dirty Bit)", which remixes the famous 1980s song "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from the Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey film "Dirty Dancing". SOURCE OF THIS POST
WASHINGTON – Raising the direst alarm yet, the Obama administration warned fellow Democrats on Wednesday that if they defeat the big tax-cut compromise detested by many liberals, they could jolt the nation back into recession.
President Barack Obama appealed anew for Congress to "get this done" and insisted that more congressional Democrats would climb aboard as they studied details of the $900 billion year-end measure. Several did announce support on Wednesday, but at least one said there still was "a mood to resist."
One Democratic opponent, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, forecast a result that would abruptly reverse Congress' voting pattern of the first two years of Obama's term: "It will be passed by virtually all the Republicans and a minority of Democrats." He said he would vote against it.
Some top Democrats, however, warned that growing anger over an estate tax proposal could prompt massive defections.
"The jury is still out," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen. He said many colleagues are dismayed that Obama, without consulting lawmakers, agreed to a lower tax on the estates left by wealthy people, which will cost the government billions of dollars in revenue and benefit relatively few large estates.
Larry Summers, Obama's chief economic adviser, told reporters that if the overall tax package isn't passed soon, it will "materially increase the risk the economy would stall out and we would have a double-dip" recession. That put the White House in the unusual position of warning its own party's lawmakers they could be to blame for calamitous consequences if they go against the president.
With many House and Senate Republicans signaling their approval of the tax cut plan, the White House's comments were aimed mainly at House Democrats who feel Obama went too far in yielding to Republicans' demands for continued income tax cuts and lower estate taxes for the wealthy.
Obama says the compromise was necessary because Republicans were prepared to let everyone's taxes rise and to block the extension of unemployment benefits for jobless Americans if they didn't get much of what they wanted.
Economists say the recent recession officially ended in June 2009. But with unemployment at 9.8 percent, millions remain out of work or fearful of losing ground economically, and the notion of the nation falling back into a recession would strike many as chilling. It also could rattle markets and investors.
The deal Obama crafted with Senate Republican leaders would prevent the scheduled Dec. 31 expiration of all the Bush administration's tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, even though Obama had often promised to end the cuts for the highest earners.
Summers' remarks contrasted with Obama's comments at a news conference Tuesday. "We don't have the danger of a double-dip recession," the president said then, noting the impact of the 2009 stimulus bill and other measures meant to steady the economy. CONTINUE READING
Since the dawn of the Internet age, basic e-mail has remained the online world's version of comfort food - familiar and unchanging.
But the rapid rise of other forms of electronic communication are transforming e-mail from a stand-alone application into one that incorporates mobile text, chat, instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter and online document sharing.
One measure of that transformation is Facebook's move last month to roll out a "modern messaging system" built atop the company's wildly popular social-networking platform. Analysts say that may prove to be a major catalyst for that evolution, both for consumers and for businesses.
"We believe it represents the long-term co-evolution and convergence of e-mail with social media and other messaging types, whereby e-mail becomes more social and social media takes on e-mail attributes," according to a soon-to-be released Gartner research report.
E-mail may not totally disappear, but experts say in five to 10 years, it may look far different than it does today.
"Within five years, we think the questions about social networking versus e-mail will be largely moot, as the two elements will have been fused together," said the report by Gartner analysts Matt Cain and Ray Valdes.
E-mail's popularity
E-mail thrived, after all, because it was one of the first forms of Internet sharing for the masses. It is still the third most popular online activity, behind social networking and gaming, although younger Internet users are turning to other more immediate electronic communication forms, such as texting from mobile phones.
Palo Alto's Facebook last month began slowly rolling out a revamped messaging system that reflects that shift. The Facebook Messages system gets rid of subject lines and instead is designed to group messages into a more manageable inbox of "conversations" between individual friends.
And that same "social inbox" seamlessly gathers all types of messages, whether they are sent by text, chat or traditional e-mail programs. Facebook's core feature - status updates - are already like sending group messages.
"We don't think that a modern messaging system is going to be e-mail," Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said when he introduced Facebook Messages.
From a competitive business standpoint, Facebook Messages "opens a new front in the prolonged war" for consumer attention, the Gartner report said. "Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo want consumers to spend as much time as possible on their sites to maximize advertising revenues."
Sound the alarm - Oakland's Police Department is shrinking so fast that it doesn't have enough officers to cover some patrols and many of its investigative units have been stripped to the bone.
Everyone knows about the 80 officers the city laid off in July to save money. But since then, 21 more have retired, 12 have decamped for other police departments, five have simply quit and one has been fired - dropping the total number of officers to 670.
Meanwhile, 30 more officers are undergoing background checks by other departments seeking to hire them. And another 40 will be eligible to retire by year's end.
Even that doesn't tell the whole story.
Another 77 cops - or more than 10 percent of the entire force - are on the shelf because of injuries. That's about double the usual rate. Twenty will be going back to work in the next two weeks, but only for "light duty."
And thanks to a provision in a parcel tax that city voters passed in 2004, 63 cops have to be assigned as community problem-solving officers who ferret out trouble spots and crime trends in designated districts. That means they can't be assigned to investigations or to work in other neighborhoods.
Put it all together, and you have investigative units such as the burglary and robbery details being raided to fill patrol beats.
There are now just five cops investigating everything from auto thefts to burglaries to identity theft.
But even so, street coverage is becoming a challenge. On an average day, six of the city's 33 patrol car beats go uncovered for lack of officers.
Chief Anthony Batts - who estimated the city needs at least 925 cops to get the job done - is trying to make up for the loss by partnering up with federal, state and county law enforcement units.
"We're going to keep trying," he said. "We are not going to give up."
Veteran hip-hop writer Kevin Powell has landed a deal with publisher Simon & Schuster to pen an official biography on the late Tupac Shakur.
According to reports, Powell was given the green light by Pac's mother Afeni Shakur, to narrate her son's biography, which will be titled Tupac Shakur: The Authorized Biography.
"Kevin Powell is doing this Tupac Shakur biography with my full blessings," Afeni said in a statement. "I trust him and his history of documenting my son's life, and I know he will do the book from his heart."
Powell echoed those feelings in a statement, explaining that he understands the importance of the book, not only for the rapper's fans but also for pop culture.
"It is an honor to write what will be the definitive biography on the life and times of Tupac Shakur, one of the greatest icons in hip-hop and pop culture history," Powell said.
At press time, there was no date revealed for the book's release.
According to TheBoomBox.com, an Antoine Fuqua-directed biopic and the documentary, titled "Uncensored and Uncut: The Lost Prison Tapes," is set to drop in January 2011.
The doc will center around previously unreleased footage of an interview Tupac conducted during his stint at the Clinton Correction Facility, where he served time in 1995, before his stint on Death Row Records. SOURCE: BALLERSTATUS.COM
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is holding out for an extension of unemployment assistance and of a variety of expiring tax breaks for low-wage and middle-income workers as part of a deal with Congressional Republicans to extend all the Bush-era tax cuts.
But it is unclear how much leverage the White House has in the tax negotiations, given the drubbing Democrats took in the midterm elections, the tight Congressional calendar and a threat by Senate Republicans to block any legislation until the tax fight is resolved.
In a symbolic nod to President Obama’s pledge to let the tax cuts on upper-income brackets expire on Dec. 31, as scheduled by law, the House on Thursday approved a bill to continue the lower tax rates enacted during the Bush administration for Americans they described as “middle class.” The vote was 234 to 188, with three Republicans joining 231 Democrats in favor; 20 Democrats and 168 Republicans were opposed.
The bill, however, has no chance of passage in the Senate, where even some Democrats say the tax cuts should be extended for everyone, at least temporarily, given the continued weakness in the economy.
Senate Democratic leaders scheduled their own symbolic votes for Saturday, intending to demonstrate their desire to end the tax cuts for the rich.
Republicans, meanwhile, expressed dismay at the posturing by Democrats, which they said was delaying the inevitable and even getting in the way of a potential deal on aid for millions of unemployed Americans whose benefits have started to run out.
Administration officials said no deal was at hand, and negotiators from the administration and the two parties in Congress met only briefly on Thursday. It is possible that the parties will be unable to reach a compromise, in which case tax rates will revert at the end of this year to their pre-2001 levels, meaning an across the board tax increase. However, the Treasury could be directed to keep the current rates while negotiations continue.
But the sense within both parties was that Democrats were essentially negotiating the terms of their major retreat on an issue that they once considered a slam-dunk on both substantive and political levels.
Senior Senate Republican aides said that an extension of all the income tax cuts was a foregone conclusion, but that a deal on jobless aid was possible if Democrats agreed to cover the cost. Democrats expressed indignation that Republicans were insisting on finding spending cuts to offset the unemployment benefits while being perfectly willing to add to the national debt the $700 billion cost of continuing the tax cuts on the highest incomes for the next decade. CONTINUE READING..
Over 90,000 people are living with HIV in the UK and new infections continue every year. World AIDS Day 2010 is all about raising awareness to tackle HIV prejudice and help stop the spread of HIV.
Explore this site to ensure you understand the facts about HIV and find out what you can do to ACT AWARE. Make a pledge and join people all over the world making a difference on 1 December 2010.
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