Home Blog Page 545

The right way to keep away from getting Storrowed on Boston move-in day: ‘Start with driving with your eyes open’

In case you’re driving a U-Haul or different field truck this move-in season, please please look out for the scores of low clearance bridge indicators and observe their instructions.

That’s once more the message from state officers, as they plead with movers driving vans to keep away from Storrow Drive and Troopers Discipline Highway in Boston and Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

“Storrowing: Don’t let it ruin your move to Boston,” Ryan Hutton, of the state’s Division of Conservation and Recreation, says in a “DCR Action News” PSA video forward of move-in day on Sept. 1.

As college students and different movers drive vans on move-in day, there’s often a leap in Storrowing — when a truck crashes into one of many many low bridges on Storrow Drive, Troopers Discipline Highway and Memorial Drive.

Many overpasses and pedestrian foot bridges stand no taller than 10 ft, properly under the peak of a typical field truck or tractor trailer.

Regardless of massive indicators and flashing lights warning drivers that these roads are restricted to passenger vehicles solely, all year long all forms of vans ram into the low bridges — typically getting caught and inflicting site visitors backups.

“So what can you do to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of Storrowing? Start with driving with your eyes open,” Hutton says. “We put up like 100 indicators in every single place, warning of us of the low clearance heights. Severely, they’re in all places.

“And we installed nearly 40 new high visibility ones this winter that say, ‘Cars Only.’ That means you,” he provides. “You have to be able to see at least one of them to understand that yes, it does apply to you. Eyes open.”

“Cars Only” indicators alert drivers of the low bridge clearances in Boston and Cambridge. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

Hutton recommends not utilizing a traditional GPS app, and as an alternative utilizing a truck driver app in which you’ll be able to enter the peak of your automobile. These apps embody TruckMap and Hammer.

“So prove to everyone that you belong at one of Boston’s very nice colleges by driving with ‘Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose… the security deposit on your truck,’ ” he provides.

Widespread alternate transferring routes embody Commonwealth Avenue, the Mass Pike and Beacon Road, amongst others.

AAA Northeast can be warning movers to heed the warning indicators. Entrances to Storrow Drive are marked with flashing lights, message boards and low-hanging indicators designed to softly hit the highest of a tall truck as a warning.

“If the vehicle you’re driving is struck by the warning sign, you will strike a bridge,” AAA Northeast wrote.

Insurance coverage bought from the truck rental firm won’t cowl Storrowing. Hitting a bridge with top limits may very well be thought of negligence, and injury from the crash won’t be coated by the usual plan.

Additionally, in the event you’re in a passenger automobile and end up behind a field truck, tractor trailer or any automobile that seems to be taller than 10 ft on Storrow Drive, maintain your distance. A truck that collides right into a bridge may cause chain response crashes and ship particles onto the roadway.

The Metropolis of Boston has put out a site visitors advisory forward of this busy week. Pupil move-in at native faculties and universities would require non permanent parking restrictions within the metropolis from Aug. 26 to Sept. 2. For data on the parking restrictions, go to www.boston.gov/information/traffic-advisory-2025-student-move.

Workers try to free a truck from under a bridge on Storrow Drive eastbound near Mass General Hospital. (Staff Photo by Matt Stone, File)
Staff attempt to free a truck from below a bridge on Storrow Drive eastbound close to Mass Normal Hospital. (Employees Picture by Matt Stone, File)

 

Initially Revealed:

Spotify launches a messaging function in a bid to develop into extra social | TechCrunch

Spotify is introducing a method so that you can chat with your folks on the app in a bid to develop into a extra social content material consumption app.

Customers have shared Spotify hyperlinks for music and podcasts with others exterior the platform for years. With this function, Spotify needs customers to do extra of that inside the app whereas additionally holding the historical past of shared content material, so customers don’t must go seek for a track.

Messages are solely one-on-one, and you may solely begin a chat with somebody with whom you have got beforehand shared content material. Which means if in case you have a collaborative playlist with somebody, or have joined a jam or a mix, you can begin a dialog with them. This additionally applies to individuals on a Household or Duo plan with you. When you ship a request, they must approve it to start out a dialog.

Picture Credit: Spotify

Exterior of Spotify, if somebody sends a Spotify hyperlink to you on platforms like Instagram, Fb, WhatsApp, Snapchat, or TikTok, you may faucet on it and approve their request to speak. Alternatively, you may ship an invitation hyperlink to somebody in your contacts.

The corporate mentioned that customers ought to proceed sharing content material exterior Spotify, and the brand new message function is a “complement” to that.

Reactions Music
Picture Credit: Spotify

Customers can entry messages by tapping on their profile photos and accessing conversations underneath the Messages part on the hover bar situated on the left. They’ll react to particular messages utilizing emoji as nicely.

The corporate mentioned that messages are encrypted at relaxation and in transit; nevertheless, messages aren’t protected by end-to-end transcription. The corporate proactively seems at messages to examine if they’re breaking its guidelines. What’s extra, Spotify mentioned that customers can report messages, and the corporate will examine these messages in opposition to its phrases of service and platform guidelines.

Techcrunch occasion

San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025

How to report messages and block users
Picture Credit: Spotify

Final month, Spotify Chief Product and Know-how Officer Gustav Söderström hinted in the course of the firm’s quarterly name that the patron expertise might be way more interactive on the app. The brand new messages function appears to be a transfer in that course.

Spotify is rolling out the messages function to each premium and free customers over 16 in choose markets in Latin and South America, solely on cellular variations. The corporate mentioned that the function will develop to the US, Canada, Brazil, the EU, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand within the coming weeks.

Over time, Spotify has had only some social components, like with the ability to comply with somebody and take a look at what they hearken to. That has been altering with the introduction of options like feedback on podcasts final yr and a redesigned feed with a deal with video.

Final yr, in an interview with TechCrunch, Spotify VP of Podcast Product Maya Prohovnik didn’t deny the concept of feedback on music tracks as nicely.

In current months, customers on social media have complained about Spotify’s interface being too cluttered with options. My colleague Amanda Silberling, who left Spotify for Apple Music, had the same drawback.

“There’s an overwhelming display of visual clutter from the time it takes to navigate from Spotify’s home page to the music you’re looking for,” she mentioned.

Whereas messages may nudge some to share extra content material with pals, it might additionally annoy some who’ve been feeling that the app is getting extra overwhelming. Fortunately, you may go to Settings > Privateness and social and disable messages.

‘Sweet Caroline’: When Bobby Womack Put The Soul Into Neil Diamond

Bobby Womack may make something soulful, and never simply on his personal compositions. The storied R&B singer from Cleveland is remembered for any variety of self-written classics, from “Lookin’ For A Love” and “Across 110th Street” to later gems reminiscent of “If You Think You’re Lonely Now” and “I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much.” However he was additionally a grasp of the imaginative cowl, together with a number of pop favorites within the late Sixties and early Seventies.

‘Sweet Caroline’: When Bobby Womack Put The Soul Into Neil Diamond
Keyshia Cole - The Way It Is

Having beforehand turned his hand to the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” and classics of American straightforward listening music reminiscent of “Fly Me To The Moon” and “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,” the summer season of 1972 noticed Womack opening the Neil Diamond songbook. On August 26 that 12 months, Womack entered Billboard’s Greatest Promoting Soul Singles chart together with his tackle “Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good).”

Diamond’s personal enduring model of his feelgood quantity was a No.4 hit on the Sizzling 100 in 1969, and was quickly attracting covers by Andy Williams, Bobby Goldsboro, and Elvis Presley, who made it a function of his dwell present. There was an instrumental tackle the tune by the Ventures, on their tenth Anniversary Album of 1970. Womack obtained to it on his1972 album Understanding, from which the opening single, his personal “Woman’s Gotta Have It,” turned his first R&B No.1 in June.

“Sweet Caroline” was chosen because the second 45 from the album, and whereas it largely missed the crossover viewers, as had its predecessor, the Diamond cowl turned one other soul favourite, climbing to No.16. Larger success would meet the follow-up, Jim Ford’s “Harry Hippie,” which reached No.3 R&B and made the pop High 40 at No.31.

When Womack spoke to Blues & Soul upon the album’s launch, he was enthusiastic about not solely his personal LP however different current initiatives on which he had left his imprint. “I’ve worked with some heavy people in the last year and I’ve learned a lot of new things which I’ve been able to put into my new album,” he mentioned. “I’m on Sly’s album, There’s A Riot Going On – you’ll even see me on the sleeve if you like to look closely! I worked on Billy Preston’s new album and I’m on ‘Outa Space’ playing my guitar.”

Billboard described Understanding as “a great album,” and within the New York Instances, Loraine Alterman was filled with reward for it, and for Womack’s covers of each “Sweet Caroline” and The Beatles’ “And I Love Her,” describing them as “relaxed and soulful interpretations.” Alterman judged Understanding to be “one of the tastiest albums I’ve heard in the past year. He possesses a warm, throaty, very expressive, and always funky voice. The arrangements, written by Womack, feature a dynamic interplay of instruments and lead and background voices.”

Hearken to “Sweet Caroline” on Bobby Womack’s Understanding album on Apple Music and Spotify.

Battenfeld: Trump risk to deploy troops to different cities places Michelle Wu’s crime claims to check

President Trump’s bid to develop the Nationwide Guard to different main cities may throw a highlight on Boston’s crime price and put Michelle Wu’s marketing campaign declare it’s the most secure main metropolis in America to a check.

With the Guard probably shifting into Chicago and Baltimore, simply the specter of an enlargement into Boston could be a problem to Wu’s energy within the warmth of her race for reelection.

Might it pull her out of her consolation zone of glad speak interviews with public radio?

Trump has not talked about Boston but as a metropolis he’d ship troops to however he has lengthy focused Wu and town over its sanctuary standing and is threatening to withhold federal funds.

Would a risk to usher in troops throw a highlight on crime in Boston and Democrats’ liberal regulation enforcement insurance policies?

It will be the final word problem to her rivalry that Boston is the most secure main metropolis in America.

“We have been in their sights for months at this point because our city represents everything that showcases why they’re wrong,” Wu stated. “ “They’re wrong on the law, they’re wrong on safety. We’re the safest major city in the country because everyone is involved in safety here.”

Wu continues to keep up the facade that Boston is completely protected. However simply because she says “we’re the safest major city in the country” a thousand instances doesn’t imply it’s true.

Each week, there are shootings, stabbings, bike takeovers of the streets and assaults on Wu’s constituents that she prefers to gloss over. The info are way more murky on whether or not town is definitely getting safer.

Violent crimes have been going up at Downtown Crossing.

Final week, a Harvard researcher from Brazil was attacked by 5 teenagers at a downtown movie show close to the Boston Widespread as a result of he requested the teenagers to be quiet within the theater. He was left bloodied and bruised by the assault. Not one of the teenagers have been arrested by police.

The South Finish has been suffering from crime, defecating and open air drug use from the spillover at Mass and Cass.

The crime actuality spreads proper into Boston Metropolis Corridor, the place a number of metropolis workers have been charged with gun crimes and assault.

Trump recently has been speaking about shifting Guard troops to cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore and New York, all with Democratic mayors.

“You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,” Trump stated final week. “We have major cities that are very bad.”

“As you all know, Chicago is a killing field.”

The mayors and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey dispute Trump’s characterization and say they don’t need or want the federal assist.

“If Donald Trump really cared about public safety he wouldn’t be cutting funding for local law enforcement, which he’s done,” Healey stated.

If Trump does develop his targets to Boston, that will rip the facade that Wu has set on crime in the previous few months of her re-election race in opposition to Josh Kraft.

And it may spark a debate in Boston over public security that she doesn’t wish to interact in.

Boston Police Superintendent in Chief Phillip Owens speaks to Mayor Michelle Wu throughout an occasion final week exterior Metropolis Corridor. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald, File)

Finest Rubbish Songs: 20 Style-Defying Anthems

Given Rubbish’s grunge-adjacent beginnings, it might’ve been straightforward to group them in with different different acts that dominated the mid-90s pop music scene. However the quartet, fronted by Scottish singer Shirley Manson, has confirmed distinctive many instances over. Quickly after Manson joined forces with drummer/producer Butch Vig and guitarists Duke Erikson and Steve Marker, Rubbish broke into the mainstream with confessional guitar-pop songs that touched on relatable anxieties and insecurities. Musically, they innovated by combining a number of on-trend genres, constructing a muddy-grunge basis, and layering in dance, electronica, and hip-hop, amongst others.

Finest Rubbish Songs: 20 Style-Defying Anthems
No Doubt - Return of Saturn 2LP

As alt-rock gave solution to a glossier, futuristic aesthetic, Rubbish additionally advanced their sound whereas by no means altering their trademark edge. Over the course of three many years and 7 albums, Rubbish have explored thrilling new methods to problem themselves musically, whether or not it was modernizing their sound on the slick Model 2.0 or paying homage to 60s lady teams on the criminally underrated Lovely Rubbish (2001). Lyrically, they’ve been fixed truth-tellers, particularly on the politically minded Unusual Little Birds (2016) and No Gods No Masters (2021), which sort out polarizing sociological points like systemic racism and company greed.

Beneath, we’ve rounded up a number of the greatest Rubbish songs, from different radio staples like “Only Happy When It Rains” and “Queer” to hook-heavy pop cuts like “Special” and “Androgyny” to protest anthems like “The Men Who Rule The World” and extra.

The Gritty, Grungy Confessionals

(Solely Comfortable When It Rains; Silly Lady; Repair Me Now; Not My Thought; Queer)

Early within the quartet’s profession, Rubbish made their mark on pop radio by each leaning into – and constructing on – the 90s omnipresent grunge development. (After all, it didn’t damage that drummer and producer Butch Vig had a glowing resume, having produced style touchstones Nirvana’s Nevermind and Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish and Siamese Dream.) Whereas the muddy guitar aesthetic is represented on Rubbish’s early singles like “Only Happy When It Rains,” “Queer,” and “Stupid Girl,” the band was additionally extraordinarily intentional of their determination to layer in myriad different influences of the period – trip-hop, electronica, punk, and hip-hop.

And it wasn’t simply that Clinton-era sound the band explored on their multi-platinum debut: Every of the aforementioned Rubbish songs had been deeply introspective, rolling out like diary entries that dug into self-immolating emotions of insecurity, nervousness, and doubt. Moody trip-hop standout “Queer,” for instance, was adopted by the LGBTQ+ group as an anthem about tolerance (the band has applauded this, whereas explaining that the one was not written explicitly about being homosexual). Elsewhere, the sulky single “Only Happy When It Rains” supplied a poppified punch to depressive days spent indoors. Electro-rock bop “Stupid Girl” each laid the groundwork for the band’s slicker follow-up album, Model 2.0, whereas telling a narrative about “a girl who won’t settle for less than what she wants,” as lead singer Shirley Manson defined on the time.

Equally, the irresistible “Fix Me Now” blends pop hooks with hard-driving guitar, whereas a self-loathing Manson sings about an immense private discomfort, and the angst-ridden “Not My Idea” actively pushes again on the notion that an individual’s coming-of-age years are those value remembering.

The Anti-Institution Anthems

(The Males Who Rule The World, So We Can Really feel Alive, Empty, No Gods No Masters, This Metropolis Will Kill You)

Rubbish’s later cuts – particularly the tracks on 2021’s No Gods No Masters and 2016’s Unusual Little Birds – are reflections of tumultuous instances. With out sacrificing their experimental, genre-diverse sound, the band digs deeper into sociopolitical problems with the day: local weather change, wealth inequality, authorities corruption, and world poverty, simply to call a couple of.

“The Men Who Rule The World” kicks off with slot machine samples and thudding percussion, earlier than evolving right into a collection of disjointed guitar licks, with Manson calling out these with energy who “have made a f_cking mess.” The band goes simply as onerous on the hook-heavy “No Gods No Masters,” which chronicles a visit Manson took to Santiago, Chile, through the nation’s protests towards corruption and inequality.

On the orchestral ballad “This City Will Kill You,” Rubbish sound nervous about Manson’s adopted metropolis of Los Angeles, which could possibly be a stand-in for anyplace the place “the lights are shining / And the girls are dancing / All the lights are sparkling / And the drugs are working.” It’s extremely straightforward to fall sufferer to a spot wealthy with shallow distractions, a spot the place “everybody is praying that it rains / It’s been promised now for days / But the sun is high in the sky again.”

Unusual Little Birds standout “So We Can Feel Alive,” in the meantime, is certainly one of Rubbish’s extra sonically aggressive tracks, crashing in with an electro-industrial melody. Lyrically, it’s rife with frustration round what the band sees as a crumbling society. Their warning speaks for itself: “Be careful what it is you break / Every broken thing can’t be fixed.” Lastly, Rubbish direct their ire to the leisure business itself, utilizing Unusual Little Birds single “Empty” as a sharply worded automobile to select aside the music enterprise’ fickle nature.

Totally Trendy Melodies

(I Assume I’m Paranoid, Particular, Androgyny, Breaking Up The Lady, The World Is Not Sufficient)

By the late 90s and early 00s, Rubbish’s sound had noticeably advanced from gloomy grunge-pop to slicker, clubbier compositions, whereas nonetheless conserving their rock-band foundations intact. Nowhere is that this extra evident than on 1998’s Model 2.0, which homes the rave-ready “I Think I’m Paranoid” and the glossily harmonized “Special.” Every of those futuristic electro-pop classics discover the band tinkering extra with their trademark genre-mashing sound, whereas Manson’s vocals are extra up-front and assured than ever, particularly on “Paranoid,” as she pivots to a positively demonic alto.

When their extremely underrated third album, Lovely Rubbish, arrived in 2001, the band delved into much more experimental territory, fusing digital and hip-hop rhythms with 60s girl-group pop. That album’s lead single, the sensual “Androgyny,” is an ahead-of-its-time ode to gender expression (take into account, it got here out 20 years in the past). The extra simple “Breaking Up The Girl,” in the meantime, fused the band’s penchant for classic-rock rhythms with Phil Spector-era pop. The end result was in contrast to something their friends had been doing on the time, which may maybe clarify why Lovely Rubbish was so underappreciated upon its launch.

And let’s not pass over Rubbish’s entry to the better James Bond cinematic universe: “The World Is Not Enough,” which soundtracked the 1999 007 movie of the identical identify. The band’s one-off single was an enchanting hybrid of concepts and falls properly into line with different Bond themes, incorporating cinematic strings and a slow-building construction.

The Roll-The-Window-Down Bangers

(Cherry Lips (Go Child Go), Computerized Systematic Behavior, Until The Day I Die, Run Child Run)

Some of the constant qualities of Rubbish is their potential to jot down pop banger after pop banger, and so they’ve been doing it now for nicely over *checks calendar* three many years. Although each certainly one of Rubbish’s albums options radio-friendly pop jams, one of many stickiest hooks they’ve ever written got here a couple of years into their profession: “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go),” featured on 2001’s Lovely Rubbish, kicks off with energetic womp-womp-womp-womp keystrokes earlier than blossoming right into a heady, adrenaline-surging refrain. (Is it any marvel Manson as soon as stated that “Cherry Lips” was “probably the most celebratory song we’ve ever written”?) That very same bombast is current for “Til The Day That I Die” (additionally on Lovely Rubbish), which chugs with a extra aggressive guitar line however remains to be rooted in pop sensibility.

Later in Rubbish’s discography, particularly on 2012’s Not Your Form Of Individuals, the band had little interest in slowing down. Their fifth studio album got here bashing in on “Automatic Systematic Habit,” which includes a pulsating, club-ready rhythm. Likewise, Rubbish’s undersung 2005 report Bleed Like Me got here full of songs perfect for hitting the open street. One such reduce was “Run Baby Run,” which opens an echoing, U2-inspired guitar line and evolves into an explosive anthem about love’s bittersweet rush.

Store for Rubbish’s music on vinyl or CD now.

Rachel Skerritt appointed to serve on Boston Faculty Committee

Simply over per week away from the beginning of BPS faculties, Mayor Michelle Wu appointed nonprofit chief and BPS alum Rachel Skerritt to fill the emptiness on the Boston Faculty Committee.

“Rachel’s extensive educational leadership experience and her deep connection to the Boston community will serve as valuable assets to our students and families,” mentioned Superintendent Mary Skipper. “As a BPS graduate, educator, parent, and former principal, she brings lived experience and professional expertise that will help us continue building a district where every student can thrive.”

Skerritt will fill the place vacated by member Chantal Lima-Barbosa, who introduced her departure in June, and serve the rest of her time period by way of Jan. 1, 2028.

The brand new member at the moment works because the Chief Technique Officer at Attuned Schooling Companions, a nationwide nonprofit centered on aiding college techniques, organizations and extra with planning instruments and different helps. She grew up in Dorchester and now resides in Roslindale, the town mentioned in a launch Monday.

Skerritt has over 20 years of expertise in schooling. Earlier than shifting to Attuned, she was the Head of Faculty at Boston Latin Faculty for 5 years by way of the pandemic, in line with the announcement.

Throughout her tenure as the top of the examination college, she served on a job power appointed to remodel the town’s examination college admissions coverage making an attempt to advertise racial, geographic, and socio-economic fairness. The admissions adjustments have confirmed controversial through the years, and the system was most not too long ago put up for one other spherical of adjustments in June.

Previous to working at BLS, Skerritt was the Deputy Chief of Management Improvement for Washington D.C. Public Colleges and head of Japanese Senior Excessive Faculty within the district, main it out of federal turnaround standing, the discharge said.

Skerritt started her profession as an English instructor, principal on the small pilot highschool One other Course to Faculty, and Chief of Employees for BPS, the town mentioned.

The brand new member holds a BA in English and a Masters in Secondary Schooling from the College of Pennsylvania, in addition to a Masters in Schooling Administration from UMass Boston and one other in Management from Georgetown College.

She attended BPS rising up, an expertise that she mentioned modified “the trajectory of my life.”

“BPS also shaped my identity and philosophy as an educator, with many of my formative leadership experiences taking place in our schools and at the central office,” mentioned Skerritt. “In addition, I proudly wear the hat of BPS parent, and look forward to the honor of serving on the Boston School Committee in service of students and families across the city as we collaborate to ensure success in career and life for all of our young people.”

Skerritt was chosen over 4 different last candidates, in line with the Boston Municipal Analysis Bureau, together with the UMass Boston Division Chair of Curriculum and Instruction, a YouthBuild Boston chief, a 4MATIV Applied sciences chief, and the Government Director on the Shah Household Basis.

Skerritt’s appointment comes as the subject of an elected college committee has emerged as soon as once more within the mayor’s race. Boston stays the one college district within the state with a non-elected governing board since 1991 and one of many few left amongst main U.S. cities.

The Profitable Launch Of Apple Data

Fast: What was probably the most profitable label launch of the Nineteen Sixties? That might be Apple Data, which – in fact – had fairly a bonus, being run by probably the most well-known teams of the 60s. Nonetheless, the imprint’s success was unbelievable, with two of its first 4 singles hitting No.1 within the UK.

The Profitable Launch Of Apple Data
Scissor Sisters Limited Edition LP

The thought for The Beatles’ Apple Corps started to take form following the loss of life of their supervisor Brian Epstein. The fashioned firm’s first venture was the movie, Magical Thriller Tour, and the label was formally based when The Beatles returned from India in 1968.

The Beatles had been contracted to EMI’s Parlophone label within the UK and Capitol Data in America, however they struck a brand new take care of the 2 firms to distribute Apple’s releases.

On August 26, 1968, Apple launched their first 4 singles within the UK. There was the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” backed by “Revolution.” Apple 2 was Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were the Days,” produced by Paul McCartney. Apple 3 was Jackie Lomax’s “Sour Milk Sea,” a track written and produced by George Harrison. Apple 4, in the meantime, was “Thingumybob” by the Black Dyke Mills Band, a bunch composed of Lennon and McCartney. The tune they created was used because the theme to a Yorkshire tv sitcom of the identical title starring Stanley Holloway.

“Hey Jude” topped the UK singles chart for 2 weeks from September 11 and was changed at No.1 by Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were The Days,” which stayed at No.1 for six weeks. No different report firm has had such conspicuous success with its first two releases.

Surprisingly, the primary catalogue quantity for Apple Data was not the aforementioned “Hey Jude.” It was really a one-off urgent of Frank Sinatra singing “Maureen Is a Champ” (with lyrics by Sammy Cahn) to the melody of “The Lady Is a Tramp” for Ringo Starr’s then-wife Maureen as a shock reward for her twenty first birthday.

Take heed to Come And Get It: The Finest Of Apple Data and dig deeper into the label’s early classics.

Boston Metropolis Council preps for federal funding cuts after Mayor Wu’s defiance of sanctuary elimination order

Two Boston metropolis councilors are shifting to determine a activity power geared toward mitigating federal funding cuts which have been threatened in gentle of the mayor’s refusal to conform with a Trump administration order to strip sanctuary protections.

Councilors Enrique Pepén and Benjamin Weber plan to introduce an order for a listening to at Wednesday’s Metropolis Council assembly that might “review federal funds received by the City of Boston and discuss the establishment of a task force to prevent or mitigate funding cuts.”

“The administration’s current focus on Boston and the continued resolve of our residents to push back against the injustices of the presidential administration make it clear that the back and forth between the City of Boston has only just begun,” the councilors’ listening to order states.

“It is imperative that the City Council is fully aware of the dollars at stake so we can take steps to ensure that the City of Boston can sustain itself during these trying times,” Pepén and Weber wrote.

The councilors talked about that town receives “hundreds of millions of dollars” from the federal authorities every year, however the Trump administration has made “several threats to withhold federal funding from states and cities that do not participate in the administration’s agenda of mass deportation.”

Pepén and Weber additionally referenced previous threats from President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who, per the order, “has personally called for ‘hell’ to be brought to Boston and threatened to prosecute and/or arrest critics and challengers of the administration’s actions which have contested legality.”

Their requested listening to would come with testimony from consultants on metropolis funds, Wu administration officers and group members, and comes amid the newest battle between the Trump administration and sanctuary cities like Boston.

U.S. Legal professional Common Pam Bondi despatched a letter two weeks in the past ordering Boston’s mayor and different leaders of cities and states recognized by the Division of Justice as sanctuary jurisdictions to “eliminate laws, policies and practices that impede federal law enforcement.”

In Boston, the regulation on the books enshrining its sanctuary standing since 2014 is the Belief Act, which prohibits native police and different metropolis departments from cooperating with federal immigration authorities on the subject of detaining unlawful immigrants on civil warrants.

Metropolis officers say the regulation nonetheless permits for cooperation with the feds on sure prison issues like drug, weapons and human trafficking.

Mayor Michelle Wu responded to Bondi’s letter final Tuesday, the AG’s acknowledged deadline, however made it clear at a rally-like press convention that town had no intention of complying with the federal order, regardless of Bondi’s threats to chop federal funding from Boston and prosecute non-compliant metropolis officers.

“Stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures,” Wu mentioned finally week’s press convention. “Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law, and Boston will not back down from who we are or what we stand for. We will not back away from our community that has made us the safest city in the country.”

Wu additionally despatched a proper response letter to Bondi final Tuesday, saying that the Trump administration’s “false and continuous attacks” on Boston and different cities, together with efforts to slash federal funding and deploy navy personnel to metropolis streets had been “unprecedented” and illegal.

Metropolis Councilors Julia Mejia and Liz Breadon plan to introduce a decision at Wednesday’s assembly in assist of Wu’s letter to Bondi.

“We must continue to reaffirm that the City of Boston follows all federal, state and city laws and we stand with Mayor Michelle Wu in telling Attorney Bondi that Boston will never back down from being a beacon of freedom and a home for everyone,” Mejia and Breadon’s decision states.

On Friday, U.S. District Courtroom Decide William Orrick in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration’s try to deny funding to cities with sanctuary insurance policies, by extending a preliminary injunction to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and 30 different cities and counties.

The Trump administration has appealed the primary ruling.

Wu welcomed the ruling in remarks made to reporters on Sunday. She mentioned final week that town depends on $300 million in federal funding every year.

The mayor mentioned this previous spring that she took steps to restrict this yr’s $4.8 billion metropolis finances to 4.4% progress in gentle of threatened federal cuts, a few of which her administration has already challenged in courtroom.

Bondi’s letter, nevertheless, characterizes Boston’s sanctuary insurance policies as a menace to nationwide safety, by limiting native cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts via town’s Belief Act.

Look Hear: The Impressed And Articulate Originality Of 10cc

10cc have been already a refreshingly creative drive within the UK singles chart when, on August 26, 1973, the quartet made their dwell debut collectively. Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley, Eric Stewart, and Lol Crème all had important resumes within the trade, however this was the date that the considerably stunning location of the Palace Lido on the Isle of Man performed host to the band’s first official gig.

The Profitable Launch Of Apple Data
Scissor Sisters Limited Edition LP

The trendy-day model of the band, fronted by Graham Gouldman, stay in excessive demand on the highway, and the band’s legacy is widely known on the four-disc field set Earlier than, Throughout & After: The Story of 10cc, from Common Music Catalogue. It was curated with enter from all 4 unique members and, for the primary time, spans their work inside 10cc and past. The discs are Earlier than: The Early YearsEarlier than: The Strawberry Hit Manufacturing unit; Throughout: The Greatest Of 10cc 1972-1978; and After: What We Did Subsequent – Submit 10cc.

The set contains a 40-page hardback ebook containing new interviews with all 4 members, and there’s a 2CD version that includes Throughout: The Greatest Of 10cc 1972 – 1978 and After: What We Did Subsequent – Submit 10cc.

4-piece and two-piece

Our 10cc Greatest Of playlist consists of all the group’s main UK hit singles and a few of their most vital and artistic album materials. It attracts on their unique work as a quartet, on their first 4 albums as much as and together with 1976’s How Dare You, in addition to the later line-ups after the departure of Godley and Crème.

Highlights embody 10cc’s three UK No. 1 singles, “Rubber Bullets,” “I’m Not In Love” and “Dreadlock Holiday,” in addition to “The Dean and I,” the good observe with which they have been climbing The highest 40 on the time of that dwell debut. Different singles corresponding to “I’m Mandy, Fly Me” and “Art For Art’s Sake,” and albums like The Authentic Soundtrack, Misleading Bends, the aforementioned How Dare You and Bloody Vacationers are properly represented. So are the later Look Hear? and the transient 1992 reunion of Godley and Crème, …In the meantime. It’s a physique of labor that reveals British pop music of (mainly) the Nineteen Seventies at its most articulate and imaginative.

10cc’s superlative, diversified profession is roofed within the 4CD field set Earlier than Throughout After: The Story Of 10cc. Purchase or stream it right here. Hearken to uDiscover Music’s 10cc Greatest Of playlist.

Trump administration calls for apology from George Mason College president for range practices

George Mason College’s efforts to diversify its workforce violate a civil rights legislation meant to finish segregation, in accordance with the Trump administration.

Following a roughly six-week-long investigation of GMU’s hiring practices, the U.S. Division of Training’s Workplace of Civil Rights (OCR) has discovered that the Northern Virginia-based college violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination primarily based on race in public schooling.

To resolve the alleged violation, the division has proposed an settlement that will require Mason President Gregory Washington to subject an announcement and “personal apology … for promoting unlawful discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion, and tenure processes.”

The college would additionally need to revise any insurance policies deemed noncompliant and conduct annual trainings for employees concerned in hiring and promotional choices.

OCR introduced Friday that Mason leaders would have 10 days to comply with the directives.

“In 2020, University President Gregory Washington called for expunging the so-called ‘racist vestiges’ from GMU’s campus. Without a hint of self awareness, President Washington then waged a university-wide campaign to implement unlawful DEI policies that intentionally discriminate on the basis of race,” Training Division Performing Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor mentioned in an announcement, calling the previous 5 years an “unfortunate chapter” in Mason’s historical past.

The Training Division says it launched the Title VI investigation into GMU on July 10 after “multiple” professors filed a criticism that the college was giving “preferential treatment” to job candidates and present college members from “underrepresented” backgrounds.

Although Mason’s U.S. scholar physique for 2024-2025 was racially various, with white college students representing the most important proportion (33.7%), its college and workers, as of July, is greater than 50% white, in accordance with information shared by GMU.

Mason’s eighth president and the primary Black individual within the place, Washington took workplace on July 1, 2020 simply weeks after college students joined nationwide protests in opposition to police brutality, prompting him to ascertain an anti-racism activity pressure and order a assessment of the college’s insurance policies.

Envisioned as a mannequin that different universities might observe, the anti-racism initiatives continued efforts already underway to reckon with namesake George Mason’s historical past as a slaveholder. A memorial to the individuals he enslaved was in the end devoted in April 2022.

When requested in 2021 how Mason might make its workers extra consultant of the coed physique with out illegally concentrating on individuals primarily based on race, Washington famous that solely 30% of the college on the time had been from ethnic minorities or the worldwide group. To draw a extra various workforce, the college must rethink its search processes and what may make somebody the “best” candidate for a job, he argued.

“Our mission of educating and preparing the future leaders of America’s economy and society demands that we recruit people with the full breadth of lived experiences as well as professional backgrounds that our students encounter,” he wrote.

As proof that GMU was violating Title VI, the Training Division factors to that assertion in addition to a requirement that new college hires get accepted by the college’s Workplace of Entry, Compliance, and Neighborhood (OACC), amongst different officers.

Beforehand referred to as the Workplace of Variety, Fairness and Inclusion, the OACC, which oversees lodging for individuals with disabilities and investigations of bias and discrimination complaints, was renamed in March after the Training Division demanded universities finish “race-based decision-making.”

The OCR additionally cites “one high-level university administrator” who mentioned Washington “created an atmosphere of surveillance” when it got here to range in hiring.

Board of Guests critiques proposed settlement

The GMU Board of Guests known as the Training Division’s discovering “a serious matter” and mentioned it’s reviewing the proposed settlement.

“We will continue to respond fully and cooperatively to all inquiries from the Department of Education, the Department of Justice and the U.S. House of Representatives and evaluate the evidence that comes to light,” the board mentioned. “Our sole focus is our fiduciary duty to serve the best interests of the University and the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

The Title VI investigation is considered one of 5 totally different civil rights probes opened by the Trump administration in opposition to Mason this summer time. Others led by the schooling and justice departments give attention to alleged antisemitism, the consideration of race in admissions, and a July 24 decision handed by the GMU School Senate in help of Washington’s management.

How the Board of Guests responds to the Training Division’s findings stays to be seen. It’s subsequent scheduled to fulfill on Sept. 25.

Regardless of fears from many college students, college and group leaders that they’d take away Washington, GMU’s guests — all appointees of Virginia’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin — gave him a 1.5% pay elevate at their final assembly on Aug. 1, although college members who participated in a rally to help the president known as it “by far” the smallest improve he’s obtained.

On the similar assembly, the board unanimously accepted a decision that formally prohibited race from being thought of in any “aspects of student, academic, and campus life” and eradicated diversity-related applications and trainings, together with the Entry to Analysis and Inclusive Excellence (ARIE) program that emerged out of Washington’s anti-racism activity pressure.

Most of the challenged insurance policies and applications, together with the usage of range statements in hiring and promotion supplies, had already been terminated, as college leaders informed the board at a packed assembly on Might 1.

The GMU chapter of the American Affiliation of College Professors (AAUP), a labor union for college members, blasted the Training Division’s investigation as a “gross misuse of federal enforcement authority” that ignores the precise historical past and context of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was a response to a long time of segregation that denied Black People specifically entry to jobs, schooling, companies and public companies.

“Efforts to fight discrimination and strengthen inclusivity are not violations of civil rights — they are the very fulfillment of our obligations under civil rights law and the principles of equal opportunity,” the chapter’s govt committee mentioned in an announcement. “The OCR’s findings distort both the spirit and the letter of Title VI, weaponizing it against the very goals it was enacted to achieve.”

The committee urged the Board of Guests “to resist the Trump administration’s pressure campaign,” including that they had been “especially appalled” by the Training Division’s demand for an apology from Washington.

“We call on the University’s Board of Visitors, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the wider community to stand firm in defending George Mason’s values,” GMU-AAUP mentioned. “We urge the University to contest this baseless determination rather than submit to coercive remedies that would erode academic freedom, weaken shared governance, and undermine the integrity of our institution.”

___

This story was initially printed by FFXnow and distributed by means of a partnership with The Related Press.

Initially Printed: