 |
|
|
|||||
Kendrick Lamar aims to infuse New Orleans with his Los Angeles hip-hop flavor while staying true to his storytelling roots during Sundays Super Bowl halftime performance. Being in the now and being just locked-in to how I feel and the energy I have now, that’s the L.A. energy for me, he said Thursday at a press conference hosted by Apple Music. That’s something I wanted to carry over to New Orleans and for the world to see. This is me. This is Kendrick Lamar, 37 years old, and I still feel like I’m elevating, I’m still on a journey. The rap megastar will take the Super Bowl stage fresh off a Grammy triumph, where he claimed two of the nights biggest awards song and record of the year for his diss track Not Like Us. When asked what viewers can expect, Lamar answered: Storytelling. I think Ive always been very open about storytelling through all my catalog and my history of music. And Ive always had a passion about bringing that on whatever stage Im on. Lamar will be bringing hip-hop back to the NFLs championship game, where he performed as a guest artist with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and Eminem in 2022. On Sunday, he becomes the first solo hip-hop artist to headline the halftime show. It reminds me of the essence and the core response of rap and hip-hop and how far it can go, he said. “It puts the culture at the forefront, where it needs to be and not minimized to just a catchy song or verse. This is a true art form, so to represent it on this type of stage is like everything that Ive worked for and everything that I believe in as far as the culture.” SZA will join him but few other details about the performance were revealed, bowing to a tradition in which headliners keep their plans secret. Rihanna waited until her Super Bowl performance in 2023 to reveal she was pregnant with her second child. The Super Bowl will be held Sunday at the Caesars Superdome, with the two-defending champions Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles in a championship rematch. Who else is performing at the Super Bowl? The Super Bowl pregame will have some Louisiana flavor: Jon Batiste will hit the stage to sing the national anthem, while Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle are slated to perform America the Beautiful. Ledisi will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing as part of the pregame performances. The national anthem and America the Beautiful will be performed in American Sign Language (ASL) by actor Stephanie Nogueras. Otis Jones IV will sign Lift Every Voice and Sing, and the halftime show will be signed by Matt Maxey. The pregame performers are all Louisiana natives. Jonathan Landrum Jr., AP entertainment writer
Category:
E-Commerce
While the country remains rightfully concerned about the future of democracy under the Trump administration, there is one American symbol that still radiates hope: the bald eagle. Two majestic birds, Jackie and Shadow, are trying to expand their family in Big Bear, California. Last week, Jackie laid three eggs, and now thousands of viewers are tuning in to the bald eagle nest cam maintained by the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley to cheer their feathered friends on. Lets take a deeper look into the iconic bird and how you can watch the action: A brief history of our national symbol A shocking-but-true fact is that the bald eagle was not officially the national bird until President Joe Biden signed the bill into law in 2024, as NPR reported. Most people assumed this was already the case. This is because shortly after the countrys creation in 1776, three congressional committees tried to agree on an official seal to represent the new country. A consensus could not be reached, so Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, came up with the Great Seal, which borrowed elements of the three failed designs. A bald eagle replaced a white eagle because the species is native to North America. Congress approved Thomsons design in 1782, making the bald eagle the unofficial symbol of the new nation. The species would go on to grace flags, money, government buildings, military uniforms, and more. Jackie and Shadows journey The bald eagle nest cam was first established in 2016 to watch Jackies parents, Ricky and Lucy. Typically, bald eagles do not stay in Big Bear year-round, but these birds decided to do things differently. Jackie followed their example even after her parents’ disappearance. She began a relationship with a bald eagle named Mr. B at one of her parents old nests and hatched two chicks, Stormy and BBB. Sadly, BBB died after only six and a half weeks following a big rainstorm and freezing temperatures. While Stormy, Jackie, and Mr. B were still using the nest, Shadow decided to go after Jackies affections. Shadow must be some kind of a bald eagle smooth talker becauseeven though eagles typically mate for lifehe was successful in kicking Mr. B to the curb and taking over as Jackies mate. Jackie and Shadow have been together since 2018 and have successfully raised two chicks. They’ve faced lots of adversity along their parental journey, including ravens eating their eggs, some eggs being unfertilized, and even laying a broken egg. Webcam viewers watched these birds battle harsh weather conditions and mourn the loss of babies just as a human couple would. And during the past two seasons, Jackie and Shadow were not successful in hatching a chick, despite Jackie laying multiple eggs and the two being diligent incubators. Three eggs offer hope for new eaglets in 2025 But despite their recent losses, Jackie and Shadow have persisted, and on January 22, 2025, Jackie laid her first egg of the season. Three days later, she laid another one, and on January 28, egg number 3 showed up. This is notable because eagles usually only lay one or two eggs. The incubation period is typically around 35 days long, and dramatic tension is building. At last check, the Big Bear Bald Eagle Live Nest Cam 1 had more than 11,000 live-streaming viewers on YouTube. (Cam 2, which is more of a wide shot, had just over 500 viewers.) To watch Jackie and Shadow care for their eggs, check out the webcam embedded below. Cross your wings and hope they hatch successfully!
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump has placed holds on tens of billions of dollars in congressionally approved spending for projects across the U.S. that range from Iowa soybean farmers adopting greener practices to a Virginia railway expansion, a Reuters analysis found. Project managers and advocates warn that continued delays could take a toll on local economies. Democratic lawmakers say the halts are the building blocks to “impoundment,” presidential refusal to release money authorized and appropriated by Congress, which they say is illegal. The man Trump has nominated as his budget chief, Russell Vought, has disagreed, saying presidents have the right to withhold spending. The Republican-majority Senate is expected to confirm Vought on Thursday evening after Democrats staged an all-night session in opposition. A federal court on January 31 temporarily blocked the Trump administrations government-wide pause on federal grant funding. But soon after, the administration argued the presidents directives were still in effect. Trump’s orders have restrained at least tens of billions of dollars of funding for clean energy projects, conservation initiatives and transportation projects across the country. Dozens of interviews with grantees in more than 20 states, along with industry managers and experts that track how the federal government distributes its money, captured just a snapshot of federal spending that Trump’s orders continued to freeze. The Trump administration has not provided an overall estimate of the frozen funding, but thousands of new jobs in communities are at risk, people working on the halted projects said. “It’s a major concern if this doesn’t get done,” Mike Foley, a Cuyahoga County, Ohio, official who oversees energy projects with more than $100 million in paused funding, said. “I need to hire engineers and I cant do that.” The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power over federal spending and a decades-old law requires the president to give Congress advance notice of impoundments before taking action. “We will speak out, we will press this administration, we will open investigations, and we will demand accountability,” Senator Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Republican lawmakers argue the pauses are necessary to give the new administration time to assess what money is being spent on and look for ways to lower the U.S. deficit. “The executive branch of government in our system has the right to evaluate how executive branch agencies are operating and to ensure that not only the intent of Congress in funding mechanisms, but also the stewardship of precious American taxpayer dollars, is being handled well,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Wednesday. The initial January 20 White House orders were broad and told federal agencies to “immediately pause the disbursement of funds” from two large bills that were marquee accomplishments of then-President Joe Biden, including a 2021 bipartisan effort. Disrupted funding The town of Painesville, Ohio, about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Cleveland, received part of a $129 million climate pollution reduction grant last year to replace its 137-year-old coal-fired power plant. It would be replaced with solar panels and a battery backup system, but the project and its estimated 200 jobs remains on hiatus because of the funding pause. To have the grants paused or frozen is really disrupting and disheartening, Foley, the project lead, added. Hundreds of millions of dollars also remain paused throughout Ohio and seven other states ranging from Pennsylvania to Kansas for projects to help around 17,000 lower-income households save on energy costs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday indicated to some grantees, in a list viewed by Reuters, that only one educational program out of dozens of varying projects funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that Republicans opposed would likely move forward. Tom Taylor, senior policy analyst at Atlas Public Policy, a climate think-tank, estimated that thousands of grant recipients could be defunded as a result. In Virginia, a $2.3 billion “Long Bridge” improvement that would significantly increase passenger and freight railroad service is also in limbo, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said. “They seem to be if it happened during the Biden administration we want to pause this, even if its doing good in red and blue states, he told reporters. Republican states Of the approximately $21 billion of funding that could be clawed back by the Department of Transportation, almost $7 billion is directed for projects in states that voted for Trump in 2024, said Corrigan Solerno, the policy manager for the research group Transportation for America. Trump rescinded the previous administrations goal of 40% funding to disadvantaged communities, which includes the climate smart commodities grants for thousands farmers to implement conservation practices like cover crops. This suspension puts the program and its participating farmers at risk, Brent Swart, the president of the Iowa Soybean Association wrote in a Monday letter to all Republican members of Congress from Iowa, saying farmers involved in this regional project are contractually owed $11 million for practices implemented in 2024. Meanwhile, businesses and local officials find themselves hoping for the best as budget battles rage. “I try not to get too anxious about things until I know it’s real,” Danville City Manager Ken Larking said of any potential cuts to a $1.3 billion industrial development park just outside of his Virginia town. Bo Erickson and Richard Cowan, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||