This week we will follow the music of Madonna Louise Ciccone.
Madonna Louise Ciccone[2] (/tʃɪˈkoʊneɪ/) (born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. She achieved popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Madonna is known for reinventing both her music and image, and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry. Music critics have acclaimed her musical productions which have also been known to induce controversy. Often referred to as the “Queen of Pop”, she is cited as an influence among other artists around the world.
Born in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she signed with Sire Records (an affiliate of Warner Bros. Records) in 1982 and released her self-titled debut album the following year. She followed it with a series of commercially successful albums, including the Grammy Award winners Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Throughout her career, she has written and produced most of her songs, with many of them reaching number one on the record charts, including “Like a Virgin”, “Into the Groove”, “Papa Don’t Preach”, “Like a Prayer”, “Vogue”, “Frozen”, “Music”, “Hung Up”, and “4 Minutes”.
Madonna’s popularity was further enhanced by her film roles; she garnered a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Evita (1996) while most of her other films have received harsh feedback. Her other ventures include fashion design, writing children’s books, and film directing and producing. She has been acclaimed as a businesswoman, most notably after she founded entertainment company Maverick (including the label Maverick Records) in 1992 as a joint venture with Time Warner. In 2007, she signed an unprecedented US $120 million 360 deal with Live Nation.
Madonna has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is recognized as the best-selling female recording artist of all time by Guinness World Records. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century and the second best-selling female artist in the United States, with 64.5 million certified albums. Billboard ranked her at number two, behind only The Beatles, on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, making her the most successful solo artist in the history of American singles chart. The magazine also declared her as the top-touring female artist of all time. She became one of the five founding members of the UK Music Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility.
Rikyrah, where are you? TRMS had on a segment about Bob McDonnell and his wife. they are being accused of acting out this episode of “LA Law” title “Justice Swerved.”
SMGDH You got to watch it to see what Maddow’s referring to
Rauner loses another round in term limit referendum bid
By Rick Pearson, Clout Street
Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner lost another round in his bid to get a term limit referendum before voters today when an appellate court upheld a Cook County judge’s ruling that kept it off the November ballot.
The appellate decision came a day after Rauner held a Springfield news conference to try to pressure the courts to issue a quick ruling on his effort to ask voters whether to limit state lawmakers to eight years in office.
The 1st District Appellate Court said the proposed constitutional amendment question was invalid based on a previous Illinois Supreme Court decision that found term limits to be a matter of the “eligibility or qualifications of an individual legislator.”
As a result, the appeals court said, the proposal did not fall into the narrow window in which proposed petition-driven state constitutional amendments can appear on the fall ballot. The state’s highest court previously has ruled that such proposed amendments must affect both the structure and procedure of the General Assembly.
The ruling comes just days before the Illinois State Board of Elections is scheduled to certify the Nov. 4 general election ballot.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/chi-rauner-loses-another-round-in-term-limit-referendum-bid-20140820-story.html
https://twitter.com/ABC7Chicago/status/504028776142209024/photo/1
How Nail Polish May Fend Off Sexual Assault
Aug 25, 2014, 1:36 PM ET
by LIZ NEPORENT
Pretty nails may be the newest way to foil date rape.
Undercover Colors, a nail polish that changes color when it’s exposed to date rape drugs, has won this year’s Lulu eGames, a North Carolina State University competition for student projects aimed at solving real-world problems.
“Our goal is to invent technologies that empower women to protect themselves from this heinous and quietly pervasive crime,” the team behind Undercover Colors — a group of four male chemistry students — explained on their Facebook page.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/nail-polish-fend-off-sexual-assault/story?id=25114618
Amish to build garage for pair who returned girls
RICHVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — The Amish are famous for their barn raisings, when an entire community turns out to help a neighbor.
In northern New York, members of an extended Amish family plan to hold a “garage raising” for the couple who returned two kidnapped Amish girls to their home.
Jeffrey and Pamela Stinson tell the Watertown Daily Times ( http://bit.ly/1l8vUYL ) that the garage at their home in St. Lawrence County recently burned down while they were on vacation in Maine. The fire was believed to have been started by a stray cat knocking over a battery jumpstart box inside.
Earlier this month, the Stinsons were shocked when two Amish girls knocked on the front door of their home in Richville, about 15 miles from where police say the girls, ages 7 and 12, were abducted while tending to their family’s roadside farm stand in Oswegatchie, on the Canadian border.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MISSING_AMISH_GIRLS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Walking While Black: Beverly Hills PD Arrests Innocent Black Man
By karoli
August 24, 2014 10:41 pm
Charles Belk’s story shouldn’t shock you, but it will anyway.
There isn’t much more I can say about this than Charles Belk didn’t already say in his Facebook post. Here it is for everyone to see. He spent 6 hours at the station before they got a clue about who he was — and who he wasn’t.
Belk is involved with the NAACP, filmmaking and is a businessman in the Los Angeles area who was in Beverly Hills for pre-Emmy awards activities when a couple of Beverly Hills cops decided he was the guy who robbed a bank nearby. Here is his story.
WHEN YOU “FIT THE DESCRIPTION”!
It’s one of those things that you hear about, but never think it would happen to you.
On Friday afternoon, August 22nd around 5:20pm, while innocently walking by myself from a restaurant on Wilshire Blvd, to my car up LaCienega Blvd my freedom was taken from me by the Beverly Hills Police Department.
Within seconds, I was detained and told to sit on the curb of the very busy street, during rush hour traffic.
Within minutes, I was surrounded by 6 police cars, handcuffed very tightly, fully searched for weapons, and placed back on the curb.
Within an hour, I was transported to the Beverly Hills Police Headquarters, photographed, finger printed and put under a $100,000 bail and accused of armed bank robbery and accessory to robbery of a Citibank.
Within an evening, I was wrongly arrested, locked up, denied a phone call, denied explanation of charges against me, denied ever being read my rights, denied being able to speak to my lawyer for a lengthy time, and denied being told that my car had been impounded…..All because I was mis-indentified as the wrong “tall, bald head, black male,” … “fitting the description.”
I get that the Beverly Hills Police Department didn’t know at the time that I was a law abiding citizen of the community and that in my 51 years of existence, had never been handcuffed or arrested for any reason. All they saw, was someone fitting the description. Doesn’t matter if he’s a “Taye Diggs BLACK”, a “LL Cool J BLACK”, or “a Drake BLACK”
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/walking-while-black-beverly-hills-arrests
https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/503963800136339457/photo/1
The First Family Returns from Vacation
http://youtu.be/YszoJQ2B7Zk
Welcome back FIRST FAMILY from well deserved vacation!
French government dissolved amid internal feud
© Reuters: Charles Platiau
3 hr ago | By LORI HINNANT of Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande dissolved the government on Monday after an open feud in his Cabinet over the country’s stagnant economy.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls offered up his Socialist government’s resignation after accusing the economy minister of crossing a line with his blunt criticism of the government’s policies. Hollande accepted the resignation and ordered Valls to form a new government by Tuesday.
France has had effectively no economic growth this year and Hollande’s approval ratings are in the teens. The country is under pressure from the European Union to get its finances in order, but Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg has questioned whether the austerity pressed by the EU will kick start French growth.
“A major change in our economy policy,” was what Montebourg had said was needed from the president and prime minister.
With those words, Montebourg drew the anger of the Socialist leadership, which said Montebourg’s job was to support the government, not criticize it from within.
“He’s not there to start a debate but to put France back on the path of growth,” Carlos Da Silva, the Socialist Party spokesman, told Le Figaro newspaper.
http://news.msn.com/world/french-government-dissolved-amid-internal-feud
Good Morning, Everyone :)
It wasn’t even 8 am and I was sweating bullets. Today is gonna be a pistol!
Breaking: Active shooter reported at Fort Lee, Virginia.
Happy Mun-dane, Everyone! :-)
Good morning!