- Folks everywhere – mostly female – are still in the habit
of singing some of the popular songs from the animated film “Frozen,” so the
time is right for Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez - the Oscar-winning
husband-and-wife team behind the movie – to launch into their next project
while they’re hot commodities. The “Frozen” duo are preparing an original
romantic comedy for the stage called "Up Here” and prominent California
theater company La Jolla Playhouse has already announced that the show will be
part of its 2015-16 season and will be directed by Tony Award nominee Alex
Timbers. Lopez and Anderson-Lopez have written the songs, lyrics and story,
which centers on a man who falls in love and it is described as "about
moving past ourselves - and those little voices in our head - to find
happiness." In other words, it’s the tale of just about every human being
who has ever lived with both a soul and an IQ above 50. "As you can
imagine with the Lopezes, it is witty, it is wicked smart, it is irreverent,
and it's youthful in its energy. It will appeal to a broad audience but it
certainly will be something that even Millennials will relate to," said
producer Scott Sanders. Sanders has an erratic track record, having produced
both the Tony-nominated "After Midnight" this season and "The
Pee-wee Herman Show," which was directed by Timbers. Sanders said he has
been a fan of Lopez and Lopez for a long time and wanted to produce “Up Here”
even though it wasn’t finished when he first heard about it. That’ll
happen when two of the hottest commodities in the industry have their next
potential gem rumbling down the assembly line………
- Where the Veterans Administration has failed – and
continues to fail – in spectacular fashion, voters in California appear to at
least have a clue. The VA may fail to treat or even asses the various medical
maladies of the men and women who have risked their lives serving and
protecting the United States to the point that said veterans literally die
waiting for treatment, but Californians are doing something to step up to the
plate and meet the needs of veterans. Voters have approved a plan to spend
$600 million to build houses for homeless veterans and that’s good news in the
state with the highest number of ex-servicemen without a roof in the country. The
plan was passed in a primary election on Tuesday and it allows the state to sell
bonds to build apartments and temporary shelters for qualifying veterans or
those recovering from physical injuries or mental health issues. According to the
Coalition for Veterans Housing support group, California has about 25 percent
or 19,000 homeless veterans. Those numbers are expected to grow with the
winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving more and more
returning soldiers, seamen and airmen in need of housing, employment, and
mental health and drug treatment. Before going on the ballot, the proposal received
bipartisan support from lawmakers and faced no organized opposition. Under
projections for the plan, the state will pay out an estimated $50 million
annually for 15 years in interest payments on the bonds. That this has become a
law is a stunning fulfillment of a promise made by Assembly Speaker Toni
Atkins, who co-authored the measure with former Speaker John Perez, when she named
homelessness among veterans as a priority during her first address as speaker last month………
- Jon Singleton isn’t winning many fans among former Major
League Baseball players, but if he continues playing like this, he’ll have
plenty of support from his teammates. The
22-year-old slugger made his major league debut with a bang Tuesday night,
powering through two strikeouts and a pair of errors at first base to homer in
the eighth inning for his first major league hit. His blast helped the Houston
Astros to a 7-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels and yet, it likely will not
silence the hate being directed at Singleton by some former players who are not
a fan of the contract the young slugger signed prior to his debut. Singleton,
who served a 50-game suspension last season for a second violation of a drug of
abuse, inked an historic five-year, $10 million contract before arriving in
Houston and that did not go over well with former major leaguer Mark Mulder and
Bud Norris, a former Astros right-hander now pitching for the Baltimore Orioles.
“Sorry
but this Singleton deal is terrible. Wish the Jon listened to the union and not
his agent,” Norris tweeted shortly after the deal was announced. The deal is
creating controversy because of the fact that Singleton took the deal rather
than push for something more lucrative and risk his health in the process while
playing for said deal. Then again, maybe a guy who admitted in spring training that he has an addiction
to marijuana and had spent a month in a rehabilitation center last year feels
like guaranteeing himself $10 million in the event he smokes his way out of
baseball is a wise move. Prior to being called up, Singleton was hitting .267
with 14 homers and 43 RBIs for Triple-A Oklahoma City. He admitted after his
first game in the majors that he was surprised by how it felt. "I was
taken back. It felt like I'd never done it before, to be honest," Singleton
said. "It felt like it was something new. My heart was racing so fast once
I hit home plate, it didn't make any sense. I was still excited, still pumped
from the adrenaline." He and fellow young star George Springer, who was
called up in April, danced and laughed together when Singleton returned to the
dugout, creating a rare scene in recent years: Astros players actually happy in
during a game……..
- Corruption is an international language spoken by all. It
definitely translates to Italy, where Venice Mayor Giorgio
Orsoni was arrested on Wednesday in an investigation tied to the financing of a
$7.5 billion flood-prevention system. The investigation has produced links to several
rival Italian political parties, so no one party and claim its hands are clean
on this one. Orsoni, a 67 year-old member of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party, is the biggest name
and the subject of accusations of illicit party financing. Venice prosecutors,
including Carlo Nordio, laid out the parameters of their case at a press
conference where they announced charges against Orsoni and his co-conspirators,
including corruption, false invoicing and holding undeclared funds abroad.
Authorities have already confiscated 40 million euros in a raid that came less
than a month after police in Milan arrested executives and politicians in a
bribery investigation tied to building contracts for the city’s 2015 trade
fair. The Venice construction project
has lurched onward, mired in corruption and general governmental incompetence,
since 2003. It is designed to form a movable barrier against the sea to
protect the lagoon city from flooding that regularly leaves the iconic Piazza
San Marco underwater. When asked for comment on the fact that the mayor was at
the center of a nasty investigation, a spokeswoman for the City of Venice had
no comment. Orsini’s attorney’s downplayed the charges, but that tends to be
the go-to move for those representing thoroughly corrupt politicians………
- Cruise ships are floating biohazards. No one disputes this
fact – trust us, if you want to dispute it, don’t – any yet, it appears that
they may not be the biggest source of the stomach-churning norovirus outbreaks that terrify every sane resident of Earth. According
to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between
2009 and 2012, there were more than 1,000 norovirus outbreaks
tied to food contamination in the United States and of those
outbreaks, 64 percent occurred in restaurants, 17 percent in catering or banquet
facilities, 4 percent in private residents, and 1 percent in schools or
daycares. All together, the outbreaks sickened more than 21,000 people,
according to the report. Among the outbreaks with a reported source of
contamination, 70 percent were traced back to an ill food-service worker, the
report noted. Stunningly, many of those incidents occurred because the ill
worker touched foods with his or her bare hands right before the food was
served. That’s right, someone making minimum wage plus tips didn’t follow
proper food sanitation measures. "Norovirus is extremely contagious, and
it can cause outbreaks anywhere people get together [and] anywhere food is
served," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. "A lot more can
be done to prevent outbreaks. Everyone should be able to go out to eat without worrying
about whether their food is safe." Outbreaks unrelated to food most
commonly in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to the
report. A mere 1 percent of norovirus outbreaks occur
on cruise ships. For the unaware, norovirus is a stomach bug that causes diarrhea
and vomiting and can spread both from person to person and with food as an
intermediary………..
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