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Édgar Barrera is the producer behind your favorite hits — and the Latin Grammys’ top nominee

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Édgar Barrera is one of the most in-demand people in music. He’s worked with everyone from Madonna and Shakira to Peso Pluma and Karol G. He has one Grammy and 18 Latin Grammys already to his name, and is the top nominee at Thursday’s 2023 Latin Grammys ceremony. Unlike most of his contemporaries dominating the music industry, though, Barrera is a producer and songwriter first, recently receiving a songwriter of the year nod for the Grammys in February.“Being an artist who is a public figure and things like that doesn’t really catch my attention,” he told The Associated Press in Spanish during a video call from Miami earlier this year. “I don’t like that prominence or anything like that. Being hidden behind, writing the songs, producing, doing what I like to do, what I know how to do, that is enough, and I don’t need the mark of being the artist, of being named.”Yet named he is — 13 times at this year’s Latin Grammys, held in Seville, Spain, incl...

Dolly Parton’s new album is a detour from country music — could R&B be next?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Last year, Dolly Parton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — against her wishes. Now, almost exactly a year later, she’s releasing her first rock ‘n’ roll album, appropriately titled “Rockstar,” on Friday.In 2022, Parton shared a statement announcing that she didn’t feel she had “earned” the right to be nominated, but the Hall inducted her anyway. “I just didn’t think that I had done enough in the rock world to be considered, to be put in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when there were so many great rock artists that are not even in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Parton told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “They were going to put me in anyway, so I just accepted it gracefully. But I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to have to earn my keep,’” she says. Parton once thought she’d record a “Linda Ronstadt-type rock album,” but had felt she was getting too old. This presented a fresh opportunity. “I jumped on that like a...

Denver Outlaws will return to Mile High City in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — The Denver Outlaws are coming back to Colorado in 2024.On Tuesday, the Premier Lacrosse League announced eight cities will host professional lacrosse teams.The Denver Outlaws originally played in the Mile High City. The team used to be one of the most notable Major League Lacrosse teams, annually drawing more than 25,000 fans and peaked with 31,644 in 2015, according to USA Lacrosse Magazine. DU women’s lacrosse team embarking on historic season The Outlaws left Denver in 2020 after merging with PLL and becoming Chrome Lacrosse Club.In PLL, the teams weren't assigned to a geographic location, and they continually played in different areas of the country.Now, each team has a city, and the Denver Outlaws will be calling the Mile High City home again.PLL assigned the teams based on fan voting, broadcast viewership, historical ticketing performance, public census data and venues.The eight teams include:Boston Cannons New York AtlasPhiladelphia Waterdogs Maryl...

Police say a US tourist died when a catamaran carrying more than 100 people sank in the Bahamas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A U.S. tourist died in the Bahamas after a catamaran carrying more than 100 people sank while traveling to a private island, police said Wednesday.Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings told The Associated Press that the unidentified 74-year-old woman was from Broomfield, Colorado and was on a five-day vacation with her family when the catamaran sank late Tuesday morning.The rest of the passengers and crew members were rescued. Two other unidentified people were taken to a medical facility, police said, but their conditions were not immediately known.It wasn’t immediately clear how the 74-year-old woman died.Police said in a statement that the woman was found unresponsive as they helped pull the passengers and crew members from the water. They said she was given CPR and then taken to a dock where she was declared dead.Life vests were available, and those aboard were wearing them, according to authorities.Police said the double-deck catamaran began takin...

TikTok star Oliver James alleges discrimination after being escorted from Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

PALM BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — Oliver James, a self-taught reader who gained online fame for his literacy journey, claimed he was at the center of controversy after a visit to The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. James, with over 270,000 online followers, was in town for the Barbara Bush Foundation’s Literacy Day event. He was invited to speak and read to children at the foundation’s annual literacy day event at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach, with accommodations arranged at the Breakers Hotel.On Monday morning, while conducting his routine of reading live on TikTok on the hotel grounds, James encountered a security guard who questioned him about a reported disturbance at the pool area. “They asked me if I was by the pool area, and I was like, why are you asking me? That’s what I told them. And they were like, we got a disturbance from the pool area, saying that you were making a disturbance at the pool,” James shared in a TikTok live...

South Dade Senior High teacher fired after being charged with 2 counts of unlawful sexualy activity with a minor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

A South Florida teacher has been fired after being charged with two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.On Tuesday, Scott Michael Davis was taken into custody.Scott worked for South Dade Senior High School, located at 28401 SW 167th Ave.The school said they’ve terminated his employment. Miami Dade Public Schools released a statement, which reads as follows, “Miami Dade Public Schools is deeply troubled by the disturbing allegations made against this individual. Conduct such as the one he is accused of will not be tolerated.”

Rishi Sunak performs delicate balancing act in Big Tech lobbying battle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

LONDON — After months of lobbying, Big Tech companies have won some concessions from the U.K. government on its new competition bill — but not everything has gone their way.On Wednesday morning the government laid almost 200 amendments to its landmark Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (DMCC), which gives the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) sweeping new powers to rein in a small number of Big Tech companies. It also introduces heavy fines for firms that fail to comply with new rules.The changes include partially rewriting an aspect of the legislation which Big Tech companies and their challengers had fought the hardest over — the mechanism for appealing the competition regulator’s decisions.The amendments come after the technology Michelle Donelan secretary told POLITICO this week that the government had been listening to “all sides of the debate” over the bill, saying it would “evolve” when it returned to parliament.Since the bill was first published in April, ...

Route 3 closed in Billerica due to multi-vehicle crash involving rolled over tanker truck carrying fuel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

Authorities have shut down Route 3 in both directions in Billerica after a crash involving multiple vehicles Wednesday morning, including a fuel tanker truck.Massachusetts State Police said both troopers and Billerica firefighters were called to Route 3 northbound for the crash around 10 a.m. According to authorities, the crash involved a tanker truck that was said to be carrying “several thousand gallons of fuel.”All lanes of traffic in both directions were closed as a result, with police redirecting northbound traffic at Exit 76 and southbound traffic at Exit 79.Flying over the scene, SKY7-HD spotted the tanker on its side around 10:30 a.m., with the truck taking up three lanes and the breakdown area as fluid continued to leak out of it and into the roadway’s median.Authorities have not yet said whether there were any injuries as a result of the crash.This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.https://twitter.com/...

Union workers at General Motors appear to have voted down tentative contract deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — A tentative contract agreement between General Motors and the United Auto Workers union appears to be headed for defeat.The union hasn’t posted final vote totals yet, but workers at five large factories who finished voting in the past few days have turned down the four year and eight month deal by fairly large margins.The vote tracker on the UAW’s website shows the deal winning by 686 votes. But those totals do not include votes from GM assembly plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Wentzville, Missouri; Lansing Delta Township and Lansing Grand River in Michigan, and a powertrain plant in Toledo, Ohio, which all voted against the deal, according to local union officials.In most cases the vote tallies ranged from 55% to around 60% against the contract.Workers were awaiting totals from a large assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, but many said they expect the contract to be voted down.A message was left seeking comment from the union’s spokesman.It w...

Big College Aid Expansion Will Lift 25,000 Students

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:37 GMT

A third of all UMass students will qualify for free tuition paid for by the new income surtax on the state’s highest earners, under a plan the Healey administration rolled out Wednesday to spend an expansion of state financial aid.The governor announced that $62 million in new program funding included in the fiscal year 2024 budget she signed this summer will go toward expanding the MASSGrant Plus program, which her administration says will benefit approximately 25,000 students attending the state’s community colleges, state universities and the University of Massachusetts.The MASSGrant Plus expansion will cover the full cost of tuition and fees for Pell Grant-eligible students, including the federal government-determined expected family contribution, and an additional allowance of up to $1,200 for books and supplies. It does not cover housing costs.Most Pell Grant recipients typically come from families with an annual income of $40,000 or less, or have otherwise difficu...