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Prince: Three Years Later Fans say their ‘Guitar still Weeps’

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Standing at just 5 feet 2 inches, the legendary Purple Rain singer was proof that physical stature is no indication of the impact an individual can have on the entire world. “No other single album influenced me as a teenager and into my adult years more than Purple Rain,” said Michael Stover, president of MTS Management Group and MTS Records.

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By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

Three years ago, the world lost another icon: Prince.

Prince Rogers Nelson, the Minneapolis-born, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree and multi-Grammy-winning artist collapsed in an elevator and died of an accidental prescription drug overdose at his Paisley Park home and studios on April 21, 2016.

He was 57.

Standing at just 5 feet 2 inches, the legendary Purple Rain singer was proof that physical stature is no indication of the impact an individual can have on the entire world.  “No other single album influenced me as a teenager and into my adult years more than Purple Rain,” said Michael Stover, president of MTS Management Group and MTS Records.

“The album is sheer perfection, and Prince was a once in a lifetime. I’ve always told people that Prince is the 20th and 21st century equivalent to Mozart or Beethoven,” Stover said.

Prince’s groundbreaking 1984 album Purple Rain sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and produced such era-defining hits as “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” and the title track, “Purple Rain.”

The album earned three Grammy Awards and three American Music Awards while the film earned an Oscar for Best Original Song Score, the last to receive the award.

Just two years prior, in 1982, Prince released,“1999,” his fifth studio album which sold more than 6 million copies and was his first to reach the top 10 on the Billboard music charts.

It proved that the crossover star was just getting started.

Born on June 7, 1958 Prince was named after his father, whose stage name was Prince Rogers and who performed with a jazz group called the Prince Rogers Trio, according to the website PrinceVault.com.

In a 1991 interview, Prince’s father, John L. Nelson, said he named his son Prince because “I wanted him to do everything I wanted to do.” With albums like “Prince,” “Controversy,” “1999,” “Purple Rain,” “Sign O’ the Times,” and “Musicology,” Prince released nearly 1,000 songs over his career.

He has won multiple Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. In 2004, Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That same year, he was named the top male pop artist of the past 25 years and Rolling Stone ranked Prince No. 27 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

“The highlights of Prince’s life are so many – how to pick one? From the first time I watched Purple Rain in the theater – where the girls in Boston screamed at the screen every time Prince was in a scene – to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps; to the most amazing Super Bowl halftime performance ever where Prince said ‘Can you make it rain harder?’ when a concerned producer checked in with him before he was supposed to go on; his life was one of brilliance that inspires us to this day,” recalled Terence O’Toole Murnin, a Prince fan who lives in Arizona.

Another fan, Nicholas Wolaver, attended what would be Prince’s final concert series in Atlanta in 2016. It was following that show that a plane carrying the superstar was forced into an emergency landing because Prince needed immediate medical attention for an apparent overdose.

Doctors revived Prince and less than a week later as a private doctor was arriving at Paisley Park to help the singer with addiction, he was dead.

“I started listening to Prince in the fourth grade with Little Red Corvette and other pre-Purple Rain hits on the radio,” Wolaver said.

“Later my college journey took me to Minnesota where the local scene was much more informative about Prince’s impact there. I attended three of his concerts in Atlanta, including an arena show, an intimate performance with only a few hundred people and finally that penultimate concert at The Fox Theatre,” Wolaver said.

“For the arena and intimate show, he was all about the guitar, while the piano was the centerpiece for the final events – he rocked any instrument he touched. I still have a recording from that penultimate concert on my phone and play it often and reflect on the life he led and music he created. He’s greatly missed,” he said.

For Ginna Currie of New York, she said she’s thankful that famed director Spike Lee throws an annual block party in Brooklyn in memory of Prince.

“I have been a Prince fan since 1979’s ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover,’” Currie said.

“It is still hard to comprehend that there will be no more Prince concerts to attend. Every couple of years Prince was in the New York metro area on tour,” Currie said.

“He was the consummate entertainer with singing, dancing and playing guitar, piano, drums. I listen to his music almost every day and I just wish [Prince’s] family would release the music inside the vault,” she said.

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#NNPA BlackPress

Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

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By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable.  Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

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WATCH: NNPA Publishers Pivot To Survive

7.2.25 via NBC 4 Washington

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7.2.25 via NBC 4 Washington

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9oZc5Sz0jQQ&feature=oembed

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#NNPA BlackPress

Congressional Black Caucus Challenges Target on Diversity

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — we found that the explanations offered by the leadership of the Target Corporation fell woefully short of what our communities deserve and of the values of inclusion that Target once touted

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By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Target is grappling with worsening financial and reputational fallout as the national selective buying and public education program launched by the Black Press of America and other national and local leaders continues to erode the retailer’s sales and foot traffic. But a recent meeting that the retailer intended to keep quiet between CEO Brian Cornell and members of the Congressional Black Caucus Diversity Task Force was publicly reported after the Black Press discovered the session, and the CBC later put Target on blast.

“The Congressional Black Caucus met with the leadership of the Target Corporation on Capitol Hill to directly address deep concerns about the impact of the company’s unconscionable decision to end a number of its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts,” CBC Chair Yvette Clarke stated. “Like many of the coalition leaders and partner organizations that have chosen to boycott their stores across the country, we found that the explanations offered by the leadership of the Target Corporation fell woefully short of what our communities deserve and of the values of inclusion that Target once touted,” Congresswoman emphasized.  “Black consumers contribute overwhelmingly to our economy and the Target Corporation’s bottom line. Our communities deserve to shop at businesses that publicly share our values without sacrificing our dignity. It is no longer acceptable to deliver promises to our communities in private without also demonstrating those values publicly.”

Lauren Burke, Capitol Hill correspondent for Black Press of America, was present when Target CEO Cornell and a contingent of Target officials arrived at the U.S. Capitol last month. “It’s always helpful to have meetings like this and get some candid feedback and continue to evolve our thinking,” Cornell told Burke as he exited the meeting. And walked down a long hallway in the Cannon House Office Building. “We look forward to follow-up conversations,” he stated. When asked if the issue of the ongoing boycott was discussed, Cornell’s response was, “That was not a big area of focus — we’re focused on running a great business each and every day. Take care of our teams. Take care of the guests who shop with us and do the right things in our communities.”

A national public education campaign on Target, spearheaded by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the NNPA’s board of directors, and with other national African American leaders, has combined consumer education efforts with a call for selective buying. The NNPA is a trade association that represents the more than 220 African American-owned newspapers and media companies known as the Black Press of America, the voice of 50 million African Americans across the nation. The coalition has requested that Target restore and expand its stated commitment to do business with local community-owned businesses inclusive of the Black Press of  America, and to significantly increase investment in Black-owned businesses and media, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU, Black-owned Banks, national Black Church denominations, and grassroots and local organizations committed to improving the quality of life of all Americans, and especially those from underserved communities. According to Target’s latest earnings report, net sales for the first quarter of 2025 fell 2.8 percent to $23.85 billion compared to the same period last year. Comparable store sales dropped 3.8 percent, and in-store foot traffic slid 5.7 percent.

Shares of Target have also struggled under the pressure. The company’s stock traded around $103.85 early Wednesday afternoon, down significantly from roughly $145 before the controversy escalated. Analysts note that Target has lost more than $12 billion in market value since the beginning of the year. “We will continue to inform and to mobilize Black consumers in every state in the United States,” Chavis said. “Target today has a profound opportunity to respond with respect and restorative commitment.”

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