Lake Isabella Fire California Captured Video Many Building Destroyed
BAKERSFIELD, Calif.
He"s the music icon responsible for the Bakersfield Sound and this morning Kern County will have its opportunity to say farewell.
Today"s public memorial service for Merle Haggard will focus on his spirituality throughout his music.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Merle"s oldest sister, Lillian Haggard Rea, yesterday. During our candid conversation, she explained that many attending today"s service might be surprised to learn about her brother"s deep roots in Gospel music responsible for igniting his spirituality.
Faith is not a foreign concept to the Haggard family. Merle Haggard"s oldest sister, Lillian Haggard Rea, explains the families upbringing.
"Church was just part of our lives and it was just part of Merle"s life," said Haggard Rea. Lillian says Merle grew older so did his musical interests spanning into Gospel music.
"In almost every song there is a spiritual element in it," said the 95-year-old Haggard Rea. So interested, in fact, that Merle brought his band on the road for a church tour throughout the U.S. beginning in the south.
"That turned into an album called "The Land of Many Churches" which was one of his earliest gospel music records and one of his most popular," said Haggard Rea.
Lillian still has her brother"s personal bible which traveled alongside with him on the road. Inside the fragile pages is his favorite verse that is still underlined.
"As I sat by him, I was with him when he died, I read to him the 15th Psalm," said Haggard Rea.
When asked what her brother would say to his Maker at the pearly gates, Lillian knew exactly what Merle"s reply would be. "I"m here to occupy my cabin in the hills and I hope it has trees around it, maybe a lake with some fish in it and it wouldn"t be bad to have a guitar handy. He expects to find a cabin in the hills; the hills of Heaven that is," said Haggard Rea.
The public is encouraged and invited to attend the 70-minute memorial service at Valley Baptist on Fruitvale Avenue. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. The service begins at 10:30 a.m.
Copyright 2016 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The 2015 NHL Entry Draft Round 1 June 26, 2015 - Full The St. Louis Blues could move defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk in a trade. USATSI
The biggest NHL trades do not happen before the trade deadline. They happen at the NHL draft when all 30 general managers are in one place, have a chance to deal with one another face to face, and have an incentive -- the draft itself -- to be aggressive when it comes to making moves.
Most of that action will probably take place on the draft floor on Friday night in Buffalo, so let"s take a look at some of the players that could be on the move during the 2016 NHL draft.
The defenseman that should draw the most interest this weekend is St. Louis Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk.
He also might be the most attractive player on the market that actually has a realistic chance of being traded.
His name has been mentioned in trade talks for about a year now, mostly because of his contract situation as he enters the final year of his current deal and the Blues likely not being able to -- or not wanting to -- re-sign him at his market price.
Obviously, there are a lot of teams that can use a 22-minute per night, 45-point, possession driving defenseman and the Blues should be able to cash in if they do move him. The New York Rangers, if they can make the money work, have a desperate need for a player like Shattenkirk, as do the Boston Bruins (they have a desperate need for anybody that can play defense, actually).
If a team like Buffalo is going to go all in on adding a veteran defenseman this offseason they might be better off going for Shattenkirk over a player like Anaheim"s Cam Fowler (more on him in a bit). The contract situation is a little more complicated, but Buffalo has both the salary cap space and the deep pockets to get him signed, and he is simply a better player.
Common sense says the Montreal Canadiens will not trade P.K. Subban because he is one of their best players, one of the best players in the league, and players like him do not typically get traded unless they demand it.
But because he has a no-trade clause that kicks in on July 1 teams have apparently been calling Montreal over the past few days in an effort to see if the Canadiens want to take advantage of that window and the rumor mill started to go crazy over the previous 48 hours so we should probably at least address it.
General manager Marc Bergevin has not come out and said he absolutely will not trade Subban, but the chances of this actually happening seem to be close to zero simply because nobody is going to make an offer that is good enough.
There are maybe five defensemen in the NHL that can play on Subban"s level and you are not getting one of them back in a trade. Any move Montreal makes here is going to be a quantity for quality deal, and that never works out in a team"s favor.
One rumored offer that was floated out there was the Edmonton Oilers" No. 4 overall pick and Leon Draisaitl.
That is not even close to appealing enough for a proven player like P.K. Subban that is in the prime of his career and still has seven years on his contract.
You keep the superstar.
The combination of an expansion draft coming in one year, the fact that Marc-Andre Fleury would have to be protected based on the rules of expansion draft due to his no-trade clause, and Matt Murray"s run to the Stanley Cup this spring all make Fleury a pretty obvious trade candidate this offseason, and especially this weekend.
The problem for the Penguins if they want to go in that direction: There is going to be almost no market for hin because most teams already have a starting goaltender in place, and the one team that is in the market for a starting goalie -- Calgary -- is going to have plenty of options.
Keeping both Murray and Fleury for another season would, from a hockey standpoint, be the best possible outcome for Pittsburgh in the short-term because they will have an opportunity to give both goalies a rest, see who is playing the best down the stretch, and have a safety net in case Murray regresses a bit.
That said, the additional cap space and clearing things up from an expansion standpoint would be beneficial.
Tampa Bay will have same problem that Pittsburgh is going to have if they want to move a goalie: There is almost no market for a starting goaltender at this point other than maybe the Calgary Flames.
Tampa Bay doesn"t have to worry about the expansion draft (Bishop is an unrestricted free agent after this season) but they have an emerging star ready to take over in net in Andrei Vasilevskiy and would probably like to get some sort of a return on Bishop before he leaves for nothing. They could also use the salary cap space ($5.95 million) in the short-term with Steven Stamkos" free agency looming and the fact they have to re-sign restricted free agents Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Cedric Paquette, and Vladislas Namestnikov this summer.
Those guys -- especially Kucherov and Killorn and Stamkos if they can keep him -- will not be cheap and will quickly eat up their remaining salary cap space.
The Ducks have collected quite a group of young defensemen over the past few years and one of them -- Fowler -- has had his name dropped into the trade rumor mill over the past week. The salary cap itself isn"t a huge issue for the Ducks because they have a lot of their younger players signed to some pretty solid long-term deals, but this is a team that does not generally spend to the cap, while they also have to reach a new deal with perhaps their best young defenseman -- Hampus Lindholm -- this summer in restricted free agency. The Ducks already have two picks in the first round (their own pick at No. 24, and the No. 30 overall pick acquired from Toronto in the Frederik Andersen trade) and they seem to be hoping they can get a third one.
Yeah, he is no longer playing in the NHL but his contract still has value, whether it"s a team that is looking to just simply reach the salary floor without having to waste a roster spot (Arizona?) or a team that will use it as an opportunity to basically "buy" an asset from the Red Wings, this is a trade that could happen. We saw it happen a year ago at the draft when the Philadelphia Flyers moved Chris Pronger"s contract to Arizona, and twice since then with Marc Savard"s contract moving from Boston, to Florida, to New Jersey.
Shortly after Datsyuk announced he is leaving the NHL Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said he was not optimistic about moving Datsyuk"s contract (and the incentive for them is obvious -- they do not want to have $7.5 million in salary cap space going to a player that will no longer play for them) and did not want to give up a significant asset, whether it be a first-round pick or a top-prospect.
Columbus" first-round draft pick
Every year we hear about teams at the top of the draft that want to move back, or teams lower in the draft that want to move higher. When it comes to top-5 or top-10 picks, it almost never happens. The team in the middle of the speculation this year is the Columbus Blue Jackets with the No. 3 overall pick. That seems like a bit of a surprise when the consensus is that there are three players that have separated themselves from the pack in Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi. Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen would seem to be pretty familiar with the latter two given their connections to the Finnish hockey program.
The issue though is they are both wingers and the Blue Jackets seem to have a desire to add a center after trading Ryan Johansen during the season. Moving back a few spots could help them do that while also landing a few extra assets.
For five decades, Germany and England have been at odds over the crucial goal in the 1966 soccer World Cup final; Germans say it never crossed the goal line, Brits say it did. Bild, Germanys top-selling newspaper, has an offer for Britain as the country votes on its membership in the European Union: Choose to remain, and Germany will accept that the goal was valid.
Dear Brits, if you stay in the EU, well even acknowledge the Wembley goal, Bild wrote on its front page Thursday, in a nod to Sir Geoff Hursts extra-time goal at Londons Wembley stadium that gave England its first--and only--World Cup trophy.
The soccer pledge is one of 11 promises Bild is making to persuade Britain to stay in the EU. The paper says Germans will no longer make fun of Prince Charless ears, theyll provide unlimited bad guys for James Bond movies, and--important for British sun worshipers on holiday in Spain or Greece--will use their beach towels to reserve poolside lounge chairs for Brits.
The pro-remain sentiment of the tongue-in-cheek story fits squarely with the mood in Germany as Britain goes to the polls Thursday. Der Spiegel this month published a special edition adorned with an image of the Union Jack and the plea Bitte geht nicht!, alongside the English translation, Please dont go!
Berliner Zeitungechoed Thelma Houstons 1977 disco hit on its front page Thursday with a photo of a Union Jack balloon and the captionDont leave us this way! Tagesspiegel, a Berlin daily, led with a picture of a kissing couple, their faces painted with the EU and British flags, and the English headline Love or Leave.
Bilds soccer promise comes as the two countries could soon face off again in international competition. Both England and Germany have reached the knockout stage of the European championship in France and assuming both advance, they could meet in the semi-finals. If that match were decided by penalty kicks, England may want to call in another of Bilds promises: We will drop our goalkeeper for the next penalty decision, for more excitement!
Before it"s here, it"s on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN MORE
Following the international poster released yesterday (see it in the gallery below),20th Century Fox has revealed anIndependence Day: Resurgencemotion poster, showing off just how big the aliens ships are this time around and reminding you this is a global invasion. Check out the motion poster below!
Starring Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jessie Usher, Maika Monroe and Sela Ward, the new entry in the franchiseis officially described as follows:
We always knew they were coming back. After Independence Day redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global spectacle on an unimaginable scale. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.
ComingSoon.net had the privilege of visiting the Albuquerque set of Independence Day: Resurgence this summer and well be bringing you lots of behind-the-scenes surprises between now and the films release in theaters on June 24, 2016. You can check out our interviews with the cast by clicking here!
Twenty-two years in the making, Independence Day: Resurgence features a script by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin and James Vanderbilt, James A.Woods & Nicolas Wright.
Dec 11th - Why Abigail Fisher "Literally can"t" about affirmative action
Abigail Fishers mediocrity will forever be cemented in Supreme Court history.
In todays You shoulda kept your mediocrity to yourself news, the Supreme Court upheld the University of Texas affirmative action program, which Fisher thought was wrong after she was denied admission.
In true social media fashion, the reactions have been hilarious:
#StayMadAbby Wasted time & energy when u couldve just transfered in But u were too entitled to do something like that #BeckyWithTheBadGrades
Billy (@TxBornSooner) June 23, 2016
Abigail Fisher be like: pic.twitter.com/tRiusrKNhk
Terrell J. Starr (@Russian_Starr) June 23, 2016
BREAKING: Supreme Court holds that affirmative action was lawful in Fisher.
Selling or moving a work out of Germany has just become a lot more difficult.
The German parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday (23.06.2016) passed a new law that will closely regulate the international sale of art and artifacts deemed to be of significant cultural value.
"With the new cultural protection law, Germany finally recognizes - with decades of delay - the standards of UNESCO and Europe, which are in effect in nearly every European country," said Germany"s Culture Minister Monika Grtters, who has adamantly backed the protection act from the beginning.
The path to agreement was "sterile and rocky," added Grtters, but "the right balance between various legitimate interests has finally been found."
What is Germany"s national cultural property?
While the bill aims at protecting art of significant cultural value to Germany, a major bone of contention has been the absence of a clear definition as to what that actually means. Thursday in Berlin, a first - if very vague - definition was finally offered. The label applies to works that "bear identity for Germany"s culture" and whose removal would cause a "significant loss."
While that clarification may seem to apply to everything or nothing, it will serve as the basis for a legally binding list of protected artworks and artifacts. Each German state will contribute a panel of experts from cultural institutions like museums, archives, libraries, academia, art dealers and private collectors that will be tasked with compiling the register.
Sound like a bureaucratic nightmare? In a letter from states of Baden-Wrttemberg and Hesse last week, state politicians expressed concern that "an unforeseeable financial and logistical burden" awaited them - which may indeed be the case. However, Grtters said she"s expecting only "several thousand" export permit requests per year, since museums - which have until now been responsible for 90 percent of the permit requests - will be freed from filing deadlines. The federal government promised to review the bureaucratic pile-up in two years.
A vocal critic of the law, Georg Baselitz likely won"t be impacted
Baselitz relieved, private collectors worried
Significantly, works by living artists can only land on the protected list with their approval. The initial fear was that German artists would face an international sales embargo, while "protecting" their works within the country would significantly diminish their value. Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz and Andreas Gursky, for example, regularly claim six- and seven-figure sums for their works abroad, where the art market is much more lucrative than at home.
Last August, in response to a draft of the culture protection bill, Baselitz had announced plans to remove his works from museums, turning control of them over to his family.
So will works by high-grossing deceased artists like Andy Warhol or Jackson Pollock, who were not German, be forced to stay within the German borders, where they can only be sold for a fraction of their international market value, if their current owners are located there? That has yet to be determined by the cultural representatives writing the list of protected works.
Need a permit? Age and value matter
While artists like Baselitz can likely breathe a sigh of relief since they can opt out of the protection list, collectors of works by non-living artists have also been sweating out the result of Thursday"s vote, fearing that they may face a drastic devaluing of their collections should their works land on the list of protected art.
According to the new legislation, paintings that are older than 50 years and worth more than 150,000 euros ($169,000) will require special permission to be sold outside of the European Union. Within the EU, an export permit is mandatory for works older than 75 years and worth more than 300,000 euros.
Attorney and art expert Peter Raue told DW in an interview last fall that export permits have until now only been required for sales outside of the EU.
Within the EU, "we"ve always had free trade." For non-European sales, he said, an "export permit [has been] given if the work has not been stolen, does not belong to Jewish heirs, and is not counterfeit. Whether or not the works sold abroad are German cultural assents has never been an issue" - until now.
Minister Grtters has stood behind the bill all along
Though a collector of, say, a Baroque masterpiece that is older that 75 years and worth well over 300,000 euros, could not sell the work abroad according to the new law, a special clause was written in at the last minute as a compromise. It stipulates that, in the case of a blocked sale, the dealer can involve a government appraiser that will recommend an appropriate price for the work.
As for ancient archeological treasures, a permit will be required for international sales regardless of their value. The Deutscher Kulturrat, Germany"s umbrella organization for cultural institutions, on Thursday praised the last minute decision to drop the value from 100 to zero euros.
As far as art loans go, public and private museums are to get a one-time blanket permit to cover works borrowed for exhibitions.
Laws regulating the export of art have been on Germany"s books since 1955, based on lists of culturally significant works that varied in each of the country"s 16 states. In 2013, the federal government decided the laws needed refreshing - and that Germany needed a unified registry for works of national value.
Curbing the black market for stolen art
With the national debate over the definition of national cultural significance and the role of the state in the art market, a second but not unimportant aim of the new protection law has nearly been forgotten: preventing the circulation of ancient artifacts and cultural treasures from the crisis regions like the Middle East.
In Syria, Iraq and other countries in the Middle East, the so-called Islamic State has been known to not only destroy cultural heritage sites like Palmyra, but also to repossess artifacts from national museums, selling them on the black market and filling their war coffers with the revenues.
Until now, artifacts from crisis regions have required written permission from their respective countries to be sold in Germany. According to the new law, they can now only be sold with a certificate of provenience.
Mac "n Cheetos will be sold for about eight weeks or until supplies run out, said Burger King, which is part of Restaurant Brands International Inc. The $2.49 five-pack of portable macaroni-and-cheese bites are similar to mozzarella sticks. The item, which has 310 calories, has already appeared at some Burger King restaurants in a trial phase.
"We"re partnering up with one of Americans" favorite brands," Alex Macedo, president of North America at Burger King, said in an interview. "It"s quite unique."
Facing a fiercely competitive fast-food market, restaurant chains are under pressure to get more creative with their menus. Burger King previously started selling grilled Oscar Mayer hot dogs earlier this year, along with an Egg-normous burrito and Chicken Fries Rings. Other chains, including McDonald"s Corp., are relying more heavily on discounts, such as a two-for-$5 deal.
The Mac "n Cheetos debut also reflects the increasingly tangled web of fast-food alliances. Though PepsiCo owns Cheetos, Burger King"s U.S. restaurants sell beverages from Coca-Cola Co., another company backed by Buffett"s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
However, some of Burger King"s international locations sell Pepsi drinks, and domestic ones offer PepsiCo"s Quaker oatmeal. Yum and PepsiCo, meanwhile, used to be part of the same company, and partnerships between the two are more common.
The new item shouldn"t be seen as a sign that Burger King is switching to Pepsi in the United States, Macedo said.
"It"s not a plan for us to migrate to Pepsi," he said. "Our relationship with Coke is as good as it is with PepsiCo."
The two companies started working together about a year ago to create the mac-and-cheese item. It"s the first time the Cheetos brand has been extended beyond chips into other food, and there may be more hybrids coming.
"We"re working on a few other menu items," Macedo said. "There"s room for us to do more together in the future."
