Jimmy Heath, legendary saxophonist, composer and jazz educator, dies at 93

Jimmy Heath, a saxophonist, composer, arranger, educator and 2003 NEA Jazz Master who came of age in the bebop era, and did much to sway the course of jazz history in the ensuing decades, died on Sunday. He was 93.

Miles Davis described Heath as “one of the thoroughbreds.” He was not only a doggedly individual talent - but also the middle brother in one of jazz’s most storied families, the Heath Brothers with the late Percy Heath (1923-2005).

Heath’s especially close friendship with John Coltrane and life-changing early tenures with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis inspired the title of his 2010 memoir I Walked with Giants: The Autobiography of Jimmy Heath (Temple University Press), co-authored with Joseph McLaren.

At: https://www.wbgo.org/post/jimmy-heath-legendary-saxophonist-composer-and-jazz-educator-dies-93

Jazz great Jimmy Heath (1926-2020)

Singer-songwriter David Olney dies on stage during performance at Florida festival

Singer-songwriter David Olney has died at age 71, after falling silent and dropping his head in the midst of a performance at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, Saturday night.

Some news reports said he "collapsed" on stage, but that isn't quite true: Olney simply became still on his stool, leading some audience members and even the musicians beside him to think he was simply taking a pause, before they realized what had happened and lowered him to the stage.

Olney was a revered figure in the folk-rock and Americana communities who had recorded 20 albums of his own as well as having his songs covered by Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Del McCoury and his former roommate Steve Earle.

The late Townes Van Zandt famously said of Olney: "Any time anyone asks me who my favorite music writers are... I say Mozart, Lightnin Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Dave Olney. Dave Olney is one of the best songwriters I've ever heard — and that's true. I mean that from my heart."

At: https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/singer-songwriter-david-olney-dies-onstage-during-performance-florida-festival-n1118611

David Olney, 1948-2020, performing just hours before passing away during a Florida concert last night.

Morales announces MAS party candidates for Bolivia's elections

Former Bolivian leader Evo Morales announced from Argentina on Sunday the candidates for his socialist party in Bolivia's May 3 elections, which will serve as a re-run of the disputed October vote and be the first in two decades without him.

Speaking at a news conference in Buenos Aires' cooperatively-run Bauen Hotel, Morales named his former Economy Minister Luis Arce as the Movement to Socialism's (MAS) presidential candidate, with former Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca as his running mate.

Morales unveiled the ticket after meeting at the weekend with senior MAS party officials who traveled to the Argentine capital, where Morales is living after accepting an offer of asylum.

He was deposed in a November 10 coup, and is barred from running for president again.

Arce, 56, was Bolivia's Economy Minister for most of Morales' 2006-19 tenure, and is widely credited with an era of strong economic growth and reduced inequality in the South American nation of 11 million.

Growth under Morales and Arce averaged 4.8% annually - twice the average for Latin America over the same period. Extreme poverty likewise fell from 60.6% in 2005 to 15.2% in 2018.

At: https://news.yahoo.com/morales-announces-candidates-mas-party-224753685.html

Former Bolivian Economy Minister Luis Arce and former Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca, presented today as the Movement to Socialism's (MAS) running mates for elections this May 3rd.

Polls show deposed President Evo Morales' MAS running ahead of all other parties - but not by enough to avoid a runoff.

Dam at Mississippi lake could soon fail; residents urged to flee

Heavy rains could cause the failure of a dam in a rural northeastern Mississippi county as officials on Tuesday urged residents to evacuate as a precaution.

County Emergency Management Agency Director Kristen Campanella said the county engineer had inspected the Oktibbeha County Lake dam, reported extremely high water levels in the lake and noted the dam could fail at any time.

Mississippi has one of the highest numbers of dams that pose dangers and are in poor or unsatisfactory condition, according to a two-year investigation by The Associated Press.

The Oktibbeha County Lake dam, built in the 1960s, was rated “fair” the last time it was inspected in 2016.

A February 2019 report made available to the AP on Tuesday noted ongoing seepage problems that the county board of supervisors said they lacked money to fix.

At: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/officials-dam-at-mississippi-lake-could-soon-fail/

County officials work on the Oktibbeha County Lake Dam, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, near Starkville, MS.

Republican lawmakers believe they have the solution: more tax cuts to the rich.

Spike Lee will be the first-ever black president of the Cannes Film Festival jury

The Cannes Film Festival announced Tuesday that Spike Lee would serve as president of its jury in May, making the American director the first black person to do so in the French festival’s 73-year history.

In a statement signed from what he called “Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn, New York,” Lee detailed his history with the prestigious festival dating to his 1986 debut feature, She’s Gotta Have It, which won the Prix de la Jeunesse, an award honoring young directors.

Lee, 62, has since returned to Cannes six times. His most recently chosen film, 2018?s BlacKkKlansman, won the Grand Prix, or second place overall.

“In this life I have lived, my biggest blessings have been when they arrived unexpected, when they happened out of nowhere,” Lee wrote.

“When I got the call that I was offered the opportunity to be President of Cannes Jury for 2020, I was shocked, happy, surprised and proud all at the same time.”

At: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/01/14/spike-lee-will-be-first-ever-black-president-cannes-film-festival-jury/

Director Spike Lee: “An unexpected blessing.”

Barack Obama lands first Oscar nomination

Source: consequenceofsound.net

Barack Obama is now an Academy Award nominee.

America’s 44th president landed his first-ever Oscar nomination for American Factory, an original documentary distributed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions in partnership with Netflix.

American Factory chronicles the shuttering of a General Motors factory in Dayton, Ohio and the impact it hand on the local community.

The documentary has been widely praised, with a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 86 out of 100.

On Monday morning, the Academy added to the film’s legacy by naming it one of five finalists for Best Documentary Feature.

Read more: https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/01/barack-obama-oscar-nomination-american-factory/

Argentine health minister releases millions of vaccine doses impounded by predecessor

Argentine Health Minister Ginés González García ordered the release on Friday of a total of 12.4 million doses of vaccines that were held in Customs at the international airport outside Buenos Aires during the last months of the former Mauricio Macri administration.

The minister ordered the release at noon of 4 of 49 shipments of imported vaccines impounded at Pistarini International Airport's TCA customs depot - some 1 million doses.

The remainder, he explained, "will be distributed among all the provinces within the next 15 days."

The vaccines had arrived in Argentina as early as June 5 - but had been impounded because the Macri administration refused to pay import tariffs and customs duties of $11 million on an $83 million purchase.

"That was solved with political will and also with the social, economic and health emergency declaration," he explained - referring to a bill signed by newly-inaugurated President Alberto Fernández on December 21.

The shipments included 2 million doses of measles vaccines, impounded despite a measles outbreak. Some 97 cases have been reported since March - the first in Argentina since 2000.

The minister announced that another 7 million doses were being purchased.

González García, 74, was sworn in as health minister when President Fernández took office on December 10. Macri had demoted the Health Ministry to a sub-cabinet level secretariat in 2018 - the first time the country had been without a Health Ministry since 1980, during the last dictatorship.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&tab=wT&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pagina12.com.ar%2F239807-comenzo-la-liberacion-de-mas-de-12-millones-de-dosis-de-vacu

Argentine Health Minister Ginés González García (center) during Friday's release of the first million vaccine doses out of a total of 12.4 million impounded since June by the former Macri administration.

The decision to impound the vaccines - apparently taken to help satisfy IMF budget deficit guidelines - came during the country's first measles outbreak in 20 years.

The outbreak in turn took place amid the most severe recession since 2002 - which led to Macri's defeat in elections this October.

"Only an indifferent state could have allowed this to happen," he lamented.

Marijuana sales in Illinois top $3 million on first day of legal recreational cannabis in the state

Illinois has already raked in a lot of green within the first days of legal marijuana sales.

The launch of adult-use marijuana in Illinois totaled 77,128 transactions and $3,176,256.71 in sales on Wednesday, state officials said.

On the heels of the state's successful inaugural day of sales, Gov. J.B. Prtizker's office released a statement about achieving the "monumental milestone."

On Tuesday, prior to the start of legal pot sales, Pritzker announced pardons that would expunge 11,017 misdemeanor convictions for cannabis offenses involving less than 30 grams.

Illinois is the first state where lawmakers passed legislation legalizing recreational cannabis, which is still illegal at the federal level.

Other states where cannabis can be legally purchased include Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

At: https://abcnews.go.com/US/marijuana-sales-illinois-top-3m-day-legal-recreational/story?id=68051493

High time: Customers wait in line to purchase recreational marijuana on New Year's Day in Chicago.