Futurestays winning. The Atlanta rapper-producer had one h**l of successful year and now hes closing it out with a new venture. The Diamonds Dancing rapper has teamed up with NEFF Headwear, a snow and skate headwear company, to launch a new apparel collection.
My music, just like NEFF clothing, cannot be confined, said Future in a press release. I wanted to collaborate on a collection with a brand that I knew people would love. I want everyone to have a little bit of my signature style in their wardrobes.
The feeling was mutual for the companys CEO, Shaun Neff, as well, who said Future was his ideal choice.
Future is a trailblazer in trap music whos writing some of the catchiest hooks out there, but also transcends genres, said Neff. Thats why youll find influences from hip hop, athletics, urban style, and high fashion all weaved into the fabric of this exciting new collection.
The collection, dubbed NEFF x Freebandz, will feature tribal themed T-shirts, sweatshirts and headwear inspired by the rhymers style. The word WARRIOR will appear across the back of the baseball tees as a subtle nod to Futures desire to continue to exceed expectations. The number 06 will also be featured on the tees to show love to Futures hometown, Kirkwood, Georgia, also known as Zone 6.
In celebration of the collaboration, fans will get the chance to win a pair of tickets to Futures Purple Reign tour as well as a private meet and greet with the rhymer. The Future Hive can enter the contest between Christmas Day (Dec. 25) and Feb. 1, 2016 on Tillys.com.
Fans can also grab NEFF x Freebandz gear exclusively on NEFF Headwears websitestarting on Tuesday (Dec. 22). Check out the video above to see some of the gear available.
A twerking polar bear and a trio of lively lemmings are the main selling points of Lionsgate"s animated feature originally slated for direct-to-video but now receiving a wide theatrical release. Hoping to cash in on this holiday weekend"s absence of kiddie fare after all, you can"t take little Heather and Tommy to The Revenant Norm of the North is mildly diverting, although Pixar needn"t be overly concerned.
The title character, voiced by Rob Schneider, is a polar bear so sweet that he can"t bring himself to eat seals, although he desperately tries to chase one down in the hyperkinetic opening scene. Norm"s special gift is the ability to "speak human," which comes increasingly into play with the encroachment of bear-loving tourists and, more dangerously, a villainous billionaire real-estate developer, ironically named Mr. Greene (Ken Jeong), who plans to build luxury condos in the frozen landscape.
Read More "The 5th Wave": Film Review
Alarmed when he finds out about the plan by the arrival of Mr. Greene"s marketing director, Vera (Heather Graham), to shoot a TV commercial, Norm decides that he has to take action. Encouraged by his wise seagull mentor Socrates (Bill Nighy), he stows away with three lemming cohorts on a ship to Manhattan to prevent his homeland from being despoiled.
Once there, Norm finds himself a minor celebrity, with jaded New Yorkers assuming he"s an actor in a polar bear suit. He even performs his trademark dance, the "Arctic Shake," to delighted audiences in Times Square, although unlike the current crop of Elmos, Spider Men, et al, he doesn"t solicit tips.
The film doesn"t exactly score points for originality, whether it"s the frequent musical numbers, the indestructible lemmings whose resemblance to Minions is strictly not coincidental or the reliably kid-pleasing bathroom humor, here evidenced by such moments as when the lemmings relieve themselves over a fish tank. As a bone to adults, there"s also a glancing effort to embrace such weighty themes as global warming and conservation.
Read More "Ride Along 2": Film Review
Neither its animation nor voice performances (Colm Meaney and comedian Gabriel Iglesias also lend their talents) are particularly memorable, but Norm of the North, especially in its early section set in the Arctic, has its appealing moments. And if the film does well, those adorable lemmings are going to make for some highly coveted plush toys.
Production: Splash Entertainment/Lionsgate
Distributor: Lionsgate
Cast: Rob Schneider, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong, Bill Nighy, Colm Meaney, Loretta Devine, Gabriel Iglesias, Michael McElhatton, Maya Kay
Director: Trevor Wall
Screenwriters: Malcolm T. Goldman, Steven M. Altiere, Daniel R. Altiere
Producers: Nicolas Atlan, Liz Young, Mike Young, Steven Rosen, Ken Katsumoto, Jack Donaldson, Derek Elliott
Executive producers: Max Madhavan, Paul Cummins, Noah Fogelson, Kamal Khanna, Daniel Engelhardt, Silvio Astarita, Shi Wen, Han Tao, Xia Xiao Ping
Editor: Richard Finn
Composer: Stephen McKeon
Major Operation Jade Helm 15 Alert! Walmart Stores close same day same reasons!
Created: 04/15/2015 2:50 PM
By: Mark Douglas, WFLA
(WFLA) - Walmart customers can"t understand what"s plaguing the "plumbing problems" of Walmart stores from Florida to California.
"Must be a major plumbing problem is all I can say," would-be customer Dale White said as security guards turned him away from the Supercenter on Brandon Boulevard in Brandon.
The retail chain announced Monday that five stores are shutting down - one in Florida, two in Texas, one in Oklahoma and one in California - due to clogging and drainage problems.
Read More: WFLA
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THE REAL REASON WALMART IS CLOSING STORES SUDDENLY
It"s certainly possible that the reason Wal-Mart is temporarily closing five of its stores, including onein Pico Rivera is "ongoing plumbing issues that will require extensive repairs," as it claims.
It"s possible that the Pico Rivera closing, which will cost the jobs of more than 500 employees and will last six months to a year,isn"t part of an effort to punish workers who who have been at "the center of concerted action by associates to improve the wages and working conditions of all Walmart associates around the country," as the workers asserted in a complaint filed Mondaywith the National Labor Relations Board.
If so, however, there wouldn"t be so many questions about Wal-Mart"s repair plans. One wouldn"t have to wonder why the giant retailer hasn"t applied for building permits for the work. Not at Pico Rivera, nor(accordingto inquiries by a Tampa TV station) at any of the other four--two in Texas and one each in Florida and Oklahoma.
One wouldn"t have to ask why, of the list of 50 "plumbing issues" Wal-Mart provided to The Times dating back to July 2014 for the Pico Rivera store, half were identifiedas "non-emergency" and involvedproblems such asleaky urinalsandbroken toilet handles.
One wouldn"t have to ask why such problems hadn"t beenfixed when the store underwent a $500,000 refurbishment over the last year, during which it didn"t have to be closed--a refurbishment that included the restrooms and the grocery department, according to papers on file with the Pico Rivera building department.
Or why, if the plumbing problems were so severe that the building has to be completely shuttereduntilChristmas and possibly beyond, why Wal-Mart didn"t say anything about it until April 13. On that day, according to Venanzi Luna, an employee at the Pico Rivera store, managers called workersto a meeting at 1 p.m. to inform them the location would be closedas of 7 p.m.
The other stores were closed with similar speed. No advance warning to the customer base, to the communities, or to the employees.
Back in February, Wal-Mart made a high-profile bidto turn around its reputation for scandalously poor wages and working conditions for many of its 1.4 million U.S. workers. The company said it would raise minimum starting pay to $9 an hour beginning next monthand $10 an hour as of February 2016.
But its handling of the store closings, which will affect 2,200 workers overall, supports speculation that the February wage initiative was just for show--that Wal-Mart"s solicitude for its immense workforce is barelyskin-deep.
Luna, 36, who is a leader in the movement for better pay and conditions for employees, says the Pico Rivera staff were told that they could apply for positions at other area stores. There were noguarantees, however, that any jobs would beavailable, much less jobs at the same pay and classification they had at Pico Rivera. The workerswere told that once the Pico Rivera store reopened, they would have to reapply for jobs, andthat regardless of their job level and pay on the shutdown date, itmight be at minimum wage.
"That"s standard for our HR [human resources] procedures," Wal-Mart spokesman Brian Nick told me. Theworkers are entitled to60 days"severance, he said. But that"s not by Wal-Mart"s choice; it"s mandated by federal and California state laws, which say that workers must be given 60 days" notice of a mass layoff, or be paid for that period.
The Pico Rivera workers assert in their NLRB complaint that the four other store closings are just a smokescreen to conceal thatthey"re the company"s real target. Pico Rivera, after all, has been a hotbed of Wal-Mart employee activism through the nationwide group OUR Walmart (an acronym for "Organization United for Respect"). "This unprecedented "closure" to fix"plumbing" is part of Walmart"s overall national strategy to punish associates who stand up and speak out for better working conditions," they said in the complaint.
They note that thePico Rivera store was the site of the first OUR Walmart strike in 2012 and remained a center of vocal activismon"issues of scheduling, pay, benefits, part-time work, unfair treatment and discrimination throughout the country." They"re asking the NLRB to order Wal-Mart to find jobs for the 2,200 laid-off workers without loss of pay, orto reinstate them at their old stores.
The organization Making Change at Walmart, which is associated with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, observesfurther that Wal-Mart has been accused of anti-union maneuvers in the past. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled last year that the company had illegally closed a Quebec store in 2005 after the workers had filed to unionize; the companydenied the shutdown was related to the union campaign. In 2000, after meat cutters at a Texas supercenter voted to join the UFCW, the company announced it would close meat-cutting operations in 180 stores and switch to prepackaged meats, a move that "shows the extent to which Wal-Mart will go to keep the union out of its stores," the UFCW said.
Wal-Mart"s Nick says the recent closings were done abruptlyso that the work could get underway promptly, and that building permits haven"t yet been sought because the scope of work hasn"t been set.
But he maintained that the five closed stores had the largest number of repairworkorders in the company, andthatthe work is urgent. In January, the Pico Rivera store"s deli department was downgraded from an A to B by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health because it had no hot water. Luna, who had worked at the store for eight years and was earning $14.40 an hour as a deli department manager, said that had nothing to do witha plumbing problem but resulted from a malfunctioning hot water heater. The downgrade happened, she said, because store managers weren"t on site to get the heaterfixed before the county"s deadline.
Nick acknowledged that the store did undergo remodeling, but added, "that"s why the recurring plumbing reports are particularly problematic." Citydocuments show that much of the refurbishmentwas completed, inspected and approved by the city before the end of December.
Keep up to date with the Economy Hub. Follow@hiltzikmon Twitter, see ourFacebook page, or emailmhiltzik@latimes.com.
Aaliyah - Are You That Somebody (Official HD Video)
Saturday marks what would have been R&B singerAaliyah Haughton"s 37th birthday. The Brooklyn, New York-born artist, who was more commonly known by justher first name,was killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001.
Haughton, who was born Jan.16, 1979, recorded her first album when she was 14. The album, "Age Ain"t Nothing But a Number," was produced by R&B artist R. Kelly, whomshe was rumored to have married before she was of legal age.
Her second album, "One in a Million," launched her to stardom when itsold 2million copies. Haughton"s last album, "Aaliyah," had just been released, and she was returning from a music video shoot when she was killed in the plane crash that left six passengers dead.
Saturday would have marked R&B singer Aaliyah"s 37th birthday. Pictured: Aaliyah and friend Damon Dash as they arrive for the premiere of "The Others" in New York City, Aug. 2, 2001. Photo: Reuters
To remember the star, we"ve compiled some inspiring quotes from the singer:
1. "Keep working hard and you can get anything that you want.
2. I know that people think I"m sexy and I am looked at as that. It is cool with me. It"s wonderful to have [s*x]appeal. If you embrace it, it can be a very beautiful thing.
3.There are times in my life when I just want to be by myself.
4.All I can do is leave it in G*d"s hands and hope that my fans feel where I"m coming from.
5.There are times I can"t even figure myself out.
6.I"m the interpreter. I"m the one who takes your words and brings them to life. I was trained to sing and dance and laugh, and that"s what I want to do.
7. "You have to love what you do to want to do it every day.
8. I stay true to myself and my style, and I am always pushing myself to be aware of that and be original.
9. "It"s really a sad story, and I liked that. The songs on this album talk about relationships in every aspect," in response toher album "Aaliyah."
10. "I began to work the stage and get the audience into it. I also learned how to have fun out there. It is something I will never forget."
Sean Penn breaks his silence on controversial "El Chapo" meeting
(Newser)
While Sean Penn might not think his interview for Rolling Stone with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was rife with "stupidities," the actor now concedes he has "a terrible regret" about itand he thinks the article ultimately "failed," CBS News reports. In a Santa Monica, Calif., sit-down with Charlie Rose Thursday for an interview to air on Sunday"s 60 Minutes, Penn explained that he thought his interview would spur "a conversation about the policy of the war on drugs," efforts he seems to think are squandered by going so hard after just one "bad guy." Enter that "terrible regret": "I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose, which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the War on Drugs," he told Rose.
"We all want this drug problem to stop. We all want the killings in Chicago to stop." He then switches to third-person mode, noting, "Whether you agree with Sean Penn or not, there is a complicity there. And if you are in the moral right, or on the far left, just as many of your children are doing these drugs And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article talking about that? One percent? I think that"d be generous. Let me be clear. My article has failed." Watch the full interview, which also touches on the "green-eyed monsters [meaning journalists jealous of his scoop] who gonna come give you a kiss," Sunday at 7pm EST on CBS.
Burkina Faso: Hostage situation ongoing as gunmen storm Ouagadougou hotel
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) The latest developments in the assault of a hotel by al-Qaida-linked gunmen in Burkina Faso"s capital. All times are local:
4:40 p.m.
Burkina Faso"s Minister of Security and Internal Affairs Simon Compaore says that the two foreigners kidnapped in the country"s north are Australian, not Austrian as the ministry"s spokeswoman had announced earlier. The Australian doctor and his wife who were kidnapped were abducted in Djibo, the capital of the northern Soum province. A journalist in the region said the Australian couple has lived there since 1972, volunteering in health services.
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4:15 p.m.
French President Francois Hollande confirmed that French special forces helped to end the attack on a hotel in Burkina Faso in which 23 people were killed as well as the four attackers. The French Foreign Ministry said forensic officers and medical teams are working at the site.
Hollande said that the extremists were trying to attack "our life, our spirit, our trust in the future, our hope that we represent a just and democratic society. We must continue, continue to live, to act, to raise our hope, notably for future generations."
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3:45 p.m.
Britain"s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond condemned the attack by Islamic extremists in Burkina Faso"s capital in which 23 people were killed as well as four jihadist attackers. In a statement Hammond said the attack was "appalling" and said the United Kingdom "stands with President Kabore and the people of Burkina Faso in the fight against terrorism."
Hammond also advised British nationals in Burkina Faso to avoid the area where the attack took place and to follow travel advice offered by the British government.
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2:15 p.m.
Norway"s foreign minister says the purpose of the deadly assault of a hotel by al-Qaida-linked gunmen in Burkina Faso"s capital "apparently is to weaken the democratic process in the country."
In a statement to Norway"s news agency NTB, Borge Brende said Saturday the "vulnerable" West African country has "just gotten its first democratically elected government." Brende said "it is important that the positive development we recently have seen continues" so Burkina Faso can "progress in the right direction."
At least 23 people have been killed, as well as four extremist attackers, when a deadly assault was launched on a hotel in the capital, Ouagadougou.
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12:05 p.m
Denmark"s Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen says Denmark will assess "with international partners" if it is safe for Denmark"s Australian-born Crown Princess Mary and himself to travel to Burkina Faso later this month on an official visit.
Jensen says they will not travel "if there is a situation where we cannot guarantee the security of the crown princess."
He spoke Saturday after the deadly assault of a hotel by al-Qaida-linked gunmen in Ouagadougou. At least 23 people have been killed, as well as four extremist attackers.
The 43-year-old crown princess and Jensen are scheduled to travel to the West African country Jan. 24-26, to see firsthand the situation for women"s rights and health, and Burkina Faso"s democratic situation.
Also Saturday, Denmark"s foreign ministry updated its travel advisory to warn Danes in Burkina Faso to stay away from public places.
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11:40 a.m.
In a separate development, Abi Ouattara, spokeswoman for Burkina Faso"s ministry of security and internal affairs, says an Austrian doctor and his wife were kidnapped by extremists in the country"s north near its border with Mali.
The spokeswoman said the jihadists abducted the two from the town of Baraboule in the Soum province in Burkina Faso"s Sahel region.
The ministry did not have immediate information on how long the two had been in northern Burkina Faso, where they were doing volunteer work.
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10:30 a.m.
Burkina Faso"s president says forces have killed a fourth extremist in a nearby hotel.
