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UPI
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
Sly Stone, of '60s funk band Sly and the Family Stone, dies at 82
1 of 4 | Sly Stone, frontman of the group Sly and the Family Stone, performs in concert at Olympia Hall in Paris on July 23, 2007. Stone, who had been a recluse since the mid-1980s, died Monday at the age of 82 after a "prolonged battle" with lung disease. File Photo by David Silpa/UPI | License Photo June 9 (UPI) -- Sly Stone, the legendary Sixties and Seventies funk singer, songwriter and producer of the band, Sly and the Family Stone, died Monday at the age of 82. Stone, whose hits included "Dance to the Music," "Everyday People" and "Thank You," had been fighting a "prolonged battle" with lung disease and other health issues when he died, according to his family. "It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved dad, Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone," his family wrote Monday in a statement. "Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend and his extended family. While we mourn his absence, we take solace in knowing that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire for generations to come." Stone was born Sylvester Stewart in Texas in 1943 and released his first single, "On the Battlefield," with his two sisters and brother, in 1952. A friend's misspelling of his name during grade school stuck, and he became known as "Sly." Stone later found success in California as a disc jockey on KSOL and KDIA, where he "found out about a lot of things I don't like. Like, I think there shouldn't be 'Black radio.' Just radio. Everybody be a part of everything," he said. The musician also worked as a record producer for Autumn Records, where he produced San Francisco-area bands. One of his singles, Bobby Freeman's "C'mon and Swim," reached No. 5 on the U.S. pop chart in 1964, while "Somebody to Love" by Grace Slick's band the Great Society, before Jefferson Airplane, was also a hit. Sly and the Family Stone was formed in 1966 after he, his sister Rose, brother Freddie and two cousins joined forces, along with other Black and White musicians, to make up one of the first racially mixed bands. Stone was also among the first musicians to do both vocals and play instruments, as can be heard in the funk-infused 1969 hit "Thank You," where he recounted his life's successes and addictions. Stone later called the band's early morning performance of "I Want to Take You Higher" and the crowd's reaction at 1969 Woodstock "legendary," in his 2023 memoir Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). "The call, the response. It felt like church. The horns went up into the sky. When the show was over, we were wet and cold. I don't remember how I left, maybe the same way I came in, but I wasn't there to see Jimi Hendrix close the festival," Stone wrote. Other hits, including "Family Affair" and "Hot Fun in the Summertime" followed as the music turned darker to acknowledge the turbulent times of the 1960s and '70s, which included the Vietnam War, racial tensions and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and President John F. Kennedy. A new documentary produced by Questlove, called Sly Lives! (Aka The Burden of Black Genius), focuses on Stone's music and torment. "I think that's kind of his like, help the medicine go down approach," Questlove told Rolling Stone in March. "He paints a very dark, lyric, paranoia, self-confessional thing almost in every record, but it's so happy-sounding." Sly and the Family Stone broke apart over Stone's drug abuse, including his arrest in 1981 when cocaine and freebasing paraphernalia were found in his car. The singer-songwriter went into seclusion after the band called it quits. By 2011, the funk music icon was homeless and living out of a van in Los Angeles, when he was again arrested for cocaine possession and insisted he "was ok." In 2015, he was awarded $5 million in a lawsuit against a former manager and attorney who were diverting his royalties. Two years later, he received a lifetime achievement award at The Grammys. "Sly was a monumental figure, a groundbreaking innovator and a true pioneer who redefined the landscape of pop, funk and rock music," his family said. "His iconic songs have left an indelible mark on the world and his influence remains undeniable." Notable deaths of 2025 Jill Sobule Jill Sobule attends the GLAAD Media Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 30, 2023. Sobule, the Jill Sobule attends the GLAAD Media Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 30, 2023. Sobule, the singer-songwriter behind "I Kissed a Girl," "Living Color" and "Supermodel," died at the age of 66 on May 2 from a house fire. Photo by Greg Grudt/UPI | License Photo
Mint
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Trump's Call to Reopen Alcatraz Prison Meets California Scorn
President Donald Trump's call to reopen Alcatraz, the famed San Francisco-area prison closed more than 60 years ago, drew swift backlash from California Democrats and surprise from visiting tourists. Governor Gavin Newsom's office dismissed the idea, which Trump introduced in a social media post Sunday, as a 'distraction.' Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the plan is 'not a serious one.' Scott Wiener, a state senator representing San Francisco, likened the idea to a 'domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay.' Perched atop a rocky island, Alcatraz closed in 1963 because it was too expensive to operate. It has since become a tourist attraction that draws more than one million visitors annually and generates tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the federal government, which still owns it. Trump said he was now directing the US Bureau of Prisons, as well as the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, 'to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America's most ruthless and violent Offenders.' On Monday, dozens of tourists lined up in San Francisco for the short ferry ride to the island. Rick Kautz, visiting from Stockton in California's Central Valley, supported reopening the site as a prison. The country needs more prisons, he said, and Alcatraz is a safe location. 'If somebody can swim from there and actually survive, more power to them,' Kautz said. Some visitors, however, said the idea made little sense. 'At the moment it's generating money,' said Kevin Ghallagher, from the UK. 'It's going to go from that to being a cost to the state.' During its 29 years of operation as a prison, Alcatraz captured the national imagination for housing some of the country's most notorious criminals, including Al Capone and George 'Machine-Gun' Kelly. But the facility needed costly repairs and was nearly three times more expensive to run than other federal prisons, according to the Bureau of Prisons. It was briefly occupied by Native Americans in 1969, an event now viewed by scholars as a landmark moment in civil rights activism. Trump's comments were his latest provocation to Democrat-led California. The president blamed state policies for January's Los Angeles-area wildfires and has sought to slash funding for the Presidio Trust, which manages a popular national park in San Francisco with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. First Published: 6 May 2025, 01:53 AM IST
Bloomberg
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Trump's Call to Reopen Alcatraz Prison Meets California Scorn
President Donald Trump's call to reopen Alcatraz, the famed San Francisco-area prison closed more than 60 years ago, drew swift backlash from California Democrats and surprise from visiting tourists. Governor Gavin Newsom's office dismissed the idea, which Trump introduced in a social media post Sunday, as a 'distraction.' Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the plan is 'not a serious one.' Scott Wiener, a state senator representing San Francisco, likened the idea to a 'domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay.'
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Health
- New York Times
F.D.A. Scientists Are Reinstated at Agency Food Safety Labs
Federal health officials have reversed the decision to fire a few dozen scientists at the Food and Drug Administration's food-safety labs, and say they are conducting a review to determine if other critical posts were cut. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the rehirings and said that several employees would also be restored to the offices that deal with Freedom of Information requests, an area that was nearly wiped out. In the last few months, roughly 3,500 F.D.A. jobs, about 20 percent, were eliminated, representing one of the largest work force reductions among all government agencies targeted by the Trump administration. The H.H.S. spokesman said those employees called back had been inadvertently fired because of inaccurate job classification codes. The decision to rehire specialists on outbreaks of food-related illnesses and those who study the safety of products like infant formula follows contradictory assertions made by Dr. Marty Makary, the F.D.A. commissioner, in media interviews this week. 'I can tell you there were no cuts to scientists or inspectors,' Dr. Makary said Wednesday on CNN. In fact, scientists had been fired from several food and drug safety labs across the country, including in Puerto Rico, and from the veterinary division where bird flu safety work was underway. Scientists in the tobacco division who were dismissed in February — including some who studied the health effects of e-cigarettes — remain on paid leave and have not been tapped to return, according to employees who were put on leave. How many fired employees will be permitted to return remained unclear. About 40 employees at the Moffett Lab in Chicago and at a San Francisco-area lab are being offered their jobs back, the department spokesman said. Scientists in those labs studied a variety of aspects of food safety, from how chemicals and germs pass through food packaging to methods for keeping bacteria out of infant formula. Some scientists in Chicago reviewed the work and results of other labs to ensure that milk and seafood were safe. Dr. Robert Califf, the F.D.A. commissioner under President Joseph R. Biden, said the terms 'decapitated and eviscerated' seemed fitting to describe the steep loss of expertise at the agency. He said the F.D.A. was already falling behind on meetings meant to help companies develop safe products — and to design studies that give clear answers about their effectiveness. 'Most of it is really at this level of fundamental, day-to-day work that has a huge impact overall, but it's not very controversial,' he said. 'It's just that it takes work, and they have to have people to do the work.' Dr. Makary has also said the layoffs did not target product reviewers or inspectors. But their work has been hampered by voluntary departures, the elimination of support staff and the broader disruption at an agency where many are fleeing for the exits, according to former staff members. Hundreds of drug and medical device reviewers, who make up about one-fourth of the agency work force, have recused themselves from key projects, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former agency commissioner, said on CNBC. Under F.D.A. ethics rules, staff members who are interviewing for jobs cannot do agency review work on products by companies where they are seeking employment — or for a competitor. Dr. Gottlieb also said cuts to the office of generic drug policy wiped out employees with expertise in determining which brand-name drugs are eligible to be made as lower-cost generics, calling those job eliminations 'profound.' Approving generic drugs can save consumers billions of dollars. Support staff for inspectors investigating food and drug plants overseas were also cut, raising security concerns. Dozens of workers who lost their jobs attended to security monitoring to ensure that inspectors were safe, especially in hostile nations.
Bloomberg
24-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
California's Shrinking Fuel Industry May Bring Pricier Gas
Welcome to Bloomberg's California Edition—covering all the events shaping one of the world's biggest economies and its global influence. Join us each week as we put a unique lens on the Golden State. Sign up here if you're not already on the list. Valero's San Francisco-area oil refinery is shutting down, executives announced Thursday, and its Wilmington refinery in Los Angeles could be next. Toss in the planned closure of an LA-area Phillips 66 refinery, and California looks poised to lose almost a fifth of its crude-processing capacity.
