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Riot Fest 2021 Set With Headliners My Chemical Romance, Smashing Pumpkins & Run the Jewels
Chicago’s Riot Fest 2020 has been scrubbed, due to the health crisis. But the multi-day festival will return next year with a bill headlined by My Chemical Romance, Smashing Pumpkins, Run the Jewels and Pixies. Also confirmed to the 2021 lineup are Coheed and Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, Sublime With Rome, Dirty Heads and Lupe Fiasco, performing The Cool in full. The 2021 edition will take place Sept. 17-19, 2021 at Douglas Park, almost a year to the day from the scheduled 2020 show (originally set for Sept. 11-13). A first of three waves of performers 50 acts is announced with Vic Mensa, Living Colour, Big Freedia, Toots and the Maytals, Best Coast, L7, Gogol Bordello, and many more on board. “If you already have your 2020 ticket, you’re in luck, it’s good for 2021,” reads a stateme...
Wide range of groups urge FERC to reject anti-net metering petition
The petition attracted criticism from a diverse group of energy trade organizations, free market and environmental groups, as well as state regulators and officials. Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds sent a letter in opposition, as did former Democratic FERC Chair Jon Wellinghoff. The head of a group representing state utility regulators called the petition a “full frontal assault on state authority.” Solar companies said it risks decimating the residential solar sector — and the vast number existing rooftop solar contracts that are built on the arrangements. “Opposition to this petition is pervasive and the legal and jurisdictional problems the petition would create are impossible to overlook,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “It’s...
President Buhari begs Nigerians to be patient with government on insecurity
President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to Nigerians to be patient with his government as everything is being put in place to tackle headlong the insecurity in the polity. The President has also approved joint military, police operations to tackle insecurity in North West. President Buhari also called for calm in his home state of Katsina, assuring that security agencies were working to bring the current wave of banditry and killing to a halt. The President in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu in Abuja, Tuesday, observed that violent reactions to the security by citizens could distract the plans already laid out by security agencies, assuring that security forces were capable of stemming both terrorism and banditry. The President ...
Newcastle to spend €135 million on Italian striker
Newcastle United are working on becoming one of the biggest club’s in England and are ready to spend €135m in total to snap up Italian international, Ciro Immobile, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. The Magpies are close to selling the club to a Saudi investor and the Public Investment Fund willing to make a statement signing. Immobile has scored 27 goals in 26 Serie A matches this term and leads more establish goalscorers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Edin Dzeko. Interestingly, Immobile’s contract with Lazio expires in June 2023 but Italian media have claimed that the club is looking at offering him a new bumper new deal at the Olimpico that will scare away potential buyers. Lazio President Claudio Lotito wants the forward’s contract to be extended until 2025 and is prepared to offer €4m...
Minister: Naira Marley will be prosecuted
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Bello, has announced that rapper Azeez Fashola who is popularly known as Naira Marley, and some members of his team, will have their days in court. Marley’s June 13 concert in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja has been widely criticized and condemned for its blatant flouting of COVID-19 guidelines and protocols. FCT authorities have shut down the Jabi Lake Mall venue of the concert and Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika has temporarily withdrawn the license of Executive Jets–the airline that flew Marley and his crew to Abuja. In a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary Anthony Ogunleye, Bello said “there is a very real possibility that a single positive individual at that event could by now have gone ahead to infect several others t...
NiDCOM chief congratulates Benedict Oramah on his re-appointment as Afreximbank president
The Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has congratulated Prof. Benedict Oramah on his re-appointment as President, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for a second term in office. The NiDCOM chair expressed the felicitations in a statement by Mr Gabriel Odu of the Media, Public Relations and Protocol Unit of the commission on Tuesday. The NiDCOM chief said that Oramah’s “enormous contributions to the growth and development of the bank and the huge successes attained during his first tenure” testified to his re-appointment. She, therefore, urged Oramah, as a Nigerian in diaspora, to woo more diaspora investors to invest in the continent particularly Nigerian diasporas and to continue on his quest to better prepare the African continent to c...
NPR Variety Show ‘Live From Here’ Canceled by American Public Media
The Chris Thile-hosted variety series was a retooled version of Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” Live From Here, the Chris Thile-hosted radio show that served as a successor to A Prairie Home Companion when the latter series was retooled in 2017, has been canceled by American Public Media. CEO Jon McTaggart revealed the news in a post on APM’s website announcing drastic cuts at the broadcaster. Thile and Live From Here’s official social accounts also broke the news on Tuesday (June 16). “Not one live broadcast has gone by where I didn’t thank my absurdly lucky stars for your wide open ears and hearts,” Thile wrote on Twitter. “Over the weekend, I was informed that American Public Media will no longer be producing the show. “While this news fills me with sadn...
Warner Music Group Moves to Replace Old Debt With New, Better Debt
The music company is conducting a private offering to purchase senior notes due in 2023 with funds from sales of senior notes at a better interest rate due seven years later. Warner Music Group is trading old debt for new debt with a better interest rate and later due date. The music company is conducting a private offering for $535 million of senior secured notes due in 2030 that it expects to close June 29, it was announced Tuesday (June 16). At the same time, Warner wants to use the proceeds to purchase $300 million of new senior secured notes due in 2023. If Warner sells $535 million notes due in 2030 to redeem $300 million of notes due in 2023, it would replace a 5% interest rate with 3.875%. On $300 million of principal, the difference in rates of 1.125% equals $3.375 million of inte...
Powell’s warning on pandemic clashes with Trump’s upbeat tweets
The Fed chief’s testimony came a week after the central bank projected the economy would ultimately contract by a staggering 6.5 percent this year, despite regaining some ground in the second half of the year, and conflicted with the narrative from Trump, who trumpeted positive economic data. “Wow! May retail sales show biggest one-month increase of ALL TIME, up 17.7%,” the president tweeted Tuesday morning. “Far bigger than projected. Looks like a BIG DAY FOR THE STOCK MARKET, AND JOBS!” The previous day Trump boosted the theory that the country is experiencing a quick rebound, quoting Chetan Ahya, chief economist at Morgan Stanley: “We have greater confidence in our call for a V-shaped recovery, given recent upside surprises in growth data and policy action.” The unemployment rate ...
Senator: NNPC’s audit report underscores readiness for transparency
Sen. Bassey Akpan, Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream, says the published Audited Financial Statement of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is an indication of its readiness to ensure transparency in its operations. Akpan made this known while briefing newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday. “The recently published audited financial statement of the NNPC, also goes a long way to underscore the readiness of the new management under the GMD, Malam Mele Kyari, toward pursuing transparency, good governance and also accountability in the industry. “Nobody used to know what happens in the NNPC; but I think we are beginning to see results, and we can actually attest to the fact that this is in line with the new spirit. “I must commend President Muhammadu Buhari for the trust an...
Diego Maradona celebrates Dries Mertens for becoming Napoli’s all-time scorer
Diego Maradona has congratulated Dries Mertens for becoming Napoli’s all-time top goalscorer. “Like this, we get better every day.” Maradona had been Napoli’s top scorer for almost three decades on 115 goals, until Marek Hamsik surpassed him in December 2017. Hamsik left Napoli on 121 goals, which Mertens had been stuck on since February before his equaliser against Inter, which also sent the Partenopei into the Coppa Italia Final. “Hi Dries, my friend! I’m proud of you for breaking my record because, like this, Napoli get better every day,” the Argentine icon said in an Instagram video. “I’d like us to have a team who surpass the ones I played in so we can win another Scudetto for the people of Naples.” ‘El Pibe de Oro’ added in the caption: “A few months ago, Mertens said he cared so muc...
Katsina urges villagers to expose fleeing bandits
Katsina has called on villagers and rural dwellers to expose fleeing bandits and their informants to quickly end the spate of banditry attacks in some parts of the state. The Special Adviser to Governor Aminu Masari on Security Matters, Ahmad Katsina, told newsmen the ongoing bombardment of the forests by the joint security operatives has forced a few of the remnants of the bandits who escaped to seek refuge amongst villagers. He appealed to communities to be courageous enough in reporting such suspected movements to security agencies for prompt actions. According to him: “Fighting banditry should be a collective effort between the citizens and the security forces, the security forces without the collaboration of the citizens, would find it difficult, so the best approach is the collaborat...
