(NEW YORK) — Sara Blakely is probably going down as one of 2021’s best bosses ever.
The Spanx founder recently announced that she is giving the company’s employees two first-class Delta plane tickets to travel anywhere in the world.
She also gave $10,000 for them each to spend on the trip.
“I really want every employee to celebrate this moment in their own way and create a memory that will last them a lifetime,” Blakely captioned a video celebrating the moment.
Ahead of sharing the exciting news with her staff, Blakely choked up on the video as she reflected on initially writing down that Spanx, an underwear company focused on shapewear, would one day become a $20 million-dollar business.
“Everybody laughed at me, but I really believed that,” she continued.
Fast forward, a little over 20 years later and Spanx is valued at $1.2B, according to Business Wire. Global investment firm Blackstone also recently bought a majority stake in the company.
Since posting the special occasion on Instagram, it’s been viewed a million times with many comments.
“So inspired by you and what you created and the women you’ve impacted along the way Sara,” said former professional football player Lewis Howes.
Cat Oshman chimed in saying, “This had me in tears of joy. Love this so much and I admire the accomplishments + all the encouragement Sara brings to women today. Here’s to building our dreams and bringing others along the way!”
When asked where they are going to go, Spanx employees responded with destinations such as Croatia, South Africa and Antarctica.
One employee said she’d be taking her gifts to go on her honeymoon to Bora Bora while another said he would fly to Sweden and elope with his girlfriend.
“GMA” reached out to Spanx for comment.
In a previous post, Blakely opened up about the brand’s milestone in selling to Blackstone saying how proud she is.
“I’ve bootstrapped this for 21 years and I can’t wait to see what we can do for our customers with Blackstone’s full global resources behind us,” she said. “I’m eternally grateful to the customers, employees (past and present), vendors, retailers, friends and family who stood by me while I took the leap. Let today inspire all the dreamers out there who care the most.”
She continued: ” After meeting with the all-female deal team, I knew they were the right partners to grow our mission and scale our purpose. Now together with Blackstone, we will have even more opportunity to further our mission of making the world a better place… one butt at a time!”
In 2012, Blakely was named Forbes Magazines’ youngest self-made billionaire.
Today, the company offers leggings, clothing, activewear, maternity wear and more.
As Snoop Dogg continues to mourn his late mother, he’s moving on with his career, and Tuesday night, he hosted a listening session for his upcoming album, The Algorithm.
Dave East, DJ Whoo Kid, and Lena Waithe were among the stars attending the event at Def Jam Recordings in New York City.
“This makes me feel good when I can come out and see love, see appreciation,” the 50-year-old rapper said. As previously reported, his mother, Beverly Tate, passed away Sunday. She was 70 years old.
“When I can come out and see the love that my mother instilled in me and see it given back to me. Y’all making me feel real good tonight,” he added.
As previously reported, last week, The Doggfather debuted his new supergroup, Mount Westmore, consisting of Snoop, Ice Cube, E-40 and Too Short, who released “Big Subwoofer,” the first track from The Algorithm.
Now Snoop is challenging fans to record their own video to the music of the song, and the winner of the contest will hang out with him at his home in Inglewood, California.
“Whoever does the dopest video to my new video, ‘The Big Subwoofer,’ gets to come to The Compound,” he says
“’Big Subwoofer’ is an instant classic that once again shows the incredible musical genius of Snoop and the whole Mt. Westmore crew,“ TrillerNet Executive Chairman Bobby Sarnevesht told The Source. “Our good friend Snoop is going to give one talented and lucky Triller user an experience they won’t forget, so I encourage everyone to get on the app now and use Triller’s incredibly easy, intuitive and powerful tools to start making great videos.”
Videos should be posted on the Triller website, and the winner will be chosen by Snoop Dogg next month
Ed Sheeran isn’t letting his COVID-19 diagnosis stop him from giving fans what they want.
In addition to dropping his new album = [Equals] on Friday, Ed announced that he’ll also be releasing the new music video for his song “Overpass Graffiti.”
The teaser clip features a reporter broadcasting the news that Ed Sheeran has gone missing from his tour bus. She interviews his head of security, who doesn’t seem to be too concerned with the singer’s disappearance. He just hopes Ed returns before the next show because he needs him alive “for the Christmas bonus.”
And speaking of Christmas, Ed also announced he’ll be playing a special U.K. holiday show at St. John at Hackney Church in London on December 13. The show will raise funds for his Suffolk Music Foundation. U.K. residents have the chance to get exclusive access to tickets when they pre-order = from Ed’s official store.
After making their late-night U.S. TV debut on The Tonight Show Tuesday, the Italian rockers have announced that they’ll be opening for The Rolling Stones next month. They’ll take the stage ahead of the “Satisfaction” legends on November 6 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
The Stones gig follows Måneskin’s previously announced, much more intimate headlining shows taking place October 27 in New York City and November 1 in Los Angeles, which mark the band’s first-ever full U.S. concerts. As you might’ve guessed, both dates are sold out.
If you can’t catch them live, Måneskin’s also just booked another TV performance: the MTV Europe Music Awards on November 14.
Historic collectibles from various music legends, including Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin‘s Robert Plant and Bob Dylan, will be up for bid during a memorabilia sale hosted by Julien’s Auctions on November 19 and 20 at the Hard Rock Café in New York City.
Among the priciest items going on the block is a 1968 Martin D-45 acoustic guitar once owned by Clapton, who played the instrument at the live debut of his group Derek and the Dominos at London’s Lyceum Theatre in June 1970. The guitar, which Clapton gifted to singer/guitarist Dave Edmunds in 1976, is estimated to sell for between $300,000 and $500,000.
Meanwhile, a sheet of lyrics for the classic Led Zeppelin song “Kashmir” handwritten by Plant on stationery letterhead from Chicago’s Whitehall Hotel is estimated to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000. The lyrics feature some differences from the studio version of the tune, which appeared on 1975’s Physical Graffiti album.
Another interesting item being auctioned is an abstract oil painting of a nude woman created by Dylan during the 1960s and gifted to his late manager, Albert Grossman, which is expected to bring in between $100,000 and $200,000.
Also up for bid is a cream-colored Fender Stratocaster Vintage ’57 reissue electric guitar that Pink Floyd‘s David Gilmour owned and played on stage with the band during the 1980s and ’90s. It’s estimated to sell for between $80,000 and $100,000.
Other items being sold as part of Julien’s Auctions’ “Icons & Idols: Rock ‘n’ Roll” event include memorabilia and artifacts from The Beatles, Guns N’ Roses, Eddie Van Halen, U2, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Trent Reznor, Keith Richards and Quiet Riot.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats on Wednesday scrambled to close the deal on President Joe Biden’s landmark social spending legislation, focusing on new ways to pay for the package, including a billionaires’ tax the White House said the president supports.
At the same time, they were hoping to make enough progress that House progressives would agree to vote for a separate Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill before Biden heads overseas Thursday.
Just hours after Senate Democrats on Wednesday morning unveiled the “billionaires tax” — to tax the wealth of a few hundred of the wealthiest of Americans — the gambit came into question when Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin, a decisive vote on the bigger social spending bill, raised concerns.
“I’m supporting, basically, that everyone should pay their fair share,” Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I don’t like the connotation that we’re targeting different people.”
When asked about the plan, proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., which would help pay the $1.5 -2 trillion cost for sweeping new programs including child care, child tax credits, family leave and environmental initiatives, Manchin hesitated, saying while he thought they would “absolutely” get to a deal “the Senate will take time.”
“There’s a lot going on with that and it’s very convoluted. I believe there’s going to be everyone’s going to pay. I believe that we will end up where everyone must participate,” he said.
Wyden’s plan would apply to people with at least $1 billion in assets or $100 million in income for three consecutive years, applies to increased value on assets — so-called “unrealized gains” not now subject to tax — and would impact roughly 700 taxpayers, according to experts. White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced at Wednesday’s briefing that the plan has Biden’s support.
But the option raises some constitutional concerns and could depend ultimately on the Supreme Court’s interpretation of a wealth tax as a direct tax on property, which is unconstitutional, or whether it’s another form of income tax, which is constitutional. Legal challenges also risk undermining the president’s promise that his plans would be completely paid for.
“We’re not going to support anything we don’t think it’s legal,” Psaki said. “But I will tell you, the president supports the billionaire tax. He looks forward to working with Congress and chairman Wyden to make sure the highest-income Americans pay their fair share,” he said.
White House press sec. Jen Psaki says Pres. Biden “remains open” to going to Capitol Hill amid agenda negotiations.
Aside from the billionaires’ tax plan, Manchin said he and his fellow Democrats are on board with another proposal to help pay for the sweeping programs: a 15% minimum tax on the country’s wealthiest companies.
“We’ve all agreed on a 15% corporate tax,” he said.”There’s a patriotic duty that you should be paying something to this great country to give you the protection and the support and the opportunities. That’s called a patriotic tax. It will be nothing that should be scorned about.”
Wyden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, introduced the plan to establish a 15% minimum corporate minimum tax rate that’s aimed at companies making more than $1 billion in profits annually. They estimate the plan would apply to 200 companies generating “hundreds of billions in revenue over ten years,” according to a statement form the senators.
Warren pointed to Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in promoting the plan as negotiation continued on Capitol Hill, telling reporters they scrapped the idea of raising individual tax rates on the rich because, she said, those people do avoid taxes anyway.
“They have now opened that hole to the point that billionaires drive semis through it loaded with money,” Warren said of the current tax system.
The corporate tax proposal, and the separate tax on billionaires, are aimed at that tax avoidance — what lawmakers said was the concern of Sinema, who with Manchin, has been a Democratic holdout.
“The idea here is to say, ‘Enough, enough. If you’re a corporation that makes more than $100 billion dollars in profits — not revenues, not assets — but profits, then you’re going to pay a minimum 15% tax,” Warren told reporters.
“It’s not a new tax idea. The taxes are actually already there,” she added. “We’re now saying,”We want you to — you’ve got to — make this on an annual basis instead of putting it off for 30 or 40 years.”
As the clock also ticks on Biden’s overseas trip and White House senior staff do last-minute lobbying to lawmakers, Psaki said Wednesday the president also “remains open to going to the Hill.”
But she also signaled that if there isn’t a vote this week, the White House wouldn’t accept it as a loss.
“We’re on the verge of getting to a deal,” she said of negotiations. “They don’t look at it through the prism of whether there is a vote in one [sic] legislative body before he gets on an airplane,” She said.
Biden summoned Manchin and Sinema to the White House Tuesday night, but Democrats appear still at odds over key issues on expansion Medicare, Medicaid and family leave.
Despite some progressives’ objections, an optimistic-sounding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled the House could act on the “BIF” — the bipartisan infrastructure framework bill — sooner rather than later, with the thinking the chamber can and should vote on BIF with a framework in hand.
“In order for the BIF to pass, we need to have the trust, the confidence and the reality of the Build Back Better bill,” Pelosi told House Democrats in a closed-door meeting, a source familiar told ABC News.
Notably, Pelosi has said she doesn’t bring bills to the floor for a vote if she knows they are going to lose.
“In the next couple of hours, I will be communicating with you on our path from here to there … depending on what happens at the White House,” she said. “That will determine our timetable, our course of action, but we are in pretty good shape.”
Coming out of a meeting later, Pelosi told reporters that Democrats are in “pretty good shape” on the social spending bill.
“We have to just make decisions about one thing or another,” Pelosi said, heaping praise on Biden for leading the charge. “I feel pretty good about it.”
Pelosi notified members in a new dear colleague letter this afternoon that the House Rules Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday on the Build Back Better Act.
The hearing does not mean the bill is ready to hit the floor, as negotiations continue, but it will offer committee leaders a chance to speak to members about the bill. She wrote that progress had been made on a few sticking points, including closing the Medicaid coverage gap, but they’re still working to close a deal on paid family and medical leave.
Meanwhile, a disgruntled Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters that he doesn’t see a deal by the end of the day.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think so. I’m not quite clear in terms of the revenue package. Every sensible revenue option seems to be destroyed,” Sanders said.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus said Thursday at a press conference they are also ready to vote “soon” on the legislation that chair Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, said members have not been on the sidelines for when it comes to negotiations.
“I don’t think we’re in a position to keep kicking the can down the road,” Beatty said. “You know, infrastructure is very important, and we need to make sure that we meet the deadline that is imminent.”
The White House is hoping Biden will be able to tout the sweeping infrastructure package at the COP26 summit and G-20 summit this weekend.
According to an analysis by the pro-wealth-tax Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality, billionaires in the U.S. have seen their collected wealth surge 70% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to more than $5 trillion — a gain equal in size to Biden’s spending plans over 10 years, The Associated Press reported.
The president did not campaign on a wealth tax but vowed no one earning less than $400,000 would pay more in taxes in his administration.
ABC News’ Sarah Donaldson contributed to this report.
(MILAN, Ill.) — A John Deere worker who was taking part in the ongoing strike was killed in a traffic accident while walking to the picket line on Wednesday morning, the United Auto Workers Union said.
The tragedy took place at approximately 6 a.m. local time in Milan, Illinois, according to a statement from Milan Police Department Chief Shawn Johnson. The victim’s name is being withheld pending family notification.
“Initial investigation showed the pedestrian was crossing the Rock Island Milan Parkway at the intersection with Deere Drive,” Johnson said. “The pedestrian was pronounced deceased from injuries sustained in the accident.”
The 56-year-old employee was a member of the UAW’s Local 79 and had been an employee at the Milan John Deere Parts Distribution Plant for 15 years, according to a UAW statement.
“It is a somber time to lose a member who made the ultimate sacrifice in reporting to picket for a better life for his family and coworkers,” UAW President Ray Curry said in the statement.
Ron McInroy, director of UAW Region 4, added: “Our brother was fighting for what is right and we all mourn for his family and co-workers.”
“Through our tears, we continue to picket and honor the solidarity of our fallen brother,” McInroy said. “But we do this with heavy hearts today.”
Curry said the UAW flag will fly at half-staff Wednesday.
More than 10,000 John Deere workers have been on strike for approximately two weeks, after the union rejected a contract offer Oct. 14. The workers are seeking higher wages, better retirement benefits and more after working through the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the first strike at the agricultural machinery giant in more than three decades, and it comes amid a spate of strikes in recent weeks that’s left several major companies scrambling for staff.
“We are saddened by the tragic accident and death of one of our employees who was struck by a vehicle before dawn this morning,” Jennifer Hartmann, director of public relations at John Deere, told ABC News in a statement Wednesday. “All of us at John Deere express our deepest condolences to their family and friends.”
YoungBoy Never Broke Again‘s request to be released from prison has been granted, and now he is serving his sentence under house arrest.
The rapper, born Kentrell Gaulden, was released from the St. Martin Parish jail in Louisiana Tuesday afternoon, according to ABC Baton Rouge affiliate WBRZ-TV. Federal prosecutors agreed to allow Gaulden out of jail on a $1.5 million bond for a California charge of a felon in possession of a firearm. Home detention was ordered for separate gun and drug possession charges in Baton Rouge, and he is now being monitored at his home in Utah.
Over 150,000 people signed a Change.org petition asking President Joe Biden to release YoungBoy.
The 21-year-old rapper has been in custody since March after he was arrested in Los Angeles. He was previously arrested in September 2020 during a video shoot in Baton Rouge, which is his home town. Three weeks ago, YoungBoy’s latest album, Sincerely, Kentrell, replaced Drake‘s Certified Lover Boy at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart. This week it ranks number four. He recorded the album over the phone while incarcerated.
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Gaulden is the first hip hop artist to have a number-one album in each of the last three years: 2021, 2020 and 2019. His previous studio album, 2020’s Top, and his respective 2020 and 2019 mixtapes, 38 Baby 2 and Al YoungBoy 2, each reached the top of the Billboard 200.
Gaulden has kicked off the Sincerely, Kentrell freestyle competition by inviting fans to rap over album instrumental tracks on a special YouTube channel. The grand prize winner will receive a free recording session with his studio engineer, Jason “Cheese” Goldberg.
A few weeks ago, a new remix of Whitney Houston‘s classic “How Will I Know,” courtesy of British trio Clean Bandit, was released, and now we’ve got a video to go along with it.
The high-energy clip is set in a modern office building, and stars Heather Morris, who played cheerleader Brittany S. Pierce on Glee. As she and her cubicle mate make eyes at each other and then use the dating app Hinge to connect, the entire office begins dancing like crazy. Then, other workers couple up: A male window-washer and the female boss connect, as do a worker and the painter who’s working on the walls of his office.
At the end of the clip, Heather and the object of her affection meet on a rooftop, but when she abruptly pushes him off the edge, he wakes up: Aww — it was all a dream.
November 22 marks the 26th anniversary of the release of “How Will I Know,” which became Whitney’s second number-one hit. This is the second high-profile Whitney remix, following 2019’s “Higher Love,” which became a hit after being reworked by Kygo.
Clean Bandit are best known for their 2014 hit “Rather Be,” featuring Jess Glynne.
Chase Rice has plans to bring a little bit of southern fun to Cleveland, Ohio this December. He just announced that he’s opening a venue there called Welcome to the Farm, which will provide drinks, bar food and — of course — live music.
Located on the Flats East Bank of the Cuyahoga River, Chase’s new hot spot will boast a 280-person capacity, garage doors that open on all sides and a waterfront patio. The centerpiece of the venue will be a center stage.
“We’ve been working on this for a while and I’m excited to finally let everyone in on the secret,” the singer shares. “I’ve had a blast learning about another side of the entertainment and hospitality industry and getting to put my stamp on things at Welcome to the Farm. I can’t wait to welcome y’all in December!”
Chase’s connection to Ohio is both personal and musical. His dad grew up near Columbus and played on the Ohio State Buckeyes football team. Plus, as the home of rock ‘n’ roll, Cleveland has always held a special place in the singer’s heart, he says.
“It’s awesome to know that we’ll be just a mile down the road from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which is home to people like the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Nirvana, Tom Petty and so many more who have all had a huge impact on my career.”
Chase tips his hat to those rock influences in his latest single, “If I Were Rock & Roll.”
