Hip-hop legend Biz Markie, best known for his 1989 single “Just a Friend,” has died at age 57.
His rep confirmed his passing in a statement to ABC News Friday.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce, this evening, with his wife Tara by his side, Hip Hop pioneer Biz Markie peacefully passed away,” the statement read. “We are grateful for the many calls and prayers of support that we have received during this difficult time.”
“Biz created a legacy of artistry that will forever be celebrated by his industry peers and his beloved fans whose lives he was able to touch through music, spanning over 35 years,” the statement continued. “He leaves behind a wife, many family members and close friends who will miss his vibrant personality, constant jokes and frequent banter. We respectfully request privacy for his family as they mourn their loved one.”
It was in 2010 that Markie revealed he’d been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. After a 140-pound weight loss, Markie told ABC News in 2014 that he “wanted to live” and that if he “didn’t make the changes, it was going to make the diabetes worse.” The rapper was hospitalized in April 2020 due to complications from his diabetes, and the following December it was reported that Markie was staying in a rehabilitation facility after going into a diabetic coma and suffering a stroke.
Markie’s rep refuted reports in late June, 2021 that Markie had died, saying that his client was “under medical care, surrounded by professionals who are working hard to provide the best healthcare possible.”
Born Marcel Theo Hall in Harlem, New York, Markie began his music career with the Juice Crew, serving as the group’s beatboxer. Often referred to as ”Clown Prince of Hip-Hop” for his ability to inject humor into his lyrics, Markie gained mainstream attention with the 1989 hit single “Just a Friend,” from his second studio album, The Biz Never Sleeps. Sampled from Freddie Scott‘s “(You) Got What I Need,” the song features Markie both rapping and singing. It became his biggest career hit, reaching #9 on the Billboard Hot 11 singles chart.
In addition to several studio albums, Markie made numerous guest appearances on songs including the Beastie Boys‘ “Bennie and the Jets” and Will Smith‘s “So Fresh.” He was even sampled by The Rolling Stones for their track “Anybody Seen My Baby?”
Markie also enjoyed a successful acting career, appearing on several episodes of the sketch comedy show In Living Color, portraying a beatboxing alien in Men in Black II, and making several cameos on the children’s show Yo Gabba Gabba for his segment “Biz’s Beat of the Day.” Other credits include Sharknado 2, The Meteor Man, and Breath Control.
(AUSTIN) — A federal judge in Texas ruled Friday that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program was unlawful in a significant blow to the Obama-era approach that shielded young people brought to the country illegally from deportation.
U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen sided with a group of nine states led by Texas and concluded that the creation of the DACA program violated federal administrative law. Hanen emphasized in his decision that his ruling does not compel immigration authorities to arrest and deport recipients, but it does make them eligible.
DACA was created by former President Barack Obama in 2012 to provide relief for the growing population of undocumented immigrant minors, sometimes called Dreamers, who had little to no say in their immigration process due to their youth. It’s estimated there are about 650,000 people who hold DACA status, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Lawyers with the Texas Attorney General’s Office argued that the Obama administration overextended its executive authority in creating the program. They were joined in the lawsuit by Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represented a group of DACA recipients in defending the program, argued in a prior hearing on the matter that Texas shouldn’t be successful in its lawsuit because none of the states were harmed by the existence of DACA.
The DACA program has maintained bipartisan political support even as Republican-led states have moved to end it. A solid majority — 75% — of Republicans favor allowing recipients the chance to obtain citizenship along with 92% of Democrats, according to a 2018 Gallup survey.
Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said DACA is the only way the president can exercise discretion.
“When you’re dealing with the number of people that the immigration system has to deal with, you have to make resource decisions,” Saenz said. “It’s hard to imagine an efficient way of doing it otherwise.”
The Biden administration could act to change the program in a way that would satisfy Hanen’s ruling, but still, the future for many DACA recipients will likely face the Supreme Court once again.
The ruling also ramps up pressure on Biden to achieve a legislative victory for DACA recipients, possibly through the reconciliation process.
In response to the news, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in a tweet, said it was “more important than ever for Congress to pass permanent protections for Dreamers and provide a pathway to citizenship.”
ABC News’ Ben Siegel and Justin Fishel contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — RobertAnthony Cruz has dreamed about being a professional baseball player his whole life.
This week, when he got the call to join the Major League Baseball Washington Nationals as a rookie player, he decided to surprise his biggest supporter: his father.
“My dad would often throw me batting practice. Typically it would be after work or on his days off and I can’t remember a single time that he said ‘no,’” Cruz told “World News Tonight.”
In a video that has since gone viral, Cruz surprises his father Ron Cruz at his job in a local auto repair shop to hand him a Washington Nationals official baseball cap. Cruz and his father then shared an emotional moment.
“Your kids — your sons, daughters — out there have dreams and as far as our kids, I didn’t want to be the one to tell them that, ‘No, that cannot be done,’” said Ron Cruz.
“My son’s had a dream of being a professional baseball player from the time he was little and it’s very special for us, [and] for him to get his life started and going,” he added.
RobertAnthony Cruz said that having his father spend time with him made all the difference.
“He was just ready to be there for me. However, I needed him,” said RobertAnthony Cruz. “And growing up, I needed him to throw me batting practice and that’s what he did.”
Sevendust and Tremonti — the side project of Alter Bridge‘s Mark Tremonti — are touring together this September. But after that, they’ll both be supporting Daughtry, the band led by former American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry.
Daughtry just announced a new album, Dearly Beloved, and a tour in support of it, which kicks off November 3 in Nashville, TN and is set to wrap up December in Orlando, FL. Tickets go on sale July 23. Sevendust and Tremonti will appear on most, but not all of the dates.
In the comments, some fans expressed dismay that Sevendust was not headlining the trek, while others wondered how Daughtry’s inclusion on the bill made sense. Others defended Daughtry, explaining that their music had become much more rock-oriented in recent years.
The Sevendust/Tremonti tour starts September 4 in Kansas City, Missouri, and will stretch throughout the month.
The second Record Store Day “Drop” event of 2021 takes place Saturday, June 17. Among the limited-edition vinyl discs you’ll find exclusively independent record stores this time around are offerings from The Rolling Stones, John Fogerty, Pearl Jam and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
The Rolling Stones are putting out a reissue of their classic 1971 two-LP compilation Hot Rocks, pressed on yellow vinyl and featuring expanded original artwork.
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are releasing an LP titled Déjà Vu Alternates that features alternate versions of the songs from the group’s classic 1970 debut album, Déjà Vu. Those tracks also appear on the recently released deluxe Déjà Vu reissue.
Fogerty’s release is a four-song EP featuring selections from his 1973 debut solo album, The Blue Ridge Rangers. The project was a collection of country and traditional cover tunes that he issued under the fictional band name The Blue Ridge Rangers.
A 12-inch vinyl version and cassette single of Pearl Jam’s “Alive” are both being released to mark the song’s 30th anniversary. The cassette single features the single version of “Alive,” plus the songs “Wash” and a cover of The Beatles‘ “I’ve Got a Feeling.”
The July 17 installment of Record Store Day 2021 also includes exclusive releases from The Allman Brothers Band, Yes‘ Jon Anderson, Canned Heat, The Clash, The Cure, The Kinks‘ Dave Davies, Dio, Bob Dylan, Foo Fighters, Sammy Hagar & The Circle, Hot Tuna, Badfinger‘s Joey Molland, Queen + Adam Lambert, Ramones, Lou Reed, Small Faces and War.
Check out the entire list of releases and participating independent record stores at RecordStoreDay.com.
The second of two 2021 Record Store Day “Drops” events takes place this Saturday, July 17. Some of the limited-edition vinyl discs that will be available exclusively independent record stores include offerings from Hall & Oates, The Rolling Stones, ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty, Donna Summer and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Hall & Oates are releasing a clear-vinyl reissue of their smash 1980 album Voices packaged with a booklet featuring a new interview with the duo.
The Rolling Stones are putting out a reissue of their classic 1971 two-LP compilation Hot Rocks, pressed on yellow vinyl and featuring expanded original artwork.
Fogerty’s release is a four-song EP featuring selections from his 1973 debut solo album, The Blue Ridge Rangers. The project was a collection of country and traditional cover tunes that he issued under the fictional band name The Blue Ridge Rangers.
Summer’s Record Store Day offering is a colored-vinyl two-LP deluxe version of her classic 1979 disco album Bad Girls, featuring one red and one blue disc.
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are releasing an LP titled Déjà Vu Alternates that features alternate versions of the songs from the group’s classic 1970 debut album, Déjà Vu. Those tracks also appear on the recently released deluxe Déjà Vu reissue.
The July 17 installment of Record Store Day 2021 also includes exclusive releases from The Allman Brothers Band, Yes‘ Jon Anderson, Canned Heat, The Clash, The Cure, The Kinks‘ Dave Davies, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Hot Tuna, Badfinger‘s Joey Molland, The Monkees, Randy Newman, Queen + Adam Lambert, Lou Reed, Small Faces, Cat Stevens, The Sweet and War.
Check out the whole list of releases and participating independent record stores at RecordStoreDay.com.
(WASHINGTON) — The director of President Joe Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, Susan Rice, has divested herself of millions of dollars’ worth of holdings in a company that’s leading a contentious pipeline project supported by the Biden administration.
According to newly released financial disclosure reports and a White House official, Rice has liquidated nearly $2.7 million worth of shares she and her husband owned in Enbridge, a Canadian company building the Line 3 pipeline, which would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels of Canadian oil through Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Last month, the Biden administration gave a public boost to the Trump-era pipeline project, calling for the dismissal of a court challenge brought by environmental groups seeking to protect Minnesota watershed and tribal lands from the pipeline.
The Enbridge stock sale is part of a series of large divestments that Rice, one of the wealthiest members of the Biden White House, has recently made or is planning to make in the coming days. Divesting is a common measure that newly appointed public officials take to ensure that their government duties don’t overlap with their personal interests.
A certificate of divestiture issued by the Office of Government Ethics last week shows Rice’s plans to sell holdings in more than three dozen companies and several investment funds that she and her family own — assets currently worth a total of more than $30 million.
Enbridge’s stock price has been on an upward trend since November, and the value of Rice’s holdings in the company has increased from roughly $2.4 million when she joined the Biden administration earlier this year to nearly $2.7 million as of Friday.
It’s unclear if Rice netted any capital gains from the sale of her Enbridge shares, but those who divest assets under a certificate of divestiture are allowed to defer taxes on capital gains.
A White House official told ABC News that during the transition period leading up to Biden’s inauguration, Rice had agreed to divest from all of the listed assets. In the meantime, while waiting for her certificate of divestiture to be issued, she recused herself from matters involving companies in which she had investments.
The official said that as of early this week Rice had divested all of her Canadian assets, including the Enbridge holdings and more than $14 million worth of shares in Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., as well as many U.S. assets.
Her remaining U.S. stocks are in the process of being divested, a process that will be finished before July 27, the official said.
Among the other assets she is divesting, according to her disclosure reports, are $1 million worth of shares in Johnson & Johnson, more than $823,000 worth of shares in Apple, and nearly $289,000 worth of shares in Comcast.
She will retain major holdings in Canadian banks, including $5 million to $25 million each in the Royal Bank of Canada and the Toronto-Dominion Bank, according to her disclosure reports.
Rice’s certificate of divestiture was first reported by the Daily Poster.
As ABC News previously reported, several other senior members of the Biden administration similarly divested themselves of their assets to comply with ethics rules earlier this year.
Biden’s White House climate envoy John Kerry was issued a certificate of divestiture in March for liquidating $4 million to $15 million in assets from more than 400 companies, including energy-sector interests. In May, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm divested $1.6 million worth of shares in electric vehicle producer Proterra.
Kedric Payne, general counsel and Senior Director of Ethics at the good-government group Campaign Legal Center, said that considering the large number of diverse stocks that Rice is divesting, it’s difficult to say whether the timing of the Biden administration’s support for the Line 3 pipeline project and Rice’s divestiture raises any questions.
But he said that Rice’s divestment from those assets shows the highest level of effort to avoid a conflict of interest.
“Ethics laws allow an official to resolve conflicts of interest with recusals, waivers, and blind trusts, but divesting assets is typically the most extreme remedy,” Payne said. “When officials are transparent about conflicts and sell their relevant assets to avoid such conflicts, the ethics laws are working as intended.”
Jon Bon Jovi‘s JBJ Soul Foundation is helping to provide housing for homeless veterans.
The charitable organization has given a $100,000 grant to the American Legion Post 107’s nonprofit Veterans Center of Hoboken in Bon Jovi’s native New Jersey, which will be used to provide new housing and supportive services to homeless veterans.
“JBJ Soul Foundation is dedicated to continuing our work with veterans, addressing issues of hunger and homelessness, and we are all inspired by the Veterans Center of Hoboken,” Bon Jovi says in a statement.
“The Center is not only expanding with 18 additional furnished housing units, but is also providing services including physical and mental health care and employment opportunities for these struggling veterans,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer adds. “This is exactly the kind of mission and positive impact the Foundation is proud to support.”
(WASHINGTON) — One day after the surgeon general warned Americans about what he called the “urgent threat of health misinformation,” President Joe Biden didn’t mince words when asked for his message to platforms like Facebook about COVID-19 misinformation.
“They’re killing people,” he said.
As the president was leaving the White House for Camp David on Friday afternoon, he was asked, specifically, “On COVID misinformation, what’s your message to platforms like Facebook?”
Biden answered, “They’re killing people. I mean, it really — look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they’re killing people.”
It was the only question Biden took before boarding Marine One to leave town for the weekend and follows comments by other Biden administration officials warning of the dangers of misinformation in combatting COVID-19.
On Thursday, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued the first public health advisory of the Biden administration to addresses an epidemic of misinformation and disinformation and its harmful impact on public health. The Biden administration is now calling on social media companies to take further action to combat misinformation around the COVID-19 vaccine.
Ahead of Biden’s departure, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was pressed Friday by ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott over whether Facebook was doing enough to combat the issue.
“Clearly not,” Psaki said, “because we’re talking about additional steps that should be taken.”
“We’re dealing with a life-or-death issue here. And so, everybody has a role to play in making sure there’s accurate information,” she added. “It’s clear there are more that can be taken.”
The decision to elevate misinformation comes as some Republicans have used the government’s coronavirus response and vaccine messaging as a political wedge.
It also comes amid the government’s current push to boost stalling vaccination rates while the delta variant takes hold of the country’s unvaccinated, in what Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky called “a pandemic of the unvaccinated” on Friday.
The Biden administration has doubled down on their efforts to get more people vaccinated — particularly after the country missed the president’s goal of getting 70% of adults with at least one dose by July 4.
The surgeon general’s new advisory specifically digs into social media platforms as having greatly contributed to the “unprecedented speed and scale” of misinformation’s spread and Murthy calls on technology and social media companies to “take more responsibility to stop online spread of health misinformation.”
It argues that misinformation, particularly on social media websites like Facebook, has hindered vaccination efforts, sown mistrust, caused people to reject public health measures, use unproven treatments, prolonged the pandemic and put lives at risk.
“Simply put, health misinformation has cost us lives,” Murthy said from the White House Thursday.
(MOSCOW) — Trevor Reed, one of two American former Marines that U.S. officials say is being held hostage by Russia, has been transferred to a prison camp a few hundred miles from Moscow, according to a prison rights monitoring group.
Reed, 30, and the other ex-Marine, Paul Whelan, have spent about two years in detention in Russia imprisoned on charges their families and American officials say were fabricated by Russia in order to seize them as bargaining chips.
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the two Americans’ detention and the possibility of a prisoner swap to free them at their summit in Switzerland last month.
Reed has now been moved to a prison camp in Mordovia, a region about 350 miles from Moscow, Alexey Melnikov, an official at Moscow’s Public Monitoring Commission confirmed to ABC News on Friday. The other former Marine, Whelan, has already spent nearly a year in a camp in the same region, known for its high number of prisons.
“Trevor Reed was removed this morning from Moscow’s Investigative Isolation Jail No. 5 to one of the Republic of Mordovia’s camps,” said Melnikov, whose commission is empowered by the Russian government to inspect prison conditions.
What to know about 2 former US Marines held by Russia ahead of Putin-Biden summit
Melnikov said he did not know which camp in Mordovia Reed had been sent to and that it is not yet clear if it will be the same camp where Whelan is held, which is a prison used to house foreign convicts.
Reed fell into the hands of Russian police in the summer of 2019 following a drunken party in Moscow where he was visiting his girlfriend.
Police initially said they were taking him to sober up at the station but after agents from Russia’s FSB intelligence agency arrived to question him Reed was charged with assaulting a police officer, according to his family. He was put on trial on the charges that U.S. officials have said were absurd. A court in July 2020 sentenced Reed to nine years in prison.
Reed, whose family lives in Texas, spent nearly two years in detention in Moscow pre-trial jails. But last month, a court rejected his appeal against the sentence, clearing the way for him to be moved to a prison camp.
From early in their detention, Russia has suggested trading Reed and Whelan for Russians serving prison sentences in the United States.
Hope for a potential trade have risen recently following Biden and Putin’s summit in Geneva, where both sides signaled a willingness to discuss finding a possible deal.
Since 2019, Russian officials have named several Russians they would like to see released, including Viktor Bout, one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers, and Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot jailed on drug smuggling charges.
Russia state media has more recently highlighted another Russian citizen jailed in the U.S., Roman Seleznev, who is serving a 27-year sentence on criminal hacking charges.
Bout’s release has been seen as a non-starter for American officials because of the severity of his crimes. But Yaroshenko and Seleznev are seen as more likely to be included in any trade.
Yaroshenko was arrested in a 2010 Drug Enforcement Agency sting in Liberia during which he agreed to ship cocaine to Africa and the U.S. He is serving a 20-year sentence.
Seleznev was captured by U.S. law enforcement agents in Maldives in 2014 and convicted of running a massive hacking scheme to steal credit card data from small businesses in the U.S.
All three men are suspected to have links to Russian intelligence. During Seleznev’s trial, prosecutors provided documents alleging that Seleznev was tipped off to an earlier FBI investigation against him by Russia’s Federal Security Service or FSB, after FBI agents met with the Russian agency.
The Biden administration has said freeing Reed and Whelan is a priority, and last month, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan said he expected there would be talks with the Russian government on them both.
Reed’s family had hoped he would remain in Moscow until a deal to free him was negotiated.
The Russian news service Interfax cited an anonymous source as saying that Reed’s transfer did not mean a trade for him was less likely. The move instead may just be the Russian judicial process continuing. Russian prisoners are usually moved a few weeks after an appeal is turned down.
“Reed’s transfer to a penitentiary absolutely does not mean that his possible exchange for a Russian is no longer on the table. He may still be extradited to the United States if the relevant consensus is reached with the U.S. side,” the source told Interfax.
Whelan, 51, was security executive for the auto parts company BorgWarner when he was arrested in late December 2018 in his hotel room by FSB agents while visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding. He was accused of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison in a closed trial on charges his family and U.S. officials have said were fabricated.
Whelan spoke to ABC News by phone from the former Gulag camp last November.
“It’s pretty grim. Quite dilapidated,” Whelan said. “There’s probably like 50 to 60 of us in the building. So we kind of live on top of each other.”
He said the inmates work eight-hour shifts in a workshop he described as “Dickensian” and that they are only permitted to shower twice a week. But other prisoners treated him well he said, nicknaming him “Tourist.”
