Prince drops new futuristic slow jam 'U Know'

After taking a rare four-year hiatus from releasing studio albums, Prince will drop a pair of new LPs on Sept. 30: One a collaborative disc with his group 3rdEyeGirl called "Plectrumelectrum" and the other a solo album dubbed "Art Official Age." Both mark Prince's first releases since 2010's 20Ten was given away with select European publications. Prince has already unveiled a couple tracks from both albums, like "Art Official Age's" "Breakdown" and Plectrumelectrum's kinky "Breakfast Can Wait," and today the rocker debuted another new track, "U Know," on his SoundCloud page.
This futuristic slow jam is taken from "Art Official Age" and, as promised, it recaptures the sound of "classic Prince," since it could be the singer's catchiest cut since 3121's "Black Sweat." "Feminine rising, not surprising, recognizing that the power of the breast is just a test that you be winning," Prince sing-speaks on "U Know," which sounds like Parliament tackling the mellower moments of Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" thanks to its bouncy piano and funky beat. "You know how much I want you, you know much I care, you gonna know I'm gonna flaunt you," Prince sings in falsetto on the track's chorus.

"Art Official Age" and "Plectrumelectrum" mark that first time Prince has teamed with Warner Bros. since his infamous split with the label back in the early-Nineties, when the artist was forced to refer to himself both as "The Artist" and that "love symbol." As Rolling Stone previously reported, "Art Official Age" also features an "aggressive and menacing" rap song with Rita Ora, a "wild and rude" track called "The Gold Standard," and a ballad titled "This Could Be Us" that was inspired by Prince's Purple Rain co-star Apollonia Kotero. By preordering the albums at Prince's official site, you'll receive some "instant gratification" downloads.

As for that 30th anniversary reissue of "Purple Rain" that was announced earlier this year, a release date still has not yet been revealed.

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Joan Rivers’ Fight For Life: She Faces ‘Years-Long Rehab Process’ That Will End Her Career

Joan Rivers remained on life support at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital Wednesday, her daughter Melissa said, as reports indicated the comedy legend could be facing years of rehab as the next hurdle in her recovery process.

Insiders told the NY Daily News that the 81-year-old Fashion Police personality — who was rushed to the hospital last week after suffering cardiac and respiratory arrest during a procedure on her vocal cords — could face a years-long rehab process that would effectively sideline her show biz career.

Despite the dark time, the comic’s daughter remained compassionate and friendly as she kept vigil at the hospital, according to a family member of a patient being treated on the same floor as Rivers.

“It really affects her, what she’s going through,” the woman told the paper. “She’s hurting, and yet she took the time to really care for us — and she doesn't even know us.”

Echoing said sentiment, an insider told the NY Post that Melissa, 46, remained “a rock” during her mother’s fight for her life.

“She is calmer than I’ve ever seen her: All these reports about doomsday are not true,” the source said. “She is her mother’s daughter and she’s tough as nails.

“She’s the person keeping everyone together.”

As we previously reported, Melissa said in a brief statement Tuesday, “On behalf of my mother and our family, we are extremely grateful for all the love and support we have received. At this time, she does remain on life support.

“I know my mother would be overwhelmed by the continued outpouring of kindness and I want to thank everyone for keeping us in their prayers.”

Pope to Iraqi Christians: You are church's heart

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has sought to encourage Iraq's beleaguered Christians under threat from Islamic militants, saying they are the "heart" of the church and that the church is proud of them.
In comments translated into Arabic during his weekly Wednesday general audience,Francis said the Catholic Church is like a mother, and like any mother will "defend her defenseless and persecuted children."

Thousands of Christians have been forced from their homes by Islamic State militants who have carved out a self-styled caliphate in the large area straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border that it now controls.

Francis has said it was legitimate to use force to stop the militants, but that the international community should decide how to do so.

He said: "The church suffers with you and is proud of you."

Detroit-Area Man Gets 17 Years in Porch Shooting of Renisha McBride: Race was hardly mentioned at all

A suburban Detroit man was sentenced Wednesday to at least 17 years in prison for killing an unarmed woman who appeared on his porch before dawn.

Theodore Wafer was convicted of second-degree murder in the Nov. 2 death of 19-year-old Renisha McBride. Before he was sentenced, the Dearborn Heights man apologized to McBride's family, saying he killed a woman who was "too young to leave this world."

"I will carry that guilt and sorrow forever," said Wafer, often pausing to control his emotions.

Wafer was convicted last month after a nine-day trial that centered on whether the 55-year-old had a reasonable and honest belief that he was in peril. He testified that he was awakened by pounding on his doors and shot McBride because he feared for his life. A jury rejected his claim of self-defense.

Prosecutors recommended at least 17 years in prison for Wafer, the low end of the guidelines, including two years for unlawful use of a gun. Defense attorney Cheryl Carpenter asked for as few as six years in prison.

Noting Wafer's age, Carpenter told Judge Dana Hathaway that anything more than 10 years in prison would be a "life sentence." The judge declined to go below the guidelines.

No one knows why McBride ended up at Wafer's home about 4:30 a.m., though prosecutors speculated she may have been seeking help. She had crashed her car into a parked car about a half-mile away in Detroit around 1 a.m. An autopsy found she was extremely drunk.

Wafer opened the front door and shot McBride in the face, firing through a screen door. He first suggested to police that it was an accident but later admitted to intentionally pulling the trigger.

The judge said McBride had made "some terrible choices" but that she didn't deserve to be killed.

Hathaway described the case as "one life gone and one life ruined."

The jury convicted Wafer of murder, manslaughter and a gun-related charge on Aug. 7. His maximum sentence is 32 years in prison, although he'll be eligible for parole after serving the minimum of 17.

Wafer is white and McBride was black, and some wondered in the aftermath of the shooting whether race was a factor, likening it to the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. But race was hardly mentioned at trial.

Putin: Ukraine must withdraw, rebels must halt

A day ahead of a NATO summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued his own peace plan for eastern Ukraine, calling on the Russian-backed insurgents there to "stop advancing" and urging Ukraine to withdraw its troops from the region.

Hours earlier, Ukraine had issued a vague statement about agreeing with Putin on cease-fire steps. The separatists rejected the move, saying no cease-fire was possible without a pullback by Ukraine, while Putin's spokesman claimed that Moscow was not in a position to agree to a cease-fire because it was not a party to the conflict.

The back-and-forth came as President Barack Obama arrived in Estonia in a show of solidarity with NATO allies who fear they could be the next target of Russia's aggression. NATO is holding a summit in Wales on Thursday, with plans to approve a rapid-response team to counter the Russian threat.

Putin, speaking in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, said he came up with a 7-point peace plan on the plane trip there in which Kiev must withdraw its troops and stop its artillery strikes.

"The warring parties should immediately coordinate and do the following things together," Putin said in televised comments. "The first thing is for the armed forces and insurgents of the south-east of Ukraine to stop active advancing in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"Second is for the Ukrainian military to withdraw their troops at a safe distance that will make artillery and other strikes on populated areas impossible," he added.

Putin also urged an unconditional exchange of prisoners and said he expected a final agreement between Kiev and the rebels to be reached Friday at peace talks in Minsk, Belarus.

The Interfax news agency later carried remarks from top rebel commander Miroslav Rudenko, who said "there'll be no sense in a military solution to the conflict" if Kiev was to withdraw its troops.

Stock markets jumped on first reports of a possible cease-fire deal, but later eased back slightly. By early afternoon in Europe, Russia's MICEX benchmark was up 2.7 percent, while the ruble rose 1.4 percent against the U.S. dollar.

Germany's DAX index, which has been particularly sensitive to news regarding the Ukrainian crisis because of the country's economic ties with Russia, was up 1.2 percent.

Rebel leader said earlier this week that they would respect Ukraine's sovereignty in exchange for autonomy. The rebels previously have called for full independence for their regions or possible absorption into Russia. Putin has ignored their calls for annexation — unlike in March, when Russia annexed Crimea.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has spoken in favor of devolving some of the central government's power to regions, but that is far short of autonomy for the rebel regions.

Obama said it was too early to tell what the announcements Wednesday from Ukraine and Russia meant. He noted previous unsuccessful cease-fire attempts and questioned whether the separatists would abide by a new cease-fire.

"We haven't seen a lot of follow-up on so-called announced cease-fires," Obama said. "Having said that, if in fact Russia is prepared to stop financing, arming, training, in many cases joining with Russian troops activities in Ukraine and is serious about a political settlement, that is something we all hope for."

Ukraine, NATO and the West have accused Russia of sending its troops and weapons to support the insurgents. Moscow has denied the charge. AP reporters on the ground have run into numerous Russian fighters among the rebels and have seen large convoys of heavy military equipment driving in eastern Ukraine from the direction of Russia.

Over the weekend, the European Union leaders agreed to prepare a new round of sanctions that could be enacted in a week, after NATO accused Russia of sending tanks and troops into southeastern Ukraine.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed nearly 2,600 people and forced over 340,000 to flee their homes, according to the U.N.

Late actress Brittany Murphy's dad is cyberbullying Lifetime's biopic star Amanda Fuller

Late actress Brittany Murphy's father, Angelo Bertolotti, has turned his anger over Lifetime's upcoming biopic about his daughter on the actress portraying her, Amanda Fuller.

Angelo Bertolotti has taken to Twitter, tweeting and retweeting dozens of tweets referring to Fuller as being too fat to play his daughter and calling the actress a "floozy."

"My daughter #brittanymurphy would be horrified to know who they chose to play her and how cheap it all is," he tweeted.

Fuller spoke with TheTVPage.com and addressed Bertolotti's cyber-bullying.

"He can say what he wants," she told the site. "He has already gone and attacked me on Twitter and I have had to block him and that is fine. He can do what he wants. But I just think it is interesting that the minute she is back in the press he is all about, 'I am going to sue' and all that stuff. If he really respected his daughter's memory then I don't know if he would be trying to make all this controversy about it. Let her rest in peace."

She revealed that "The Brittany Murphy Story" was produced independently, not by Lifetime, and was meant as a tribute to Murphy. Directed by Joe Menendez, the film was shot over 16 days on a very small budget. Lifetime bought the rights to air it.

"It is what it is," Fuller said. "All of our hearts were in the right place. I had two days to prepare."

"I would have loved to have months of preparation and time to get down to a really skinny [body] so I could portray her physically better," she continued. "And we would have loved to have had more money and more time for vocal lessons and stuff like that. But in the end, I think it became less of it being a look-alike piece and more about just trying to capture the essence of who she was."

Fuller stars in the movie alongside Sherilyn Fenn as her mother, Sharon, who is not connected to the movie either.

Murphy first made a big splash in "Clueless," which led to starring roles in "Just Married," "Little Black Book," "Girl, Interrupted" and "8 Mile."

She died in 2009 from what the coroner ruled as an accident caused by a combination of pneumonia, an iron deficiency and "multiple drug intoxication." Four years later, Bertolotti, Murphy's off-and-on estranged father, came forward with his evidence stating that his daughter had been poisoned.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States will not be intimidated by Islamic State militants

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States will not be intimidated by Islamic State militants after the beheading of a second American journalist and will build a coalition to "degrade and destroy" the group.

Obama still did not give a timeline for deciding on a strategy to go after the extremist group's operations in Syria. "It'll take time to roll them back," the president said at a news conference during a visit to Europe.

Obama's comments came after he said the United States had verified the authenticity of a video released Tuesday showing the beheading of freelance reporter Steven Sotloff, two weeks after journalist James Foley was similarly killed.

Obama vowed the U.S. would not forget the "terrible crime against these two fine young men."

"Our reach is long and justice will be served," Obama said.

In the Sotloffvideo, a masked militant warns Obama that as long as U.S. airstrikes against the militant group continue, "our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."

Obama responded that he will continue to fight the militant threat and the "barbaric and ultimately empty vision" it represents.

"Our objective is to make sure that Isis is not an ongoing threat to the region," he said, using an acronym for the militant group. "And we can accomplish that. It's going to take some time and it's going to take some effort."

Sotloff, a 31-year-old Miami-area native who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished a year ago in Syria and was not seen again until he appeared in the video that showed Foley's beheading. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the Islamic State.

In the video distributed Tuesday and titled "A Second Message to America," Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is apparently beheaded by a fighter with the Islamic State, the extremist group that has conquered wide swaths of territory across Syria Iraq and declared itself a caliphate.

British Foreign Secretary Phillip Harmmon told the BBC Wednesday that the masked, British-accented jihadist appears to be the same person shown in the Foley footage.

In the video, the organization threatens to kill another hostage, this one identified as a British citizen.

Last week, Sotloff's mother, Shirley Sotloff, pleaded with his captors for mercy, saying in a video that her son was "an innocent journalist" and "an honorable man" who "has always tried to help the weak."

Obama said the prayers of the American people are with the family of the "devoted and courageous journalist" who deeply loved the Islamic world and whose "life stood in stark contrast to those who murdered him so brutally."

"Whatever these murderers think they will achieve by murdering innocents like Steven, they have already failed," Obama said. "We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us."

State Department  Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday that it is believed that "a few" Americans are still being held by the Islamic State. Psaki would not give any specifics, but one is a 26-year-old woman who was kidnapped while doing humanitarian aid work in Syria, according to a family representative who asked that the hostage not be identified out of fear for her safety.

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While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Beatles (cover) Matthew Clayton/David Modler

Los Angeles Mayor To RAISE LA Minimum Wage to $13.50

Friend --

I just left Martin Luther King, Jr. Park where an Angeleno named
Joseph Galloway spoke passionately about his struggles to make ends
meet despite working full-time as a delivery driver -- a job he took after
being forced to leave college to support his family after the death of his
father. Stories like his are the reasons why today I'm proposing to raise
the minimum wage in LA.

Will you join us? Click here to add your name to our coalition to #RaiseTheWageLA.

My plan would raise the minimum wage in LA to a level where working
people could lift themselves out of poverty. This will help us all. 1 million
Angelenos live in poverty -- this holds our entire economy back. Minimum
wage earners pump their salaries back into our economy.
I'm so proud that our coalition includes business leaders like Eli Broad and
labor leaders like Maria Elena Durazo -- and even President Obamaave us a shout 
out this weekend. But we need the people of LA to speak out.

Make no mistake, we have a tough fight ahead of us. I need you.
Add your name to our list of supporters.

PS: Click here to add your name to the list of supporters.

Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti