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As Congress reconvenes this week, the nation watches in anticipation of what America future holds while bracing for an intense battle of political wills, all while former President Donald Trump’s legal entanglements loom over the legislative process.

The critical issue is the passage of a short-term spending bill to stave off a looming government shutdown scheduled for October 1. The high-stakes standoff sets the stage for an unpredictable showdown between conservative hardliners and those who seek a more pragmatic path.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, caught in the crossfire of a political maelstrom, finds himself in a most precarious position. According to CNN, during a private conference call last week, McCarthy urged his colleagues to support a short-term spending deal to avert an impending shutdown. He proposed postponing the larger funding fight until later in the fall, a strategy that some view as prudent to ensure the government continues to function.

The House and Senate face substantial differences in their funding proposals, with McCarthy’s prior deal with the White House crumbling under the pressure of demands from the conservative wing of his party. As a result, the two chambers are hundreds of billions of dollars apart, increasing the urgency to find a compromise.

To further complicate matters, Congress must tackle other pressing end-of-the-month deadlines, including extending federal aviation programs and potentially initiating an absurd, nasty, and vindictive impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden in the House.

The White House and senators from both sides of the aisle advocate tying the short-term funding bill to critical provisions such as $24 billion in aid to Ukraine and an additional $16 billion for communities devastated by natural disasters. However, a vocal faction of House conservatives opposes swiftly passing additional aid to Ukraine.

The procedural hurdle of securing a rule vote in the House adds another layer of complexity. Some hard-right conservatives have declared their willingness to block the rule vote for the spending bill if their demands are not met.

All of this leaves McCarthy at a crossroads. He must decide whether to align with conservative hardliners, risk a head-on collision with the White House, or forge a compromise with Democrats, passing the spending bill by a two-thirds majority. The latter option could force McCarthy to make concessions to Democrats, jeopardizing his standing among his party’s far-right members and the possibility of his being removed as Speaker. The vociferous if not powerful MAGA wing has continued their defense of Trump, the four-times indicted, twice impeached, former president whom a civil jury also concluded sexually assaulted a writer. They are seeking to use as leverage anything they believe could potentially halt Trump’s prosecutions.

However, GOP Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, who chairs one of the appropriations subcommittees, acknowledged the need for Democratic support in short-term and longer-term funding bills. He warned that McCarthy may find himself in a precarious situation as compromise becomes the order of the day in Washington.

“The challenge for McCarthy, and I’ll be real honest with you, is that if he works with the Democrats, obviously, the Democrats are not going to do it for free. They want something. So, it’s going to be a compromise – one of those really bad words in Washington for some reason,” Simpson told CNN. “Then you’re going to find a resolution introduced on the floor to vacate the chair.”

While the short-term funding crisis dominates the current congressional agenda, the House will also consider its homeland spending bill, offering conservatives a fresh opportunity to influence their party’s border policy.

Meanwhile, Democrats are already positioning themselves to pin any potential government shutdown squarely on the House GOP. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer emphasized their focus on funding the government and preventing what he called “House Republican extremists” from causing a shutdown when the Senate returns next week.

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Sean “Diddy” Combs has gifted his Bad Boy family with life-changing anniversary gifts. According to Billboard, the music mogul has decided to return the publishing rights of his label’s artists and songwriters to their rightful owners.

The move resulted in Bad Boy Entertainment’s host of creatives quickly signing agreements to regain control of their intellectual property. Ma$e, Faith Evans, The LOX, 112, and the Estate of the Notorious B.I.G. are among those who have already inked deals to reclaim their rights, as per Billboard. Combs started the process in May 2021 to sell the catalog, but the details of the arrangements are still unknown.

For years, the administration of publishing on behalf of Bad Boy was entrusted to EMI, a subsidiary of Sony Music Publishing/Sony Corporation of America. Notably, EMI still handles Combs’ publishing. Providing artists with publishing rights could mean tens of millions of dollars for their bottom line, as sales of publishing have steadily increased over the years. For example, Dr. Dre recently sold his catalog for more than $300 million, and Justin Bieber netted north of $200 million.

This generous move by Combs coincides with the 30th anniversary celebration of Bad Boy Entertainment this year. The decision follows a longstanding public feud between Combs and Ma$e, one of Bad Boy’s hitmakers. The rift arose when Combs criticized the Recording Academy during his 2020 Industry Icon Award acceptance speech for undervaluing Black artists in R&B and rap. Ma$e confronted his former label boss in an Instagram post. He revealed that he offered $2 million to buy back his publishing, but Combs said no. Ma$e further alleged, “Your past business practices knowingly have continued to starve your artist purposely and have been extremely unfair to the very same artist that helped u obtain that Icon Award on the iconic Bad Boy label.” The post shed light on longstanding grievances, including Combs retaining Ma$e’s publishing rights from 24 years ago in exchange for a mere $20,000.

In a later interview with The Breakfast Club in 2022, Combs stated that Ma$e owed him $3 million for an album advance that was never received.

Bad Boy Entertainment, founded by Combs in 1993, has enjoyed a storied history in the music industry. The label quickly became successful, with many albums and singles that went gold, platinum, or multiplatinum. The artists included Craig Mack, the Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, Ma$e, Total, 112, The LOX, and Diddy himself. Over the years, the label’s illustrious roster has also featured talents like Carl Thomas, Shyne, Dream, Danity Kane, and French Montana. Additionally, it housed an in-house writer/producer collective known as The Hitmen, which included notable figures like the late Chucky Thompson, Stevie J, Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie, and Mario Winans. Recent releases under the Bad Boy banner include Machine Gun Kelly’s 2022 album “Mainstream Sellout” and Janelle Monae’s latest offering, “The Age of Pleasure.”

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Longtime Spectrum News NY1 anchor Ruschell Boone has died. Her passing was announced Monday by the 24-hour local cable news channel. Boone died Sunday from complications related to pancreatic cancer. She was 48.

An Emmy award-winning journalist, Boone started at NY1 in 2002. She reported on several U.S. events, from the 2016 Manhattan bombings to the triumph of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Boone stumbled into broadcasting during her senior year at Baruch College at the campus’ radio station, when another guest missed their spot. She did internships at CNBC, CNN before going to NY1.

RELATED – Ruschell Boone: Making her mark on journalism

“I feel very blessed, because for my entire career, and I guess my whole life, there are always people who were kind enough to see something in me and allow me to become,” Boone told the AmNews in a 2019 interview, “Where I’m from… girls like me aren’t really expected to do well, but my mother and grandmother always thought I would do well in life. My mom and grandmother sacrificed a lot to send me to a really good school in Jamaica that they absolutely could not afford.”

Boone is survived by her husband Todd Boone, a production technician at NY1, and two children.

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* This article was originally published here

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published on Oct. 31, 2019

Emmy nominated reporter Ruschell Boone, is rising to fame in media today. Winning multiple awards for her work as a journalist, Boone has truly worked her way to the top. Not only is she a news anchor on the cable news television channel Spectrum News NY1, but she has also reported on several fundamental U.S. events, from the 2016 Manhattan bombings to the triumph of Congress Woman Alexandrea Ocasio-Cortez.

Boone is not only passionate about what she does, but is very well respected in her field. Still, her future was not even a remote possibility in her mind as a young girl in Jamaica. Born and raised in Kingston, Boone lived a very different life than she currently leads.

“When I was a little girl I always dreamed of coming to this country. Growing up in Jamaica, it was very rough. A lot of people didn’t have a lot of things, and even the children here who don’t have a lot, certainly had a lot more than what we had in Jamaica. It was like life here [U.S.] was just perfect—like the land of gold.”

Her time in Jamaica was definitely not a cake walk, and Boone looks back on her time there with fondness and love. And when Boone did make her way to the Bronx at the age of 11, like most objects of our dreams, the United States proved not to be everything she imagined. Being an immigrant, it wasn’t always easy to assimilate to U.S. culture—especially for a little girl with a heavy accent, she became a target for bullying. But, being the optimistic person she was, and still is, there was no bad experience that was going to dim her outlook on life.

Being a naturally hard worker and coming from humble beginnings, Boone worked to make the absolute most of her time in school: she looked to accounting to make a good living. However, in her junior year of college, she realized that accounting wasn’t all that exciting for such an expressive person like Ruschell.

“I was never shy as a kid, but I never thought of journalism as a pathway. It never really registered with me until my senior year of college.”

Boone stumbled into broadcasting her senior year at her college’s local radio station, when another guest missed their spot. Boone took a bold step outside the path she had paved for herself. Passing up the chance to work for the department of justice, she went to the college counselor asking for possible media internships. Expecting help in her sudden change of vocation, she was saddened by the lack of support she was given.

“She [ the counselor] really broke my spirits; she really told me that I couldn’t do it that first of all it was too late, second of all I didn’t fit the mold. She didn’t think I would make it on television and didn’t want to waste one of their valuable internships on me,” says Boone, “in that awful moment, it really set me up for life in this business. That was the first time I really realized how harsh people can be. I think it really motivated me, when she did that I turned around and said ‘You know what? I’m just going to do this on my own.’”

First getting an internship at CNBC, CNN, and finally Spectrum News NY1 where she has worked for the last 17 years. Though Boone prides herself on being an incredibly hard worker, she also recognizes that it was the help of many people in her life who got her where she is today. In fact, it was a high school friend who shared a tape of Boone’s work with Spectrum News NY1.

“I feel very blessed, because for my entire career, and I guess my whole life, there are always people who were kind enough to see something in me and allow me to become,” says Boone, “Where I’m from… girls like me aren’t really expected to do well, but my mother and grandmother always thought I would do well in life. My mom and grandmother sacrificed a lot to send me to a really good school in Jamaica that they absolutely could not afford.”

From a good school in Jamaica to being a full blown reporter, Boone utilized her connections to reach success. However, not everyone was as welcoming and helpful as others. Being a curvy, Black woman in media, there was a stigma that Boone had to work through.

“I would be dishonest to say it wasn’t tough, and that I didn’t think my race played a role sometimes,” says Boone, “ but I’m not one of those people who dwell on that. I always allow my work to speak for itself, and I think once you do that people will see beyond any hangups they have about you.”

RELATED: NY1 news anchor Ruschell Boone dies at age 48

It is in letting her work speak, Boone has made a name for herself. Journalism being a very quick and stressful job, she does not lose sight of being thoughtful in her work process with other people; she puts intentional time and thought into being welcoming, kind and relatable.

“I think I approach my job and what I do based on how I would like to be treated if I had an interaction with somebody in the media,” says Boone, “When I interview people I treat them as if I’m interviewing myself or a family member.”

It is this caring and human approach to journalism that has made Boone truly stand out in the industry. As she continues to move forward in her career with hopes of getting her own show one day, Boone hopes to tell stories that focus on the resilience of the human spirit; those who work hard from humble beginnings and are rewarded for it. But, Boone is a glowing example of this in herself.

“When I was a little girl my own insecurities about where I’m from—who I am—manifested at some point. But, after a while, I just thought ‘how many little girls out there are like that,’” says Boone. “You are who you are, and if we were all the same, life would just be boring.”

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* This article was originally published here