Names and faces
A federal judge has blocked a sound engineer f rom releasing unpublished music by Prince after the late superstar’s estate objected. George Ian Boxill worked with Prince on five tracks in 2006 and made at least one set of recordings — called Deliverance — available Wednesday for online sales. Prince’s estate and Paisley Park Enterprises sued to block it. Late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright granted a temporary restraining order to stop the songs’ release and ordered Boxill to deliver the recordings to the estate. Wright said she would schedule a hearing later on a preliminary injunction. The estate’s lawsuit said Boxill signed a 2004 confidentiality agreement that the recordings would remain Prince’s sole property. The ruling came two days before the oneyear anniversary of the performer’s death from an accidental drug overdose. Four days of events to mark his passing begin today, including concerts by former band mates and panel discussions at Prince’s Paisley Park home in Minnesota. Other events include a street party outside First Avenue, the club he made world famous in Purple Rain.
University of California, Berkeley officials said Thursday that they have a “grave concern” of violence on campus if Ann Coulter follows through on her vow to speak next week at the university. Chancellor Nicholas Dirks instead proposed an alternative May 2 date for the conservative author, reversing a decision from a day earlier when officials canceled the event. Coulter took to Twitter to reject the offer, saying she will appear next Thursday as originally planned. “I’m speaking at Berkeley on April 27th, as I was invited to do and have a contract to do,” tweeted Coulter, who was invited to speak by campus Republicans. In a separate tweet she said she’s not free May 2. Coulter’s rejection potentially sets the stage for another political brawl at Berkeley, where violent protesters forced the cancellation of a speech by former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos in February. Dirks said at a news conference that police have “very specific intelligence regarding threats that could pose a grave danger to the speaker,” her audience and protesters if the event goes ahead next Thursday. He urged Coulter to speak at the later date instead.