Names and faces
Country singer Brad Paisley and wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, are partnering with Belmont University to open a free grocery store in Nashville, Tenn. The Tennessean reported Tuesday that the store will be set up like a modern food pantry and serve both fresh and nonperishable groceries to individuals in need for one year. Eligible customers will need to be referred by a nonprofit or government agency. The goal is to serve roughly 3,000 people per year. The Paisleys say they were inspired to move ahead with the idea after volunteering at a similar organization around Thanksgiving. Construction on the site is scheduled for 2019 dependent on the project securing enough funding of $1.2 million, with the Paisleys making the initial donation.
Little Richard’s hometown in Macon, Ga., has committed $90,000 to help open a community resource center at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s boyhood home. The Macon-Bibb County Commission approved the funding Tuesday. The money will go to a local authority to operate the Pleasant Hill Resource Center out of the cottage where the “Tutti Frutti” singer was raised as Richard Wayne Penniman. The Telegraph of Macon reports a cousin, Stanley Stewart, got Little Richard on the phone Tuesday. He said: “I hope that whatever they’re doing, I hope it works out good.” The funding was part of a deal brokered by local officials and the Georgia Department of Transportation to expand Interstates 16 and 75 in Little Richard’s former neighborhood. His boyhood home was moved to a new location last year.
British Prime Minister Theresa May poked fun at her limited dance moves Wednesday as she arrived onstage at the Conservative Party conference with ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” blasting over the speakers. May awkwardly took a spin around, robotically pumped her arms in the air, taking a brief laugh at her own expense before a key speech. It was a nod to her muchmocked boogie during a trip to Africa earlier this year. The Conservative Party crowd in Birmingham roared and cheered. May also joked about her disastrous speech to the conference last year, in which she couldn’t stop coughing and a sign fell behind her. But she quickly switched to a somber tone, taking on the task of staying in power in light of her troubled policy as negotiations for Great Britain’s exit from the European Union enter their final phase.