PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
Beyoncé 1st Black woman to claim top spot on country music chart
Beyoncé made history once again: The superstar singer has become the first Black woman to top Billboard’s country music chart.
The Grammy winner achieved the feat after her new single “Texas Hold ’Em” reached No. 1 on the country airplay chart this week. She dropped the song on Feb. 11 – during the Super Bowl – along with her other single “16 Carriages,” which debuted at No. 9 on the same chart.
Both songs are expected to be featured on Beyoncé’s upcoming, country-themed album, which is referred to as “act ii,” on March 29. It’s a follow-up offering to her 2022 album “Renaissance,” which is frequently referred to as “Act I: Renaissance.”
Beyoncé announced the full-length new album after a Verizon commercial she starred in aired during the Super Bowl this month.
Beyoncé is also the first woman to claim the top spot on the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts since both began in 1958, according to Billboard. The only other acts who have topped both include Justin Bieber, Billy Ray Cyrus and Ray Charles.
Parts of MLK memorial in Denver have been stolen
A large Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Denver’s City Park was vandalized, and police are trying to determine if racial bias was involved.
Several pieces of the marble and bronze “I Have a Dream” memorial were stolen sometime Tuesday. The missing pieces include a bronze torch and angel, as well as a bronze panel that depicted Black military veterans, The Denver Post reported.
Vern Howard, chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission, told the newspaper that a community member informed him of the vandalism Wednesday morning.
“You can steal. You can take. You can pull. You can hate. You can do everything that you believe necessary to detour the message of Dr. King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission,” Howard said. “We’re going to continue to march, to honor and to work toward freedom, toward justice, toward the end of racism, toward the end of hatred and the end of discrimination.”
Artist Ed Dwight created the memorial in 2002. It features a bronze statue of King and smaller statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass.
CNN anchor’s daughter to publish picture book inspired by misdiagnosis
The new book from bestselling author Alice Paul Tapper, daughter of CNN anchor Jake Tapper, was inspired by a near-fatal health emergency.
“Use Your Voice,” with illustrations by Fanny Liem, is a fictionalized take on Alice’s hospitalization in 2021 after she experienced intense stomach pain, chills and vomiting – what turned out to be appendicitis. Doctors misdiagnosed her condition as a viral infection and only gave her an ultrasound, which revealed she had a perforated appendix leaking poisonous bacteria, after Jake Tapper pleaded with the hospital’s administrator.
Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers, will release “Use Your Voice” on Aug. 27, the author’s 17th birthday.