INTERVIEW WITH WBC WELTERWEIGHT CHAMP DANNY GARCIA

This March, undefeated 28-year-old WBC Welterweight Champion Danny “Swift” Garcia faces his biggest challenge in the ring taking on the also undefeated Keith Thurman. The Philly native took a break from his training session, that he jokingly says consists of “running hills, eating rocks and wrestling alligators,” to talk about boxing, family, business and of course Hip-Hop.

WBC Welterweight Champion Danny “Swift” Garcia prepares for arguably the most challenging fight of his career. His next opponent is WBA Welterweight titlist Keith “One Time” Thurman- a hard-hitting knockout specialist with a perfect record of 27-0 but hasn’t fought in over a year. Still, Garcia is listed as an underdog but has no concerns about Thurman. “He’s a good fighter but it’s nothing that I’ve never seen before. I’m a better fighter. He’s a good fighter; I’m a great fighter. And that’s going to show March 4th.” This highly anticipated fight is set to take place in Brooklyn, NY at the Barclays Center while being broadcasted live on national television bringing mainstream exposure to this decisive matchup.

Garcia is training no differently than his previous thirty-three career fights which all resulted in victories. “I’m not changing anything. I’ve been in big fights before so I just look at it like another name I’m fighting on my resume. I’m going in there and working hard day in and day out to get the job done”. Danny Garcia’s physical stamina and mental discipline is rooted in his native hometown and Latino heritage. “Philadelphia is a great city. It made me who I am. I’m a Puerto Rican from Philly. The tough streets of Philly with my Puerto Rican background and its boxing history were just the perfect mixture” says Swift.

Stand Down ... I'M NOT RUNNING FOR PREZ OPRAH

Oprah Winfrey's heard a day full of buzz and wants to make it clear ... she's NOT going to the White House -- not as POTUS, anyway.

Bloomberg posted an additional clip from its 'David Rubenstein Show' which shows Oprah putting an end to all the speculation that started when she danced around the initial question: Would she run for president?

If it makes her fans feel better, Donald Trump once told Oprah herself ... he probably wouldn't run either.

Just sayin'.

KENDRICK LAMAR TALKS NEW ALBUM AND CONTENT, “MY FOCUS IS ULTIMATELY GOING BACK TO MY COMMUNITY”

It’s been two years since Kendrick Lamar released his critically acclaimed album, To Pimp a Butterfly was released and it seems that fans aren’t the only ones ready for a new project.

In an interview with T Magazine, which he graces the cover alongside Beck and Tom Waits, K. Dot talks about his mindset over the past few months and his plan for his next album.

“I think now, how wayward things have gone within the past few months, my focus is ultimately going back to my community and the other communities around the world where they’re doing the groundwork,” Kendrick said. “To Pimp a Butterfly was addressing the problem. I’m in a space now where I’m not addressing the problem anymore. We’re in a time where we exclude one major component out of this whole thing called life: God. Nobody speaks on it because it’s almost in conflict with what’s going on in the world when you talk about politics and government and the system.”

Kendrick also talked about his seven-month-old daughter and how she’s the inspiration for his thought process behind his new project and what he wants to contribute to the world.

Scientists say signs of earliest life on Earth found

Microfossils up to almost 4.3 billion years old found in Canada of microbes are similar to the bacteria that thrive today around sea floor hydrothermal vents and may represent the oldest-known evidence of life on Earth, scientists said on Wednesday.

The fossils from the Hudson Bay shoreline in northern Quebec near the Nastapoka Islands lend credence to the hypothesis that hydrothermal vents spewing hot water may have been the cradle of life on Earth relatively soon after the planet formed, the researchers said.

They also said Earth's planetary neighbor Mars at that time is thought to have had oceans, long since gone, that may have boasted similar conditions conducive to the advent of life.

Tiny filaments and tubes made of a form of iron oxide, or rust, formed by the microbes were found encased in layers of quartz that experts have determined to be between 3.77 billion and 4.28 billion years old, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

Popular heartburn drugs linked to gradual yet ‘silent’ kidney damage

Taking popular heartburn drugs for prolonged periods has been linked to serious kidney problems, including kidney failure. The sudden onset of kidney problems often serves as a red flag for doctors to discontinue their patients’ use of so-called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), which are sold under the brand names Prevacid, Prilosec, Nexium and Protonix, among others.

But a new study evaluating the use of PPIs in 125,000 patients indicates that more than half of patients who develop chronic kidney damage while taking the drugs don’t experience acute kidney problems beforehand, meaning patients may not be aware of a decline in kidney function, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System, United States (U.S.). Therefore, people who take PPIs, and their doctors, should be more vigilant in monitoring use of these medications.

Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom Breaks up After A year Together

KATY PERRY AND ORLANDO BLOOM CALLS IT QUIT

According to ET, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom are taking a break.

“Before rumors or falsifications get out of hand we can confirm that Orlando and Katy are taking respectful, loving space at this time,” reps for both stars told ET on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old singer and 40-year-old actor were last photographed together at Sunday’s Vanity Fair Oscars party.

This split comes after a year-long romance, during which the couple dressed up as Santa and Mrs. Claus to visit a children’s hospital, attended Burning Man, celebrated each other’s birthdays with memorable bashes and dressed up as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for Halloween.

Lady Gaga to replace Beyonce at Coachella

Lady Gaga has been announced as Beyonce's replacement for the Coachella music festival. She will headline both weekends of Coachella which Beyonce was initially billed to perform.

Beyonce who is pregnant with twins postponed her participation in Coachella to 2018 after her doctors ordered her to stay away from stressful activities.

You can check it out here: https://maineventspecials.com/lady-gaga-tour-dates/ 

SpaceX is going to launch 2 space tourists 'beyond the moon'

• SpaceX plans to launch two paying customers around the moon in late 2018.
• The company, founded by Elon Musk, plans to use its new Dragon 2 space capsule and Falcon Heavy rockets to complete the mission.
• The trip would take about a week and may cost more than $300 million.
• Musk says he'd give the first mission to NASA instead of private investors if the space agency desires.

During a conference call with reporters on Monday, Elon Musk said SpaceX will launch two private investors on a roughly one-week mission around the moon.

"I hope this gets people really excited about sending people into deep space again," Musk said.

The two passengers aren't ready to disclose their identity or other details about their background, Musk said. However, he did say the two prospective space tourists knew each other, were private citizens — though not anyone "from Hollywood" — and were "very serious" about making the trip.

"They have placed a significant deposit," Musk said.

Philippine police are getting ready to return to Duterte's drug war as more bodies appear on the streets

Jomar Palamar and his girlfriend Juday Escilona were killed in the early hours of Wednesday, cut down in a hail of bullets fired by unknown gunmen in a rundown backstreet of the Philippines capital Manila.

Described by a family member and community leaders as drug users, the couple appeared to be the latest victims of the deadly war on drugs launched by President Rodrigo Duterte in which over 8,000 people have died. Most have been small-time dealers and users killed in police operations or shot dead by unknown gunmen.

Duterte said on Tuesday he would recall some police to anti-drugs operations to provide fresh impetus to the campaign. He had suspended police from operations a month ago after which the killings slowed but did not end.

Police said they did not know who killed Palamar, 22, and Escilona, 20.

"They were on a watch list, because they were users," said Nestor del Rosario, the deputy leader of the local barangay, or community, who was huddled along with dozens of neighbors behind a police cordon at the crime scene.

Police and barangay officials said the two died in shots fired by gunmen on motorcycles as they stepped out of a ramshackle convenience store in the Pasong Tamo area of Manila. At least a dozen shots were fired, they said, going by spent bullet casings on the street.

Saudi King Salman disembarks from gold-clad plane via an ESCALATOR as he touches down in Indonesia with 1,000 aides

Saudi Arabia's King Salman disembarked from a gold-clad plane via an escalator as he touched down in Indonesia with 1,000 aides and an array of expensive personal touches. 

Cheering crowds welcomed the 81-year-old on Wednesday as he began the first visit by a Saudi monarch to Indonesia for almost 50 years, seeking stronger economic ties with the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

Among his demands for the nine-day trip has been a VIP toilet built for him at a mosque in Jakarta and 506 tons of luggage including two escalators and a pair of Mercedes-Benz limousines. 

president Trump's armoured limousine in its final stages as it undergoes testing

President Trump was meant to have his presidential limos ready by Inauguration Day, but the date was pushed back to March 30th. As the date draws close, new photos showing the camouflage prototype of the armored limousine which is in its final stage has emerged.


In the photo, the presidential limo, popularly called The Beast can be seen parked between two SUVs. There are unconfirmed reports that the vehicle is built on a medium or heavy-duty truck chassis. It is unclear what type of engine the car has though its filler door gives reason to believe it is diesel. The plans for the car are a state secret, however, it is believed that it would be an improved model of the former beast which was believed to be armed against ballistic, IED and chemical weapons attacks, as well as fitted with a communications suite and emergency medical equipment.


The contract for production of the new line of presidential limos was awarded to General Motors at $15.8million and they are believed to be undergoing last-minute testing.

Trump's speech set a tone for selling his agenda more broadly

The address President Donald Trump gave on Tuesday was approximately the speech one would write to sell Trumpism to a broader audience.

This speech was still very Trump, focusing around the theme of putting American interests ahead of global ones. It had the same usual deviations from Republican orthodoxy — calling for paid family leave and a big infrastructure package while ignoring entitlement programs, criticizing free trade agreements and taking a harder line on immigration than most establishment Republicans want.

But it placed those themes in terms that seemed somewhat less aimed at inflaming his base and somewhat more aimed at convincing people that his policies are good for a majority: that tighter immigration will raise wages for all sorts of workers, or that crime-fighting policies will make life better in cities like Baltimore, where he received few votes.

This is a smart political shift, and I honestly thought Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer looked rattled discussing the speech on television, as though he had expected the speech to be less strategically competent.

Still, there are at least three significant challenges facing Trump.

One is whether he can implement the policies he's promising.

Trump's failure to staff up his administration hinders both his ability to influence Congress and his ability to change policy through executive action.

The ideas Trump floated on healthcare and taxes are vague. In theory, Congress is supposed to move major legislation on both issues this year. But as Matt Yglesias notes, Trump gave no guidance to resolve the big disagreements on these issues that exist among Republicans in Congress.

As Schumer said, Trump talks about the need to spend big on infrastructure but has not advanced any formal proposal. Axios reported last week that he may not even introduce one until 2018.

A second issue is whether his policies will provide the improvements he has promised, even assuming he gets them enacted.

Trump promised to "expand choice, increase access, lower costs, and at the same time, provide better healthcare." A major reason Republicans can't come to terms on a healthcare reform package is the impossibility of doing all these things at once while lowering government expenditure.

Trump has promised good jobs and higher wages, but the immigration crackdown Trump expects to drive wages up could also cause the economy to shrink and raise consumer prices, as could new trade restrictions.

The determinants of crime rates are elusive — nobody knows exactly why crime fell so much starting in the early 1990s, or why it rebounded recently in some major cities but not others. Plus, the federal role in crime fighting is limited. Whether these trends improve or worsen is largely out of Trump's hands — and if his policies worsen the relationship between police and minority communities, a decline in cooperation could make crime worse.

New Music: STOOD BY ME - @kefchild

Kefchild just dropped this heartfelt tribute to his late mother olori maria olobayo and for all the great mums that has passed on and still living showering praises on the role of a mother in a childs life, kefchild is set to drop some great new songs in the coming month.

Nokia 3310 mobile phone relaunched

Nokia’s 3310 phone has been relaunched nearly 17 years after its debut.

Many consider the original handset iconic because of its popularity and sturdiness. More than 126 million were produced before it was phased out in 2005.

The revamped version will be sold under licence by the Finnish start-up HMD Global, which also unveiled several Nokia-branded Android smartphones.

One expert said it was a “fantastic way” to relaunch Nokia’s phone brand.

“The 3310 was the first mass-market mobile and there’s a massive amount of nostalgia and affection for it,” commented Ben Wood from the technology consultancy CCS Insight.

“If HMD had just announced three Android devices they would have barely got a couple of column inches in the press.

“So, the 3310 is a very clever move and we expect it will sell in significant volumes.”

The stunned faces of Hollywood's biggest superstars are caught on camera as they witness the worst blunder in Oscars history

The Hollywood A-listers seated in the front row of Sunday night's Academy Awards were just as stunned as viewers at home when it was revealed that the Best Picture award had accidentally been given to the makers of La La Land.

A photo has surfaced showing the stunned faces of Matt Damon, Meryl Streep, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and many others as one of La La Land's producers revealed that the real winner was actually Moonlight. 

Announcers Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway had accidentally been given the wrong envelope by accountants with PriceWaterHouseCoopers, who tabulate the Academy's voting

The photo captures shock among the A-listers seated in the front row for the award show. Meryl Streep gaped towards the stage, while The Rock, seated behind her, looked equally confused. Sitting another row back was the Academy's president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who seemed just as out of the loop.   

Ben Affleck's first reaction was to look down the row towards his little brother Casey, who won the Best Actor award, and childhood friend Matt Damon. Casey Affleck speaks with the woman next to him while Damon sits slack-jawed - completely stunned at what just happened.

Just a few moments before, another photo showed Jimmy Kimmel sitting in the seat vacated by Damon's wife. Soon after, he got up to help sort things out as the evening's host.  

Other photos from the night show the celebration elsewhere in the  Dolby Theatre when it was announced that Moonlight had won.