Mike’s Blog Round-up

NEW YORK — Richard M. Sherman, one half of the prolific, award-winning pair of brothers who helped form millions of childhoods by penning the instantly memorable songs for “Mary Poppins,” “The Jungle Book” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” — as well as the most-played tune on Earth, “It’s a Small World (After All)” — has died.

OKLAHOMA CITY — At least two people are dead after severe weather swept across Texas and Oklahoma overnight, causing extensive damage and outages, authorities said. Sheriff Ray Sappington confirmed the deaths in rural Cooke County in Texas near the Oklahoma border on Saturday night. “It took some time to get back in there because of all the damage with the power lines, and trees were down.

MANCHESTER, England — Nicki Minaj’s concert in Manchester scheduled for Saturday night was postponed after police in the Netherlands discovered marijuana in her bags as she was preparing to leave the country. Promoter Live Nation said the performance will be rescheduled and tickets will be honored. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “Despite Nicki’s best efforts to explore every possible avenue to make tonight’s show happen, the events of today have made it impossible,” the promoter said in a statement.

Moon Alert: There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The Moon is in Capricorn. Happy Birthday for Sunday, May 26, 2024: You are strong-willed and popular. You also have an independent streak, which makes you unique. You march to your own drum. This is a fun-loving, playful year for you!

As protests erupted across college campuses this spring amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, Arizona State University (ASU) president Michael Crow—who runs a large state institution with nearly 80,000 students enrolled on campus and more than 65,000 online—was not immune from the heat. In late April, pro-Palestian protesters erected an encampment on the school’s Tempe, Ariz.

Not often does a coach get involved in the on-field huddle with their team coming out of halftime. Whatever Chris Armas said to his Colorado Rapids, down 3-1 at the time, worked wonders. In another world, the Rapids took advantage of just one more great opportunity and avenged a bad first half with a gritty win, but they’ll instead settle for a 3-3 draw to the Western Conference’s second-best team in Minnesota United in front of 16,201 people at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the largest crowd of the year. “In that moment (on the field at halftime), it was just another reminder of the belief and the challenge of staying focused,” Armas said.