Etc.

Obituary: Famed opera star Rise Stevens has died, according to her son. She died in her Manhattan home at the age of only 99:

Ms. Stevens appeared regularly with leading opera companies around the world, among them the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in England and La Scala in Milan. In Hollywood, she sang in “The Chocolate Soldier” (1941), with Nelson Eddy, and in “Going My Way” (1944), with Bing Crosby; she also supplied the voice of Glinda in the animated film “Journey Back to Oz” (1974). On television, she appeared often on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The Tonight Show.”

Despite her acclaim, Ms. Stevens was by all accounts a down-to-earth diva, as comfortable singing Broadway musicals — as she did in a 1964 production of “The King and I,” by Rodgers and Hammerstein, at Lincoln Center — as she was singing Bizet. As the magazine Opera News wrote in 2006, Ms. Stevens “was perhaps one of the sanest big opera stars of her time.”

She would have reached the century mark in June.
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So much for the Chicago teachers' strike, as Rahm and his Broadie hack have decided to close FIFTY schools at one time.

The so-called "Democratic Party" is just as vile an enemy as the GOP.