Free Republic

For all of his focus on industrial workers in the Rust Belt and his dire warnings about America's inner cities, President-elect Donald Trump hasn't had much to say about his plans for those in the deepest levels of poverty—including America's homeless. And that—along with his recent choice of Ben Carson as Housing and Urban Development secretary—is making advocates across the country worried.

Ben E. King, the smooth, soulful baritone who led the Drifters on “There Goes My Baby,” “Save the Last Dance for Me” and other hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and as a solo artist recorded the classic singles “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me,” died on Thursday in Hackensack, N.J. He was 76. His lawyer, Judy Tint, said Mr. King, who lived in Teaneck, N.J., died at Hackensack University Medical Center after a brief illness, offering no further details. Mr. King was working in his father’s Harlem luncheonette in 1956 when a local impresario, Lover Patterson, overheard...

Drifters could explain sweet-potato travel An unsteered ship may have delivered crop to Polynesia.Brendan Borrell Where did these come from? How did the South American sweet potato wind up in Polynesia? New research suggests that the crop could have simply floated there on a ship. The origin of the sweet potato in the South Pacific has long been a mystery. The food crop undisputedly has its roots in the Andes. It was once thought to have been spread by Spanish and Portuguese sailors in the sixteenth century, but archaeological evidence indicates that Polynesians were cultivating the orange-fleshed tuber much earlier...

A Virginia lawmaker wants to pull the plug on musicians who bill themselves as legendary bands like the Drifters when no original band member is part of the group. "A lot of these old performing artists from the 50's and 60's are not that rich and people are making money off their image and their songs by using their name and these guys are getting nothing for it," said Delegate David B. Albo, Fairfax County Republican. "That gets under my skin."