The National Insurance Crime Bureau says Connecticut ranks first in the country in insurance claims filed for metal theft.

A federal judge has delayed the sentencing of former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and his wife for their corruption convictions.

A former Stony Brook University professor has pleaded guilty to stealing over $200,000 of government cancer research money to pay personal bills.

The father of an 8-year-old Suffolk County boy who died last week has been charged with second-degree murder. His fiancée has also been charged. County Child Protective Services knew the boy suffered neglect in 2018.

Tudor Grange date for visually impaired swimmers.

The University of Birmingham has signed a sports science based agreement with the Brazilian Government this month.

Solihull School has paved the way to sporting excellence for female pupils after expanding its Physical Education Department.

M3 announces record year as it looks to push the West Midlands’ creative talent.

Initiative follows upsurge in violent incidents.

Greater visible presence of officers on the streets to reassure the public.

Good Hope Hospital - in partnership with Healthcare at Home Ltd - is launching its first recovery at home (R@H) service this week

A Good Hope consultant has won international recognition for leading a new treatment study

Rufus Wainwright, Roddy Woomble and more to play for free.

Name change reflects wide range of events for 2019.

Local professionals and businesses win at the inaugural Midlands Beauty Industry Awards 2018.

Sheilagh Matheson, our avian correspondent, reports on a village plagued by..... peacocks.

Les Reid, of the Coventry Telegraph, has been nominated for four categories at this year’s Awards, which are being held next month.

A £1.4m University of Wolverhampton scheme funded by the Government to help economic growth and job creation is now inviting grant bids from regional businesses.

Gaz & Liam pay tribute to the late, great Ginger Baker alongside some news tunes from Nick Cave & Sturgill Simpson.

There’s also an exclusive Blues Kitchen Session with Dylan LeBlanc & some classic cuts from Slim Harpo, Seasick Steve, Don Covay, Leon Russel & Cream.

** Join Liam & Gaz for a live recording of The Blues Kitchen Podcast **

Limited £5 tickets from: bit.ly/bkpodcastlive

Weds 16th October

7pm – 9pm

The Blues Kitchen Shoreditch

When you've caught up with the podcast, head over to The Blues Kitchen YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/BluesKitchenTV

Email the show: radio@theblueskitchen.com

Listen on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Mixcloud, Acast & many more…

Richard Lutz takes the long route through another lost week.

This week we talk to one of our favorite emcees, Detroit’s Invincible, about the Middle East, their memories of Proof, and why a great rhyme is like an eclipse.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/5/ for full show notes and comments.

On this episode, we have a fascinating chat with Pharoahe Monch. Pharoahe has been spitting some of the most intricate and meaningful lyrics in all of rap since his first release in 1991 with the duo Organized Konfusion. He took the polysyllabic rhyme style pioneered by Kool G. Rap, combined it with a political critique reminiscent of early-90’s Chuck D and Ice Cube, and added his own unique poetic imagination to create a style unlike anything before or since. We talked to Pharoahe about writing for Diddy, his feelings about Michael Bloomberg, and why he’s obsessed with right angles.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/6/ for full show notes and comments.

This week, we talk to two of our favorites here on Outside the Lines, Pharoahe Monch and Jean Grae, about their exciting new projects. We start with a song-by-song preview of Pharoahe’s upcoming new album PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. We’re honored to bring you what is so far Pharoahe’s only in-depth chat about these songs. In the second half of our show, we talk to the amazing Jean Grae about her new single, “Kill Screen a.k.a. Steve Wiebe,” and her upcoming Gotham Down album.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/20/ for full show notes and comments.

Lance Scott Walker began his journey to document the Houston rap scene and surrounding culture with photographer Peter Beste in 2004, quickly discovering just how much there was to learn. But Houston rap - and the layers of community and culture that surround it - goes so much beyond the music. The book engages with the community surrounding the music just as much as the music and artists themselves, providing insight into the great changes brought upon some of the city’s most historic neighborhoods through gentrification and how those changes affect the city’s people.

In our conversation with Lance, we talked the significance of the local and national success of groups like Geto Boys, the long lasting influence of DJ Screw, the city’s obsession with syrup, gentrification overtaking old historical neighborhoods, and much more.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/59/ for full show notes and comments.

Longtime listeners to the show will recall Pharoahe Monch as OTL’s first three-peat guest, first appearing on the show in July 2012. This time, we sat down with Pharoahe and his manager Guy Routte to talk PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Pharoahe’s new album that’s dropping today. With a desire to continue exploring themes of violence, peace, war, and recovery as well as exploring his own dealings with mental health, Pharoahe transformed what was originally supposed to be an EP into a full length album following his last album, W.A.R. (We Are Renegades).

PTSD is at once a very personal and a very removed project. Pharaohe speaks for many people beyond himself through PTSD, slipping into different narrators to communicate larger issues of dealing with trauma in multiple spheres — in marginalized black communities, in war veterans, and in his own life. The narrator of the record splits into multiple layers — a PTSD riddled veteran grappling with problems of love and drugs and Pharoahe talking about his own career and personal life.

We talked PTSD, how the hip hop genre has changed, how mental health affects the black community, themes of gun violence, sanity and insanity, dealing with depression, the musical and thematic evolution of Pharaohe’s style, and whether or not PTSD is actually Pharaohe’s last full-length album.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/66/ for full show notes and comments.

This episode, we have a truly great conversation with Sage Francis. Rising up out of the battle-rap and poetry slam scenes in the late 1990s, Sage first came to many fans’ notice with his incredible 2002 debut album Personal Journals. That started a non-stop grind of running his own record label while putting out five albums and doing countless tours over the next eight years. After 2010’s Li(f)e, he took a four-year hiatus from recording and touring — one that ended with this year’s Copper Gone.

We talked to Sage (who was in the midst of a European tour) about what he does and doesn’t owe his fans, how he makes ideas rhyme, what it took to get through hard times and make a comeback, and tons more.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/81/ for full show notes and comments.

“Prince” Paul Huston is one of hip-hop’s most notable producers. He began in the mid-1980s as a teenage DJ with Stetasonic, “the hip hop band.” But his career really took off in 1989 when he produced De La Soul’s classic debut 3 Feet High and Rising.

Paul helmed the group’s first three albums, and went on from there to release a wide variety of projects under his own name, as a producer, and as part of a group. Just a short list of his collaborators reads like a who’s-who of musicians and comedians: RZA, Queen Latifah, Bernie Worrell of P-Funk, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Big Daddy Kane, and even Cat Power, to name only a few.

In the first half of our conversation, we talk about Stetsasonic, De La Soul, his relationship with a pre-Wu-Tang RZA, his surprising-sounding 2003 solo album Politics of the Business, and much more.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/98/ for full show notes and comments.

In Part 2 of our epic sit-down with Prince Paul, we talk Psychoanalysis and A Prince Among Thieves; making records with Everlast, MF DOOM, MC Paul Barman, and Dino-5; and even the cult tv show that cemented his bond with Dan the Automator. 

We also find out what was behind his most disturbing song, what it’s like at the lows between career peaks, and, of course, the kind of presents John Waters sends to his daughter. Plus, he shares his reaction to the “Blurred Lines” verdict, and gives us an exclusive peek into his upcoming projects.

If you missed Part 1 of our interview with Paul, you can find it here.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/99/ for full show notes and comments.

Monica Lynch is a woman who truly was at the center of it all during hip-hop’s Golden Age.

Monica started out in late 1981 as the very first employee of a small record label called Tommy Boy, which was releasing early rap and electro singles by the likes of Afrika Bambaataa and the Jonzun Crew. She quickly worked her way up to becoming the label’s president, and oversaw its most fertile period during hip-hop’s golden age of the late 1980s and early 90s. Under her tenure, the label released classic albums by Queen Latifah, De La Soul, Naughty By Nature, Stetsasonic, Paris, Digital Underground, CNN, House of Pain, and many more.

Monica was a key part of bringing Tommy Boy to the attention of the masses. She oversaw the label’s clothing line, its successful compilation albums, and also played a key role in the development of careers of artists, executives, and more ranging from The RZA to Dante Ross to Prince Paul.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/171/ for full show notes and comments.

Ron is a producer who is best known for his time as part of Bad Boy Records’ Hitmen production collective. Ron teamed up with Deric “D Dot” Angelettie, Diddy, Stevie J, and Nashiem Myrick to create iconic hits for Biggie, Mase, Diddy, Faith Evans, Mary J Blige, The Lox, and many more. After that run ended, Ron made beats for the likes of Beyoncé, Aretha Franklin, and Luther Vandross.

Ron is also a hip-hop historian and documentarian, and has made several films dealing with unjustly ignored aspects of hip-hop’s history. Most notable among these is the documentary Founding Fathers, which deals with the mobile DJ scene of the 1970s in Brooklyn and Queens. Any fan of the genre needs to see the movie in order to understand that there was a lot more to DJing in that era than just what was happening in the Bronx.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/207/ for full show notes and comments.

Evidence first became known to most hip-hop fans as a member of Dilated Peoples. The group, which consists of Ev, Rakaa Iriscience, and the virtuosic DJ Babu, were beloved champions of hip-hop’s underground in the early 2000s.

After a number of successful Dilated projects, Evidence decided to go solo in 2007 with The Weatherman. Since then, he’s continued to release music on his own, with the group, and even with his longtime friend, the producer Alchemist, as the Step Brothers. His latest release is Weather or Not.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/232/ for full show notes and comments.

Sage Francis and B. Dolan are both from Providence, are both rappers who have roots in spoken word, have toured and sporadically recorded together for years, and even share a label—the Sage-founded Strange Famous Records. But it has taken them until 2018 to release a full project as a duo: the Epic Beard Men.

Sage is a beloved underground rap veteran who has been releasing albums of his smart, introspective, and emotional music consistently since 2002, and touring the universe maniacally to support them—all while running Strange Famous. B. Dolan is an equally talented wordsmith whose solo work is as likely to give new life to old union hymn as it is to pay tribute to the Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The group has a new EP, Season 1, and an album on the way.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/234/ for full show notes and comments.

Soundset is a festival in the Minneapolis area put on by the Rhymesayers label. It’s been running since 2008, and has grown from a show in a warehouse to a day-long outdoor event featuring some of music’s biggest acts.

This past May, we went to the festival to hang out and talk to the performers, and and this is the second of two episodes where you can hear the results. This time, you’ll find conversations with Murs, Nikki Jean, OG Grip, and Evidence. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the conclusion of The Cipher’s Soundset special.

See http://theciphershow.com/episode/242/ for full show notes and comments.

The University of Birmingham is set to host its first Arts & Science Festival to showcase the wealth of ideas, research and collaboration across its campus.

The Midlands based rail champion, Campaign for Rail will be holding its inaugural Annual General Meeting tomorrow at the Atrium, Moor Street Station

Birmingham-based Cure Leukaemia has announced record financial results that will see the charity double the amount of funding for research nurses in the West Midlands.

A charity concert has raised £700 for the Edgbaston-based charity Ammalife.

Ari Shaffir, Comedian, and Host of the, "Skeptic Tank" podcast, Eddie Bravo, 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu,join Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt in studio with a call from Duncan Trussell, 'The Duncan Trussell Family Hour"

Tony Hinchcliffe, comedian and writer who is releasing his first special, "One Shot" Friday January 15th on Netflix joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt live in studio.

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Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt, are joined LIVE in studio by Joey's longtime friend Uncle Mike.  Mike and Joey sold cars together, shot student films and Mike drove Joey around to a lot of his early comedy gigs. 

This podcast is brought to you by: 

Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt welcome comedian Carlos Mecia live in studio. Carlos called Joey out of the blue to ask for forgiveness, and Joey invited him to be a guest. 

This podcast is brought to you by: 

Pablo Francisco, a stand up comedian with many specials and appearances on "MADtv" and "The Tonight Show," joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt LIVE in studio.