Troy Sneed, a Grammy nominated gospel singer and record label founder, has died of complications from Covid-19, his publicist Bill Carpenter confirmed to CNN.Sneed was 52.

Known for gospel radio hits, including “My Heart Says Yes” and “Worked It Out,” Sneed died Monday at a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

“Troy was like a brother to me,” Mike Chandler, chief executive officer of Rejoice! Musical Soul Food radio network, said in a statement. “He was a businessman. He was a husband; he was a father. He was an industry leader so it’s not just my loss it’s a loss to the whole industry.”

“He was one of the most talented men in our industry but more importantly Troy was a good person and he did a lot of good work,” Chandler said. “The world is going to miss him.”Born in Perry, Florida, Sneed played football throughout high school and dreamed of playing in the National Football League.But three separate injuries in his junior and senior years cut his dream short and doctors advised him to give up the game.

After graduating from high school, Sneed enrolled at Florida A&M University as an education major with a minor in music. He joined the university choir and became active in gospel music. The school’s gospel choir advisor, Prince J.D. Olds, recognized Sneed’s leadership and musical qualities and appointed him the Minister of Music for the choir. During that period, Sneed traveled with the choir as they performed with gospel luminaries such as James Moore, LaShun Pace, Dorothy Norwood, and the Rev. James Cleveland.After graduating from FAMU, Sneed taught at Jacksonville’s Beach Elementary School until Savoy Records executive Rev. Milton Biggham offered him a position as the Georgia Mass Choir’s Assistant Minister of Music. During his decade-long tenure, Sneed performed and arranged music on their albums and appeared with them in the 1996 film “The Preacher’s Wife,” starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston.Youth for Christ’s 1999 album “Higher” earned Sneed a Grammy Award nomination. That same year Sneed released his debut solo gospel album “Call Jesus” on Savoy Records and a follow-up project.

He later decided to go into the business for himself. In 2003, Sneed and his wife, Emily (whom he met at FAMU), formed their own recording label, Emtro (a blend of their first names) and secured national distribution with GoDigi Path. Over the years, Sneed wrote songs and produced projects for a variety of other artists that were released through Emtro, including “Call Jesus” for Bruce Parham and the Arkansas Mass Choir’s hit, “You Alone.” By 2007, Sneed focused on his own music and earned his first Billboard solo Top Ten hit with the upbeat song, “Hallelujah.” He would go on to have a dozen songs place on various Billboard gospel charts. His biggest hits include “My Heart Says Yes” (2011) and “Work It Out” (2008), which both peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart. His latest album “All My Best” was released last fall and featured twelve of his gospel radio songs.

Sneed is survived by his wife of 27 years and their four children, Troy Jr., Evany, Trey and Tyler.

Article via CNN

A man was busted for breaking Spain’s strict coronavirus lockdown by taking his goldfish out for a walk, police said Friday.

The unidentified pet owner was spotted sitting on a bench, with his finned friend inside a bowl, in Logroño, northern Spain.

He appeared to be trying to take advantage of a rule allowing people to take their pets out to relieve themselves.

He’s not the first person to pull a stunt amid Spain’s strict coronavirus state of emergency.

Last month, police in Murcia caught a man in a T-rex costume roaming the streets.

Spain was the country with the most COVID-19 cases after the US, with 226,629 reported as of Sunday. At least 23,000 people there have died from the virus.

via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/26/man-busted-in-spain-for-taking-goldfish-for-a-walk-during-lockdown/

Photo Credit: nypost.com

A heartless eldercare worker swiped an 86-year-old Denver woman’s engagement ring and credit cards in the days before she died of the coronavirus, local prosecutors said.

Elizabeth Daniels, 29, allegedly pocketed Barbara Gust’s $13,000 diamond ring and brought it to a pawn shop as the octogenarian suffered from the illness at The Carillon at Belleview Station retirement community, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office and KMGH-TV.

Daniels is also accused of making purchases with Gust’s card on April 15, the day the elderly woman died, prosecutors said.

“We were unable to have any access to her for four weeks, and then we found out she had the virus, which is just heartbreaking,” Gust’s daughter-in-law told KDVR. “[Daniels] should not have had access to vulnerable people at a time of crisis like this, where her own family couldn’t reach her, but a thief could.”

It wasn’t until the family started making arrangements with the funeral home that they realized what had happened — and reported it to the Denver Police Department, according to prosecutors.

Detectives secured an arrest affidavit for Daniels that same day.

Police recovered Gust’s engagement ring from a pawn shop, according to the report.

Daniels, of Aurora, was charged April 22 with theft from an at-risk person, identity theft, providing a false statement to a pawnbroker and criminal possession of a financial transaction device, prosecutors said.

Daniels was hired as a temporary worker at The Carillon through a temp agency because of the growing number of coronavirus cases at the facility, according to KMGH.

She will reappear in court on June 22, the station reported.

via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/27/caretaker-steals-ring-from-elderly-woman-dying-of-coronavirus/

Photo Credit: Denver District Attorney’s Office