MSNBC (stylized as msnbc) is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, South Africa, the Middle East and Canada. Its name is derived from the most common abbreviations for Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company.
msnbc.com, a separate company, is the central news website for the NBC News family, featuring interactivity and multimedia plus original stories and video which augment the content from NBC News and partners.
MSNBC and msnbc.com were founded in 1996 as a partnership of Microsoft and General Electric's NBC unit, which is now NBCUniversal. Although Microsoft and NBC shared operations of MSNBC cable at its founding, it was announced on December 23, 2005, that NBCUniversal would purchase a majority stake in the television channel, which left Microsoft with 18%, later reduced to zero. The two companies remain partners in msnbc.com. MSNBC shares the NBC logo of a rainbow peacock with its sister channels NBC, CNBC, NBC Sports Network, and ShopNBC. MSNBC is available in over 78 million households in the United States.
Randal Howard "Rand" Paul (born January 7, 1963) is the junior United States Senator for Kentucky. He is a member of the Republican Party. A member of the Tea Party movement, he describes himself as a "constitutional conservative" and a libertarian. He is the son of Republican Congressman and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas and had never previously held political office. Paul first received national attention in 2008 when making political speeches on behalf of his father. Rand Paul is the first United States Senator in history to serve alongside a parent in the United States House of Representatives.
A graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine, Paul has been a practicing ophthalmologist in Bowling Green, Kentucky, since 1993, and established his own clinic in December 2007. In 1994, he founded Kentucky Taxpayers United, of which he is still the chairman.
In 2010, Paul ran as the Republican candidate for the United States Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky and defeated Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway. As a supporter of the Tea Party movement, Paul has been vocal in advocating for term limits, a balanced budget amendment, and the Read the Bills Act, in addition to the widespread reduction of federal spending and taxation. He has gained prominence for his independent positions on many political issues, often clashing with both Republicans and Democrats.
Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American Democratic Party politician who has been serving as the 36th Mayor of Newark, New Jersey since 2006. He is the third African-American mayor of Newark, and was formerly a Newark City Councilman, and practicing attorney. He is a graduate of Stanford University, the University of Oxford (where he was a Rhodes Scholar), and Yale Law School.
Booker was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the predominantly white, affluent town of Harrington Park, New Jersey, 20 miles north of Newark. His parents, Cary Alfred and Carolyn Rose (Jordan) Booker, were among the first black executives at IBM. In 2009, he told US News that he was raised in a religious household, and that he and his family attended a small, African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Jersey. Booker graduated from Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan. He was named to the USA Today All-USA high school football team in 1986.
He went on to Stanford University, receiving a B.A. in political science in 1991 and an M.A. in sociology the following year. While at Stanford, Booker played varsity football. He also made the All–Pacific Ten Academic team[citation needed] and was elected senior class president.. In addition, he ran The Bridge, a student-run crisis hotline and organized help for youth in East Palo Alto, from Stanford students. After Stanford, he attended The Queen's College, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, earning an honours degree in U.S. history in 1994. Booker received a J.D. in 1997 from Yale Law School, where he operated free legal clinics for low-income residents of New Haven. At Yale, he was a founding member of the Chai Society (now the Eliezer Society). He was also a Big Brother and was active in the Black Law Students Association. Booker lived in Newark during his final year at Yale. After graduation, Booker served as Staff Attorney for the Urban Justice Center in New York and Program Coordinator of the Newark Youth Project.
Russell Edward Brand (born 4 June 1975) is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.
Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinian's. He became known to American audiences when he got a major role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall which led to a starring role in 2010's Get Him to the Greek. He has also been a voice actor for animated films such as 2010's Despicable Me and the 2011 film Hop. He starred in the 2011 remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore film Arthur.
Brand is noted for his eccentricity and his controversies in the British media, including his dismissal from MTV for dressing up as Osama bin Laden and controversies while presenting at various award ceremonies, as well as his former substance abuse. The 2008 prank telephone calls he made to Andrew Sachs while co-hosting The Russell Brand Show with Jonathan Ross led to his resignation from the BBC and major policy changes in that organisation. His prior drug use, alcoholism and promiscuity influenced his comedic material and public image. He married American pop singer Katy Perry in October 2010, and filed for divorce from her in December 2011; the divorce was finalised in 2012.
Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski ( /ˈmiːkə brəˈʒɪnski/; born May 2, 1967) is an American television host and journalist. Brzezinski is co-host of MSNBC's weekday morning program Morning Joe, where she provides regular commentary and reads the news headlines for the program. Brzezinski was previously a CBS News anchor and correspondent.
On December 8, 2008, Brzezinski and Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough began hosting a two-hour late-morning radio show on WABC (770 AM) in New York City. As of April 26, 2010, the radio show was replaced by Mark Simone.
Brzezinski was born in New York City, the daughter of foreign policy expert and former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and sculptor Emilie Anna Benešová, a grandniece of Czechoslovakia's former president Edvard Beneš. Her father was then teaching at Columbia University, but the family moved to McLean, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., in late 1976, when Zbigniew was named National Security Advisor by newly elected President Jimmy Carter.