When Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, a bandleader and composer, returns to Rockport this Sunday to debut his new jazz album at the Shalin Liu Performance Center, his thoughts will be on Gloucester’s late jazz genius Herb Pomeroy, whose influence can be heard in the new CD “Resolution,” which fuses American jazz with Turkish rhythms. “In the very first piece in the album, I am using this movement where I am using one of the techniques I learned in my first class with him,” said Sanlikol, a multi-instrumentalist. The Turkish-born musician came to America as a teenager to study at Berklee College of Music, where he was the final student taught by Pomeroy nearly two decades ago.

The U.S. government illegally gained access to a Turkish businessman's iPhone and computer when he was arrested at a Florida airport in the spring, defense lawyers argued Wednesday as they asked a federal judge in New York to toss out the evidence and charges against him. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard responded to the cellphone argument by one of defendant Reza Zarrab's lawyers by saying it was a "perfectly legitimate" practice by U.S. Customs agents at airports to request passcodes. He said it enables agents, for example, to know if somebody has an Islamic State flag as a screensaver.

SOUTH EDMESTON, NY -- Six months after Upstate New York-based Greek yogurt maker Chobani announced plans to give its employees a stake in the company, it announced today it will offer its workers fully paid parental leave. The leave provides full pay for six weeks, and covers all full-time hourly and salaried employees. It can be used by both mothers and fathers for "birth, adoption or placement of a foster child into the home," the company said. Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya told employees at Chobani's Chenago County manufacturing plant today he wants the new leave policy to be a model for the country. In a letter distributed to workers, he said becoming a father himself "started a lot of conversations with folks about how we can better support new parents here at Chobani."

Next July, Bruce Deel will celebrate 20 years since he came to Atlanta to assist with the closing of a church. Located in one of Atlanta’s most impoverished and crime-filled neighborhoods, where nearly 40 percent of the residents live below the federal poverty level, the City of Refuge today has transformed the lives of 20,000 people. The sprawling campus encompasses 200,000-square-foot. warehouse in the heart of the troubled 30314 neighborhood on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard in northwest Atlanta, which was formerly Simpson Road.