Purple Rain: No cause has yet been released for the sudden death of the genius rock performer known as Prince, who was found dead in an elevator yesterday in his home and music studio outside Minneapolis. He was 57,

Last Friday, Prince’s private plane had to make an emergency landing in Illinois because he was ill and he spent three hours in a hospital.

Hundreds of mourners gathered outside Prince’s home and movie director Spike Lee collected a crowd of 5,000 in Brooklyn to celebrate Prince’s life. Buildings in cities all over the country were lit with purple light in his honor.

Prince was credited by some with being a musical genius who bridged funk, R&B, and rock and roll. He was a prolific songwriter, a sex symbol who squired, beautiful women, and, despite his fame, a quiet-spoken introvert.

His real name was Prince Rogers Nelson. For a time in the 1990s during a fight with a record company over rights to his name, Prince changed his name to a graphic symbol for which there was no pronunciation. Frustrated journalists dubbed him “the artist formerly known as Prince.”

Prince’s hits included “Purple Rain,” “Little Red Corvette,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Kiss,” “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” and “When Doves Cry.”

The refrain from Doves:

“How can you just leave me standing?

Alone in a world so cold? (World so cold)

Maybe I’m just too demanding

Maybe I’m just like my father too bold

Maybe you’re just like my mother

She’s never satisfied (She’s never satisfied)

Why do we scream at each other

This is what it sounds like

When doves cry”

Call a Teenager: The FBI paid professional hackers more than $1 million to tap into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists, the agency’s director James Comey said yesterday. Coney didn’t say exactly how much the FBI paid, only that it’s more than he will make in the next seven years as director. He’s paid $183,000 a year.

Nation: Suicide has reached an all time high in the US, according to a federal analysis. Suicide has increased particularly among women, and in all age groups, except older adults.

The overall suicide rate rose 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Suicide among women 45 to 64 jumped 63 percent and for men, by 43 percent.

The research supports other evidence that lower-class white Americans are suffering. Less-educated white Americans are increasingly dying of drug overdoses, alcoholism, and suicide.

Tourism: Cuba is lifting its ban on Cubans and Cuban-born Americans arriving on the island by ship, clearing the way for US cruise ships to start visiting since the 1959 revolution. Cubans can travel in and out by air, but the matter of ships has been a sticky issue. Carnival plans a cruise to Cuba starting May 1.

Presidential: Candidate Donald Trump, who rose to the top of the Republican heap with insults and politically outrageous declarations, says he plans to behave in a more presidential way. “The campaign is evolving and transitioning, and so am I,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I’ll be more effective and more disciplined.”

On The Today Show he promised, “I will be so presidential, you will be so bored. You’ll say, ‘Can’t he have a little more energy?'”

And that’s the amazing thing about Donald Trump. Even when he’s a bore, he’s the biggest bore.

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