”I started as a writer, since I was little kid I've been telling stories and Hip-Hop has been an extension of me telling stories…”
While several artists like Soulja Boy TellEm have decided to write tell-all books, Lupe Fiasco is doing something different and diving into the world of fiction.
Announcing plans to write a novel, Lupe speaks on his plans to 3News New Zealand saying, ”I started as a writer, since I was little kid I've been telling stories and Hip-Hop has been an extension of me telling stories so it's kind of like me putting it in a more traditional form as far as a book.”

The book will be released under his real name, Wasalu Muhammed Jaco.

This is not the first time Lupe's talked of writing a book. He spoke previously about his dream to write and revealed plans to write a novel about a window washer.

Yes, a window washer.

He spoke on his dream saying, “There are other ways besides putting out an album that allow me to channel my creative energy and I'm writing a book about a window washer. I will have more than enough to keep me busy."

Check out the video interview with Lupe below

The two alarm blaze that destroyed the third floor of the Philadelphia International Records (PIR) office building has officially been ruled as “incendiary.”

Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers stopped short of calling the fire arson but the official cause was upgraded yesterday from "suspicious" to "incendiary."

"It was set in a way that was not normal. It was set by a human being," Ayers told the Philadelphia Daily News, "Now whether or not it is going to be arson [or accidental] is another case."

Ayers said no one was in custody for the blaze. That includes the man who was questioned after firefighters rescued him by ladder from a third-floor window during the fire.

Philadelphia International Records, which produced classics by legendary artists like Patti LaBelle, Michael Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass, was responsible for generating over 100 Gold and Platinum records, producing and writing over 3,000 songs and charting over 70 number one hits throughout the 1960's and 1970s.

Owners of PIR, producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, have produced countless classics including The O'Jay's hit “Backstabbers”, Lou Rawles “You'll Never find a Love Like Mine” and "The Soul Train" theme song.

Gamble and Huff said in a statement Tuesday that some lost items are "irreplaceable" but vowed to rebuild.

According to officials and published reports, although memorabilia and countless gold and platinum records were destroyed, the master recordings and studio were not affected by the blaze.

Former Cash Money Hot Boy Juvenile and his producer Leroy Edwards were arrested Thursday (February 25), for possession of marijuana.

According to reports, police responded to a call from a neighbor who reported that they smelled marijuana smoke coming from the rappers home.

When police arrived at the house, according to reports, they were not only greeted by Juve's producer who had a small amount of marijuana “on his person,” but a published report police states that “the presence of marijuana was strong” enough that it gave “probable cause” to search the rapper's home.

Upon their search, police discovered a small amount of marijuana in a kitchen drawer, which Juvenile stated belonged to him.

Authorities said Juvenile and Edwards were booked with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and both have posted bond.

With all of the issues surrounding rappers and drugs, it seems as if Dr. Drew is going to have to start a new season of celebrity rehab, aptly titled Hip-Hop Edition...SMH.

Two years after 50 Cent's baby mama's (Shaniqua Tompkins) mansion went up in smoke; police have finally discovered a possible accomplice.

According to published reports, G-Unit associate and 50 Cent's assistant, Dwayne McKenzie is being accused by his ex-girlfriend, Shana Chin, of playing a role in the torching of the mansion.

The 5,200-square-foot home that was gutted by a suspicious fire was at the center of an antagonistic legal battle between the rapper and his former girlfriend.

According to Chin, she was dating McKenzie, who now lives at the multi-million-dollar mansion; and testified that McKenzie often carried a gun and had talked of torching a house that belonged to the rapper's ex-girlfriend.

Once the report surfaced, McKenzie's attorney fired back, stating that Chin, who is currently suing McKenzie for damages and medical bills, is a greedy, fame-hungry woman out for money and the chance to meet rap stars.

McKenzie, who has yet to respond to the allegations personally, was also arrested in August of 2009 for allegedly assaulting another woman [not Chin] in 50 Cent's Long Island mansion.

Imagine an 80-year old woman ransacking and stealing cash from a major medical office in Torrance, Calif., with an extensive rap sheet stemming all the way back from 1955.

Sounds incredulous, right? Not.

Meet 80-year-old Doris Thompson, a tiny, feeble old woman with a hearing impairment. From the outside, Thompson seems harmless, but boy, looks can be deceiving.

On Wednesday, February 25th, Thompson was sentenced to three years in prison for burglarizing a Southern California medical office in Torrance, Calif.
Oh, and it gets crazier, Thompson had a widespread history of theft and has used 27 aliases in her lifetime. In addition, the elderly woman has even been arrested countless times during the past 55 years for burglary and petty theft.
During her hearing, the medical employees of the Southern California medical office described Thompson as being "sly and quiet," and stated that she must staged her robbery by slipping inside the medical office as a male employee worked and hid out until he left.

With her hair styled in pig tails and white bows, Thompson pleaded "guilty" and thanked the judge for not sending her to Los Angeles county jail, saying, "I don't think I'll ever come back-except I'm going to die and be in a morgue."
Knowing that she could have spent 12 years in prison for her recent break in, Thompson quickly accepted a plea bargain and showed the judge her gratitude for her shortened sentence by saying, "God Bless You."
Thompson was ordered to pay $1,400 in restitution for her crime and will be eligible for parole in 16 months.

NEW ORLEANS — In Hurricane Katrina’s chaotic aftermath, police shot six people – killing two – as they crossed a bridge in search of food. For years the case was a shocking symbol of the confusion and violence that swept through the flooded city. On Wednesday it became a mark of shame for the police department.

As victims’ relatives watched from the courtroom gallery, a retired lieutenant who supervised the department’s probe of the shootings pleaded guilty to orchestrating a cover-up to conceal that police gunned down unarmed civilians.

Michael Lohman, a 21-year veteran of the force, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors said Lohman and other unidentified officers conspired to fabricate witness statements, falsify reports of the incident and plant a gun in an attempt to make it appear the killings were justified.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the investigation is continuing and would not say whether higher-ranking officials of the police department might be involved.

Lohman’s plea brought at least some closure to families of victims in the best-known of several violent incidents that raised questions about police conduct immediately after Katrina. The shootings happened on Sept. 4, 2005, six days after the storm smashed levees and flooded 80 percent of the city.

Survivors have said the officers fired at unarmed people who were crossing to get food at a grocery store. The officers claimed they opened fire only after being shot at. Ronald Madison, 40 and mentally disabled, and James Brissette, 19, were killed and four others were wounded.

“We are very, very happy about the progress that the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department have made,” said Romell Madison, Ronald’s brother. “The people of New Orleans should be relieved that there is still justice for everybody here.”

Lohman’s plea marked the first conviction in the case. Seven officers were charged with murder or attempted murder but a state judge threw out all the charges. Federal authorities then stepped in to investigate.

The federal prosecutor said Lohman is cooperating with investigators who want to know more about the police department’s actions.

Dylan Utley, Lohman’s lawyer, said his client “did what’s right for him and what’s right for his situation” and hopes to “make amends.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, Lohman, 42, answered U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle’s questions in a soft voice but didn’t interact with the victims’ relatives. He is free on $50,000 bond and the maximum sentence he faces is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is scheduled May 26.

Described by fellow officers as a straight-shooter and hardworking, by-the-book cop, Lohman’s cooperation is expected to be helpful as authorities examine a wide range of problems in the police department after Katrina.

The department’s reputation – never sterling in a city where violent crime is a daily fact of life – was hammered after Katrina with charges that officers were involved with shootings, deserted their posts, looted shops and made off with cars from a Cadillac dealership.

“It looks like the blue code has been broken,” former U.S. Attorney Harry Rosenberg said. “Remember, those officers stood shoulder to shoulder when it was in state court. Nobody said anything.”

The “blue code” is likely to face further tests with Lohman’s cooperation as federal prosecutors probe the fatal shooting by police of Danny Brumfield Sr. outside the New Orleans convention center; the death of Henry Glover, whom witnesses claim died in police custody; and the fatal police shooting of a Connecticut man, Matthew McDonald.

Police have pointed to the extreme conditions they were operating under after Katrina. Communications failed, hundreds of police vehicles were destroyed, 80 percent of the force lost their homes to the storm and there were several reports of rescuers being fired upon. Most of those reports were later discounted.

“The constitution applies 365 days a year,” said Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “There are no grace periods from the constitution. The rule of law does not get suspended.”

In unsealing the case against Lohman, prosecutors drew a picture of how the shootings at the Danziger bridge immediately spawned a cover-up.

Lohman went to the scene and saw no weapons near or with the victims of the shooting, federal officials said, and concluded the shootings were not justified.

The documents allege Lohman and an unidentified investigator he supervised drafted different versions of false reports. Among the claims was a fabricated statement by one of the victims that she had seen her nephew and others firing guns on the bridge.

Federal officials say Lohman drafted his own 17-page false report after becoming dissatisfied that another investigator’s false account was not logical.

“On several occasions in or about October 2005, defendant Lohman reviewed drafts of the false report written by the investigator and counseled the investigator on ways to make the story in the report sound more plausible,” according to court documents.

When another investigator planned to plant a gun at the scene, Lohman just asked him if it was “clean,” meaning it couldn’t be traced, according to the documents.

The documents said Lohman also told the investigator to speak with each of the shooting officers to ensure they were “OK with” the false report and were willing to give statements consistent with it.

“It’s pretty incredible stuff,” said Gary Bizal, attorney for Jose Holmes, Jr., who was shot several times as he lay on the ground. “It’s like a script from Hollywood.”

As the investigation continues with Lohman’s cooperation, officers for at least two other officers have identified their clients as targets.

“Now the government has a cooperating witness and it causes those officers to wonder if they should be running to the U.S. Attorney to look for a deal,” Rosenberg said.

Both Letten and Perez refused to say how widespread or high-up the investigation could reach in the department, but both reiterated that the investigation would not be bound.

“The investigation is going to attempt to bring all perpetrators to justice,” Perez said.

Little has been written about Richard Spikes in terms of his childhood, education and personal life. What is known is that he was a engineer from San Francisco, California, an incredible inventor and the proof of this is in the incredibly diverse number of creations that have had a major impact on the lives of everyday citizens. He was a engineer from San Francisco, California

Over the course of his lifetime, Spikes developed the following inventions or innovations:

railroad semaphore (1906)
automatic car washer (1913)
automobile directional signals (1913)
beer keg tap (1910)
self-locking rack for billiard cues (1910)
continuous contact trolley pole (1919)
combination milk bottle opener and cover (1926)
method and apparatus for obtaining average samples and temperature of tank liquids (1931)
automatic gear shift (1932)
transmission and shifting thereof (1933)
automatic shoe shine chair (1939)
multiple barrel machine gun (1940)
horizontally swinging barber chair (1950)
automatic safety brake (1962)
Spikes inventions were welcome to major companies. His beer keg tap was purchased by Milwaukee Brewing Company and the automobile directional signals which were first introduced in the Pierce Arrow, soon became standard in all automobiles. For his innovative designs of transmission and gear-shifting devices, Spikes received over $100,000.00 - an enormous sum for a Black man in the 1930s.

Visit any of the nation's more than 100 historically black colleges or universities and you'll see clusters of men and women engaged in the rhythmic clapping and foot stomping routines known in black Greek circles as "stepping."

Now a white Arkansas team's win in an Atlanta step competition has started a fiery debate over the African-inspired tradition and whether the integration of a once-ethnically exclusive activity constitutes a form of cultural theft.

"What has happened is black youth culture, what people would call hip hop, sort of made black culture accessible and appealing to all kinds of people," said Walter Kimbrough, president of historically black Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., and an expert on black Greek life. "It really now has become an American experience."

The uproar began when the all-white Zeta Tau Alpha team from the University of Arkansas beat out five other sorority teams to win last weekend's national final in the Sprite Step Off competition. A YouTube video of their performance, inspired by the movie "The Matrix," generated hundreds of comments.

Posters questioned everything from whether a white group should have been allowed to compete to whether judges wowed by the unlikely competitors inflated their scores to let them win.

"Good Job but let the Black folks have their own thing for once!!!" wrote one commenter posting under the name "titetowers" who said the Zeta Tau Alpha team did well but should not have won.

On Thursday, sponsor Coca-Cola announced "scoring discrepancies" and said the runner-up - the Alpha Kappa Alpha team from Indiana University, whose members are black - would share first place and receive the same $100,000 in scholarships that the Zeta Tau Alphas won.

It was unclear what the discrepancies were and Coca-Cola would not elaborate. The tournament began in September with a series of regional qualifying rounds around the country.

While scholars have debated the origin of stepping, the phenomenon is generally believed to have originated with black Greeks around 1969. Some link it to a form of African "gumboot" dancing, which involves performers rhythmically slapping and stamping their feet. It's a form of dance made popular by workers in South African mines.

Pulling from things like military cadences and dance routines, stepping usually involves stomping out rhythms in heavy boots or loud shoes, with emphasis on precision and flair. Step crews often travel from coast to coast to earn cash, trophies and bragging rights for the most precise or clever routine.

In the early 1990s the fierce competition began to gain attention off black campuses, with large sponsors hosting events, Kimbrough said. Before then, competitions were mostly organized by fraternity and sorority chapters.

As the phenomenon expanded, other Greek groups began participating. Now, it's not uncommon for white or Latino Greek groups to participate.

Lawrence Ross, author of "The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities, said the increased interest in stepping is a natural evolution, much like other urban staples such as rap music that went from an underground phenomenon to mainstream.

"Others are always going to be attracted to what you're doing and are going to want to participate," said Ross, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity.

He said the nation is integrating more than ever and blacks who embrace President Barack Obama making inroads into previously all-white bastions can't have a double standard.

"If (black Olympian) Shani Davis was prevented from speed skating simply because traditionally, no African-Americans were in the field, we African-Americans would be up in arms," he said.

Zeta Tau Alpha national spokeswoman Christy Barber said the University of Arkansas chapter started stepping 16 years ago and participants were originally mentored by the school's Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter.

Arkansas senior Alexandra Kosmitis said she and her teammates had worked hard and were very excited when they heard they had won Saturday. They didn't feel their title was diminished when Coca-Cola told them they'd have to share it.

"We feel truly blessed to have been part of the competition and to have gotten scholarship money to further our educations," the 21-year-old Pine Bluff, Ark., native said. "The AKA chapter from Indiana University were really nice girls throughout the competition, and we're glad they are also getting scholarship money too."

Kosmitis has been on the step team since she joined the sorority and said it gives her a chance to do an activity she's come to love while bonding with her sorority sisters.

Melody McDowell, a spokeswoman for Alpha Kappa Alpha's national office, attended the competition in Atlanta and said her sorority's members were "very talented and deserved to win, so we're delighted with the outcome."

"We're happy that whatever problem occurred with the judging has been resolved," she said, adding that both teams were "very deserving winners."

McDowell and Barber declined to comment on the Internet controversy, but both said they were disappointed that talented young women who were doing what they love got swept up in an ugly online controversy.

So here is your chance to voice your opinion, watch both performances and let us know who you think should have won
"If (black Olympian) Shani Davis was prevented from speed skating simply because traditionally, no African-Americans were in the field, we African-Americans would be up in arms," he said.

Zeta Tau Alpha national spokeswoman Christy Barber said the University of Arkansas chapter started stepping 16 years ago and participants were originally mentored by the school's Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter.

Arkansas senior Alexandra Kosmitis said she and her teammates had worked hard and were very excited when they heard they had won Saturday. They didn't feel their title was diminished when Coca-Cola told them they'd have to share it.

"We feel truly blessed to have been part of the competition and to have gotten scholarship money to further our educations," the 21-year-old Pine Bluff, Ark., native said. "The AKA chapter from Indiana University were really nice girls throughout the competition, and we're glad they are also getting scholarship money too."

Kosmitis has been on the step team since she joined the sorority and said it gives her a chance to do an activity she's come to love while bonding with her sorority sisters.

Melody McDowell, a spokeswoman for Alpha Kappa Alpha's national office, attended the competition in Atlanta and said her sorority's members were "very talented and deserved to win, so we're delighted with the outcome."

"We're happy that whatever problem occurred with the judging has been resolved," she said, adding that both teams were "very deserving winners."

McDowell and Barber declined to comment on the Internet controversy, but both said they were disappointed that talented young women who were doing what they love got swept up in an ugly online controversy.

So Edgers you be the judge below are the performances from both sororities, was it a tie?





We want to hear from you Edgers what do you think?

What do you think Edgers is it a hit?

The assistant principal of Central Cabarrus High School in North Carolina is facing several charges in connection with alleged sexual contact with two students.
Investigators say 37-year-old Aaronson Franks had sex with one of the students multiple times at the end of last school year, and he had sex with another student this year -- each time on school grounds.

"It happened in a part of the building that was removed where no one else had access," said Concord Police Chief Merl Hamilton.
Concord police say one of the students is under the age of 16. The other student graduated last year. Franks is charged with statutory rape, statutory sexual offense, sexual activity with a student by an administrator, taking indecent liberties with a student and indecent liberties with children.

"I don't know that I can ever recall us having handled an assistant principal. It's very unusual. It's tragic. It's horrible," said Hamilton.
Police began investigating after a parent came to them with concerns last week.
Investigators are concerned there may be more victims. Franks has taught in Virginia, Florida and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools system. Franks taught career and technical education at John Taylor Williams Middle School from 2002 to 2005.
Franks was arrested Thursday. He was released from jail after posting $60,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court March 1. The school system has suspended him with pay.

Franks' bio had been removed from the Central Cabarrus High School Web site Thursday afternoon, but an earlier version of the site showed that Franks has been with the school since the 2005-2006 school year.
The Web site said Franks served as special needs administrator, attendance coordinator and 10th and 11th grade discipline.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House social secretary is stepping down three months after taking heavy criticism for allowing gate crashers into the administration's first state dinner, for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama issued a statement Friday thanking Desiree Rogers, their longtime friend from Chicago, for doing a "terrific job " organizing hundreds of events during her little more than a year on the job.
They did not indicate a reason for Rogers' departure, effective sometime next month.
Rogers' handling of the Nov. 24 state dinner came under fire after a celebrity-seeking couple got into the exclusive South Lawn affair without a formal invitation, despite heavy White House security. Rogers was in charge of the event.

She later acknowledged not having staff from her office at security checkpoints to help identify guests. Lawmakers had demanded that she testify about her handling of the event, and one wanted to subpoena her. The White House would not allow her to testify, citing the constitutional separation of powers.
The tall and glamorous Rogers also was criticized for her high profile and appearing in glossy magazine photo spreads.

Rogers, 50, told the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday that she was leaving because she had achieved a major goal of the Obamas: turning the White House into the "people's house" by opening it up to many of those who normally do not get to visit.
"My work was really to create this framework. I think I completed that work," she told her hometown paper. "Our office has been able to lay the foundation for what will be known as the 'people's house' and it has already taken shape."

Rogers said she planned to explore opportunities in the corporate world, where she worked before joining the administration. She arrived in Chicago after getting an a graduate business degree and has worked at AT&T and a gas and utilities company.
"When she took this position, we asked Desiree to help make sure that the White House truly is the people's house and she did that by welcoming scores of everyday Americans through its doors, from wounded warriors to local schoolchildren to (race car) drivers," the president and Mrs. Obama said.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

Chile's president declared a state of catastrophe in the aftermath of a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake Saturday that left bodies, crumbled buildings and outages in its wake.

The country's national emergency office said more than 300 people were dead, and the pre-dawn quake — the most powerful quake to hit the country in a half century — also cut electricity, water and phone lines to many outlying areas, meaning there was no immediate word of death or damage there.

The quake also unleashed a tsunami across the ocean, putting much of the Pacific Rim on alert for potentially devastating waves.

Hawaii Officials Evacuate Coastal Areas

Early Saturday, President Michele Bachelet, speaking at an emergency response center, appealed for Chileans to remain calm.

"Despite this, the system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately," Bachelet said.

SLIDESHOW: First photos from Chilean quake


President-elect Sebastian Pinera said the earthquake caused serious damage to the country's infrastructure.

In the town of Talca, 65 miles from the quake's epicenter, its historic center, filled with buildings of adobe mud and straw, largely collapsed, though most of those were businesses that were not populated during the 3:34 a.m. quake. Neighbors pulled at least five people from the rubble while emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from reporters.

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles northeast of the epicenter, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly.

Santiago's airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. TV images show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.

The city's subway was shut as well, and hundreds of buses were trapped at a terminal by a damaged bridge, the transportation and telecommunications minister told Chilean TV. He urged Chileans to make phone calls or travel only when absolutely necessary.

The tsunami set off by the quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean — roughly a quarter of the globe. Warnings were issued over a wide area, including South America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's tsunami warning monitors reported a wave measuring nearly eight feet hit near Talcahuano, Chile, about 90 minutes after the quake hit. Other waves of up to four feet hit other coastal areas. The NOAA has placed its alert on the highest level — severe.

A number of aftershocks continue to hit Chile, the largest one registering at magnitude 6.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Click for data from the USGS

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told Fox News that the embassy is reaching out to the Chilean government to offer assistance. He reported that the 100 personnel at the embassy are OK and accounted for.

"Chile has both significant capabilities and strong building codes. Second, the embassy has activated its warden system to communicate with Americans in Chile and make sure they are okay," Crowley said.

The quake epicenter was just 70 miles from Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river, and 60 miles from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.

In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed.

In the coastal city of Vina del Mar, the earthquake struck just as people were leaving a disco, Julio Alvarez told Radio Cooperativa in Santiago. "It was very bad, people were screaming, some people were running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them."

Several hospitals have been evacuated due to earthquake damage, she said, and communications with the city of Concepcion remained down. She planned to tour the affected region as quickly as possible to get a better idea of the damage.

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A Capitol Hill couple got more than they bargained for after what they thought was a routine Fed Ex delivery. The box they received contained $120,000 worth of pot.

Melanie Sloan knows a scam when she sees it. She's a former prosecutor and works for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, so when a big package was dropped on her porch Monday evening, something didn't seem right.

"I noticed that the package was ours but the name on the box wasn't and it was shipping center return address in Anaheim, California. So I thought that was strange," says Sloan.

Still she thought it could be for a neighbor or even a gift for their 11-month-old baby girl.
So they decided to open it. Inside the box was another box wrapped with insulation.

"It's layer upon layer of tightly wrapped plastic wrap. And it looks like there is dirt on the inside of that.
So my husband pokes through the plastic wrap and touches it and he said it's not dirt its coffee grounds. Then I did know what it was. I knew it would be drugs," says Sloan.

Turns out it was 35 pounds of marijuana or the equivalent of $120,000 worth of pot. They called DC Police immediately and Melanie had serious concerns she too might be treated like another unsuspecting recipient of a drug package, Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye M. Calvo.

"That's a pretty memorable story. And anybody that has some kind of drug issue would be naturally nervous, especially those of us with dogs," says Sloan.

In the summer of 2008 - a swat team busted through the Mayor Calvo's front door, shot and killed his dogs and interrogated him for hours. Calvo was found to be an innocent victim in an all too familiar game.

Here's how the game works: the dealer has the package delivered to an address where they don't believe anyone is home during the day and they pick it up the package before anyone gets home. But in this case that didn't happen.

MPD is investigating where the package came from and who it was intended for. Meantime Fed Ex says it does work with law enforcement to screen packages.

For Melanie Sloan says she's still on edge, but thankful nothing worse could have happened.

What do you think Edgers is it a hit?

The Los Angeles Times reported today that the student who admitted to hanging a noose in the library at the University of California-San Diego has been suspended.

The student, who remains unnamed, faces significant punishment:

Under state law, hanging a noose, a symbol of racism and lynchings for many African Americans, if done with "intent to terrorize," is considered a misdemeanor that can bring up to a year in county jail and a $5,000 fine.
The noose incident spurred multiple protests in the state. According to the blog Occupy CA, 300 UCSD students gathered outside Chancellor Marye Anne Fox's office and to protest what they felt was a weak response to the incident from the school's administration. A similar protest formed at UCLA to show solidarity with UCSD students.

These latest events have exacerbated mounting racial tension within the UC system. Last week,
a ghetto-themed off-campus party at UCSD angered students and prompted an investigation by campus administrators to determine whether it violated campus code of conduct. Shortly after, the school's student television channel was shut down after a program defending the party and mocking Black History month aired.

At UC Irvine, a column questioning the purpose of Black History Month in the student paper heightened hostilities. The column begins:

It is irritating how many people today believe that racism will end as long as every American minority has a special day, week, month, club or organization dedicated to them. One such example of a holiday that supposedly helps to eliminate racism is Black History Month, which takes place every February to celebrate the various accomplishments and contributions of African-Americans throughout American history.
Yesterday, UC system President Mark Yudof released an official statement, co-signed by the system's chancellors, denouncing racism and calling for increased dialogue across the state:

As always, the remedy for bad speech is good speech. For that reason, we call on all members of the UC community -- students, faculty and staff -- to affirm and defend the values of the University of California. We are speaking out and ask that you do the same whenever, wherever and however you confront behavior that violates the principles and values of this university.

The mother of Rick Ross’ daughter is suing 50 Cent for disseminating her private sex tape over the internet last year.


Lastonia Leviston processed her complaint yesterday (February 24) in Manhattan, alleging that 50 Cent used the tape without her permission, and has caused her to suffer “emotional distress.”

Last March, 50 Cent posted the video on his affiliate site www.boobootv.com as a form of psychological warfare with then rival Rick Ross.

The Queens mogul edited the 13-minute sex tape to include himself under his short-lived Pimpin’ Curly persona. As Curly, he hurled insults at Ross and Leviston, identified in the clip as “Brooke.”

“Double R? Does that stand for Rick Ross in the middle of her motherfuckin’ chest man?! Oh this is cold blooded man. I told n***as I was the beast from the east man. They thought I was bullsh***ing. I ain’t bullshitting no more man. 1 minute and 30 seconds n***a. You see the tape. It only been on for 1 minute and 30 seconds,” Curly ridiculed. I want you to watch this on your tour bus Ricky. I want you to watch this on your motherf***ing tour bus Ricky. Now how the f**k you gonna say you a boss and you run a motherf**king crew and can’t even control your b**ches. Is this n***a licking on the Rick Ross tattoo? The n***a licking on the Ricky tattoo. Oooh s**t. Oooh man. Somebody need to make an announcement!”

The male participant’s face in the clip is blurred out and has never been identified. According to Leviston’s lawsuit, the tape was made in 2008.

A SMARTLY-dressed man found on a beach has NO IDEA who he is, say cops.
The freezing mystery man was rushed to hospital in Brighton, East Sussex, with severe hypothermia when he was discovered unconscious two weeks ago.

But when he came round he appeared to have suffered total memory loss.

Police say he speaks very good English without an accent but he cannot remember his name or where he lives.

Officers today released a picture of the mystery man in a desperate bid to identify him.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "He had a few personal belongings with him but nothing which has enabled him to be identified and had no cash so it is a real mystery for us.

"His nationality is unclear although his English is good without any apparent accent and appears to have some general knowledge of South East England but no home address.

"He has given two names but it is thought these are products of his imagination albeit given in good faith."

Police have circulated his description to police forces nationwide, to the Missing Persons Bureau and to the charity Missing Persons - but they do not match with anyone.

He is in his late 20s to early 30s, 6ft tall, slim and with dark straight hair.

He was found between Brighton's two piers and was wearing smart, suit-style grey trousers, a black Next shirt, a pin-stripe grey suit jacket over a woollen Urban Island hoodie.

Inspector Roy Apps said: "At present there is no reason to believe this is anything other than a genuine memory loss and we hope someone sees his photo and tells us who he is."

In 2005 a German became known as the Piano Man after turning up on a Kent beach apparently suffering memory loss and then playing flawless classical music in hospital.

Andreas Grassl, 20, had previously bombarded German television stations for years with requests to appear on their shows and to superstars for help to launch a career in the media.

He finally achieved a different kind of fame during four months of psychiatric treatment at NHS hospitals in Gillingham and Dartford running up bills of £40,000.

He refused to speak, expressing himself only by drawing and playing a piano, and the mystery prompted a hunt across Europe to identify him.

After four months Grassl claimed his memory had suddenly come back and he remembered he was from Bavaria - 800 miles from the beach in Sheerness, Kent, where he was found "traumatised" and unable to speak.

He had no identification, no money and the labels had been ripped from his suit.

The Bavarian farmer's son later claimed he must have suffered a mental breakdown.

Former WABC sports anchor, Marvell Scott – who left television to practice medicine – was charged today with raping with a 14-year-old hooker he picked up near Times Square.

Scott, 36, allegedly met the girl, who had run away from upstate New York, when a pimp offered up her services in June 2008. The sportscaster-turned sports-medicine expert worked out "a money amount" with the pimp, and then took the girl up to his West 47th Street apartment, prosecutors said.

Once upstairs, the girl — who turned 14 the day before and was connecting with a John for the first time — was unwilling to continue, so Scott brought her to the pimp and demanded "his money back,’ said ADA Lisa Friel.

A 16-year-old friend of the girls’ instead offered to calm her pal while Scott had sex with her and he agreed. The 16-year-old told authorities she stared out a window as Scott had sex with her friend on the bed.

At one point the girl asked him to stop, but he replied, "just a little more," Friel said.

The victim later told her mother in Albany what happened and police were called — but the case took a year-and-a-half to come to court because of difficulty locating all the witnesses, officials said.

Scott was charged with statutory rape, patronizing a prostitute and endangering the welfare of a child. He faces up to seven years in jail if convicted and was released on $10,000 bail.

Scott’s attorney, Richard Portale, denied his client – who left WABC in June last year – had sex with the girl and painted the whole sordid scenario as "nothing more than a shakedown attempt."

"What do little girls do when they get into trouble? She cries rape," he said. "She at first said he raped her at gunpoint but then changed her story."

Portale said Scott had encountered the girl in distress, weeping in the street, and feeling sympathetic, allowed her up to his apartment to use the bathroom and that nothing else happened.

"They made a move on him and they hustled him," Portale said. "He’s eager to clear his name."

Scott recently traveled to Haiti to help earthquake survivors.

It was ten years ago that we were introduced to R&B singer Keke Wyatt, who, at the tender age of eighteen, covered the René & Angela classic “MY FIRST LOVE” with R&B crooner Avant, which helped propel them both to success. But a lot has happened in the last decade, though.

In 2001, Keke released her certified gold debut album, Soul Sista, which was recorded in only two weeks. On Christmas Day 2001, she stabbed her husband and manager Rahmat Morton during a domestic dispute but was acquitted of second degree assault on March 25, 2002. By 2004, Keke had signed with Cash Money Records with plans of releasing an album in May 2005. But the album was shelved, and Keke signed with TVT Records prior to the label going bankrupt February 2008. She joined Shanachie Records last year, and today she’s releasing Who Knew?, the long-awaited follow-up to her debut.

“I’m sure that ya heard the rumors ’bout me. Word on the street is I’m that ‘B,’” Keke opens on the title track, one of the album’s finest with Keke commenting on an unexpected relationship. “WEAKEST” continues the sentiment only in a smooth, ballad form, and she also delivers a great rendition of Rachelle Ferrell’s “Peace on Earth” with the assistance of an acoustic guitar.

However, the rest of the album generally feels dated and stale, which isn’t completely Keke’s fault. The production team, which includes The Underdogs, L. Young, Dream Team and Troy Oliver, among others, is also at fault for offering up these tracks which sound like rejects from the 1990s albums of songstresses such as Faith Evans, Brandy and Deborah Cox, just to name a few. As long as it’s taken Keke to be in a position to be heard again through no choice of her own, though, you’ve gotta cut her a little slack because her voice still sounds good.

The one attempt at an updated sound (“Getting It”) fails miserably, though, sounding completely out of place on an album that is, for the most part, calm and subdued. While listeners can appreciate the absence of overused samples and overshadowing beats which would hinder Keke’s voice from being heard and distract from the generally smooth ballads, who knew Keke Wyatt would return only with material that sounds like something we heard years ago?

Preview the entire album here: http://www.amazon.com/Who-Knew/dp/B00363U0L2/ref=mb_oe_o

The kids are calling it “Two Teachers, One Chair,” and it has all the makings of a YouTube hit.

But school administrators and parents are hard pressed to find humour in a graphic lap dance caught on video between two teachers at a spirit rally at Churchill High School in Winnipeg last week.

The two teachers, one of whom was identified by students as phys-ed instructor Chrystie Fitchner, have been sent home without pay after the spirit dance before 100 students as young as 13 years old. The identity of the male teacher could not be confirmed. Efforts to reach Ms. Fitchner Tuesday night were unsuccessful.

The whole routine has since been distributed on the Internet, thanks to the footage captured on a student's cellphone camera. The Winnipeg School Division is investigating.

Fourteen-year-old Saigha Vincent was filming the teacher dance-off at the Gym Riot spirit assembly last Wednesday for Grade 9 to 12 students at the Winnipeg high school.

The routine began with the female teacher, sporting pigtails, seated on a chair, her legs spread, hips gyrating. Bumping beats played in the background and the male teacher approached between her legs, his hips swiveling to the beat.

Less than five seconds into the routine, the Grade 9 student and her friends went from giggling to staring at their sometimes very strict instructors in disbelief.

“At first we were laughing and then it was like ‘Oh that's a little too far.'”

But it went even further.

The female teacher threw her head back and thrust her one leg out as the male teacher continued to dance over her. There was butt-slapping and further gyration. Then the man dipped his head down between her legs and simulated oral sex.

“He is sticking his head into her crotch, into her private area,” said outraged Winnipeg school trustee Mike Babinsky, who saw the video Tuesday. “I don't know if they're making contact, but it's way too close.”

He said he is dismayed at the teachers' behaviour and is glad the school is taking disciplinary action against them. He says he is waiting for the investigation to comment on whether he will lobby for further disciplinary action.

“I would expect a higher standard from teachers in any school in Canada,” said the long-serving trustee and father of six children. “I want them to be role models for our kids. I want them to set the bar high.”

Principal Michel Chartrand could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. Winnipeg School Division trustees received an e-mail from the school board Tuesday to decline requests for comment from the media.Meanwhile, concern about the incident continues to ripple through the school.

Thirteen-year-old Grade 8 student Montana Fortier said the “whole school was rattled” after the assembly. Though the assembly was meant for older students, she caught some of it through the gym doors.

“Even a lot of students in Grade 8 or Grade 9 are worried about how this would make the school look.”

Elijah Muhammad was born Elijah (or Robert) Poole on October 7, 1897, near Sandersville, Georgia. His parents were former slaves who worked as sharecroppers (farming the owner's land for a share of the crops) on a cotton plantation; his father was also a Baptist preacher. One of thirteen children, his schooling only lasted until he was nine; then Elijah had to work in the fields and on the railroad. His light skin color made him even more aware of the injustices (unfair treatments) that had been done to his ancestors. He left home at age sixteen to travel and work at odd jobs. He settled in Detroit, Michigan, in 1923, working on a car assembly line.

Poole became an early follower of W. D. Fard (c. 1877–c. 1934), the founder of the Nation of Islam, a religious faith practiced by Muslims in which Allah is the one god and Muhammad is his prophet (one who speaks through messages from a divine source). Fard appeared in Detroit in 1930, selling silk goods and telling his customers in the African American ghetto of their ancestral "homeland" across the seas. Fard proclaimed Islam the one correct religion for African Americans, denouncing Christianity as the religion of the slave masters. Soon Fard announced the opening of the Temple of Islam. It featured an unorthodox (nontraditional) form of Islam, but the movement also emphasized African American self-help and education.

Fard disappeared, as mysteriously as he had arrived, in the summer of 1934. The movement he had founded quickly developed several smaller groups. The most important was led by Poole, who had become a top leader to Fard and who had changed his name along the way to Elijah Muhammad. The movement had long had a policy of requiring members to drop their "slave" names.

Settling in Chicago, Illinois, Muhammad built what quickly became the most important center of the movement. Chicago soon featured not only a Temple of Islam, but a newspaper called Muhammad Speaks, a University of Islam, and several apartment houses, grocery stores, and restaurants—all owned by the movement. Temples were opened in other cities, and farms were purchased so that "pure" food could be made available to members. The movement was very controlled. Members had strict rules to follow regarding eating (various foods, such as pork, were forbidden), smoking and drinking (both banned), dress and appearance (conservative, neat clothing and good grooming were required), and personalbehavior—drugs, the use of foul language, gambling, listening to music, and dancing were all not allowed.

Muhammad also revised the religion of the movement. Under his system Fard was proclaimed the earthly representative of Allah, and Elijah Muhammad was his divinely appointed prophet. Muhammad also taught that black people were the original human beings and that white people had been given a temporary privilege to govern the world. That period, however, was due to end soon; the time was at hand for black people to resume their former dominant role.

In 1942 Muhammad was one of a group of militant African American leaders arrested on charges of violation of the draft laws. He was accused of sympathizing with the Japanese during World War II (1939–45; a war fought between the Axis—Germany, Japan, and Italy—and the Allies—England, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States) and of encouraging his members to resist the military draft. He had, indeed, argued that white people oppressed (forced down) all people of color, and that it made no sense for African Americans to fight those who were victims of white discrimination (an unjust treatment or judgment because of differences) as much as they themselves were. For his words and actions Muhammad spent four years, from 1942 to 1946, in a federal prison at Milan, Michigan.

Small groups of like-minded individuals occasionally withdrew from Muhammad's movement. In the early 1960s Muhammad came to be overshadowed by the charming Malcolm X (1925–1967), leader of the New York Temple. In 1964 Malcolm X founded his own movement, which moved toward a more traditional form of Islam. However, Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965.

Elijah Muhammad died on February 25, 1975. After his death the leadership of his movement passed to his son, Wallace (now Warith) Deen Muhammad, who renamed the movement the World Community of Al-Islam in the West, and then the American Muslim Mission. Warith Muhammad relaxed the strict dress code, abandoned resistance to military service, encouraged members to vote and to salute the flag, and even opened the movement to white people. In general, he made the movement much more conventionally Islamic.

Many members were disturbed at the movement's new, moderate direction. The most important of them formed a new group called the Nation of Islam, led by Louis Farrakhan (1933–). Farrakhan generally retained Elijah Muhammad's ideas and practices.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler challenged the prejudice that prevented African Americans from pursuing careers in medicine to became the first African American woman in the United States to earn an M.D. degree, a distinction formerly credited to Rebecca Cole. Although little has survived to tell the story of Crumpler's life, she has secured her place in the historical record with her book of medical advice for women and children, published in 1883.

Crumpler was born in 1831 in Delaware, to Absolum Davis and Matilda Webber. An aunt in Pennsylvania, who spent much of her time caring for sick neighbors and may have influenced her career choice, raised her. By 1852 she had moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she worked as a nurse for the next eight years (because the first formal school for nursing only opened in 1873, she was able to perform such work without any formal training). In 1860, she was admitted to the New England Female Medical College. When she graduated in 1864, Crumpler was the first African American woman in the United States to earn an M.D. degree, and the only African American woman to graduate from the New England Female Medical College, which closed in 1873.

In her Book of Medical Discourses, published in 1883, she gives a brief summary of her career path: "It may be well to state here that, having been reared by a kind aunt in Pennsylvania, whose usefulness with the sick was continually sought, I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to relieve the sufferings of others. Later in life I devoted my time, when best I could, to nursing as a business, serving under different doctors for a period of eight years (from 1852 to 1860); most of the time at my adopted home in Charlestown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. From these doctors I received letters commending me to the faculty of the New England Female Medical College, whence, four years afterward, I received the degree of doctress of medicine."

Dr. Crumpler practiced in Boston for a short while before moving to Richmond, Virginia, after the Civil War ended in 1865. Richmond, she felt, would be "a proper field for real missionary work, and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and children. During my stay there nearly every hour was improved in that sphere of labor. The last quarter of the year 1866, I was enabled . . . to have access each day to a very large number of the indigent, and others of different classes, in a population of over 30,000 colored." She joined other black physicians caring for freed slaves who would otherwise have had no access to medical care, working with the Freedmen's Bureau, and missionary and community groups, even though black physicians experienced intense racism working in the postwar South.

"At the close of my services in that city," she explained, "I returned to my former home, Boston, where I entered into the work with renewed vigor, practicing outside, and receiving children in the house for treatment; regardless, in a measure, of remuneration." She lived on Joy Street on Beacon Hill, then a mostly black neighborhood. By 1880 she had moved to Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and was no longer in active practice. Her 1883 book is based on journal notes she kept during her years of medical practice.

No photos or other images survive of Dr. Crumpler. The little we know about her comes from the introduction to her book, a remarkable mark of her achievements as a physician and medical writer in a time when very few African Americans were able to gain admittance to medical college, let alone publish. Her book is one of the very first medical publications by an African American.

ORLANDO -- One person is dead after an incident at SeaWorld.

According to a witness, one of the trainers got pulled into the Shamu tank in Shamu Stadium and was killed. It happened during a Dine With Shamu event.

Orange County EMT officials were called out to SeaWorld after it was reported a woman was not breathing. Around 2:30 p.m. News 13 received confirmation from Orange County Fire Rescue that it was a fatality.

Including today, there have been 22 incidents since the early 70s involving whales at SeaWorld.

In July 1999 at SeaWorld Orlando, Orange County sheriff's office say a man climbed into the Tillikum tank and was killed.

In November 2006 at SeaWorld San Diego, an orca whale pulled 39-year-old trainer Ken Peters below the surface by his foot. Peters eventually managed to safely exit the pool.

In July of 2004 at SeaWorld San Antonio, trainer Steve Aibel was attacked for several minutes during a show. Amazingly he was not hurt.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Police say two Florida teenagers are facing charges after 911 dispatchers heard them talking about breaking into cars when one teen's cell phone accidentally called 911 during the heist.

Daytona Beach police say 19-year-old Stefanie Vargas and a 13-year-old are charged with burglary to a conveyance.

Police spokesman Jimmie Flynt says dispatchers listened as the pair discussed what was worth taking while rummaging though a vehicle parked near a Daytona Beach nightclub early Sunday.

Officers went to the area and spotted the 13-year-old inside a vehicle. A police report says the teen tried to flee in a sport utility vehicle driven by Vargas. The report says both admitted to the robbery.

It's unclear how the number got dialed

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Puppet cleavage has been ruled out for advertising posters in Colorado Springs bus shelters.

Lamar Advertising rejected posters for a touring production of the Broadway show "Avenue Q" because they show the cleavage of a fuzzy pink puppet.

Lamar account executive Jeff Moore says the company takes a conservative approach in Colorado Springs. The city is known for its political conservatism, and some conservative Christian groups have headquarters in the city.

The poster has been replaced by one showing the face of another puppet.

"Avenue Q" is a Tony-winning musical about twentysomething New Yorkers, both human and puppets, searching for life and love.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - A Florida woman said her love handles saved her life when she was shot entering an Atlantic City bar. Samantha Lynn Frazier said she heard two pops when she walked into Herman's Place early Saturday. The 35-year-old then felt pain and saw blood on her hand after she grabbed her left side. Atlantic City police said Frazier was an innocent bystander.

Detective Lt. Charles Love said the gunman was aiming for a man who escaped with a bullet hole in his down jacket.

The suspect remains at large.

Frazier told The Press of Atlantic City that "I could have been dead. They said my love handles saved my life."

Frazier also told the newspaper that she had been "hollering" that she wanted to lose weight. She now said "I want to be as big as I can if it's going to stop a bullet."

VILLE PLATTE, La. - A Louisiana woman has pleaded guilty to selling two children for a cockatoo and $175 in what her attorney called an attempt to do a good thing that went wrong.

"It was a really clumsy attempt at an adoption proceeding," said Steve Sikich, attorney for Donna Louise Greenwell of Pitkin. "She was trying to help the children and get them situated."

Greenwell, 53, was sentenced Monday to 15 months of hard labor on each of two criminal counts: sale of a minor. The sentences are to run concurrently.

The case centered on a 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl in Greenwell's custody.

Investigators said she called Paul J. Romero, 46, and Brandy Lynn Romero, 27, of Evangeline Parish early last year after seeing a flyer they posted offering a cockatoo for sale, and offered to deliver the children for about $2,000. When the Romeros said they could not afford that, a deal was stuck for the bird, valued at $1,500, plus cash.

Greenwell had custody of the children for more than a year before meeting the Romeros, Sikich said. Her lawyers have maintained she was just trying to find a better home for them.

"They were undernourished and not well taken care of," Sikich said. "It's my understanding that the mother had requested that she take care of the kids."

Another lawyer for Greenwell had said previously that they children were "abandoned to her care."

Neither the children's' mother or father could be located, Sikich said.

The $175 was to cover the cost of an attorney to transfer custody of the children to the Romeros, Sikich said. The cockatoo was a gift to Greenwell's granddaughter, he said.

Plea deal
Greenwell's sentences were part of a plea deal worked out with the Evangeline Parish District Attorney's office.

Sikich said Greenwell could have faced up to 10 years on each count and another 20 years as a habitual offender. The district attorney agreed not to file charges against Greenwell as a habitual offender as part of the plea bargain, Sikich said.

"She did not have a good attorney for two previous counts, which left her with a record she didn't really deserve," he said. He said the charges were for issuing worthless checks and second-degree battery.

The Romeros, of Eunice, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sale of a minor child, the district attorney said in an earlier statement. Their five-year prison sentences were suspended in exchange for their testimony against Greenwell, the statement said.

The district attorney's office did not return repeated calls Tuesday for comment.

Greenwell will begin serving her sentence on March 25.

Prince is set to debut a brand new song, “Cause And Effect,” on Minneapolis radio on Friday, February 26th.

National Public Radio station The Current, 89.3 FM in Minneapolis will debut a brand new song from the legendary funk/rock/pop/soul/you-name-it musician this Friday at 7AM. It’s unknown whether or not the song is a single from a new album, or just a one-off.

The song is called “Cause and Effect,” and it’s a rocker – filled with virtuosic guitar work, explosive drum breaks, a poppy chorus, trademark shrieks and whoops, some intriguing lyrics (”if I had the chance to do it all again / I wouldn’t change a thing except my next of kin”) and a call to mankind (”you need compassion”). Opening with Prince’s classic pop smarts, the last minute of the tune swerves into a propulsive minor key guitar/strings/drum workout like we haven’t heard from him in years.

We hope this song is better than the tune he penned for the Minnesota Vikings last month!

Ghostface stopped by Shade 45 along with Method Man & Raekwon to talk to Angela Yee and promote the upcoming Wu Massacre album and talked about his cameo appearance in Disney’s forthcoming film When In Rome.

Ghostface appears in a party scene as a DJ in the upcoming “chick flick,” as Ghost calls it, starring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel.

“They wanted me to get in there. I didn’t really get paid for the s**t or nothing, but I just thought, just do it cause it’s Disney.”

Ghost also had some choice words to say about Def Jam Records…

Get ‘em Ghost!

Scholar and political activist W.E.B. Du Bois helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). DuBois attended Harvard University and in 1895 became the first African-American to receive a doctorate from the school. He became a university professor, a prolific writer and a pioneering social scientist on the topic of black culture. DuBois particularly disagreed with black leaders such as Booker T. Washington who urged integration into white society; Du Bois championed global African unity and (especially in later years) separatism. He distilled his views in his famous 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk. In 1909 he was a founding member of the NAACP, an organization promoting progress and social equality for blacks. Du Bois continued for decades as a strong public voice on behalf of African-Americans. In the 1950s he clashed with the federal government over his support for labor, his public appreciations of the Soviet Union, and his demands that nuclear weapons be outlawed. He emigrated to Ghana in 1961 and became a citizen of that country shortly before his death in 1963. The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois was published posthumously in 1968.

A violent criminal used a spoon to dig her way out of a Dutch prison, officials said on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old woman, held for an unspecified "violent crime,” fled Saturday night through a tunnel she had dug with a spoon, prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin, told AFP.

The tunnel linked the inside of the prison in Breda in the southern Netherlands to the outside world, he said, without specifying if it started in the woman's cell.

Justice ministry spokesman Jochgem van Opstal would not say what sentence the woman was serving or for what specific crime. She was still on the run Tuesday.

SOMERVILLE, N.J. — Former NBA star Jayson Williams was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday for fatally shooting a hired driver in 2002, ending an eight-year legal odyssey by tearfully apologizing to the victim's family. He will be eligible for parole in 18 months.

Williams, avoiding a retrial on a reckless manslaughter count that deadlocked the jury at his 2004 trial, pleaded guilty last month to aggravated assault in the death of Costas Christofi in February 2002. At the same 2004 trial, he was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter but convicted on four counts of covering up the shooting.

State Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman sentenced Williams to five years for the cover-up counts, a sentence that will run concurrent to the assault sentence.

In court Tuesday, a tearful Williams turned and apologized to Andrea Adams, Christofi's sister, saying "there's not a day I wake up that I don't feel sorry for what I did to Mr. Christofi and that I put you through this."

Adams wrote in a letter read by a court employee that the punishment "didn't fit the crime" and spoke of "eight years of agony watching Jayson Williams prance around and live his life and acting like nothing happened."

Williams paid Christofi's family more than $2 million in 2003 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.

He had been free on bail since being charged in 2002, but was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs to begin serving his sentence.

Most of the facts of the shooting are not in dispute. Christofi had driven Williams and several of the basketball player's friends to Williams' mansion after taking them to a local restaurant.

Williams admitted at his plea hearing last month that he gave the group a tour of the house and showed them his gun collection in his bedroom. While showing off a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun, Williams admitted, he failed to check the safety mechanism and inspected only one of the two barrels before snapping it shut.

The gun fired, striking Christofi once in the chest and killing him. Witnesses testified that Williams tried to cover up his involvement by initially placing the gun in Christofi's hands and instructing those present in the bedroom to lie about what happened.

"Had the defendant exercised one ounce of caution that night, Gus Christofi would still be alive and we wouldn't be here," Deputy Attorney General Steven Farman said Tuesday.

The legal wrangling in the case eventually took on a life of its own, beginning with a change of venue for the trial from Hunterdon County, the site of the shooting, to Somerset County.

In 2007, defense attorneys tried to get the case tossed out after Hunterdon County Prosecutor J. Patrick Barnes divulged that a white investigator in his office had used a racial slur to describe Williams, who is black, in a 2002 meeting.

Williams, who turned 42 on Monday, played nine seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets before a leg injury forced him to retire in 2000. He was in the second year of a six-year, $86 million contract.

He became an NBA analyst for NBC but was suspended after Christofi's shooting. He attempted a short-lived comeback in the minor league Continental Basketball Association in 2005.

Williams has suffered several recent personal setbacks.

His wife filed for divorce last year, but has attended some of his recent court appearances.

Police used a stun gun on him in a New York hotel last year after a female friend said he was acting suicidal. He was charged with assault in May after allegedly punching a man in the face outside a North Carolina bar, but charges were dropped. His father, E.J., with whom he owned a construction business, died in South Carolina in November.

Last month he was charged with drunken driving after he crashed his SUV in Manhattan. Prosecutors said his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

VANCOUVER – Vanessa James says she had two big reasons to feel proud on the ice Monday: she was part of the first black figure skating pair in Olympic history, and she did it in the country of her birth.

Toronto-born James and partner Yannick Bonheur, skating for France, delighted the crowd at the Pacific Coliseum with an elegant and technically rich routine in their free skate. They are among the few black skaters who have climbed the ranks of international figure skating and the first to reach these heights as part of a pair.

“We’ve actually had a few people who had come from the U.S. to watch the Olympics and they had never seen us before, and they have children who are black figure skaters and now they want to be the best,” James said after their routine Monday. “They see that it’s possible so I hope we do see more black skaters in figure skating, and then we’ll see more skaters.”
Getting to Vancouver has been a long journey for the duo who teamed up just over two years ago after Bonheur put an advert on the internet after splitting with previous partner Marylin Pla. Canadian-born James' aunt saw it and convinced her niece, who has lived in England since she was a child, to reply.

James, 22, arrived in France for a trial run and never left with the duo teaming up in December 2007. "It's destiny and I'm very happy about it," said 27-year-old Bonheur. "There's the grace and beauty of Vanessa and then my athleticism. And the fact that we're both black brings a pleasing visual harmony."

James previously competed internationally for Britain as a single's skater. She was the 2006 British national champion and 2007 silver medalist. The pair moved to Indianapolis in the United States in August 2009 to train with Russian coach Sergei Zaitsev. And last December they booked their ticket to Vancouver by winning the French nationals, a victory which enabled James to receive French citizenship.

Bonheur said they were determined that their Olympic experience will lay the groundwork for future successes, after they finished seventh at Europeans. "This is just the beginning. We want to make a name for ourselves so that they'll remember us for next season," he said. Bonheur said he was proud.

The two were not expected to reach the podium, but skated cleanly in their second routine of the Games. “We want to prove that blacks in figure skating can succeed. We hope that in the future we can win some medals, and bring a black touch to figure skating.”