Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough: Why USC and not a black college, Dr. Dre?

The following is an op-ed piece that was written by Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough who is the president of Dillard University, an HBCU in New Orleans. 

 I was in Detroit preparing to give a speech last week when the news came across my Twitter feed: "Dr. Dre and music producer Jimmy Iovine donate $70 million to USC to create new degree." As one of the first university presidents from the hip-hop generation, I had to stop and read the story immediately.

The two music moguls and co-founders of Beats Electronics — recognizing that they needed a new type of creative talent for their growing music technology business — are funding a four-year program that blends liberal arts, graphic and product design, business and technology.

I understood their need to build a pool of skilled talent. But why at USC? Iovine's daughter is an alum, sure. And he just gave its commencement address. Andre Young — before he was Dr. Dre — grew up in nearby Compton, where he rose to fame as part of the rap group N.W.A. The Beats headquarters are on L.A.'s Westside.

Still, what if Dre had given $35 million — his half of the USC gift and about 10% of his wealth, according to a Forbes estimate — to an institution that enrolls the very people who supported his career from the beginning? An institution where the majority of students are low-income? A place where $35 million would represent a truly transformational gift?

Why didn't Dr. Dre give it to a black college?

Make no mistake: This donation is historic. It appears to be the largest gift by a black man to any college or university, comparable to the gift Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, gave to Spelman College in 1988. Some 25 years later, their $20-million gift (about $39 million in inflation-adjusted dollars) is still the largest-ever private gift to a historically black college. Dre gave USC almost triple the amount Oprah Winfrey has given Morehouse College over the years. Sean "Diddy" Combs gave $500,000 to Howard University in 1999, which he attended before launching a successful career.

A hip-hop icon is now the new black higher-ed philanthropy king. We've never seen a donation to rival this from any black celebrity — musician, athlete or actor — and that fact must be celebrated.

But as the president of a black college, it pains me as well. I can't help but wish that Dre's wealth, generated as it was by his largely black hip-hop fans, was coming back to support that community.

USC is a great institution, no question. But it has a $3.5-billion endowment, the 21st largest in the nation and much more than every black college — combined. Less than 20% of USC's student body qualifies for federal Pell Grants, given to students from low-income families, compared with two-thirds of those enrolled at black colleges. USC has also seen a steady decrease in black student enrollment, which is now below 5%.

A new report on black male athletes and racial inequities shows that only 2.2% of USC undergrads are black men, compared with 56% of its football and basketball teams, one of the largest disparities in the nation. And given USC's $45,602 tuition next year, I'm confident Dre could have sponsored multiple full-ride scholarships to private black colleges for the cost of one at USC.

Maybe some suspect that a historically black college or university would not have the breadth or depth of expertise on its faculty to spearhead an innovative academy. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This future Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation is to be multidisciplinary, with a technology focus. In 2011, the National Science Foundation noted that black colleges are a major source of scientists and engineers. In fact, the top five producers of blacks who go on to earn science, technology, engineering and math graduate degrees are black colleges, as are 20 of the top 50. Once you add in the musical legacy of black colleges' choirs and marching bands, they are the perfect locations for an academy like this.

In the end, though, this is his money, and endowing a program geographically nearby, where he can have ongoing input and contact, makes sense. I do hope it will recruit and enroll a diverse class of students and not become some enclave for the already privileged student body there.

But more important, I hope this groundbreaking gift inspires other celebrities and musical artists to make similar donations to higher education. And that they will consider doing it in a manner that will be truly transformative. This gift is gravy for USC; for a black college, it would transform not just individuals but whole institutions and communities.

In the Detroit airport on my way home, I counted seven people sporting the stylish Beats by Dre headphones on the way to my gate. All seven were black men, like me. My own Dre earbuds were in my briefcase. I'm sure we all bought them not only to support Dr. Dre but because of the quality of the product.

My challenge is to figure out how to get Dr. Dre and others to listen as well, because when they support black colleges, they are also supporting a quality product.

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QUESTION OF THE DAY: What The Hell Is Going On With Our Boys?!?!?

Steubenville. Dunbar Village. Cleveland, Texas. Rick Ross. Morehouse College. Chicago.  What does these things have in common.  They all are or have had incidences that are indicative of the rape culture that is running rampant in this country.

For so long, the burden of a rape has been placed on the shoulders of the victim.  In the instance of rape the first question that is normally asked by the society as a whole is, "What did she do to cause this to happen to her?"  But no one ever seems to want to ask, "What would make someone think it's okay to do this?"

In the case of Steubenville, the entire town backed the perpetrators until the pictures of what happened to the victim surfaced, but even then people still supported the perpetrators.

Somehow we have this need to hold our girls to these ridiculous standards of perfection, but there is never any accountability for our boys and their behavior.  Boys are allowed to be 'just boys' but somehow pre-teen and teenage girls are supposed to have the mindset of an adult.  Teenage girls are expected to not make a mistake because if they do some boy is going to rape them and its going to be all their fault.

That is the message we have sent to our daughters when it comes to this rape culture that has permeated our society. 

I've heard people say that the young girl in Steubenville should also be held accountable for her actions because she had no business drinking.  Oh that's right, I didn't realize underage drinking gave people a right to rape someone.  My bad.  What was I thinking?

I'm sure in the Chicago case there are people who were probably wondering what does a 12 year old girl need to talk to a 16 year old boy about.  Don't pretend you haven't heard people make such a ridiculous assertion before.

These are the ridiculous things people say in order to justify what is going on.  When is someone going to stand up and ask why do our boys think that taking advantage of a girl when she is incapacitated is a cool thing to do?  When are we going to demand more of our boys?  When are we going to stop telling our daughters not to get rape and demand that our sons don't rape?

I applaud the people who took on Rick Ross and his ridiculous lyrics celebrating putting a 'Molly' in a girls drink.  This is the type of stuff we must have more of.  More people have to stand up if we're ever going to change our society.

And in the case of Steubenville and Morehouse College, people have to step up when they witness things like this taking place.  In the alleged rape of the Spelman student by the Morehouse students, there were witnesses there that were supposed to have been the victim's friends.  But yet, not one of them step forward to help the alleged victim.

I don't understand what's wrong with us as a people.  I realize we live in a patriarchal society, but even men should want better and demand better for their daughters.

We have to stop this pathology of blaming the victim and then figure out why we have this innate need to blame the victim in the first place.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH US?

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RAPE CULTURE: Three Teens Accused of Raping 12 year old Girl and Posting Video of Rape to Facebook

Chicago --- Three teenagers face sex assault charges after they raped a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint and posted a video of the December attacks on Facebook, prosecutors said.

Scandale Fritz, 16, Kenneth Brown, 15, and Justin Applewhite, 16, were all ordered held in lieu of $900,000 bail in a hearing today before Criminal Court Judge James Brown, said Cook County state's attorney spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. The three were charged as adults.

The assaults took place about 3:30 p.m. Dec. 15 in Fritz's home in the 400 block of West 60th Place in the Englewood neighborhood, according to Chicago police records.

The girl had gone to Fritz's house on 60th Place that afternoon to talk to him, and when she went inside, she saw Brown, with a gun in his pocket, prosecutors said. Fritz took the girl downstairs in the house and after she declined his demands for sex, he raped and sodomized her, prosecutors said.

Brown and Applewhite came down to the basement, and Fritz demanded the girl have sex with the other two boys, prosecutors said. At first, the girl refused, but she saw that Brown had a gun in his pocket, and so they sexually assaulted her and forced her to perform sex acts on them.

Fritz videotaped the sex acts, including Brown holding a gun during sex, and all three of the boys shouting gang slogans, prosecutors said. All three of the boys are visible in the video, with Fritz entering the frame when he turns the camera toward himself.

The day after the assaults, the girl told someone about the attacks, and a police report was made and the girl was treated and examined at a hospital. On Dec. 17, the video was posted on Brown's Facebook page, and then on all three boys' Facebook pages, prosecutors said.

Fritz admitted to investigators he made the tape, prosecutors said.

Fritz and Brown, also of the 400 block of West 60th Place, are co-defendants in a previous, unrelated robbery and aggravated battery case, according to prosecutors. Brown also is on 18 months probation in a Nov. 28, 2012, unlawful use of a weapon case, prosecutors said. Brown is due back in court on that case May 22.

Applewhite, of the 500 block of East 80th Street, has no publishable criminal background, prosecutors said.

The three are due back in court June 6.

It was not known why it took until May to charge the three teens.

source

 

Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

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Breaking Down the President's Morehouse Commencement Address

Not surprisingly, there was some criticism of President Obama's tone in his address to the graduating class of Morehouse College, this past Sunday.  Some viewed it as tough love, but were not appreciative of that idea.  Some viewed it as his disdain for black people.  One tweet said that once again the President showed white people that "he doesn't like us."  One writer said that he would not have spoken to other minority groups in the same fashion.  Specifically, the President would not have given a "pick yourself by the bootstraps" message to the women of Barnard College. (My response to that is while it may not have been in a direct address, those belonging to certain groups have similar "tough love" conversations.  Sheryl Sandberg got slammed by women after her book was released.  Granted she is not the president, but I think it is an accepted norm that you can say things to your own that you would not say to other groups, or you would deliver the same message differently).  At the time that I am writing this, this next article is yet to be published, but one opinion seems to think that the President endorses the Talented Tenth theory.

Between Sunday and Monday, I listened to the commencement speech twice and I am floored by the criticism.  I just do not see their points of view.  I think I am fairly intelligent.  Listening is actually a strength of mine.  I am a proud supporter of the Obamas but I am very much an independent thinking individual.  I am not a groupie.  My vision of the Obamas is not hazed by the halo effect.  They are not above reproach and criticism.  I will never say that no one can air their grievances with the President.  I will question, however, the validity of those grievances and to what extent airing them really helps the cause of forward movement versus what amounts to just a gripe session.  I have my criticisms of the President.  I rarely voice them because I do not view them as helpful nor as something that has not already been said.  I also tend to have a big picture mindset when it comes to his agenda and his administration.  What is his overall intention?  I do not get bogged down in the "play by play" and how every detail was not executed perfectly.  Also, I do not overestimate his authority nor do I underestimate the difficulty of his job and the environment he is in.  From the outside looking in, it is beyond ugly in our nation's capital.  Insiders say that it is indeed WORSE than it looks.  Many times after certain reports, all I can genuinely say/pray is "Lord help him."  He has vantage point that I cannot even fathom.  So no matter what my criticisms are, I usually resign myself to defer to him.

In any case, I listened to the speech twice. Finally I printed out the transcript, intently reading it trying very hard to comprehend the criticisms.  I grabbed my highlighter and made some notes.  I thought I would share them.

Your generation is uniquely poised for success unlike any generation of African Americans that came before it.  But that doesn't mean we don't have work--because if we're honest with ourselves, we know that too few of our brothers have the opportuntities that you've had here at Morehouse.  Is that not a fact?  Data clearly shows the low numbers of black males in college. 

...too few of our citizens have role models to guide them.  Communities just a couple miles from my house in Chicago...No one I know would argue that we are lacking in black male role models.  He gets it.  He is not talking from the lofty position of President.  This truth hits home for him as it does many of us.

There are some things, as black men, we can only do for ourselves.  There are some things, as Morehouse Men, that you are obliged for those still left behind.  I wish he would have elaborated on what those things are.  Was he referring to looking out for one another and building each other up? The idea of being "obliged" is actually questionable to me.  But reaching back and giving back is a common refrain in the black community.

So what I ask of you today is the same thing I ask of every graduating class I address...His overall message of being a part of something larger than ourselves is a very consistent message.  That message is delivered differently to different audiences, but still a consistent message.

I know some of you came to Morehouse from communities where life was about keeping your head down and looking out for yourself.  Maybe you feel like you escaped...no one expects you to take a vow of poverty.  Can anyone argue that there is a sense of relief when you do get out of certain environments?  Be relieved, get what you need and go after what you want, but still look back.  Many of us frown on those that do not look back.  Once again the President speaks a sentiment shared by many.

Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down.  I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing.  Is that not something we have heard (or even said ourselves)? Many times, but not always, those who say this are indeed offering it as an excuse; they usually are falling short and blame others for their own mistakes.  It happens all the time and we know it.  The race card is played inappropriately.  When the race card is appropriately played, no one understanding the situation balks at that.

I understand there's a common fraternity creed here at Morehouse:  'Excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.' Well, we've got no time for excuses.  Who hasn't heard some variation of this statement?

It's just that in today's hyperconnected, hypercompetitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil--many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did--all of them entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything that you have not earned.  Poor choice of words at the end.  I don't think that most of us have that expectation.  However, the global competition is fierce.  I'm not sure that recent graduates fully grasp this concept.  BILLIONS  of others around the world have overcome challenges and could very well outcompete us.

Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination.  And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you've gone through.  It pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured--and they overcame them.  And if they overcame them, you can overcome them too.  Sad reality. 

Everyone of you have a grandma or an uncle or a parent who's told you that at some point in life, as an African American, you have to work twice as hard as anyone else if you want to get by.  This is the classic world as it is and not as it should be.  But who knows this better than the man himself?  He is the President of the United States for crying out loud!!  He shattered the glass ceiling for black men in this country.  And we all know he is not having an easy time.  It is an inherently difficult job. But it is beyond clear that absolutely nothing is being handed to him, even the things that have broad public support.  A frustrating and unfair reality, but a reality nonetheless.

...that spirit of excellence, and hard work, and dedication, and no excuses is needed now more than ever.  If you think you can just get over in this economy just because you have a Morehouse degree, you're in for a rude awakening.  A lot of college graduates, across all races, think that a college degree is their golden ticket.  It has been ingrained in them.  Underserved communities have been preached to for years that a college degree is their way out of poverty.  It is just an incomplete truth.  A college degree is an economic imperative but most people attribute their success to factors not taught in the classroom.

Keep setting an example for what it means to be a man.  Be the best husband to your wife, or your boyfriend, or your partner.  Be the best father you can be to your children.  Because nothing is more important.  SAY THAT AGAIN AND AGAIN!  It is a message that bears repeating. Didn't the black community just congregate around Oprah's Lifeclass about fatherless sons?  If the President never addressed this, he would be slammed for it as well.  No win situation.

But I sure wish I had had a father who was not only present, but involved...I want to break the cycle where a father is not at home.  I always thought this was the President's way of connecting to many of our young fatherless men; not his public "working out" of his father issues.

I'm still learning...Everything else is unfufilled if we fail at family.  You may not know how to be a family man, but you can learn.  You need to learn; nothing else matters.

So if you've had role models, fathers, brothers like that--thank them today.  And if you haven't, commit yourself to being that man to somebody else.  This is an age-old sentiment. Why is it tough love coming from the President?

W.E.B. Dubois spoke about the 'talented tenth'--a class of highly educated, socially conscious leaders in the black community.  But it's not just the African American community that needs you.  The country needs you.  The world needs you.  The operative phrase is "leaders in the black community." Expand your influence.  I see the mention of the "talented tenth" as a point of reference to help others familiar with the theory recall the statement.  I didn't see this as an endorsement of the theory.  Although our leaders are indeed a small percentage of the population and many are college educated.  It's just that college is not the only way to develop into that type of person.

That's what we've come to expect from you, Morehouse--a legacy of leaders--not just in our black community, but for the entire American community.  To recognize the burdens you carry with you, but to resist the temptation to use them as excuses...you are heirs to a great legacy.  You have the same courage and that same strength, the same resolve as the men who came before you.  He summed up his viewpoint pretty well here.  If anyone questioned his intent, to me he clarifies it very well in his concluding statements.

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NOW THIS IS AN ICON: Prince Shuts Down the Billboard Awards (Video)

Last night the Billboard Awards bestowed the Icon Award on the one and only Prince Rogers Nelson.

This day and age the word icon is tossed around very loosely, but in my opinion there aren't too many artists that fall into that category. An iconic artist to me is someone who's transgenerational. Someone that old people know their music as well as young people. An icon is a person who not only changed the game, but who's music stands the test of time. I don't know of any artists, maybe artist is too strong of a word to describe the musical acts out today, that fit into the iconic status. But I will say that the Royal Purple One is the epitome of icon.

Prince is an artist in the truest sense of the word. He takes his craft serious and he never compromise as an artist. He is fearless and oozes talent. There is nothing manufactured about him.  These musical acts of today could learn a lot from this man.



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REAL TALK (VIDEO): President Obama and First Lady Commencement Addresses at HBCUs

Call me a fanatic, but I try to listen to President and Mrs. Obama, firsthand, as much as possible.  To me, their recent commencement addresses at Morehouse College and Bowie State University seem to be unlike any other speech that I have heard from them.  They both seemed upbeat, relaxed and wanted to engage in real talk.  Call it the freedom and boldness that comes from a second and final term in office and/or the fact that there is just a level of comfort when they are with us.  Watching them speak made me smile and proud.  I love watching people confidently being themselves and yes that includes confidence and comfort in the racial aspect of their identities.  For the President and First Lady, the comfort in their blackness was undeniable.  Not that they were ever uncomfortable before, it just seemed quite apparent in these addresses.

On a side note:  The press is showing clips from the President's address where he talks about no excuses.  I find it interesting that those are the clips they choose to share.  It irritates me because it sounds as if they want to paint the image of the President telling black folks how it is, as if he is lecturing us.   If you listen to the speech in its entirety, the tone and context are not that of a harsh lecture.

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SAY WHAT: Wealthy Parents Have Found A Despicable Way To Cut The Lines At Disney World

A handful of rich Manhattan mothers are hiring disabled people to pose as family members so their children can jump to the front of the lines at Disney World, The New York Post reports today.

The paper points its finger at Dream Tours, a company that helps organize vacations for people with special needs.

The company — and clients who are willing to pay — allegedly take advantage of a Disney rule that allows guests who need a wheelchair or motorized scooter to bring up to six guests to a “more convenient entrance,” the Post's Tara Palmeri reports.

The company reportedly provides a disabled "escort," who accompanies the family around the park and to the front of the line at busy rides.

According to The Post:

“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,’’ [one mom] sniffed. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney."

The woman said she hired a Dream Tours guide to escort her, her husband and their 1-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter through the park in a motorized scooter with a “handicapped” sign on it. The group was sent straight to an auxiliary entrance at the front of each attraction.

The "black-market" guides run $130 for an hour, and $1,040 for an eight-hour day, The Post reports.
Disney did not return The Post's requests for comment. You can read the full story at The Post.

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Aretha Franklin pulls out of shows under doctor's orders

NEW YORK — Aretha Franklin has canceled appearances in Chicago and Connecticut later this month under a doctor's recommendation.

A Monday news release says Franklin will need treatment during the time period shows were scheduled with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on May 20 and at Foxwoods Resort & Casino in Connecticut on May 26. The release doesn't specify what kind of treatment and her publicist did not immediately respond to a message seeking details.

Singer Janelle Monae will step in for Franklin for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Corporate Night fundraiser. The Grammy-winning singer will be playing orchestral versions of her songs that she'll first debut Thursday with the San Francisco Symphony.

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Philly ‘Abortion Doc’ Guilty In 3 Babies’ Deaths

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia abortion doctor was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder and could face execution in the deaths of three babies who authorities say were delivered alive and then killed with scissors at his grimy clinic, in a case that became a flashpoint in the nation’s debate over abortion.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the drug-overdose death of a patient who had undergone an abortion. He was cleared in the death of a fourth baby, who prosecutors say let out a soft whimper before he snipped its neck.

Gosnell appeared hopeful before the verdict was read and calm afterward; jurors and lawyers on both sides were more emotional.

The jury will return May 21 to hear evidence on whether Gosnell should get the death penalty.

Former clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed illegal late-term abortions past Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit, that he delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing, and that he and his assistants “snipped” the newborns’ spines, as he referred to it.

“Are you human?” prosecutor Ed Cameron snarled during closing arguments as Gosnell sat calmly at the defense table. “To med these women up and stick knives in the backs of babies?”

The grisly details came out more than two years ago during an investigation of prescription drug trafficking at Gosnell’s clinic in an impoverished section of West Philadelphia.

Authorities said the clinic was a foul-smelling “house of horrors” with bags and bottles of stored fetuses, including jars of severed feet, along with bloodstained furniture, dirty medical instruments, and cats roaming the premises.

Pennsylvania authorities had failed to conduct routine inspections of all of its abortion clinics for 15 years by the time Gosnell’s facility was raided and closed down. In the scandal’s aftermath, two top state health department officials were fired, and Pennsylvania imposed tougher rules for clinics.

“We see this as triumph of justice,” said Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, a group that has taken a lead role in efforts to enact anti-abortion laws in state legislatures.

Four former clinic employees have pleaded guilty to murder and four more to other charges. They include Gosnell’s wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist who helped perform abortions.

Both sides of the abortion divide seized on the case. Abortion foes said it exposed the true nature of abortion in all its disturbing detail. Abortion rights activists warned that Gosnell’s rogue practice foreshadows what poor and desperate young women could face if abortion is driven underground with more restrictive laws.

Midway through the six-week trial, anti-abortion activists accused the mainstream media of ignoring the case because it reflected badly on the abortion rights cause. Major news organizations denied the allegation, though a number promptly sent reporters to cover the trial.

After prosecutors rested their case, Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart threw out for lack of evidence three of seven murder counts involving aborted fetuses. That left the jury to weigh charges involving fetuses identified as Baby A, Baby C, Baby D and Baby E.

Prosecution experts said one was nearly 30 weeks along when it was aborted, and it was so big that Gosnell allegedly joked it could “walk to the bus.” A second fetus was said to be alive for some 20 minutes before a clinic worker snipped its neck. A third was born in a toilet and was moving before another clinic employee grabbed it and severed its spinal cord, according to testimony.

Baby E let out a soft whimper before Gosnell cut its neck, prosecutors alleged. Gosnell was acquitted in that baby’s death, the only one of the four in which no eyewitness account was given during the trial.

Gosnell’s attorney, Jack McMahon, argued that none of the fetuses was born alive and that any movements were posthumous twitching or spasms.

He also contended that the 2009 death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar of Woodbridge, Va., a Bhutanese immigrant who had been given repeated doses of Demerol and other powerful drugs to sedate her and induce labor, was caused by unforeseen complications.

Gosnell was also convicted of infanticide, racketeering and more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s abortion laws by performing third-term abortions or failing to counsel women 24 hours in advance.

Gosnell did not testify, and his lawyer called no witnesses in his defense. But McMahon argued that the doctor provided desperate young woman with “a solution to their problems,” and he branded prosecutors “elitist” and “racist” for pursuing his client, who is black and whose patients were mostly poor minorities.

“We know why he was targeted,” McMahon said.

Prosecutors described Gosnell’s employees as nearly as desperate as the patients. Some had little or no medical training, and at least one was a teenager still in high school. One woman needed the work to support her children after her husband’s murder.

Stephen Massof, an unlicensed medical school graduate who could not find a residency, told jurors that Gosnell taught him how to snip babies’ spines, something he then did at least 100 times at the clinic.

“I felt like a fireman in hell,” Massof testified. “I couldn’t put out all the fires.”

Gosnell still faces federal drug charges. Authorities said that he ranked third in the state for OxyContin prescriptions and that he left blank prescription pads at his office and let staff members make them out to cash-paying patients.

He performed thousands of abortions over a 30-year career. Authorities said the medical practice alone netted him about $1.8 million a year, much of it in cash. Authorities found $250,000 hidden in a bedroom when they searched his house. Gosnell also owned a beach home and several rental properties.

“He created an assembly line with no regard for these women whatsoever,” Cameron said. “And he made money doing that.”

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New Orleans Mother's Day Parade Shooting Likely 'Street Violence,' Not Terrorism, FBI Says

NEW ORLEANS — Gunmen opened fire on people marching in a neighborhood Mother's Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 19.

The shooting – described by the FBI as a flare-up of street violence – shattered the festive mood surrounding the parade that drew hundreds of people to the 7th Ward neighborhood of modest row houses not far from the French Quarter. Cell phone video taken in the aftermath of the shooting shows victims lying on the ground, blood on the pavement and others bending over to comfort them.

At least three of the victims were seriously wounded. Of the rest, many were grazed and authorities said that overall most wounds were not life threatening. No deaths were reported.

The victims included 10 men, seven women, a boy and a girl. The children, both 10 years old, were grazed and in good condition.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu urged witnesses to come forward with information during a news conference Sunday night at a hospital where gunshot victims were taken.

"These kinds of incidents will not go unanswered. Somebody knows something. The way to stop this violence is for you all to help," he said.

Mary Beth Romig, a spokeswoman for the FBI in New Orleans, said federal investigators have no indication that the shooting was an act of terrorism.

"It's strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans," she said.

As many as 400 people came out for the second-line procession – a boisterous New Orleans tradition – though only half that many were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, said Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas. Officers were interspersed with the marchers, which is routine for such events.

Police saw three suspects running from the scene. No arrests had been made as of early evening.

Outside the hospital on Sunday night, Leonard Temple became teary as he talked about a friend who was in surgery after being shot three times during the parade. Temple was told the man was hit while trying to push his own daughter out of the way.

"People were just hanging out. We were just chilling. And this happened. Bad things always happen to good people," said Temple, who was at the parade but didn't see the shootings.

In the late afternoon, the scene was taped off and police had placed bullet casing markers in at least 10 spots.

Second-line parades are loose processions in which people dance down the street, often following behind a brass band. They can be planned events or impromptu offshoots of other celebrations. They trace their origins to the city's famous jazz funerals.

A social club called The Original Big 7 organized Sunday's event. The group was founded in 1996 at the Saint Bernard housing projects, according to its MySpace page.

The neighborhood where the shooting happened is a mix of low-income and middle-class row houses, some boarded up. As of last year, the 7th Ward's population was about 60 percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina level.

The crime scene was about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece for the HBO TV series "Treme."

Sunday's violence comes at a time when the city is struggling to pay for tens of millions of dollars required under a federal consent decree to reform the police department and the city jail.

Shootings at parades and neighborhood celebrations have become more common in recent years as the city has struggled with street crime. Earlier this year, four people were shot following an argument in the French Quarter during the last weekend of partying before Mardi Gras. The victims survived, and several suspects were eventually arrested.

Police vowed to make swift arrests. Serpas said it wasn't clear if particular people in the second line were targeted, or if the shots were fired at random.

"We'll get them. We have good resources in this neighborhood," Serpas said.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Kevin McGill in New Orleans and AP Radio reporter Jackie Quinn in Washington.

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Malcolm X grandson reported slain in Mexico

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, was killed in Mexico on Thursday, a close family friend said.

Shabazz, 28, is perhaps most widely known for intentionally starting a fire that killed his grandmother, Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz, 63, in Yonkers, N.Y., in 1997.

According to media reports, Shabazz died of injuries he suffered while being robbed.

Asked about Shabazz's death, Esperanca Tilghman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, would confirm only that a U.S. citizen died in Mexico City.

"We have been in contact with family members and at their request we have no further comment at this time," she said.

Terrie M. Williams, a Mount Vernon native who now runs the Terrie Williams Agency in New York City, has worked closely with the Shabazz family and confirmed the man's death.

"I'm confirming, per the U.S. Embassy, on behalf of the family, the tragic death of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X," she wrote on her Facebook and Twitter accounts. "Statement from family to come."

Reached at her agency, Williams told The Journal News she had worked with Shabazz for a number of years.

"I mentored him and he did a lot of work with us in terms of speaking to young people," Williams said. "He was a very, very powerful brother."

Betty Shabazz was living in Yonkers when her grandson set fire to the apartment in which she was sleeping. She was seriously injured in the blaze and died from those injuries three weeks later, on June 23, 1997.

Malcolm was 12 years old at the time and, after pleading guilty to second-degree arson and second-degree manslaughter, was sentenced to 18 months in an out-of-state juvenile facility.

In 2002, at age 17, he was sentenced to three years in a New York state prison after taking part in a violent street robbery in Middletown, Orange County.

In November 2006, Shabazz, then 22, admitted to smashing the window of a Dunkin' Donuts in Yonkers the previous August. He pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal mischief.

According to his blog, which was last updated on May 2, Shabazz had been traveling the United States and elsewhere, speaking about the "struggles that confront this generation." According to the site, which features a number of personal photographs, Shabazz also was working on a book.

Shabazz, also according to his blog, had not completely steered clear of law enforcement, even in his later years. As recently as February, he had run-ins with an FBI counter-terrorism unit, which, he claimed, had been investigating him for some time.

Officials at the FBI on Thursday were unable to comment on Shabazz's death or alleged investigations into his actions.

Williams could not say when the Shabazz family would release their statement and was unable to provide further details of the circumstances surrounding the man's death.

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Kobe: Mom wasn't given permission to sell my stuff

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) -- Kobe Bryant says in a court filing that he never gave his mother permission to sell mementos from his high school days and early professional basketball career.

Bryant is in a court battle over whether hundreds of items can be auctioned off.

Pamela Bryant says the NBA star told her the memorabilia was hers. She arranged earlier this year to auction it off through Berlin, N.J.-based Goldin Auctions and received a $450,000 advance.

Last week, lawyers for the NBA star wrote to the auction house demanding it cease the June sale. Goldin is suing to assert its right to sell.

In a filing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Camden, Kobe Bryant says his mother acknowledged to him recently that she did not have permission to sell the items.

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Wade Robson Breakdown Led to Memories of Alleged Michael Jackson Molestation

(TMZ) --- Wade Robson -- the famous choreographer who now claims Michael Jackson molested him for 7 years -- had a complete nervous breakdown in March, 2012 ... and that opened Pandora's box ... sources close to the Robson family tell TMZ.

Multiple sources tell us ... Robson had anxiety that was building during most of 2011 ... and it exploded in March, 2012. He had a debilitating nervous breakdown that pushed him into complete seclusion and torpedoed his career.

We're told after the breakdown, Robson was unable to work -- to fulfill his commitments. He had a number of contracts that he ended up breaching, including his promise to write 3 songs. Our sources say he lost "a ton of money" and has earned almost nothing since.

Sources tell us after the breakdown, Robson went to a psychotherapist for several weeks ... and that's all it took for the floodgates to open. Robson then told his family Michael Jackson had molested him from ages 7 to 14.

Our sources say shortly after Robson revealed his secret ... he told friends and family he planned to file a lawsuit against the MJ Estate.

As for his motivation ... Robson family sources tell TMZ ... although he's not making any money, he has "substantial savings."

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CLASS ACT: Matt Kemp's Gesture Towards Cancer Stricken Fan Goes Viral (Video)

LOS ANGELES – There was never supposed to be a video. Matt Kemp's uncommon act of kindness was never supposed to go farther than an ailing boy, his dad and the baseball star.

And yet when Kemp awakened Tuesday morning, 36 hours afterward, his phone told him otherwise. The video was everywhere.

No, there was never supposed to be evidence beyond the ailing boy's memory, and perhaps a shelf in his room. Maybe he's wearing Kemp's cap. Maybe he's still holding Kemp's gray road jersey and spikes.

"I didn't know that anybody was filming it," Kemp said Tuesday afternoon. "I wasn't aware."

A boy, Joshua Jones, and his father, Steve Jones, sat Sunday night in front-row seats at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The boy was in a wheelchair. Early in the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, the father struck up a conversation with Dodgers third base coach Tim Wallach. He said his son was very sick, that he was a Dodgers fan, and that his favorite player was Kemp. The boy, who has cancer, is unable to speak.

"He just kind of looked at me," Kemp said.Matt Kemp made an otherwise forgettable trip to San Francisco extraordinary for one Dodger fan. (USA Today Sports) …

Wallach brought them a baseball. Later in the game, he told Kemp about Joshua. And when the game ended – Kemp had made the last out in a loss, the Dodgers' fourth in a row – Wallach returned to the dugout and found Kemp waiting for him. He wanted to go see the boy in the stands.

In the video that was recorded and uploaded by Tommy Schultz, a friend of Joshua, Kemp and Wallach walk together toward the ailing boy and his father. Kemp reaches out to shake the Joshua's hand, and instead he gets a baseball, which the boy had in his right hand.

Seated below field level, the boy looks with wide eyes as Kemp signs the baseball. The boy beams silently. Kemp returns the ball and then, in a ballpark full only a few minutes before, as onlookers laugh and cheer, Kemp removes his cap and hands it to the boy. He pulls his jersey – No. 27 – over his head and hands that, too, over the rail. And he unties his cleats, pulls off the right and then the left, and gives them to the boy so that his lap is piled with most of Matt Kemp's uniform.

Wallach stands to the side. He watches. Steve had told him his boy was dying.

"As a parent," Wallach said, "you can't even imagine what they're going through. You'd hate to have to imagine what they're going through."

Kemp reaches back over the rail to shake the father's hand. Then the boy's. He smiles and then he is gone, and the boy's eyes follow Kemp as he leaves, cap-less, jersey-less, shoeless.

And that was it. The video went dark. A minute or so that otherwise passed between the father and his ailing boy and the center fielder for the Dodgers, it would last a lifetime. And the world would witness it.

"It's just something I felt probably would have cheered him up a little bit," Kemp said. "Help him out a little bit. I just did it.

"Hopefully that made that kid's day."

He paused. Such a small gesture, then it was time to go. There have been others like him. There will be others like him.

"I don't even know the kid's name," Kemp said.

By then, after another loss, in a season in which the talented Kemp is batting but .265 with a single home run and his Dodgers are in last place, Kemp had known there were smaller acts that meant bigger things. In that, a hello and a ball and an autograph weren't enough. The cap wouldn't be enough. The jersey wouldn't be enough. None of it would, perhaps, but it's what he had to give. That and an encouraging smile from an enemy Dodger in the land of Giants.

"I just saw a kid there that was a big fan," Kemp said. "Hopefully, God-willing, a miracle happens and he lives for a while."

Joshua smiled back best he could in a moment that was supposed to vanish, but wouldn't. On Tuesday morning, Kemp's phone was filled with messages.

"What'd I do now?" he thought.

It was the ailing boy, his father, and that minute Sunday night. Just that. All that.

"You have some good stories and some sad stories," Kemp said. "God puts them there to remind you."

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Jeanne Cooper aka Katherine Chancellor has died at the age of 84

 

If you grew up watching The Young and the Restless like I did, then today is a very sad day in your life.

Jeanne Cooper aka Katherine Chancellor passed away today after battling an undisclosed illness.

Katherine Chancellor was the archetype for what you wanted a soap character to be. Some people pointed to Erica Kane as being the ultra soap diva, but I tell you no one came close to Katherine Chancellor.

Cooper leaves behind three children and a host of fans who'll never forget what she meant to us.

Posted with Blogsy

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