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“60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon has died in a car accident in New York City, CBS News says. He was 73.
Simon’s career in news spanned some 50 years and earned him countless awards, including four Peabodys and 27 Emmys, according to his CBS News biography.
Simon joined CBS News in 1967. He had been contributing regularly to “60 Minutes” since 1996.
“Bill To Restore Voting Rights Act Gets Another Bipartisan Push”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/11/voting-rights-act-bipartisan-bill_n_6598062.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — House lawmakers are giving another push to legislation that went nowhere in the last Congress: a bill to restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The bill, introduced Wednesday by Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.), responds to the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Section 4 of the law in 2013. In a 5-4 vote, the court declared it was time to update the section, which determined which states and localities with a history of minority voter suppression had to clear changes to their voting laws with the Justice Department. The justices left it up to Congress to come up with a new formula for designating which regions of the country require special scrutiny.
The Sensenbrenner-Conyers bill, known as the Voting Rights Amendment Act, updates that formula by making it apply to all states and jurisdictions with voting violations in the past 15 years, and by creating uniform transparency requirements to keep communities informed about voting changes.
The legislation actually expands the Voting Rights Act, too, by giving more power to federal courts to stop discriminatory voting changes before they are implemented. Specifically, it would lower the bar for plaintiffs seeking a preliminary injunction of a law in any federal court.
“The VRA is one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation ever passed,” said Sensenbrenner. “Our legitimacy as elected officials relies on the integrity of the ballot box. I urge my colleagues to support the VRAA because it is vital to our commitment to never again allow racial prejudices in the electoral process.”
Sensenbrenner and Conyers introduced the same bill in the last Congress, and it never even made it out of committee. Its prospects in this Congress aren’t looking great either. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said last month that Republicans have concluded it’s not “necessary” to restore the law because it’s strong enough without Section 4.
A major obstacle for the bill continues to be its lack of GOP supporters. Aside from Sensenbrenner, the House bill had only 11 GOP co-sponsors in the last Congress. This time, as of Wednesday afternoon, it has only three: Reps. Charlie Dent (Pa.), Michael Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Chris Gibson (N.Y.).
House panel: Close S.C. State for 2 years
February 10, 2015 Updated 20 hours ago
S.C. State University would not hold classes or athletics events for the next two years under a plan approved by an S.C. House budget panel Tuesday.
The plan, meant to the give the financially troubled school a “clean slate,” calls for closing S.C. State in July and firing its trustees, administrators, faculty and staff.
The school would reopen under new leadership in the fall of 2017. The 3,000 students at the state’s only historically black public college could get state scholarships to attend other S.C. public colleges or any historically black university.
http://www.thestate.com/2015/02/10/3980563_house-panel-votes-to-close-sc.html?rh=1
Jackie Robinson West’s title being stripped is about race
Opinion
by Luvvie Ajayi | February 11, 2015 at 2:17 PM
Little League Baseball’s governing body has stripped Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West team of its title.
Jackie Robinson’s coach has been suspended and so has their team manager, because they violated the rules that barred the use of players who live outside of the team’s geographic area.
The title will now be given to the Las Vegas team that JRW beat in the championship game.
There are very few times where the nation is cheering for our melanin-rich children the way everyone rooted for JRW. It felt like one of those Disney movies with the happily ever after ending where kids high fived as the credit rolled.
We desperately needed one in 2014 too, a year filled with too many Black children laid in the streets in pools of blood. The boys of Jackie Robinson West were a light in all that shadow. They were too much light, apparently, because they’ve been brought back down because of some technicality.
We just cannot have nice things. I am currently fighting the air like Cuba Gooding Jr. in Boyz in the Hood because I am so angry for what is happening here. Is this about race? ABSOLUTELY. If JRW was a team full of white boys, I have NO doubt that they’d overlook any rules broken.
The New England Patriots, newly-crowned Super Bowl champions, were found to play with deflated balls, but people are celebrating their win as if they didn’t just break a major rule that can impact play. Who knew that the Little League was actually more serious than the billion-dollar NFL? WHO KNEW?
I have questions. How many players who lived outside of the area were on JRW’s roster? How far did they live outside the area? What miserable cow made it their business to scan the roster and find this out?
Well, we found out that the person who randomly thought that JRW team MUST have broken some rule was Chris Janes, the coach of the Evergreen Park Little League team. He must have been butthurt about seeing these black boys dominate and create feel good moments.
That is some world-class jerkitude for you to be so dedicated to bringing down a group of children.
The Chicago Tribune quoted Janes as saying, “It’s tough, but the kids will be OK.”
THANKS FOR YOUR VOTE OF CONFIDENCE, WHITE MAN WHO HAS THE PRIVILEGE TO NOT BE BORN WITH CHIPS STACKED AGAINST HIM!
My spirit is irritated.
http://thegrio.com/2015/02/11/jackie-robinson-west-still-champions/
Why Rich Black People Don’t Help Poor Black People Dr. Umar Johnson
http://youtu.be/G5Yf9jj2pZU
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/565580554192814080/photo/1
Published on Feb 10, 2015
Courtney Love and Taraji P. Henson talk about Courtney playing troubled singer Elle Dallas.
http://youtu.be/atgYClhiMZo
http://youtu.be/3d2ELISSYlg?list=PLts6v1JWRlr8JtK5bFWfbylfLzdokdOFG
Rauner hires sister of political director
Associated Press
7:12 am, February 10, 2015
One of the first hires in Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration is the sister of a top aide.
Emily Clamp has been hired to a $70,000-a-year position with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. She is the sister of Sarah Clamp, who is the governor’s director of special projects and was political director for Rauner’s campaign.
Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly says Emily Clamp’s degree from Cornell University and experience “make her well-suited for the position.”
Clamp’s hiring in January came days after Rauner was sworn into office and imposed a state government hiring freeze.
Rauner criticized former Gov. Pat Quinn during the campaign for hiring practices while the Democrat was in office, including hiring people based on their political connections
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#
uh huh
UH HUH
https://twitter.com/brakktonbooker/status/565562040933437440
https://twitter.com/krewellayasmine/status/565568406053597184/photo/1
https://twitter.com/frenico847/status/565574078657220608/photo/1
LiberalPhenom @LiberalPhenom
@ritaag @Ronc99 Did you see what POTUS told Buzzfeed? He said Dem nominee would have to earn the support of the Obama coalition.
Retweeted by PragmaticObotsUnite
ha ha
Charlie Kaye ✔ @CharlieKayeCBS
Just now. Jesse Jackson: Some Chicago little leaguers harassed in school today, told they were frauds.
Greg Pinelo @gregpinelo
If atheism was the motivating ideology, there were plenty of Christians around that he could have shot.. I don’t buy it. #ChapeHillShooting
Charles Clymer @cmclymer
Dear @CNN,
Not “Did their faith play a role?” but “Why do white Americans keep harming Muslims?”
Fixed that for you.
DNAinfo.com Chicago @DNAinfoCHI
Rival coach who called for #JRW boundary investigation says he’s receiving death threats http://bit.ly/1CgRu2c pic.twitter.com/0RiNzDN4n9
Agence France-Presse ✔ @AFP
Follow
#BREAKING 6.9 magnitude quake strikes Chile-Argentina border: USGS
1:12 PM – 11 Feb 2015
https://twitter.com/UNAIDS/status/565437818793906176/photo/1
Russell Schaffer @RussOnPolitics
Follow
Maybe the reason Gov. Scott Walker has cut higher ed spending is because he didn’t take college seriously himself. http://ow.ly/ITE5W
1:30 PM – 11 Feb 2015
Pray for my sister-in law. She has cancer. She was married to my brother and he has passed on but she will be my sister-in law FOREVER.
She is in my prayers, SG2
So sorry to hear that, SG2. I hope that she has good doctors and responds to treatment. I’ll pray.
Thank you, Liza. We need the prayers.
She is the best sister-in-law one could ask for. We loved her from the moment my brother brought her home to meet us. *tears*
I am lifting her up in prayer.
Thank you for your prayers.
May the Blessing Be!
Much love and healing thoughts for your sister in law SG, and love and strength to you and your entire family as you rally around her. Keep the faith, it’ll be ok.
*tears*
JDS09 @jdsconnect
@PragObots Let’s demand an audit of the Little League records for the last 5 years. All the way down to regionals.
Sally Kohn ✔ @sallykohn
.@PolitiBunny @MaryAnnRoden if group of Jews killed, would blame anti-Semitism, no?
Group of Muslims killed, fair to blame Islamophobia
Dave @D_v_E
So, in other news, vindictive adults just took a little league championship away from 12-13 year old kids. HAVE A NICE DAY.
https://twitter.com/kevin_maxwell/status/565470569551130624/photo/1
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/565544515562643456/photo/1
D.O.P.E. @JustIsDope
A team that provided HOMELESS kids with positive recreation gets a title stripped over residency issues?
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
Dear Black People,
There is no room for error.
Sincerely,
America
It’s a shame.
Jordan @JMYChi
White coaches HATE losing to all black teams. Because it’s not supposed to happen in their view
https://twitter.com/nbc6/status/565555981221122048
RETIRE
TRAVEL
Set up a foundation and give away scholarships
David Oyelowo discusses the lack of opportunities for black actors in the U.K.
In the lead-up to the Oscars, Selma star David Oyelowo is making powerful criticisms of the entertainment industry’s treatment of black actors and actresses on both sides of the pond.
In a recent interview with The Big Issue via The Guardian, Oyelowo discussed how he needed to move to the U.S. to advance in his career because British film does not “tell stories with black protagonists in a heroic context.”
“Not only do I think that but the opportunities I am being afforded bear that out, I’d never get to play a character akin to Dr. King living and working here. If I looked like Benedict [Cumberbatch] or Eddie Redmayne, I could do the films they have done that are being celebrated now,” he said. “But myself, Idris Elba and Chiwetel Ejiofor had to gain our success elsewhere because there is not a desire to tell stories with black protagonists in a heroic context within British film.”
Oyelowo, who also talked about his work as a producer in the interview, said it is a “huge ambition” of his to get those kinds of stories told in the U.K., but added that there is an ingrained system that makes progress difficult. “I am not going to continue to bash my head against a brick wall,” he said. “I tried very hard while I was here. And we have a system in place that makes it very difficult. The class system in the U.K. is very real. The old boys’ club is very real. America has its own challenges but the system is tied to money. If you make people money you will get opportunities, so I am in the process of trying to do just that.”
These statements echo criticisms Oyelowo has also made in Radio Times about the nature of period dramas in Britain: “We make period dramas [in Britain], but there are almost never black people in them, even though we’ve been on these shores for hundreds of years.”
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/02/11/david-oyelowo-discusses-lack-opportunities-black-actors-uk?hootPostID=1ba3fa1e2dbac16604b92f0eea5c78b2
Donna NoShock @NoShock
Follow
CNN: Kansas governor erases protections for LGBT state employees with executive order http://cnn.it/1EXdenf
10:29 AM – 11 Feb 2015
I’ll say it again..
They are PHUCKING OUT OF CONTROL.
This man’s crime: WALKING WHILE NON-WHITE
……………………………….
Grandfather visiting Alabama from India stopped by police while taking walk, left partly paralyzed
By Challen Stephens | cstephens@al.com
on February 10, 2015 at 2:35 PM, updated February 11, 2015 at 9:29 AM
Madison police last week roughed up a 57-year-old Indian citizen who was walking on the sidewalk outside his son’s home, leaving the older man temporarily paralyzed and hospitalized with fused vertebrae.
“He was just walking on the sidewalk as he does all the time,” said his son, Chirag Patel, this morning. “They put him to the ground.”
No crime had been committed. Madison Police on Monday issued a statement saying the department had suspended the officer and were investigating the use of force in this case. The police statement wished the man a “speedy recovery.”
Chirag Patel, an engineer for one of the many government contractors in Huntsville, said he had just bought a one-way ticket for his father, bringing him from the small Indian town of Pij to his new home in fast-growing suburbs of Madison.
He said his father, Sureshbhai Patel, was to help his wife care for their new baby, a 17-month-old son, so he could pursue his masters degree in electrical engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
“This is a good neighborhood. I didn’t expect anything to happen,” said Chirag Patel, who recently bought the new house on Hardiman Place Lane.
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/02/indian_citizen_stopped_by_madi.html
Michael Brown’s murder by that cop Darren Wilson apparently has unforeseen consequences for the good ole’ boys who thought they were going to keep a lid on the status quo. This class action lawsuit has the potential to be huge, depending on how good the plaintiff’s lawyers are and how much (unbiased) media attention they can get. But the evidence against the city officials appears to be overwhelming. Now, don’t expect heads to roll in the local governments because when everyone is guilty, no one is guilty. But what counts here is the exposure, the undeniable facts that these “officials” are running the city on revenue they are literally stealing from black folks, but they think that the way they are doing it is all legal and okay. And the ethics are a whole other topic, we’re just talking now about a system that targets and intimidates victims based on race and forces them to pay fines and fees that become a major source of revenue for the city. Wow.
…
…
Ferguson Residents Challenge “Modern Debtors’ Prison Scheme” Targeting Blacks with Fines, Arrests
Monday marked six months since a white police officer killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting sparked protests over Brown’s death and the broader racial divide it came to symbolize. Now, half a year later, a major legal action is taking that divide head-on. On Sunday, more than a dozen St. Louis-area residents filed class-action lawsuits against Ferguson and another suburb, Jennings. The residents accuse local officials of creating a “modern debtors’ prison scheme” that targets African Americans with arrests and fines and then locks them up when they cannot pay. A study last year by the ArchCity Defenders found a large part of the revenue for several St. Louis counties comes from fines paid by African-American residents disproportionately targeted for traffic stops and other low-level offenses. In Ferguson, fines and fees were the city’s second-largest source of income in fiscal year 2014. Ferguson issued on average nearly three warrants per household last year — the highest number of warrants in the state, relative to its size. We speak to Michael-John Voss, managing attorney at ArchCity Defenders, one of the groups that has filed a lawsuit against Ferguson and Jennings. We are also joined by Allison Nelson and Herbert Nelson Jr., two of the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuits.
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/10/ferguson_residents_challenge_modern_debtors_prison
From goldenstar over at POU about JRW:
http://pragmaticobotsunite.com/wednesday-open-thread-racism-in-australia-ii-dedicated-to-tip/#comment-1847840356
Congressional Republicans face tough decision on Lynch vote
02/11/15 06:00 AM EST
Senate Republicans face a tough vote on Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch’s confirmation, which has fast become a litmus test on President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
Oppose Lynch, and they’ll be ignoring a sparkling performance at a Senate hearing last month that won good reviews from members of both parties, who agreed she was qualified to lead the Department of Justice.
The “no” votes will also feed into Democratic arguments that the GOP is needlessly blocking confirmation of the first black woman to be attorney general, something that will be used against the Republican Party in 2016, when it seeks to defend 24 Senate seats.
If confirmed, Lynch would replace Eric Holder, the attorney general despised by most Republicans.
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/232394-congressional-republicans-face-tough-decision-on-lynch-vote
from POU:
https://twitter.com/THE_OBG__WHY_IN/status/565520401116438528/photo/1
from POU:
Miranda
SMH…here’s the first story on the investigation of Jackie Robinson West and who first claimed improprieties. Its just as we all suspected.
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20141216/morgan-park/jackie-robinson-west-broke-residency-rules-suburban-league-claims
There’s more to this than just a coach trying to build a “super team”….often times black families that live in predominately white
suburbs will enroll their children in extracurricular activites that involve
majority black children and drive to the hood or wherever else for meetings and practices, that’s been going on ever since the Jeffersons moved to the east side. Hell, i can bet you my last dollar that up until a few decades ago, no black kids were even ALLOWED to play on most of the suburban teams, including Evergreen, the one that’s complaining now.
relating this to the HSBC scandal from this week
…………..
Clinton foundation received up to $81m from clients of controversial HSBC bank
Leaked files reveal identities of wealthy donors with accounts in Geneva
Donors gave as much as $81m to Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation
Hillary Clinton expected to make inequality a key issue of any 2016 campaign
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/10/hillary-clinton-foundation-donors-hsbc-swiss-bank
https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/565287212406034433/photo/1
Well, this is a “water is wet” comment (as Rikyrah often says), but apparently it needs to be said. It is not so much that people do not already know this, but we have to keep saying this because denial has worked so well for so many for so long. Being willfully ignorant is a choice that they shouldn’t be ALLOWED when the stakes are so high for so many people who deserve better.
Charles Johnson @Green_Footballs
Glenn Greenwald Will Speak to a Koch-Funded Group Named After a Pro-Lynching Racist Dixiecrat Congressman http://lgf.bz/1KGf5NJ
Matt Murphy @MattMurph24
When you deep dive into this Jackie Robinson West little league story, three things emerge: Jealousy, racism, and snitching.
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
Per ESPN article re: #JRW, the Little League teams that were stripped of their titles were teams of color who beat white teams.
Bomani Jones ✔ @bomani_jones
the other part where this gets fun…already had two people tell me what they believe the, shall we say, disposition of evergreen park.
Bomani Jones ✔ @bomani_jones
also, these are black kids from the suburbs who chose to go play in the city rather than locally? there is so much going on here.
Bomani Jones ✔ @bomani_jones
again, if they broke the rules, that’s that. but if you think this dude was in it for “the integrity of the league,” i mean…naw.
Bomani Jones ✔ @bomani_jones
also curious who snitched. if they broke the rules, that’s that, but i’m curious just how and why this happened. #JackieRobinsonWest
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
It seems like when white Little League teams get beat by Little League teams of color, they suddenly want to investigate player eligibility.
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
So they investigated #JackieRobinsonWest but not the Las Vegas team whose players had facial hair and voices deeper than Barry White?
Are you comfortable with local officials defying a court order?’
02/11/15 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
As of this morning, the status of marriage equality in Alabama is murkier than it should be. Some counties are honoring federal court rulings, some are not, and some are denying marriage licenses to every couple, regardless of sexual orientation. This dynamic is obviously unsustainable, though it may not last much longer.
The trouble, apparently, is confusion among local probate judges, who don’t know whether to follow the federal court rulings or an order from Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (R), who instructed them to ignore the rulings. A federal judge set a hearing for tomorrow.
In the meantime, I was struck by an interview Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) did on CNN yesterday when asked about the mess in Alabama. Jindal is a staunch social conservative, and a likely presidential candidate eager to curry favor with the religious right, so the Alabama controversy poses a challenge: does he endorse the rule of law, even it leads to same-sex marriages?
Anchor Alisyn Camerota asked the governor, “What do you make of what’s going on” in Alabama? Jindal hedged, saying, “Let’s step back and remember how we got here,” and stressing his support for “traditional marriage.”
So, Camerota pressed further, asking, “But are you comfortable with local county officials defying a federal court order?” Jindal dodged again. The host asked once more, “Are the county officials supposed to be defying a federal court order? Are you comfortable with that?” Jindal eventually said:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/are-you-comfortable-local-officials-defying-court-order
Kobach voter-fraud allegations exposed as fraudulent
02/10/15 04:01 PM
By Steve Benen
When it comes to the so-called “Republican war on voting,” few figures are quite as notorious as Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R). The far-right official’s antics during last fall’s U.S. Senate race in Kansas were themselves remarkable, but even before then, Kobach has earned a reputation as a pioneer in voter-suppression tactics.
Not surprisingly, frequent claims about “voter fraud” – a phenomenon that largely exists in the imagination of far-right activists – have become a Kobach staple, though one particular incident is proving to be a real problem.
During last year’s election, the Kansas Secretary of State chastised U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom, complaining to the media that Kobach’s office had referred examples of voter fraud to the Kansas-based federal prosecutor, but Grissom has refused to prosecute. Worse, Kobach said the U.S. Attorney didn’t “know what he’s talking about” when Grissom said voter fraud doesn’t exist in Kansas.
The AP reports today that when Kobach made these claims, he appears to have been brazenly lying (thanks to my colleague Tricia McKinney for the heads-up).
[I]n a Nov. 6 letter sent from Grissom to Kobach and obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request, the prosecutor responded that his office received no such referrals from Kobach, and chided the secretary of state for his statements.
“Going forward, if your office determines there has been an act of voter fraud please forward the matter to me for investigation and prosecution,” Grissom wrote. “Until then, so we can avoid misstatements of facts for the future, for the record, we have received no voter fraud cases from your office in over four and a half years. And, I can assure you, I do know what I’m talking about.”
Wait, it gets worse.
Kobach now concedes that when he said he’d referred voter-fraud cases to the U.S. Attorney’s office, he had not, in reality, referred voter-fraud cases to the U.S. Attorney’s office. But, the right-wing official told the AP, Kobach’s predecessor had alerted the federal prosecutor to two relevant cases and Grissom ignored those referrals.
It turns out, that’s not true, either: federal investigators looked into those 2011 allegations and, as the AP report noted, they concluded they were not voter fraud.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/kobach-voter-fraud-allegations-exposed-fraudulent
https://twitter.com/MeanwhileinCana/status/565490017905414145/photo/1
https://twitter.com/RaquelEvita/status/565472181703168001/photo/1
What a loss! When will this madness stop? When will will this stop?
https://twitter.com/HashmatSalhi/status/565472633480040449/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MurtazaGeoNews/status/565472990436261888/photo/1
We all know what motivated this evil murderer to kill these 3 innocent young people.
https://twitter.com/Pol_Sec_Analyst/status/565413057539870721/photo/1
Post Distressing ‘After Earth’ Box Office Flop, a New Will Smith Emerges
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 10, 2015 at 6:47PM
For the average Hollywood actor, a film they are starring in that grosses $244 million worldwide, would probably feel like a gift. But Will Smith isn’t the average Hollywood actor. He’s an international superstar who’s seemingly *transcended* race, with appeal to almost every demographic.
So a $244 million cume – as was the case with “After Earth” (although his son was really the star of the movie) – is considered a disappointment in the industry. I should note that the real disappointment was that, of the $244 million, just $60 million of that was domestically-earned. Which means that the bulk of its box office came from overseas.
Keep in mind though that the film’s production budget (minus any marketing costs, which I’m sure were significant) was an astounding $130 million, for a film that looked like it cost about half of that.
Although, in all fairness, we could, again, ask whether “After Earth” was really a Will Smith movie, or more of a Jaden Smith “failure.” But I guess, either way, it’s a “Smith movie,” and Will’s name and face were pivotal in how it was marketed and sold to audiences.
Some would argue that, even though the studio (Sony) erased him and his name from the film’s marketing campaign, word still eventually got around that M. Night Shyamalan was the film’s director. And he wasn’t exactly the most beloved Hollywood filmmaker at the time. According to then reports, Will practically insisted on Shyamalan to helm the film. It makes one wonder why he did that, especially when this wasn’t quite Shyamalan’s forte. The last time he attempted a sci-fi fantasy adventure film, it was with “The Last Airbender,” which was ripped by critics and audiences.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/post-distressing-after-earth-box-office-flop-a-new-will-smith-emerges-20150210
https://twitter.com/shadowandact/status/565314729158381568/photo/1
https://twitter.com/shadowandact/status/565320969070608384/photo/1
Ava DuVernay Will Direct CBS Pilot Based on James Patterson’s Murder Mystery ‘The Thomas Berryman Number’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
February 10, 2015 at 5:12PM
Adding to the “What Will Ava DuVernay Do Next?” file, which is now starting to thicken up a bit, the filmmaker of the moment has signed on to direct the pilot for CBS’ drama “For Justice,” which hails from “Law & Order” writer and showrunner Rene Balcer (he also created and was showrunner of its spin-off series “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”).
The project is based on author James Patterson’s very first novel – a Civil Rights era crime drama titled “The Thomas Berryman Number,” which follows the investigation and research of a Nashville reporter into the murder of Jimmie Lee Horn, Nashville’s first black mayors. The novel is set in the early 1970s, and, according to summaries and reviews of it I read before typing up this post, it’s a murder investigation that’s tightly wrapped up in racial tensions: “In Nashville, Tennessee, the whole city mourns as Jimmie Horne, the city’s first black mayor, is shot dead by a crazed hippie, a mourning broken by shock when the assassin is himself gunned-down by a professional hitman. Ochs Jones, a reporter for a Nashville paper, smells something fishy and begins to investigate, starting with a private mental hospital in upstate New York, where a patient has been raving about the assassination since almost a week before it happened. Partially told in the form of Jones’s letters and notes, the novel chronicles his investigation of the Horne slaying. Soon, he unearths the presence of a third shooter, a professional killer named Thomas Berryman who specializes in accidents and suicides. The novel also traces Berryman’s path, from New York to New Orleans to Nashville, and his preparations for the biggest murder since Martin Luther King, Jr. was slain.”
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/ava-duvernay-will-direct-cbs-pilot-based-on-james-pattersons-murder-mystery-the-thomas-berryman-number-20150210
NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams is being suspended for six months without pay following revelations that he exaggerated tales from an Iraq War mission in 2003.
Tuesday night’s announcement capped an extraordinary and painful six-day period for the network. Television veterans could recall nothing quite like it: a network benching the face of its news division to penalize him for what the CEO of NBCUniversal, Steve Burke, called “inexcusable” actions.
There is a widespread belief among rank-and-file NBC staffers that he may never actually return to the anchor chair he has held since 2004.
And if he does return, he’ll return in a diminished capacity.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/10/media/brian-williams-nbc-suspended/index.html
UPDATE: Actually, Biology Is Offered at Overbrook High School
New information from school district contradicts old information from school district.
By Victor Fiorillo | February 4, 2015 at 4:25 pm
On Wednesday morning, we published the story below, stating that Overbrook High School has not offered biology to students during this school year. The article was based on information provided on-the-record by a Philadelphia School District spokesperson. The spokesperson originally told us, in writing, that biology was not being offered at Overbrook and that it had not been offered since the start of the school year. What a difference a few hours makes. On Wednesday afternoon, the spokesperson contacted us to say that she spoke with Overbrook’s principal and that the school does, in fact, offer biology.
“Just spoke to the principal at Overbrook HS,” she wrote. “Biology is available to students this school year. There are five sections currently being taught. Students are also enrolled in an online program and a Keystone preparation course. The school is still looking for a certified biology teacher, however.”
When we pointed out that this information was contradictory to what we were told earlier Wednesday morning, she noted that she had been unable to reach the principal in the morning and that “another department provided incorrect information.”
We asked Fernando Gallard, the district’s lead spokesperson, for further explanation. He offered neither explanation nor apology; he simply confirmed that the original information provided by his colleague was wrong and that the new information is right
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/02/04/update-overbrook-high-school-biology-teacher/#axYWTDZ29TuAR5fO.99
http://youtu.be/XkLqAlIETkA
naw uh son…
Chapel Hill shooting: Three American Muslims killed
By Raziye Akkoc 10:54AM GMT 11 Feb 2015
Three American Muslims have been shot dead in their home near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US.
The three were named by police as Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21 and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19.
The Salha sisters were students at North Carolina State University and Barakat was a doctoral student in UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Dentistry, according to local media.
In a statement, the police said they responded to a report of gunshots in the usually quiet area of Summerwalk Circle in Chapel Hill at 5.11pm on Tuesday. Upon arrival, officers found the three young individuals, who were pronounced dead at the scene.
The Independent reported that some residents were unaware of what had happened until police arrived.
A 46-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of three counts of murder. He was named by police as Craig Stephen Hicks and in a statement confirmed he had been charged.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11405005/Chapel-Hill-shooting-Three-American-Muslims-killed.html
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THIS JUST IN: Jackie Robinson West vacates wins from 2014 Little League World Series for using ineligible players.
Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience – in pictures
Staying Power is the culmination of a seven-year collaboration between the V&A and Brixton’s Black Cultural Archive. Over the two locations it features 118 images by 17 artists.
Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s is at the Black Cultural Archive (bcaheritage.org.uk) until 30 June and at the V&A from 16 February to 24 May (vam.ac.uk)
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/feb/09/staying-power-photographs-of-black-british-experience-in-pictures
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