John Howard Griffin (pictured) was born in 1920 in the “good ol’ boy” state of Texas. During his childhood, Griffin, who was Caucasian, was quickly schooled in the White supremacist ideologies of his surrounding community. When Griffin reached adulthood, he felt compelled to contribute toward ending racism, so he embarked on a journey.  Disheartened by America’s racial climate, Griffin wanted to see what life would be like as a Black man, so he concocted a daring experiment, where he would pose as one in order to understand the plight of “Negroes.” Griffin drastically darkened his skin and inconspicuously traveled throughout the rabidly racist South for nearly two months during the height of the civil rights era in 1959.  He chronicled his emotionally charged discoveries in his book published two years later entitled “Black Like Me.”  Even though Griffin’s skin-darkening methods were perilous by today’s standards, did he in fact die of the deadliest form of skin cancer, melanoma, as a result of his experiment?

SEE ALSO: Black Conspiracy Theories 101: Did Serena Say ‘A White Man Is The Only Real Choice For A Successful Black Female?’

Griffin’s memoir recounts the medical treatments he endured in order to darken his skin pigment. After the journalist found a dermatologist who agreed to take part in his outlandish experiment, Griffin began the skin-darkening process by ingesting a pill daily then subjecting himself to 15 hours a day of an ultra-violet sunlamp treatment for seven days straight. Once the week was up, Griffin shaved his head, and when he looked in the mirror, a Black man stared back at him (pictured).

In his controversial book, Griffin explains how segregation and racism reigned supreme in the South and how he was also privy to acts of Black solidarity that forever remained ingrained in his soul. Griffin also exposed the ugly and dehumanizing treatment he received as a Black man, such as not being able to use public restrooms, being denied housing, having to work as a laborer for the leisure or pleasure of serving Whites, and becoming the target of brazen insults and indignities.

After Griffin’s book was published, it ignited a firestorm, both good and bad. Many praised the book for his raw and unique look at how Blacks were treated in this country at the time, while others trashed it.  In fact, when Griffin returned to his birthplace of Dallas, he was burned in effigy on the main street of his hometown. The “Black Like Me” author was also forced to flee from his home for fear of possible persecution from White hate groups.

Griffin had become a target, branded an “N-word lover,” and there were racist Whites, who felt he needed to be taught a lesson, so he and his family relocated to Mexico, where they lived for years before returning to the United States.

After fighting all his adult life for the fair treatment of Blacks, Griffin, a humanitarian who received the National Council of Negro Women Award and the Pope John XIII Pacen in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, passed away in 1980, but not as a result of the deadliest form of skin cancer as it had been rumored.

While undergoing the skin-darkening process, Griffin had been carefully monitored by his physician and only suffered temporary and minor side effects from the treatments.  He had also received blood tests to make sure his liver would not be damaged by the oral medication, oxsoralen, he had taken to help accelerate the skin-darkening process.

Griffin suffered a serious heart attack in 1976 while on a lecture tour. During subsequent years, he suffered additional coronary attacks followed by surgeries that left him in a debilitated state.

On September 9, 1980, at age 60, Griffin passed away from complications due to diabetes.

Sound off!

Golfer Sergio Garcia (pictured left) made a racial remark about Tiger Woods (pictured right) during the European Tour awards dinner, and after initially saying he would not apologize for his comments, Garcia ended up apologizing, according to a NY Daily News report.

SEE ALSO: Chief Keef Arrested On Weed Possession Charge

On Tuesday night, when Sergio Garcia was asked if he plans on hosting Woods for dinner at next month’s U.S. Open, Garcia responded, “We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken.”
Soon after, Garcia apologized for his controversial comments:

“I apologize for any offense that may have been caused by my comment on stage during The European Tour Players’ Awards dinner. I answered a question that was clearly made toward me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner.”

Watch a news report about Garcia’s remarks here:

Unfortunately, the recent jab is just another in a series of back and forths between the golfing stars — who haven’t been the best of friends. Earlier this month at the Players Championship in Florida, Garcia accused Woods of creating a distraction in the gallery while he was taking a shot.

The two had words after the incident.

In a press conference a day before Garcia’s remarks when Woods was asked if he planned to resolve his issues with Garcia, he gave a succinct “No.”

Responding to Woods’ comment earlier Tuesday at his pre-tournament press conference, Garcia didn’t mince words. “That doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “That’s what he’s like. He called me a whiner. He’s probably right. But that’s also probably the first thing he’s told you guys that’s true in 15 years. I know what he’s like. You guys are finding out.”

Garcia also said that he wouldn’t bother calling Woods to settle anything.

“First of all, I don’t have his number. And secondly, I did nothing wrong and don’t have anything to say to him. And he wouldn’t pick up the phone anyway. But that’s OK. I don’t need him as a friend. I don’t need him in my life to be happy and that’s fine. It’s as simple as that. Like I have always said, I try to be as truthful as possible. Tiger doesn’t make a difference to my life. And I know that I don’t make a difference to his life.”

But on Wednesday, Garcia ended up backpedaling, apologizing for his inappropriate words, at a press conference:

“I want to extend a sincere apology,” he said. “I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I obviously was caught off guard by the question but don’t get me wrong, I understand that my answer was totally stupid and out of place and I can’t say sorry enough about that.

“Finally, most importantly, I want to apologize to Tiger and anybody I could have offended by the comment I made and just say I feel sick about it. I’m truly, truly sorry and hope we can kind of settle things down and hopefully move on.”

Woods finally responded to Garcia’s remarks via Twitter, writing:

The comment that was made wasn’t silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate,” Woods tweeted, adding, “I’m confident that there is real regret that the remark was made.

During the press conference, when Garcia was asked whether his comments were racist, he said he didn’t mean it that way, “No, not at all. It wasn’t meant that way. Like I said before I was caught off guard with what seemed to be a funny question and tried to give a funny answer that came out totally wrong and I want to make sure that everybody knows I’m very very sorry and that I cannot apologize enough times.”

Sound off!

An Australian man who set up cameras in his house to catch paranormal activity got another scare, when he instead caught his 28-year-old girlfriend having sex with his 16-year-old son…on camera, according to the Mercury News.

SEE ALSO: Nearly 60 North Carolinians Arrested In Growing Protests

After initially confronting his girlfriend about the October 2012 incident, she reportedly downplayed it.

However, the son would end up confessing to sex with her three times in the days before the recorded encounter.

After the Father notified police, though, the woman admitted to the affair, which apparently included hotel room encounters. The woman has been charged with five counts of sex with a minor.

According to the woman, she began having sex with her lover’s son after talking about driving lessons with him.

The Mercury News reports:

Crown Prosecutor Jackie Hartnett told the court in October last year the woman had gone to her stepson’s room to discuss his driving lessons.

Although the pair had previously had a strained relationship, tickling led to kissing and then to intercourse, the prosecutor said.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she thought the legal age of consent in Australia was 16 (it’s actually 17). She had been dating the boy’s father for the past 11 years and has a younger child with him.

She plead guilty at the Supreme Court of Tasmania Monday and will be sentenced next week. No word yet on whether the Father whooped his son’s a-double dollar signs — obviously, that’s a video we’d love to see!

SEE ALSO: Huge Tornado Hits Oklahoma City Suburb, Kills 51

Shaquioa Chantres Crawford (pictured) of Powder Springs, Ga., was arrested Sunday night after she allegedly stabbed her stepfather multiple times, the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

SEE ALSO: 10 Pieces Of Advice For Postcollege Life


Crawford, 19, and Vince Anderson, 51, were arguing over the location of an EBT card, according to the West Cobb Patch.

“The accused stated the victim grabbed her by the arm and tried to remove her from the residence,” according to a warrant obtained by The Patch. “The accused admitted to removing a silver in color folding pocket knife from her pocket and striking the victim on the head and neck area causing cuts and lacerations to the victims head and neck.”

Crawford allegedly stabbed Anderson some more in the front yard.

SEE ALSO: Enough Of Nice-Nasty Christianity


He was seen walking along Powder Springs Road bleeding and attempting to flag down motorists for assistance, according to Powder Springs police officials.

SEE ALSO: Could Chelsea Hurt Hillary?

When officers arrived on the scene, Anderson told them that Crawford had stabbed him several times. She was charged with aggravated assault and booked into the Cobb County jail, where she was being held on $20,000 bond.

Anderson was taken to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.

SEE ALSO: Teachers Credited With Saving Students In Okla.

During Fearce’s high school years, her and her family experienced multiple evictions because her mother, Reenita Shephard, had unsteady employment. 

Consequently, Fearce would often find herself having to read books in the dark with just her cell phone light illuminating the pages at local shelters. Fearce told WSBTV, “I just told myself to keep working, because the future will not be like this anymore,” she said. “You’re worried about your home life and then worried at school.”

But sometimes the shelters became too much, so that’s when the Clayton County, Ga., youth, Shephard; and her three siblings lived in their car.

Yet the experience didn’t stop Fearce, who also nailed her SAT’s with an impressive score of 1900 out of 2400, from achieving a GPA of 4.466. Her academic success empowered her to enroll in college courses for her last two years of high school, meaning when Fearce enters the prestigious Atlanta-based Spelman College in the fall, she will begin as a college junior.

Fearce’s success is especially significant when one considers that she maintained her stellar grades while dealing with hunger, “[You] worry about being a little hungry sometimes, [so you] go hungry sometimes. You just have to deal with it. You eat what you can, when you can.”

And Fearce isn’t the only shining star in her family; her sister is also graduating as her high school’s salutatorian.

Meanwhile, the proud Mom’s formula for her girl’s academic success is quite simple: books. Shephard says, “I read to them a lot, took them to the library. Everything was a learning experience.”

Watch Fearce talk about her experience and success here:

Fearce, in the meantime, has some pearls of wisdom to share for those peers who are in her shoes, “Don’t give up. Do what you have to do right now so that you can have the future that you want.”

Congratulations and keep reaching for those stars, Chelesa!

SEE ALSO: 10 Pieces Of Advice For Postcollege Life

The world’s most valuable company is holding overseas some $102 billion of its $145 billion in cash, and an Irish subsidiary that earned $22 billion in 2011 paid only $10 million in taxes, according to the report issued Monday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The strategies Apple uses are legal, and many other multinational corporations use similar tax techniques to avoid paying U.S. income taxes on profits they reap overseas. But Apple uses a unique twist, the report found. The company’s tactics raise questions about loopholes in the U.S. tax code, lawmakers say.

The spotlight on Apple’s tax strategy comes at a time of fevered debate in Washington over whether and how to raise revenues to help reduce the federal deficit. Many Democrats complain that the government is missing out on collecting billions because companies are stashing profits abroad and avoiding taxes. Republicans want to cut the corporate tax rate of 35 percent and ease the tax burden on money that U.S. companies make abroad. They say the move would encourage companies to invest at home.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, the company’s chief financial officer and its tax chief are scheduled to testify and explain the company’s tax strategy at a hearing by the subcommittee Tuesday.

The company refuted the subcommittee’s assertions in testimony prepared for the hearing and released to the public Monday evening. Apple said it employs tens of thousands of Americans and pays “an extraordinary amount” in U.S. taxes, citing the roughly $6 billion it paid in fiscal 2012.

Apple “complies fully with both the laws and the spirit of the laws,” the testimony says. “And Apple pays all its required taxes, both in this country and abroad.”

“Apple does not use tax gimmicks,” the statement says. The company insisted that it does not, as the subcommittee asserts, move its intellectual property rights into offshore tax havens and use it to sell products back into the U.S. to avoid taxes.

The company has made clear that given current U.S. tax rates, it has no intention of repatriating its overseas profits to the U.S. Apple reiterated in its testimony its support for comprehensive tax reform as a way to support economic growth and boost U.S. companies’ competitiveness.

The subcommittee also has examined the tax strategies of Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and other multinational companies, finding that they too have avoided billions in U.S. taxes by shifting profits offshore and exploiting weak, ambiguous sections of the tax code. Microsoft has used “aggressive” transactions to shift assets to subsidiaries in Puerto Rico, Ireland and Singapore, in part to avoid taxes. HP has used complex offshore loan transactions worth billions while using the money to run its U.S. operations, according to the panel.

The subcommittee’s report estimates that Apple avoided at least $3.5 billion in U.S. federal taxes in 2011 and $9 billion in 2012 by using the strategy. The company, based in Cupertino, Calif., paid $2.5 billion in federal taxes in 2011 and $6 billion in 2012.

Apple uses five companies located in Ireland to carry out its tax strategy, according to the report. The companies are located at the same address in Cork, Ireland, and they share members of their boards of directors. While all five companies were incorporated in Ireland, only two of them also have tax residency in that country. That means the other three aren’t legally required to pay taxes in Ireland because they aren’t managed or controlled in that country, in Apple’s view.

The report says Apple capitalizes on a difference between U.S. and Irish rules regarding tax residency. In Ireland, a company must be managed and controlled in the country to be a tax resident. Under U.S. law, a company is a tax resident of the country in which it was established. Therefore, the Apple companies aren’t tax residents of Ireland nor of the U.S., since they weren’t incorporated in the U.S., in Apple’s view.

The subcommittee said Apple’s strategy of not declaring tax residency in any country could be unique among corporations.

“Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the subcommittee’s chairman. “Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere.”

The subcommittee’s inquiry and hearing are intended to shine a light on “offshore tax-avoidance tactics” by Apple, Levin said at a news conference Monday with Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the panel’s senior Republican. Companies’ use of such loopholes has the effect of raising the taxes of ordinary Americans and increasing the federal deficit, he said.

McCain said that while Apple claims to be the biggest U.S. corporate taxpayer, it is also “among America’s largest tax avoiders.”

He called Apple’s strategy “an egregious and really outrageous scheme that Apple has been able to orchestrate to avoid paying taxes.”

The subcommittee report also noted that Apple has been setting aside billions for tax bills it may never pay. As previously reported by The Associated Press, the overlooked asset that Apple has been building up could boost Apple’s profits by as much as $10.5 billion. However, Apple has been lobbying to change U.S. law so it can erase its tax liabilities in a less conspicuous fashion.

In its second quarter ended March 31, Apple posted its first profit decline in ten years. Net income was $9.5 billion, or $10.09 a share, down 18 percent from $11.6 billion, or $12.30 a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue increased 11 percent, to $43.6 billion.

Apple said in April that it will distribute $100 billion in cash to its shareholders by the end of 2015. The company is expanding its share buyback program to $60 billion, the largest buyback authorization in history, and is raising its quarterly dividend by 15 percent, to $3.05 a share.

In Monday’s regular trading session, Apple’s stock rose $9.67, or 2.23 percent, to close at $442.93.

President Barack Obama has proposed using the tax code to encourage companies to move jobs back to the U.S. and discourage them from shifting jobs abroad. Many in both parties say they want to overhaul the entire tax code, but there are vast differences in how they would do so.

It’s been a long time coming, but change is coming to Mississippi.

Former Ward 2 Councilman and Chokwe Lumumba, 65, (pronounced SHOW-kway Lu-MOOM-bah) is the winner of the mayoral primary runoff election in Jackson, Miss., reports WAPT.com.

Lumumba defeated business Jonathan Lee, 35, 54 percent to 46 percent with 100 percent of the vote reporting.

“I think we just had a very difficult fight in order to win this office and we came out successful,” Lumumba said from his victory party at the Clarion Hotel. “I’m very proud of all of the people in my campaign who worked so diligently and I’m very proud of the people of Jackson because I think the people of Jackson have spoken and spoken very clearly.”

Lumumba served four years on the Jackson City Council before running for mayor. He spent part of the ’70s and ’80s as vice-president of  the Republic of New Afrika, an organization which advocated for “an independent predominantly black government” in the southeastern United States and reparations for slavery.

“The provisional government of Republic of New Afrika was always a group that believed in human rights for human beings,” Lumumba told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I think it has been miscast in many ways. It has never been any kind of racist group or ‘hate white’ group in any way…. It was a group which was fighting for human rights for black people in this country and at the same time supporting the human rights around the globe.”

Read more from the Associated Press:

Lumumba was born in Detroit as Edwin Taliaferro, and changed his name in 1969, when he was in his early 20s. He said he took his new first name from an African tribe that resisted slavery centuries ago and his last name from African independence leader Patrice Lumumba. He moved to Jackson in 1971 as a human rights activist. He went to law school in Michigan in the mid-1970s and returned to Jackson in 1988.

During an April 30 debate, Lumumba carefully pronounced his name for the audience and said: “That’s an African name. Like Barack Obama. It’s not a Muslim name. … I’ve been a Christian all my life.”

As an attorney, Lumumba has represented Tupac Shakur in several cases, including one in which the rapper was cleared of aggravated assault charges in the shootings of two off-duty police officers who were in Atlanta but from another city. Shakur died in 1996.

Lumumba persuaded then-Gov. Haley Barbour to release Jamie and Gladys Scott from prison in Mississippi in early 2011. The sisters served nearly 16 years for an armed robbery they said they didn’t commit. Barbour, a Republican, was considering a run for the presidency at the time.

Lumumba also said on the City Council website that he helped defend “former Black Panther heroine Assata Shakur,” an aunt of Tupac Shakur. He represented her in 1977 in a murder case that was dismissed in New York, according to Lumumba’s biography for a 2012 human rights conference. Also in 1977, Assata Shakur was sentenced to life in prison for the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper. Lumumba said he was not involved in that case.

Lumumba will  face 3 independent candidates in the June 4 general election.

But before all of the youngsters could get there, the tornado alarm sounded.

The plan changed quickly.

“All the teachers started screaming into the room and saying, `Get into the hallway! We don’t want you to die!’ and stuff like that,” said sixth-grader Phaedra Dunn. “We just took off running.”

In the moments that followed, some of the children at Plaza Towers Elementary would, in fact, die. At least seven were killed by the twister Monday afternoon. Others would crawl out of the rubble, bloodied and bruised, utterly terrified.

The tornado that devastated this Oklahoma City suburb of 56,000 people destroyed Plaza Towers and also slammed Briarwood Elementary, where all the children appear to have survived. Students and parents recounted stories Tuesday of brave teachers who sheltered their pupils, in some cases by herding them into a closet and a restroom amid the fear and panic.

After the tornado alarm went off, students at Plaza Towers scrambled into the halls. But the halls – some of which were within the view of windows – did not appear safe enough.

Sixth-grader Antonio Clark said a teacher took him and as many other youngsters as possible and shoved them into the three-stall boys’ bathroom.

“We were all piled in on each other,” the 12-year-old said. Another teacher wrapped her arms around two students and held Antonio’s hand.

Twenty seconds later he heard a roar that sounded like a stampede of elephants. His ears popped.

Then it all stopped almost as suddenly as it started. Crouched down, his backpack over his head, Antonio looked up. The skylight and the ceiling were gone, and he was staring up into a cloud filled with debris.

Antonio and a friend were among the first to stand up. They climbed over debris where their classroom had been just moments earlier. Students and teachers were struggling to free themselves from under the bricks, wooden beams and insulation. Some people had bleeding head wounds; blood covered one side of someone’s eyeglasses, Antonio said.

“Everybody was crying,” Antonio said. “I was crying because I didn’t know if my family was OK.”

Then Antonio saw his father ride up on a mountain bike, yelling his son’s name.

Phaedra survived, too. Her mother rushed to the school just moments before the tornado hit, covered Phaedra’s head with a blanket to protect her from hail and ushered her out the door. Phaedra’s 10-year-old sister, Jenna, didn’t want to budge from the school.

The principal “grabbed her backpack, put it over her head and literally said, `You’re mom’s going to open the door. Get out. You’re safer with your mom,’ and pushed her out the door,” said Amy Sharp, the girls’ mother.

At Briarwood Elementary, the students also went into the halls. But a third-grade teacher didn’t think it looked safe, so she herded some of the children into a closet, said David Wheeler, one of the fathers who tried to rush to the school after the tornado hit.

The teacher shielded Wheeler’s 8-year-old son, Gabriel, with her arms and held him down as the tornado collapsed the school roof and starting lifting students upward with a pull so strong that it literally sucked glasses off kids’ faces, Wheeler said.

“She saved their lives by putting them in a closet and holding their heads down,” Wheeler said.

Gabriel and the teacher – whom Wheeler identified as Julie Simon – had to dig their way out of the rubble. The boy’s back was cut and bruised and gravel was embedded in his head, Wheeler said. It took nearly three hours for father and son to be reunited.

Other parents waited even longer, as they drove from one emergency shelter to another in search of their children.

At St. Andrews United Methodist Church, 15-year-old Caitlin Ulrey waited about seven hours before her parents found her. Her high school had not been hit by the tornado. But her nerves were frayed.

“I was starting to panic and shake and have an anxiety attack,” Caitlin said.

At Plaza Towers, several students were pulled alive from under a collapsed wall and other heaps of mangled debris. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain of parents and neighborhood volunteers. Parents carried dazed and terrified children in their arms to a triage center in the parking lot.

Hundreds of Oklahoma schools have reinforced tornado shelters, but not the two that were hit on Monday.

Albert Ashwood, director of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said it is up to each jurisdiction to set priorities for which schools get funding for safe rooms. But he said a shelter would not necessarily have saved more lives at Plaza Towers. The tornado was an EF5 twister, the most powerful type, with winds of at least 200 mph.

“When you talk about any kind of safety measures … it’s a mitigating measure, it’s not an absolute,” Ashwood said. “There’s not a guarantee that everyone will be totally safe.”

Moore School Superintendent Susan Pierce said teachers and administrators put their well-rehearsed crisis plan into action as the tornado approached. But she suggested there are limits to what people can do in the face of such a powerful storm.

“Safety is our main priority,” Pierce said. “We monitored the weather throughout the day and when it was time to shelter, we did just that.”

US President Barack Obama is presented with and honorary doctor of law degree after delivering the commencement address during a ceremony at Morehouse College on May 19, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

GOP political consultant Raynard Jackson is known for writing articles with a distinctly conservative flair – Frederick Douglass, not Ronald Reagan.

His latest piece, comparing the cognitive dissonance of the “Black elite” in Spike Lee’s classic 1988 film, “School Daze,” to President Barack Obama’s seeming discomfort with speaking unreservedly about the plight of working-class Black Americans, is positioned as a “wake-up call” for the Talented Tenth among us. Taking direct aim at those Black leaders who never challenge the POTUS, Jackson opines that these people tip-toe around his silence on issues affecting people of color to avoid “jeopardizing their invitations to the White House’s Christmas party.”

Read below:

Not much has changed in the 25 years since the release of School Daze.  As a matter of fact, one could argue that this schism within the Black community has gotten worse.

This view is personified in the person of President Barack Obama.  He is light skinned, has no connection with the Black community, Ivy League educated, and seems very uncomfortable around Blacks who are not part of the bourgeoisie.

He is more comfortable talking about Newtown than he is Chi-town (Chicago).  He hangs with the likes of Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, and Hill Harper to give him “street cred.”

Yet, he ignores the very issues that gave birth to the Hip-Hop nation—police brutality, Black on Black crime, teenage pregnancy, the glorification of the drug culture, etc.

The Blacks that have regular access to this White House rarely, if ever, lift their voices to address some of the needs and concerns of those who can’t afford to raise thousands of dollars for the president.

These Blacks have not once criticized the Obama administration’s lack of action in regards to the issues of particular concern to the Black community.  Oh, I forgot, they don’t want to jeopardize their invitations to the White House’s Christmas party.

These Blacks rationalize that Obama can’t afford to be seen doing anything specifically for Blacks for fear that Obama will be called a Black president. Well, I thought he was the first Black president?

So, let me make sure I understand this; it’s ok to do specific things for the Black bourgeoisie—private invitations to the White House, rides on Air Force One, private movie screenings at the White House, but he can’t do things specifically to address the high unemployment rate in the Black community?

Read more at BlackPressUSA.com.

Freedom fighters Carl Dix (pictured above right) and Cornel West (pictured above center) held an intense dialogue about mass incarceration on the Upper West Side Monday evening. The event, “Mass Incarceration + Silence=Genocide,” served to challenge the sociopolitical forces herding a disproportionate number of Black and Hispanic men in to prisons. The Stop Mass Incarceration Network/ Revolution Books-sponsored event was tinged with revolutionary fire, which was-a testament to its keynote speakers.

SEE ALSO: Sinbad Is Broke As A Joke — Again!

Watch the promo video for Dix and West’s incarceration dialogue here:

Dix first set the tone by sharing a letter he got from a prisoner in California, describing his solitary confinement experience. “He’s held 22 and more hours each and every day in a small, windowless cell. Someday they let us [the prisoner] exercise, but all that means is he gets to go from that small cell to a small cage,” the Revolutionary Communist Party co-founder said.

“Visits from his family and his lawyers can be cut off at any time or denied for any reason or no reason at all. He’s denied human contact for weeks, months, and even years at a time. His cell is sound-proof, so he goes long periods of time without hearing any sound. In his rare visits, it hurts his ears to hear his mother’s voice.”

Dix noted a contradiction in America’s inmate treatment while chastising other countries. “These are the conditions forming solitary confinement, right here in the U.S.A. country whose rulers never tire of going around the world, lecturing other countries about human rights violations. We’re not talking about a few hard cases treated this way; we’re talking about more than 80,000 people held under these conditions.”

“Now studies have shown that long term denial of human contact and long-term soundlessness can drive people insane. Yet this government arrogantly rejects international calls to limit solitary confinement to no more than 15 days.”

Mass imprisonment is part of a  larger scheme for killing off people of color, Dix argued. “A slow genocide has been more at work here in this country for quite sometime,” he said. “Grinding away, breaking the bodies, and crushing the spirit. The slow genocide can easily become a fast one, unless we act to stop it. This oppression is built in to the very fabric of this society. There ain’t gon’ be no savior coming down from Heaven or from the White House who can and would do anything about it.”

Cornel West’s turn at the podium proved no less energetic. The beloved civil rights activist set the crowd ablaze with his vocal performance, repeatedly lowering his voice to a controlled state, before a crescendo into a passionate climax of political outrage. “How shall integrity face oppression?” he asked. West shot his arms out in a show of asked support, back hunched, questioning the audience. “How shall honesty face deception?!”

West then briefly spoke about W.E.B Dubois’ works about the African-American state. “Dubois was speaking on behalf of a great people, of a Black people who’d been terrorized, traumatized, and stigmatized for 400 years in a land that understands itself to be the moral example of liberty!”

“These days, anybody who musters the courage to tell the truth about the conditions: imperialism, capitalism, White suprema[cy], male suprema[cy] — the system under which we live — you better be ready to die! These folks will kill you!”

“But the important thing is what you’re up against — the criminality against poor people, the criminalizing of young people, disproportionately Black and brown,” West said, through his trademark southern gentleman twang mixed with hints of bombastic Black pastor.

According to West, true change can only come through Black struggle: “There will never be sentimental transformation in this country until Black rage is channeled through moral, political, and ideologically progressive venue. Because the fundamental threat to the status quo in this nation, it started with Black men. The way that this nation was founded [with] emergence and sustenance so tied to White supremacy that if you don’t hit it head on, you can have all the best ideas in the world, and you’ll never be able to have a truce in place.”

The two men shared their revolutionary visions for more than an hour, leaving many issues to ponder. This was the sixth such discourse between Dix and West, who both started the Stop Mass Incarceration Network in 2011.

SEE ALSO: President: ‘We Will Stand With Oklahoma’

A Detroit mother claims that four women attacked her in front of her children over a possible road incident, Fox 2 News Detroit reports.

Watch news video Kesha’s account of the attack at the bottom

The woman, Kiesha, told the TV station that she went out for food for the family on a recent late night at a nearby McDonalds when she noticed a Ford Taurus “driving down the street all crazy.” She waited to see if the Taurus would slow down, but she said she had the right-of-way and proceeded to turn in to restaurant’s parking lot.

SEE ALSO: 9-Year-Old Girl Among Children Missing After Oklahoma Tornado

“The people followed me into McDonald’s,” Kesha said. “They blocked me off. She got out of the car. She came to my car. She leaned in the car. She argued with me. I tried to reason with her.”

SEE ALSO: Daughters Sue Mandela Over Control Of His Artwork, Companies

It is not clear what exactly caused the argument. Maybe it was road rage or, perhaps, Kesha cut them off. Whatever the reason, the dispute only got worse.

SEE ALSO: Sinbad Is Broke As A Joke — Again!

“I kept saying, ‘Wait, wait, wait, calm down. Please just calm down. Wait a minute. Hold on,’” Kesha explained. “I was like, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong. Just wait a minute.’ And she just kept on saying, ‘You shut the [expletive] up.’”

Here is more from Fox 2 News:

We’re told the woman spit on her twice and threw a liquor bottle through the car window.

“My kids were in the car. They had kids in the car. I go to try to leave and drive around their car. The next thing you know there’s a bottle flying in the window, glass all in my mouth,” Kesha said.

She jumped out, but four young women from the other car got out, too.

“It was crazy. They literally [were] thumping me. The girl that came to my car, she sat on top of me,” Kesha said.

Cut, bruised and now left with two bloody eyes, she said she was not trying to fight, but rather trying to reason with them.

“For them to be as upset as they were over something so simple, they had to be either intoxicated or on drugs or something,” Kesha said.

“By her being epileptic, God was on her side because she ended up having bruises, but this could have killed her,” said her finance.

“Of course, we do want justice for both her and for our children,” he added. “For our children to witness something like this, it’s an atrocity.”

Janae Hornsby, 9, pictured left and right with her father, is among the missing children after a tornado destroyed the town of Moore, Okla.

UPDATED 5/21/13, 5:02 p.m.: Sad news. It has just been confirmed that 9-year-old Janae Hornsby, one of the many children who went missing during the tornado that hit Moore, Okla., yesterday, was found dead. KOCO-TV 5 reports that Hornsby’s family was notified this morning that her body was at the medical examiner’s office. The grandmother broke the terrible news. The family is waiting for the body to be released to a funeral home.

“Janae’s father described her as a vivacious, lovable little girl who loves to play and always has a smile on her face. Her father said when he heard that Moore could be in the path of the storm he rushed to be with his daughter, but was stuck in traffic and unable to get to the school before the tornado struck. His home, just a few blocks away, was also severely damaged.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

 MOORE, Okla.  — Emergency crews searched the broken remnants of an Oklahoma City suburb Tuesday for survivors of a massive tornado that flattened homes and demolished an elementary school. At least 24 people were killed, including at least nine children, and those numbers were expected to climb.

As the sun rose over the shattered community of Moore, the state medical examiner’s office cut the estimated death toll by more than half but warned that the number was likely to climb again. Gov. Mary Fallin said an untold number of people were still missing.

“We will rebuild and we will regain our strength,” said Fallin, who went on a flyover of the area and described it as “hard to look at.”

Many houses, she said, have “just been taken away, they’re just sticks and bricks.”

Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, said she believes some victims were counted twice in the early chaos of the storm that struck Monday afternoon. Downed communication lines and problems sharing information with officers exacerbated the problem, she said.

“It was a very eventful night,” Elliott said. “I truly expect that they’ll find more today.”

Authorities initially said as many as 51 people were dead, including 20 children.

New search-and-rescue teams moved at dawn Tuesday, taking over from the 200 or so emergency responders who worked all night. A helicopter shined a spotlight from above to aid in the search.

Fire Chief Gary Bird said fresh teams would search the whole community at least two more times to ensure that no survivors – or any of the dead – were overlooked. Crews painted an `X’ on each structure to note it had been checked.

“That is to confirm we have done our due diligence for this city, for our citizens,” Bird said.

The community of 56,000 people, 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, braced for another long, harrowing day.

“As long as we are here … we are going to hold out hope that we will find survivors,” said Trooper Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

More than 200 people had been treated at area hospitals.

Other search-and-rescue teams focused their efforts at Plaza Towers Elementary, where the storm ripped off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal as students and teachers huddled in hallways and bathrooms.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said she watched up close late Monday as rescuers tried to find people in the wreckage of the school.

“It was an incredible sight to see how big the debris field was and how much destruction there was,” Fallin said. “It would be remarkable for anyone to survive.”

Seven of the nine dead children were killed at the school, but several students were pulled alive from under a collapsed wall and other heaps of mangled debris. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain of parents and neighborhood volunteers. Parents carried children in their arms to a triage center in the parking lot. Some students looked dazed, others terrified.

Officials were still trying to account for a handful of children not found at the school who may have gone home early with their parents, Bird said Tuesday.

Many parents of missing schoolchildren initially came to St. Andrews United Methodist Church, which had been set up as a meeting site. But only high school students were brought to the church, causing confusion and frustration among parents of students enrolled at Plaza Towers. They were redirected to a Baptist church several miles away.

“It was very emotional – some people just holding on to each other, crying because they couldn’t find a child; some people being angry and expressing it verbally” by shouting at one another, said D.A. Bennett, senior pastor at St. Andrews.

After hearing that the tornado was headed toward another school called Briarwood Elementary, David Wheeler left work and drove 100 mph through blinding rain and gusting wind to find his 8-year-old son, Gabriel. When he got to the school site, “it was like the earth was wiped clean, like the grass was just sheared off,” Wheeler said.

Eventually, he found Gabriel, sitting with the teacher who had protected him. His back was cut and bruised and gravel was embedded in his head – but he was alive. As the tornado approached, students at Briarwood were initially sent to the halls, but a third-grade teacher – whom Wheeler identified as Julie Simon – thought it didn’t look safe and so ushered the children into a closet, he said.

The teacher shielded Gabriel with her arms and held him down as the tornado collapsed the roof and starting lifting students upward with a pull so strong that it sucked the glasses off their faces, Wheeler said.

“She saved their lives by putting them in a closet and holding their heads down,” Wheeler said.

The tornado also grazed a theater, and leveled countless homes. Authorities were still trying to determine the full scope of the damage.

Roofs were torn off houses, exposing metal rods left twisted like pretzels. Cars sat in heaps, crumpled and sprayed with caked-on mud. Insulation and siding was smashed up against the sides of any walls that remained standing. Yards were littered with pieces of wood, nails and pieces of electric poles.

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.

“Among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew – their school,” he said Tuesday.

The town of Moore “needs to get everything it needs right away,” he added.

Obama spoke following a meeting with his disaster-response team, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and top White House officials.

The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most powerful type of twister. It estimated that the twister was at least half a mile wide.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., forecast more stormy weather Tuesday in parts of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, including the Moore area.

In video of the storm, the dark funnel cloud could be seen marching slowly across the green landscape. As it churned through the community, the twister scattered shards of wood, awnings and glass all over the streets.

Monday’s tornado loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the region with 300 mph winds in May 1999. It was the fourth tornado to hit Moore since 1998.

The 1999 storm damaged 600 homes and about 100 businesses. Two or three schools were also hit, but “the kids were out of school, so there were no concerns,” recalled City Manager Steve Eddy.

At the time of Monday’s storm, the City Council was meeting. Local leaders watched the twister approaching on television before taking shelter in the bathroom.

“We blew our sirens probably five or six times,” Eddy said. “We knew it was going to be significant, and there were are a lot of curse words flying.”

Betty Snider, 81, scrambled inside with her son and husband. She put her husband, who recently had a stroke, in a bathroom, but there wasn’t room for both of them. So she and her son huddled in a hallway.

“That is the loudest roar I’ve ever heard in my life,” she said.

She said she didn’t have time to do anything. She couldn’t duck, couldn’t cover her ears, couldn’t find another place to hide.

Snider lived through the 1999 tornado, but said this was the closest a twister had ever come to her house, which was still standing.

Monday’s twister also came almost exactly two years after an enormous twister ripped through the city of Joplin, Mo., killing 158 people and injuring hundreds more.

That May 22, 2011, tornado was the deadliest in the United States since modern tornado record keeping began in 1950, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Before Joplin, the deadliest modern tornado was June 1953 in Flint, Mich., when 116 people died.

Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace (pictured) was gunned down on March 9, 1997, just two months shy of his 25th birthday. With fame and all the perks that came along with his stellar rapping ability, he was destined to achieve so much more. On Tuesday, Biggie Smalls, as he also known, would have been 41 years of age. NewsOne takes a look back at the life and legacy of the heavyweight Brooklyn rap legend.

SEE ALSO: Haitian Revolution Leader Toussaint L’Ouverture Was Born On This Day In 1743

Hip-hop music was in a curious place, as many were still mourning the death of Wallace’s rival, Tupac “2Pac” Shakur, who was killed a mere six months prior on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas via a drive-by shooting. Because of the tensions between East and West Coast rappers at the time, many fans thought 2Pac’s death was a fatal warning serving as a salvo for the escalating coastal war. Dying in a similar fashion, Biggie’s murder left a foreboding cloud over the industry as it suddenly became less about the music and more about the violence it inspired.

Born Christopher George Latore Wallace to Jamaican parents George Latore and Voletta Wallace, the future Bad Boy star was raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.  According to his mother’s accounts, Wallace was a good student but succumbed to the trappings of the streets while in middle school. By the time he reached high school, his involvement in the drug trade increased and he was later jailed for his actions. Despite his life of crime, Wallace had a natural knack for rapping and made a demo tape using the alias Biggie Smalls.

The tape made its way to the hands of Mister Cee, a popular DJ who worked with another Brooklyn legend, rapper Big Daddy Kane.  Mister Cee played the tape for editors at hip-hop magazine The Source who were so wowed that they featured Biggie in its “Unsigned Hype” column in a March 1992 issue and reportedly invited him to record more music. The demo caught the ears of Uptown Records producer and A&R Sean “Diddy” Combs who rushed to sign the hefty MC.

Wallace still sold drugs as he joined Combs’ newly minted label, Bad Boy Records, later in 1992. After an appearance on a remix of Mary J. Blige’s smash “Real Love” single as the Notorious B.I.G., Wallace became a household name.

Watch Blige’s “Real Love” remix with B.I.G. here:

Combs developed his protégé along slowly, having Wallace appear on tracks with reggae star Super Cat, LL Cool J, and more, but it was with his debut album, “Ready To Die,” in September of 1994 that Wallace cemented himself as a force.

Marrying R&B singer Faith Evans a month prior, Wallace’s career arc was exceptional, considering West Coast hip-hop ruled heavily on the air waves and among consumers. Spawning huge hits in the singles “Juicy,” “Big Poppa,” and “One More Chance,” the LP went on to go platinum four times.

Between his debut and sophomore effort, Wallace helmed the creation of off-shoot music group Junior M.A.F.I.A., featuring childhood friends Lil’ Kim and Lil’ Cease. The crew had hits in the singles “Player’s Anthem” and “Get Money” — both staples of any old-school rap mix nationwide.

Surprisingly enough, Shakur and Wallace were once allies and had even performed live shows with each other. Things took a turn, however, when Shakur accused Uptown Records boss Andre Harrell, Combs, and Wallace of setting him up for a robbery and shooting in a New York studio in 1994.

Wallace denied all claims, and just last year it was revealed the beleaguered businessman and music mogul James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond was responsible for ordering a hit on Shakur.

The feud between the pair never went away and Shakur released his infamous and scathing diss record “Hit ‘Em Up” in the summer of 1996, squarely aimed in Wallace’s direction. Shakur also claimed to have slept with Wallace’s wife on the record, but it went largely ignored by the target.

As aforementioned, Shakur was killed later that fall and the rumors began to swirl. Was Wallace responsible for Shakur’s slaying? Did the diss record cut that deep to warrant the shooting?

While in California to promote his second album, Wallace was shot after attending the Soul Train Music Awards the evening prior, and as he was leaving an industry after-party in a SUV, Wallace was hit with four bullets by an African-American man who hopped out of a vehicle while Wallace’s entourage was stuck at a red light.

The murder remains unsolved, although it was initially rumored that Suge Knight, the owner of Death Row Records who counted 2Pac as a signee, ordered the shooting.

The “Life After Death” album was released posthumously on March 25, 1997. It was a double-disc album, marking the progression of Wallace’s style, and highlighted his amazing ability to adapt to the times. It has gone on to become one of hip-hop’s best-selling albums and was certified Diamond (10 million sold) in 2000.

Survived by his daughter Tynna, who is now 19 and in college at Penn State, she just released a clothing line. Tynna was featured in Wallace’s “Juicy” video when she was just a toddler and maintains her father’s legacy. Wallace’s son with Evans, also named Christopher, is a budding actor and rapper as well.

The tragic circumstances that led to the death of Wallace just as he was ready to become an even bigger star still boggle the mind. Yet, there is some comfort knowing that Wallace’s legacy remains untarnished despite one too many posthumous releases from Bad Boy’s vaults. Listeners worldwide have been robbed of witnessing what Wallace would have done next, and while he left us with plenty, it will never be enough.

Rest In Powerful Peace, Biggie. You Are The Illest.

SEE ALSO: Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. Died On This Day In 1990

Three Chicago teens have been arrested and charged with the rape of a 12-year-old girl. The teens allegedly posted video of the attack on their Facebook pages, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Scandale Fritz, 16, Kenneth Brown, 15, and Justin Applewhite, 16, were all ordered held in lieu of $900,000 bail in a hearing Friday; all three were charged as adults. The alleged attacks took place in December at Fritz’s home in the 400 block of West 60th Place in the Englewood neighborhood on Dec. 15.

It is not clear why it took so long to for the teens to be charged.

The girl, whose identity has not been released because she is a minor and a sex assault victim, went to Fritz’s home to speak with him. But when she entered the residence, she reportedly saw Brown with a gun in his pocket. Fritz then allegedly took the girl into the basement where he raped and sodomized her. After his alleged sexual assault, Fritz had Brown and Applewhite enter the basement and asked her to have sex with both teens.

At first, she refused but eventually gave in to their demands because Brown had a gun and both boys are reported to be members of the Black Disciples gang faction “Tay-Town,” according to DNAinfo Chicago.

In the video of the alleged sex act, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Bridget O’Brien said that the boys can he heard yelling gang slogans. One of the boys is seen waving a gun in the air while the girl performed sex acts.

All three boys were charged as adults with aggravated criminal sexual assault. While it appears that the charge was Applewhite’s first arrest, Fritz and Brown were both expected in juvenile court this week on pending robbery, aggravated battery and theft charges, according to DNAinfo Chicago. Brown was convicted of unauthorized use of a weapon in 2012. He was still on probation for that crime when the alleged rape took place in December.

The day after the assaults took place, the girl told someone about the attacks, and a police report was made. The girl was then treated and examined at a local hospital. On Dec. 17, the video was posted on Brown’s Facebook page. Eventually, all three boys posted the video on their Facebook pages. Prosecutors say Fritz admitted to making the tape.

All three boys are due back in court June 6.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama pledged urgent government help for Oklahoma Tuesday in the wake of “one of the most destructive” storms in the nation’s history.

RELATED: Huge Tornado Hits Oklahoma City Suburb, Kills 51

“In an instant neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, many more were injured,” Obama said from the White House State Dining Room. “Among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew — their school.”

The President added that the town of Moore, Okla., “needs to get everything it needs right away.”

Obama spoke following a meeting with his disaster response team, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and top White House officials. On Monday, he spoke with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Republican Rep. Tom Cole, whose home is in the heavily damaged town of Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City.

The President has also declared a major disaster in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate was due in Oklahoma later Tuesday to ensure that federal resources are being properly deployed.

The state medical examiner’s office has revised the death toll from the tornado to 24 people, including seven children. Authorities had said initially that as many as 51 people were dead, including 20 children.

Teams are continuing to search the rubble in Moore, 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, after the Monday afternoon’s more than half-mile-wide twister.

Watch the tornado here:

Precious Allen, 31, the Cincinnati mother facing misdemeanor charges for allegedly helping her daughter beat up a female classmate who was allegedly bullying her is suing the Cincinnati school district and police, reports WKRC Cincinnati.

As previously reported by NewsOne, Allen, her daughter, and her sister, Dawn Brunner, burst into a classroom and assaulted a 15-year-old student with their fists and a combination lock. The student suffered cuts and bruises, and a teacher ended up with a black eye in the scuffle.

Allen claims that the student she is accused of assaulting actually assaulted her and that the school purposely deleted video that would have proved her innocence.

Watch news coverage of this incident here:

Allen was previously charged with felonies, but a  Hamilton County Grand Jury indicted her on charges of misdemeanor assault and aggravated trespassing.

[NewsOne Editor's Note: If you or anyone you know is in need in the wake of this devastating tornado, please go to FreeOK.org by clicking here and here for continual updates on where food, clothes, shelter, healthcare and utility assistance can be found.]

UPDATE 05/20/13 — 11:24 PM EST:

“The biggest, most destructive tornado in the history of the world,” hit Oklahoma, and according to state officials, at least 24 students at Plaza Towers Elementary have been killed, including 7 who drowned, reports Jezebel.com.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students of Plaza Towers Elementary had been evacuated to a church about a quarter of a mile away, but Kindergarten through third grade had been sheltered at the school. When the tornado hit, some kids were allegedly in the bathrooms and hallways of the school.

—————————————————————————————————-

MOORE, Okla. (AP) — A monstrous tornado at least a half-mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds up to 200 mph. At least 51 people were killed, and officials said the death toll was expected to rise.

The storm laid waste to scores of buildings in Moore, south of the city. Block after block of the community lay in ruins. Homes were crushed into piles of broken wood. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside.

The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most-powerful type of twister.

Authorities expected the death toll to rise as emergency crews moved deeper into the hardest-hit areas. More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 70 children.

Rescuers mounted a desperate rescue effort at the school, pulling children from heaps of debris and carrying them to a triage center.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin deployed 80 National Guard members to assist with search-and-rescue operations and activated extra highway patrol officers.

Fallin also spoke with President Barack Obama, who offered the nation’s help and gave Fallin a direct line to his office.

Many land lines to stricken areas were down and cellphone traffic was congested. The storm was so massive that it will take time to establish communications between rescuers and state officials, the governor said.

In video of the storm, the dark funnel cloud could be seen marching slowly across the green landscape. As it churned through the community, the twister scattered shards of wood, pieces of insulation, awnings, shingles and glass all over the streets.

Volunteers and first responders raced to search the debris for survivors.

At Plaza Towers Elementary School, the storm tore off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal.

Several children were pulled alive from the rubble. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain to the triage center in the parking lot.

James Rushing, who lives across the street from the school, heard reports of the approaching tornado and ran to the school, where his 5-year-old foster son, Aiden, attends classes. Rushing believed he would be safer there.

“About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart,” he said.

The students were placed in the restroom.

Douglas Sherman drove two blocks from his home to help rescue survivors.

“Just having those kids trapped in that school, that really turns the table on a lot of things,” he said.

Tiffany Thronesberry said she got an alarming call from her mother, Barbara Jarrell, after the tornado.

“I got a phone call from her screaming, `Help, help! I can’t breathe. My house is on top of me!’” Thronesberry said.

Thronesberry hurried to her mother’s house, where first responders had already pulled her out. Her mother was hospitalized for treatment for cuts and bruises.

Oklahoma City Police Capt. Dexter Nelson said downed power lines and open gas lines posed a risk in the aftermath of the system.

Monday’s powerful tornado loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the region in May 1999.

The weather service estimated that the storm that Monday’s tornado was at least a half-mile wide. The 1999 storm had winds clocked at 300 mph.

Kelsey Angle, a weather service meteorologist in Kansas City, Mo., said it’s unusual for two such powerful tornadoes to track roughly the same path.

Monday’s devastation in Oklahoma came almost exactly two years after an enormous twister ripped through the city of Joplin, Mo., killing 158 people and injuring hundreds more.

That May 22, 2011, tornado was the deadliest in the United States since modern tornado record keeping began in 1950, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Before Joplin, the deadliest modern tornado was June 1953 in Flint, Mich., when 116 people died.

In this Sept. 29, 2011 photo, Dr. Christine Daniel gives a flu shot to patient Amparo Villaluazo at Daniel’s Sonrise Medical Clinic in Mission Hills. Daniel, 57, of Northridge, was found guilty on Friday May 17,2013 and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for selling bogus cancer cures to dozens of victims across the country as part of a “treatment” program that prosecutors said was “despicable, cruel and heinous” and hastened the death of some patients. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Daily News, Hans Gutknecht)

LOS ANGELES  — A Los Angeles doctor was sentenced Friday to 14 years in federal prison for bilking patients out of more than $1 million by promising them that an herbal supplement she hawked could cure late-stage cancer and other diseases.

SEE ALSO: Should IRS Apologize To Tea Party Racists?

U.S. District Judge Robert Timilin also ordered Dr. Christine Daniel to forfeit $1,277,083.

Daniel, 58, was found guilty of 11 counts, including wire fraud, tax evasion and witness tampering in September 2011.

She enticed patients to take her herbal product and charged them as much as $100,000 for a six-month treatment program that she claimed could cure cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis, authorities said.

Some of her patients, however, died from complications of cancer within three to six months after taking the supplement. In one case, prosecutors contend a 22-year-old woman who had a highly curable form of neck lymphoma died because she relied on Daniel’s recommendation to avoid radiation or chemotherapy treatments.

“The scope of Daniel’s fraud was breathtaking,” U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said in a statement after Daniel was sentenced. “Daniel robbed victims of more than money — she also stole their hopes and dreams for a cure. Daniel is responsible for a shockingly cold-hearted fraud that has brought her a richly deserved federal prison sentence.”

SEE ALSO: Zoe Saldana: ‘People Of Color’ Don’t Exist

Prosecutors sought a 27-year prison term, while Daniel’s attorney argued that nearly six years behind bars was more appropriate.

In all, authorities believe Daniel siphoned about $1.1 million from dozens of families between 2001 and 2004.

Some patients also endured additional pain and suffering because they took the herbal tonic provided by Daniel.

At trial, experts called by federal prosecutors said chemical tests of the product showed it contained beef extract flavoring and a sunscreen preservative, among other ingredients.

“I live with the guilt that I should have seen that none of what she was going through was helping her, but instead was hurting her,” Debra Harris wrote in a letter submitted to the court about her sister Barbara Davis, who was one of Daniel’s patients and who later died. Harris said Daniel’s patients were not only convinced they could be cured, but so were family members who “wanted to believe it just as bad.”

SEE ALSO: Which Slave Sailed Himself To Freedom?

Paula Middlebrooks also put her faith in Daniel, who billed her nearly $60,000 over a five-month period to help treat her terminal breast cancer. Eventually, Daniel pronounced Middlebrooks free of cancer and threw her a party. But in reality, the cancer was spreading and Middlebrooks died shortly after she returned to her home in Georgia.

Federal prosecutors said Daniel preyed upon people in their most vulnerable state.

Daniel “repeatedly demonstrated a merciless and callous indifference to the suffering of her patients and their family members,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns wrote in court documents. “It is unlikely that our federal criminal justice system will see the likes of defendant Christine Daniel again.”

Foreigners, who are looking to witness from a safe distance, what a “real ghetto” looks like are paying $45 a pop to take a bus tour through the Bronx, and borough politicos are up in arms, according to the New York Post.

Real Bronx Tours are taking mainly White Europeans and Australians on a tour of the Bronx with stops at for photo ops at a food-pantry line, “pickpocket” park, and housing projects.

According to an unnamed patron on the tour, one of the guides, Lynn Battaglia (pictured), from Pittsburgh, poked fun at impoverished areas, describing the South Bronx, in particular, as a crime-ridden borough infested with poverty and violence, which has plagued the area since the 1970s.

At one point during the tour, Battaglia allegedly told the tourists in front of pantry line, “I don’t know what that line’s about, but every Wednesday we see it,” Battaglia told the tourists. “We see them go in with empty carts, and we see them come out with carts full.”

The bus then reportedly stopped in front of St. Mary’s Park, where she reportedly told the foreigners, “If it were 1980, and you said to me, ‘Lynn, I want to die.’ My answer would be, ‘You’re in the right neighborhood,’” suggesting that the park is unsafe.

As the tour continued, Battaglia allegedly also blamed the borough for coming up with the term “pig” to describe police, “The policeman, his name is Patty, and he would walk up and down that street, and if he ran into an alcoholic, he’d beat them mercilessly. So they’d call him ‘Patty the Pig,’” she said.

“Pig” actually originated in London in 1811!

Borough President Ruben Diaz is incensed about the tour and referred to its guide as “the biggest fool on the planet.” Diaz added, “They should tell people about the Bronx that we all know, and that’s the Bronx that’s had the lowest crime rate since 1963 last year.”  Diaz contends, “To have foreigners come and gawk at a long line of people who are less fortunate than they are and to make money off of that and to view them as though they are some sort of entertainment is pretty disgusting.”

Meanwhile, Real Bronx Tours failed to provide a comment to the New York Post when contacted.

As an added note, I am from the Bronx and not only has crime gone down, but the borough has been significantly redeveloped since the ’80s. The Bronx is the birthplace of hip-hop, one of the centers of African-American culture, home to the legendary baseball team the Yankees, and has one of the world’s largest metropolitan zoos. 

The borough’s yesteryear image of being a lunar wasteland was perpetuated by those who are myopic and pessimistic. And today, the Bronx stands as a shining renaissance!

A manager of Chicago’s Navy Pier rode the tourist spot’s Ferris wheel for more than two days — 384 times, up and around — bringing the world record for the longest ride to the birthplace of the amusement park favorite.

SEE ALSO: Michelle Obama Has Retired Her Bangs


“I thought Chicago should have that title,” Clinton Shepherd said after finishing his record-breaking ride on Sunday. Shepherd, the park operations manager, spent 48 hours, 8 minutes and 25 seconds riding Navy Pier’s Ferris wheel over the weekend.

The first Ferris wheel was built in 1893 in Chicago for the World’s Columbian Exposition.

Guinness World Records allowed him to have one five-minute break each hour. He played hours of videogames to stay awake during the ride, and watched James Bond and Batman movies. His gondola on the wheel was specially outfitted with a big-screen TV, cushions and curtains.

SEE ALSO: Woman Gets Job Via Instagram

Supporters followed him on Twitter. A video camera recorded the feat while volunteer timekeepers documented Shepherd’s activities.

Fans could join Shepherd for a spin by making a donation to the USO. Shepherd’s girlfriend rode with him Saturday for a candlelight anniversary dinner with food from a Chicago restaurant owned by Michael Jordan.

SEE ALSO: Will The Media Apologize To The Central Park 5?

The 32-year-old Shepherd called his adventure “a very overwhelming experience” that was made easier by the support of friends, family and the city of Chicago.

“I was thrilled and honored to be able to have all the love and support I did,” Shepherd said.

The previous record was 30 hours and 35 seconds. Shepherd said he didn’t want to simply beat the record, “I wanted to shatter it.”

“It was little rough at about three in the morning, but the more I kept busy, the better,” Shepherd said.

He said his legs felt wobbly after the ride.

NewsOne has partnered with the Black and Missing Foundation and TV One to focus on the crisis of missing African Americans.

To be a part of the solution, NewsOne will profile a missing person weekly and provide tips about how to keep your loved ones safe and what to do if someone goes missing, while TV One‘s newest show, “Find Our Missing,” hosted by award-winning actress S. Epatha Merkerson, tells these stories in visual form.

                                                                                                —————————————
Ivanice Harris

Case Type: Endangered
Date of Birth: May 18, 1985
Missing Date: May 16, 2013
Age Now: 29
Missing City: Waikiki
Missing State: Hawaii
Gender: Female
Race: Black
Complexion: Medium
Height: 5’3″
Weight: 125
Hair Color: Black
Hair Length: Shoulder Length
Eye Color: Brown
Wear Glasses or Contacts: No

Location Last Seen: Harris was last seen at 2:15 a.m. on Thursday talking with a man outside a bar in Waikiki.

SEE ALSO: Family Suspects Foul Play In Case Of Missing Grandmother

Circumstances of Disappearance: Harris, 29, who is from Portland, was visiting Hawaii to celebrate her birthday. She was last seen by her friends talking to a man outside of a bar.

Friend Jillian Gibides said she pulled up to the area in a cap and saw Harris outside of the bar.

“When I had gotten out and came around the cab, I looked back over and didn’t see her, so I just figured, okay. She’ll just call me when she needs to,” said Gibidies who told HawaiiNewsNow that she considered Harris to be a sister.

Friends and family say it is unusual for Harris to go this long without contacting family.

“The last message we have from her is a text message to our mom on Wednesday,” Harris’ sister Holley Watson told the Oregonian. “She was having a good time. She went to breakfast [on Wednesday]. She went to the beach in the afternoon and she seemed to be extremely happy and enjoying herself.”

Harris’ mother said they spoke regularly.

“Every single day. She and I talk every single day. And I hadn’t heard from her,” said Harris’ mother, Patricia Harris. “And I said okay, she didn’t text me back. That’s when I got the text from her boyfriend, but she was having a great time.”

“I know her, and I know her well enough that this is not normal,” said Gibides. “And on her birthday?”

Harris had recently enrolled at Mt. Hood Community College. Her family has launched a Facebook page to bring attention to the case. They are also trying to raise money to hire a private investigator.

“I’m just hoping that somebody can tell us anything, you know. I just want her to come home, call, give us something to go on at this point,” said her sister, Ivesha Harris.

Last Seen Wearing: A red-orange, long-sleeve sweater and long blue denim pants.

Identifying Marks or Characteristics: Unknown.

If anyone has information regarding the whereabouts of Ivanice Harris contact CrimeStoppers in Honolulu at (808) 955-8300 or the Black and Missing Foundation’s confidential Tip Line.

SEE ALSO: Ct. University Student Who Planned to Pursue Doctorate In Psychology Still Missing

An Ohio father may have meant well when he let his 9-year-old daughter get behind the wheel of their family car, but the father-daughter outing went terribly wrong.

SEE ALSO: Michelle Obama Has Retired Her Bangs

The Smoking Gun reports that 23-year-old Jaron McGee was sitting on the passenger side of his purple 1998 Honda while his child was behind the wheel Sunday night in the parking lot of Headlands State Park.

SEE ALSO: Will The Media Apologize To The Central Park 5?


“However the child lost control of the car after achieving excessive speed, and drove directly into the large tree,” according to law enforcement authorities.

SEE ALSO: Woman Gets Job Via Instagram


Neither McGee nor the child was injured. She was driven from the scene by other family members before the cops arrived. While the family claims the girl was not hurt, The Lake County Sheriff’s office is checking up on the girl anyway. The front end of the car, however, sustained significant front end damage.

McGee was arrested on child endangerment and wrongful entrustment charges; both counts are felonies. He was booked into Lake County jail, where he was also being held on one felony and one misdemeanor warrant out of other jurisdictions.

In terms of historic merit, the achievements of Haitian Revolution leader Toussaint L’Ouverture (pictured) are noteworthy but also highlight a complex and sweeping story. In many historic accounts, it has been written that L’Ouverture was a slave, but some writings prove he may have been born free. What historians across the board do agree on is that L’Ouverture led a rebellion to rid the country — now known as Haiti — of slavery. NewsOne celebrates the life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, who was born on this day in 1743.

SEE ALSO: Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. Died On This Day In 1990

L’Ouverture was born Francois Dominique Toussaint on the plantation of Bréda at Haut de Cap in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). It was thought that L’Ouverture was taught to read and write by his godfather, Pierre Baptiste, and later from Jesuit missionaries.

According to various documents, L’Ouverture was freed from slavery in 1776 and remained a worker on the Breda plantation as an employee.

Saint-Domingue was an especially volatile colony, considering White planters, free people of color, and slaves all had differing aims in regards to the abolishment of slavery in the French colony. Inspired by the French Revolution of 1789, citizens of Saint-Domingue wanted the same opportunity to impart their independence from Revolutionary France; plantation slaves wanted to be treated equal as well.

The tensions among the groups inspired France to become involved from afar, and the country sent officials to the colony to stave off the impending revolt.

Georges Biassou was an early leader and general of the slave rebels, and Toussaint joined his forces in 1791 as a doctor and junior commander. General Biassou, like many other slave rebel leaders, fought alongside the Spanish forces based in Santo-Domingo (now Dominican Republic) in beating back the French forces. The following year, Toussaint changed his named to L’Ouverture (French for “opening”), which some writers say originated from his ability to make openings in the French military’s front lines.

L’Ouverture first believed that the French government should gradually lesson slavery in the colony as a fair approach, but because of the French Revolution and its results, L’Ouverture ended up fighting for the immediate ending of the practice.

French politician Léger-Félicité Sonthonax traveled to the island nation in a bid to stave off the revolution in Saint-Domingue, but later inconspicuously ended slavery in the colony to get the ex-slaves to fight for him and extend his control of rich lands held there.

Under pressure by the masses and the loss of life on either side, France ended slavery in February 1794, mostly due to the leadership of L’Ouverture.

Months later, Spanish forces were wary of L’Ouverture’s control and allegiance with the French. Consequently, many began to break away from his leadership despite its effectiveness, and L’Ouverture switched his allegiance to the French largely because he believed France was ending slavery based on his fighting for the country. L’Ouverture began fighting against his former allies, namely Biassou, who fought exclusively for the Black Spanish forces and was soundly defeated.

By 1795, L’Ouverture was seen as the reason slavery ended on the island.

Even with British forces trying to maintain their small hold, L’Ouverture was able to also push back their forces as France defeated Spain that same year thus leading to a peace treaty.

Many political machinations were afoot during this war, and L’Ouverture’s focus remained on restoring order in Saint-Domingue, even though many ex-slaves feared a return to their former treatment and began small skirmishes that disrupted progress.

Between 1796 and 1797, British forces that held coastal towns and land began to attack, but their forces were largely depleted due to an outbreak of yellow fever. L’Ouverture’s forces easily overtook them as a result, and by 1798, he commanded all of French Saint-Domingue aside from one state held by mulatto general André Rigaud. L’Ouverture clashed with the general in 1799, although his lieutenant Jean-Jacques Dessalines carried out the brutal assault against Rigaud and oversaw the slaughter of mulatto captive soldiers and citizens.

Napoleon Bonaparte, a military leader who came to power in 1799, created new laws for the colonies. Many feared a return to slavery but Napoleon promised to uphold French law so long as L’Ouverture would not invade Santo Domingo.

L’Ouverture proceeded anyway, defeating the small Spanish forces there, gaining control of the entire island.

General Charles Leclerc, Napoleon’s brother-in-law, ordered Napoleon’s troops to the island to strike a diplomatic deal to rule the island, although a secret plot to deport Black officers was in place.

A clash broke out between Napoleon and L’Ouverture forces, which led to a peace talk and eventual treaty in On May 6, 1802. L’Ouverture negotiated amnesty for his generals and agreed to retire to his plantation home.  Shortly after, Leclerc betrayed the agreement and had L’Ouverture arrested and later deported. Leclerc originally asked Lieutenant General Dessalines to arrest L’Ouverture who later refused; the seizure of L’Ouverture was carried out by another general who pretended to be an ally.

Dessalines became the leader of L’Ouverture’s army and led the Haitian rebels to victory, beating Napoleon’s forces in 1803. That same year, L’Ouverture died in a mountain prison in France and warned his captors they would not be successful in silencing the revolution in Saint-Domingue.

Although Toussaint L’Ouverture’s life was often turbulent, he took necessary risks in seeking the emancipation of his people.

L’Ouverture’s fight for equal rights was instrumental in Haiti, with the island gaining its independence from France, proving that togetherness for a common cause is the only way change can truly be achieved.

SEE ALSO: Henry L. Johnson Fends Off German Captors During World War I On This Day In 1918

A 14-year-old girl was shot dead by a stray bullet as she sat on a New York City bus Saturday night, Fox 5 News New York reports.

SEE ALSO: Michelle Obama Has Retired Her Bangs

Authorities say D’Asia Robinson had just left a friend’s Sweet Sixteen party when she was shot around 8:50 p.m at Sutphin and Rockaway Boulevard in the Jamaica section of Queens. Robinson was sitting on the Q6 bus with another girl just before the bus began its route when gun fire erupted.

“She sits in the rear of the bus, just to the rear of the back door and all of a sudden – shots rang out,” said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. “We believe at least nine shots were fired, nine shell casings were found on the ground – 40 caliber shell casings.”

Of the shots fired, one bullet hit Robinson in the temple. She was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital.

SEE ALSO: Will The Media Apologize To The Central Park 5?

Robinson’s friends gathered on the street where she lived to mourn her loss . They made several memorials of Robinson, one near the bus stop where she was killed. One of her friends who was with her before her death was dismayed at the shooting.

SEE ALSO: Woman Gets Job Via Instagram


“She was happy, she was having fun. We were all dancing with each other – that’s why it’s so shocking,” Tamia McDaniels, friend of Robinson, said. “I was just with her and an hour later, after I left the party, I hear she’s killed – it’s just so unexpected.”

One community leader called on residents to come together and fight for an end to the senseless violence.

“We have to take immediate action and call for the community’s participation in providing law enforcement officials with what information they may have that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the shooter or shooters,” said Community Advocate Tony Herbert.

The NYPD is pursuing all leads. Anyone with information about the shooting should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

PHOTO CREDIT: RawStory.com

Virginia Republican E.W. Jackson secured the nomination to run for Lt. Governor on Saturday, and, today RawStory.com unearthed a YouTube video in which he says that Planned Parenthood is more “lethal” to the Black community than the KKK, civil rights leaders are guilty of genocide and Christians must decide if they want to follow Jesus or be in the Democratic Party.

Read more from Raw Story:

E.W. Jackson, a pastor and Harvard graduate who previous sought Virginia’s senate seat, is the party’s first African-American candidate for statewide office since the 1980s. He’s also part of a trio of fringe conservatives leading the Virginia Republican Party’s statewide ticket, joined by state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli running for governor and state Sen. Mark Obenshain running for attorney general.

“The Democrat Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions,” he said in a video published to his official YouTube page. “Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was.

“They can keep their homosexuality private,” he said. “You and I cannot hide being black. I need not recount to you the painful history of slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings and sterilizations, all because of skin color. Anyone who dares equate the so-called gay rights movement to the history of black Americans is exploiting the black community.”

Weigh in!

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A Hofstra University student being held in a headlock at gunpoint by an intruder was accidentally shot and killed by a police officer who had responded to the home invasion at an off-campus home, police said Saturday.

Junior public relations major Andrea Rebello was shot once in the head early Friday morning by an officer who opened fire after the masked intruder pointed a gun at the officer while holding the 21-year-old student, Nassau County homicide squad Lt. John Azzata said.

In a tense confrontation with the officer, gunman Dalton Smith “menaces our police officer, points his gun at the police officer,” Azzata said. The officer opened fire, killing Smith and his hostage.

Azzata said the Nassau County police officer fired eight shots at Smith, who police described as having an “extensive” criminal background. Smith was hit seven times and died. Rebello was shot once in the head.

“He kept saying, `I’m going to kill her,’ and then he pointed the gun at the police officer,” Azzata said.

A loaded 9 mm handgun with a serial number scratched off was found at the scene, police said.

Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale said he had traveled to Rebello’s Tarrytown, N.Y., home to explain to Rebello’s parents what happened.

“I felt obligated as a police commissioner and as a parent to inform them as soon as all the forensic results were completed,” Dale said.

The veteran police officer, who was not identified, has about 12 years of experience on the Nassau County police force and previously spent several years as a New York City police officer, Dale said.

The officer is currently out on sick leave. He will be the focus of an internal police investigation once the criminal investigation is completed, which is standard police procedure in any officer-involved shooting, the commissioner said.

Earlier Saturday, police announced that Smith, 30 (pictured right), had been wanted on a parole violation related to a first-degree robbery conviction and had an arrest history dating back nearly 15 years.

The shooting came just days before the school’s commencement ceremonies, which are scheduled to take place Sunday.

A university spokeswoman said students will be handed white ribbons to wear in memory of Rebello. The shooting, which took place just steps from campus, has cast a pall over the university community as it geared up for commencement on Sunday.

“Today is the last day of finals and this should be a happy day on campus; but it’s not,” Hofstra freshman Scott Aharoni of Great Neck, said Friday as he passed through the area rife with yellow crime-scene tape. “It’s really sad.”

Rebello was in the two-story home with her twin sister Jessica, a third woman and a man when Smith, wearing a ski mask, walked into the house through an open front door, Azzata said. Smith demanded valuables and was told they were upstairs, Azzata said.

Smith, apparently unsatisfied with the valuables upstairs, asked if any of the four had a bank account and could withdraw money, Azzata said. The intruder then allowed the unidentified woman to leave and collect money from an ATM, telling her she had only eight minutes to come back with cash before he killed one of her friends, Azzata said.

The woman left for the bank and called 911, according to Azzata.

Minutes later, two police officers arrived at the home and found Rebello’s twin sister Jessica running out of the front door and the male guest hiding behind a couch on the first floor, Azzata said.

One of the officers entered the home and encountered Smith holding onto Rebello in a headlock, coming down the stairs, Azzata said. Smith pulled Rebello closer and started moving backward toward a rear door of the house, pointing the gun at her head before eventually threatening the officer, Azzata said.

Rebello’s family declined comment Saturday.

The Rev. Osvaldo Franklin, who gave Rebello and her sister Jessica their first communions, on Saturday night told The Associated Press their mother, Nella, couldn’t even speak to him earlier in the day.

“She was so devastated,” said Franklin. “She’s just crying. We have to pray for Andrea, to pray for Jessica because she needs help.”

Franklin said a funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at Teresa of Avila Church in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., and will be in Portuguese.

“The family’s a very good family, they have very good values,” he said. “I gave them first communion to Andrea and Jessica and they started to help me in the mass for many years. They are a very good, very devoted family.”

Beck was responding to the NAACP’s chairman emeritus, Julian Bond, who said that when the IRS targeted the civil rights organization in 2006 it was harassment. Conversely, Bond believes that the IRS was justified to target Tea-Party groups in what has become a mild scandal for President Barack Obama.

At issue for both groups was the legality of extra scrutiny for political reasons that would determine whether or not their tax exempt statuses would be revoked.

Bond told MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, “I don’t think there’s a double standard at all. I think it’s entirely legitimate to look at the Tea Party.

“I mean, here are a group of people who are admittedly racist, who are overtly political, who tried as best they can to harm President Obama in every way they can,” Bond explained.

“[The Tea Party] is the Taliban wing of American politics and we all ought to be a little worried about them.”

Watch Bond’s comments here:

In  one of the most delusional statements in modern politics, Beck had this to say about the Tea-Party:

[Dr.] Martin Luther King marched with an awful lot of white people…20 percent of the lynchings in the south, 20 percent of the lynchings by the KKK, where of white people. And you know what? I contend, the white people that were lynched are exactly the type of people that would be in the Tea Party today.

Firstly, his numbers are questionable and to even make that comparison is a transparent attempt at false equivalency.

Secondly, the Tea Party has made a name for itself by being a purposely inflammatory, racially derogatory and bigoted group of people who want the government to take their hands off of their guns and medicare — at the same time. How that translates into being a group of peace-loving White people is anyone’s guess.

But if anyone is able to attempt the comparison with a straight face, it’s Glenn Beck.

Watch Beck’s comments here:

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama‘s budget would trim projected federal deficits by $1.1 trillion over the coming decade, using nearly $6 in higher revenues for every $1 in reduced spending to achieve it, Congress’ nonpartisan budget analyst said Friday.

After four straight years of annual shortfalls exceeding $1 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office report said Obama’s budget would push this year’s deficit down to $669 billion. Annual shortfalls would shrink slowly to $399 billion in 2017 before rising again, the report said.

SEE ALSO:

Watch Bride And Groom’s Amazing Wedding Dance!

President Obama Picks Budget Official To Run Troubled IRS

The report did little to resolve the budget impasse between Obama and congressional Republicans. The White House wants to reduce deficits further with a mix of tax increases and spending cuts, while Republicans have said they won’t consider higher taxes.

Chiefly because of spending increases his budget proposes, Obama’s fiscal plan would make next year’s deficit $115 billion higher than the $560 billion shortfall that the budget office estimates for 2014 without the president’s policies. Republicans criticized that and contrasted the $542 billion deficit Obama’s budget would leave in 2023 with the spending plan approved by the GOP-run House, which relies on deep spending cuts to achieve balance by that year.

“This new report shows that the president’s budget doesn’t come close to solving the problem” despite proposing tax increases, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, top Democrat on the House budget panel, said the report shows Obama’s budget achieves “exactly what is called for right now, meaning we focus on jobs now and making sure we try to accelerate economic growth now, combined with long-term deficit-reduction.”

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said it was “encouraging” to see Obama’s proposals would reduce deficits. But she said changes in huge, fast-growing programs like Medicare and Social Security are still needed to keep the budget picture from worsening.

“CBO’s analysis serves as a fresh reminder of the work ahead, which will require a commitment from both sides to bridge their differences and come together on a debt reduction plan over the next few months,” MacGuineas said.

The congressional report said to achieve his $1.1 trillion in savings over the next decade, Obama relies on $974 billion in higher revenue and $172 billion in spending cuts. That is nearly a 6-1 ratio.

Obama’s major revenue-raising proposals include limiting some deductions and exclusions for some higher-earning taxpayers, raising $493 billion over the decade; boosting tobacco taxes by $83 billion; and raising estate and gift taxes by $77 billion, the budget office said.

On the spending side, the budget office credits Obama with 10-year savings of $601 billion from winding down the war in Afghanistan and $364 billion from cutting some Medicare payments to providers and raising costs for some beneficiaries. Much of those savings would be offset by spending boosts Obama wants for transportation, education and other areas.

He would save another $233 billion by having the government use a less generous method of calculating inflation, which would result in people getting smaller increases in Social Security benefits and moving more quickly into higher tax brackets.

The $1.1 trillion in deficit cuts over the coming decade was lower than the $1.8 trillion the White House said its budget would save. That discrepancy was chiefly due to differences in how the Congressional Budget Office and the White House calculated what deficits would be if no action was taken, congressional budget analysts said.

Overall, the budget office says Obama’s budget would produce $5.2 trillion in red ink through 2023. That is $1.1 trillion less than the deficits that would be generated over that time if no tax or spending laws are changed.

As previously reported by NewsOne, on the morning of Monday, April 20,  Kiera mixed some household chemicals inside of an 8 oz. bottle of water. The top flew off the bottle and a cloud of smoke erupted.

RELATED:

High School Student Charged With Felony Over Science Experiment?

Attorney Who Advised Kiera Be Charged With Felony, Drops Charges In White Teen’s Fatal Case Days Later

There was no damage caused and no one was injured, but Kiera was led away in handcuffs and faced possible charges of “possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device.”

“She made a bad choice. Honestly, I don’t think she meant to ever hurt anyone,” principal Ron Pritchard told WTSP. “She wanted to see what would happen [when the chemicals mixed] and was shocked by what it did. Her mother is shocked, too.”

Kiera was expelled, served a 10-day suspension  and will have to complete her diploma in an expulsion program.

Watch Kiera’s case here:

Hickam, whose memoir, Rocket Boys, was turned into a feature film called October Sky, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, had a similar experience to Kiera.

One scene in the film reenacts him being led away from his high school in handcuffs after experimenting with a rocket.

“I think she will feel right at home [at ASA],” Hickam says, “because she will be with other students just like her who are intensely interested in science and space.”

Kiera has accepted the scholarship and is looking forward to the experience, according to her mother, Marie Wilmot, who works at the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute:

“Kiera is a bright, imaginative young lady who loves science, technology, engineering and math – and she also loves music and art. In today’s terminology, they would refer to it as STEAM, which is the STEM field with the arts added in. Kiera joined her middle school Robotics Team, which is where her love of robotics began. She is very excited at this opportunity and is intrigued by Mr. Hickam’s story. We have ordered the movie October Sky and will be checking out his books. She would like to speak with Mr. Hickam and would like to meet him in person someday.”

As previously reported by NewsOne, the State Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday afternoon that no formal charges will be filed and she will not be prosecuted as they had initially planned to do.

Now, Kiera’s attorney, Larry Hardaway,  is focused on getting her arrest record expunged and getting her back into Bartow High School.

“…we’re still in negotiation, said Hardaway.  “I’m going to probably have more contact with them this afternoon.  I’m trying to get them to give me some firm commitment as to the direction that they’re going to take and then we’re going to then involve ourselves in that direction in hoping to get it done.”

Appearing on the Tom Joyner Morning Show in her first national interview since the traumatizing event, Kiera told Roland Martin that she’s scared to do science now, but still plans to major in technology engineering when she goes to college.

When co-host Sybil Wilkes told Kiera not to give up on her dreams and to “get back up on that bicycle and ride again, girl.”

Kiera said some words that we can all live by:

“I’m going to get off the bicycle and try the unicycle.”

You go, Kiera! We’re all so proud of you!

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Hundreds gathered Friday to remember the late grandson of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X as mourners said Malcolm Shabazz was well on his way to cementing his own legacy.

More than 200 people attended a traditional Islamic service in Oakland for the 28-year-old Shabazz, who authorities say was beaten to death last week over a $1,200 bar bill in Mexico City.

RELATED:

Official Family Statement On Death Of Malcolm Shabazz

Malcolm Shabazz, Grandson Of Malcolm X, Dead At 28

Malcolm X’s Grandson Alive And Well, Releases Statement: ‘They Drew Guns On My Mother And Me’ [VIDEO]

The service, which lasted more than two hours, featured plenty of prayer, songs, spoken word and tears. Many among the procession of speakers said while they initially connected with Shabazz because of his famous grandfather, they learned to appreciate a man they called “Young Malcolm” as a leader in his own right.

“If I could put into one word how I feel about Malcolm, it would be, ‘inspiration,’” Hussein Mekki, 32, of Houston, Texas, told fellow mourners. “Hopefully that will continue, and he can inspire us for the rest of our lives.”

Despite troubles early in life, from setting a blaze in his grandmother’s apartment that resulted in the death of Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabazz, to stints in juvenile hall and prison, mourners said Shabazz was seeking redemption with plans to write a memoir and another book denouncing youth violence.

Abdel Malik Ali, 55, a community activist from Oakland, said “Young Malcolm” appeared ready to fuse the history of Malcolm X along with his own experiences he described as “Generation Next.”

Shabazz, who also was the father of a young girl, wanted to help build mosques and education centers across America, Ali said.

“He was looking for his own voice, his own place in this world,” Ali said. “He had his struggles just like everybody else, but he eventually took on a huge responsibility in embracing his family’s legacy that’s harder than anybody could ever imagine.”

While Shabazz was originally from New York, he settled in the Bay Area more than three years ago after taking a spiritual pilgrimage to Mecca at the advice of friends and local political activist Yuri Kochiyama, who knew his grandfather and wrote to Shabazz while he was incarcerated.

Close friend Hashim Ali Alauddeen, a doctoral student in Islamic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said Friday that Shabazz had plans to attend community college in the area and eventually seek a bachelor’s degree in African-American studies at Berkeley.

“His heart was sincere. He strived to do what’s right,” Alauddeen said tearfully as he stood over Shabazz’s casket while delivering his friend’s eulogy. “He did his best to purify his soul. His intention and his sincerity were to serve God.”

Shabazz died May 9 after he was beaten outside a bar near Plaza Garibaldi, a downtown square that is home to Mexico City’s mariachis. Before his trip to Mexico, Shabazz had connected with a labor and construction group in California, and he traveled to Mexico to meet with one of its organizers who had been deported in April.

Labor activist Miguel Suarez, who was traveling with Shabazz, told The Associated Press last week that he and Shabazz were lured to the bar by a young woman who spoke to Shabazz in English.

Authorities in Mexico City say Suarez told investigators that he and Shabazz drank about a dozen beers and then the waiters demanded they pay a tab of 15,000 pesos, or about $1,200.

Mexico City’s top prosecutor said two waiters arrested in the case had served Shabazz earlier. An autopsy found Shabazz died of blows to the head, face and torso.

Alauddeen said Shabazz’s body will be buried in New York next to his grandparents.

WATCH NEWSONE’S BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO WITH MALCOLM SHABAZZ BELOW: