A jury agreed Friday on nine of 10 counts in Imka Pope’s civil rights case against King County. Pope says jail nurses and corrections officers violated her civil rights in 1997 by dismissing her claims that she was pregnant.

She had been arrested for sleeping on a bench at a Metro bus stop. In the lawsuit she filed in 2007, Pope said jail health officials locked her in a cell and ignored her for six days. She got help after a guard heard a baby crying.

Her mental illness has delayed the case. It went to trial once previously, but at that time Pope was involuntarily committed to Harborview Medical Center.

A call to the King County prosecutor’s office seeking comment on the case was not immediately returned late Friday afternoon.

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The black officers allege that there is a “secret list” from which white officers in the department are selected. The complaint, which was obtained exclusively by NY1, has been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It alleges the following:

“[The department] has chosen to cloak promotions in secrecy and give the all-white high level supervisors who run the Intelligence Division unfettered discretion to handpick white detectives for promotions over more qualified African American detectives.”

And according to the officers, the numbers spell it out. Of the 600 employees of the elite Intelligence Division, only 35 are black. Eight of the unit’s 161 sergeants are black and just 6 percent of the 224 detectives are black.

“This has been a problem for years,” retired Lieutenant Darrin Speight of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement tells NY1. “This is not something new. We want officers that are there by merit, not there because you drink beer with your supervisor or you are friends with the inspector.”

These New York officers are not the only ones who’ve complained of racism within police ranks recently.

Seven black officers in Richmond, CA, have been fighting a discrimination case against their department brass since 2007. And in 2009, Philadelphia cops filed a federal lawsuit alleging the publishing of disparaging comments from white officers on a racist website.

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Warren Glover, 50, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court Thursday morning accusing senior N.B.A. security officials of creating a hostile environment and being denied promotions because of his willingness to speak out.

In one instance, Glover said a senior security official made sexual advances toward a female colleague, then demeaned her publicly when she rejected his advances. In another, a different security official proposed using sexually inappropriate material as part of a presentation to N.B.A. players.

Read more at the New York Times.

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Rainbell Owens is suing Flatiron bar and lounge 230 Fifth, claiming owner Steven Greenberg screamed and kicked him and his 15 other Black friends out of the establishment.

According to reports, Owens claims Greenberg didn’t what their cake to mess up his 10,00 dollar sofa.

“We have probably 1000 or more African American people and people of other minorities enter and leave 230 Fifth on a busy night,” Greenberg said. “We are not racist.”

Read more at The Gothamist.

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Boykin-Town’s husband, Darryl Towns, is the state housing commissioner and former Brooklyn state assemblyman who voted to increase the cap on charter schools last year. The NAACP, where Boykin-Towns sits on the national board, recently filed a lawsuit that decreed city charter schools.

The Towns’ enrollment of their daughter at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, poses as a revealing dissembling.

Boykin-Towns, however, defended their condemning decision stating, “I’d simply say that as a parent, the most important job you have is to provide the best opportunities possible for your children’s education and success,” Boykin-Towns said in an e-mail response.

The NY Post Reports:

“It’s beyond hypocritical; it’s crazy,” said Kathleen Kernizan, whose daughter is scheduled to attend Leadership Prep charter school in the Ocean Hill section of Brooklyn — whose proposed co-location in a building with a public school is being challenged by the NAACP.

“The NAACP is stopping my right to exercise my choice of what’s best for my daughter, and they’re fleeing the public-school system.”

Read More At NYPost.com

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Officer Lisette Pedrosa said Lt. Salvatore Marchese began sexually harassing her in February 2010 when the two worked together at the 25^th Precinct in East Harlem.

Pedrosa told sources she complained to the department’s internal affairs office, but after more than a year nothing has been done. Now she’s telling her story and preparing a sexual harassment lawsuit.

“He said he wanted me in plain clothes so we could go in his private vehicle to look for graffiti,” Pedrosa said of the 45-year-old Marchese. “He said he wanted people to get used to us being together.”

Read more at the New York Daily News.

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NEW YORK, New York — Manhattan mother Nicole Imprescia is suing York Avenue Preschool for grouping her 4-year-old daughter with younger classmates, consequently failing to prepare her for an Ivy League education.

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Daily News reports:

The court papers implied the school could have damaged Lucia’s chances of getting into a top college, citing an article that identifies preschools as the first step to “the Ivy League.”

Imprescia transferred her daughter out of the school after only a month, claiming that she was put into classes with 2-year-olds.

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A taxi driver has agreed to settle a discrimination case by paying $2,000 to a white passenger who had filed a complaint saying the hack had agreed to take him from Manhattan to Brooklyn — but then changed his mind once the rider’s black friend got in.

Daniel Shaneyfelt said cabby Mohamed Ebrahim crossed two lanes of traffic to get to him and had no qualms about traveling to Park Slope, Brooklyn, a destination some drivers shun because they prefer to roam Manhattan’s much busier streets.

But when Shaneyfelt’s black boyfriend — who has dreadlocks and had just completed a cancer treatment — entered the vehicle, Shaneyfelt said Ebrahim reversed course.

Read The Whole Story

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Mediatakeout claims to have uncovered a letter sent by Jamal Harris who has accused Bishop Eddie Long of sexual abuse, to the Bishop. Here is a short part.

I will not allow you to take anymore from what you have taken. and if you dont know let me tell you: my joy and peace, my innocence, you murdered that genuine person that was inside of me, the person that god made me. you took away hope, and you almost caused me to take my own soul. what kind of person are you.

You are not a human, you are a monster, you have made me one to those who care and cared about me and now i see the world like i see you, evil, corrupted and full of lies. i dont need you to hurt or love me anymore i can do that by myself for free, no price and no string attached.

Read The Whole Story At Mediatakeout

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The family of Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old woman who was killed in an illegal police raid has received $4.9 million, the Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced Monday morning that the estate of Kathryn Johnston, led by her niece Sarah Dozier, would be getting a $4.9 million settlement. The full city council will debate and vote on it this afternoon.

Johnston was killed when a police drug unit tried to execute a “no-knock” warrant on her home, using information provided by an informant who claimed he had purchased drugs at from the home. After officers kicked in the door, the elderly Johnston reached for a gun and fired one shot. Police returned fire, killing her. No drugs were found, and officers planted drugs in the home that had been recovered from a different raid.

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The Hill is reporting that two African-American employees are suing the National Republican Senatorial Committee for racial discrimination after he was fired last month.

Keith Carter, who joined the NRSC in 1995, has charged Republican officials with creating a hostile environment for the two African-American employees who worked at the committee.

Carter, who is black, said he was referred to as “boy” and forced to clean up the feces of dogs white employees had brought to work.

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TMZ is reporting that Mike Tyson is being sued by 49 year old boxer, Mike Landrum, over the used of his nickname, “Iron Mike” Tyson. Landrum, who was 6-4 as a boxer, claims that Tyson’s use of the nickname, “Iron Mike” “hindered from getting any major title fights or sponsorships because of the name confusion.”

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Edolphus Towns stepped into the Kings County Supreme Court yesterday in what is either a brilliant stall tactic or a sincere attempt to stem election fraud.

His opponent Kevin Powell considers it to be the former, fueled by the fact that Towns has dismissed repeated requests for a public debate, and was a no show to a scheduled debate to take place in the 1oth Congressional District in Brooklyn. The District encompasses Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Heights, Brownsville, Canarsie, East New York and Ocean Hill, as well as parts of Fort Greene, Prospect Heights and Williamsburg.

Towns has dismissed his opponent as a candidate that’s still green. Powell won only 32 percent of the vote against Towns in his 2008 run.

“Unfortunately for him, Mr. Powell is not as good at filing petitions as he is at mistreating women and losing elections,” says Hank Sheinkopf, spokesperson for Rep. Towns. ”There were so many serious problems with his petitions that our campaign believed we needed to protect the voters from being victims of this possible fraud. If indeed Mr. Powell followed the law, than he has nothing to worry about and will be free to lose again.”

Powell, an author and activist, is an outspoken critic on gender and domestic violence, well known around the country for his efforts. This is a point, he says, that Towns knows very well.

“Fact is that Mr. Towns, Mr. Sheinkopf, nor anyone else would even know the details of my past life if I had not put it all out there myself, over the course of my 24 years as a professional writer, both in magazines like Essence and Ms., and in much of my 10 books,” says Powell. “So it is actually comical when Mr. Towns’ camp makes statements about my past like they are revealing something new that in fact isn’t new at all. I have been saying all these things myself since 1992. And because I am both an ever-changing human being and a Christian, I believe deeply in redemption, as my own life is a testimony to that.”

The Powell campaign collected more than 8,000 signatures, far more than the 1,250 necessary to get on the ballot.

Amidst  a storm of ethics violations with two long term Congressional veterans, Rep. Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel, Towns is challenging those signatures. But Powell believes the lawsuit is masking a fear that this time the 14-year veteran just might lose.

“Congressman Ed Towns is clearly hiding behind this lawsuit because it is abundantly clear he does not want to campaign this summer,” said Powell. “Of our 8,200 or so petition signatures gathered, Mr. Bernard Alter [Towns' attorney] submitted over 2,800 as valid, giving us 2.5 times what is required (1,250) to be on the ballot.”

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by Kevin Powell

Yesterday was our first day in New York State Supreme Court in the case of Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns versus Kevin Powell. In court instead of on the streets where two Democratic Congressional candidates and their staffers belong just six weeks from the Tuesday, September 14th Democratic Primary Election. In court instead of at a candidate forum or debate discussing critical issues for Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional district like jobs, small business development, educational reform, or how we can stem the tide of violence in huge chunks within our community.

Congressman Ed Towns is clearly hiding behind this lawsuit because it is abundantly clear he does not want to campaign this summer. Nor does he trust democracy, nor the very people he has been representing for 27 long years. If Mr. Towns did, then he would not be wasting taxpayers’ money on a flimsy attempt at proving my campaign does not have enough signatures to be on the ballot.

But we do. Mr. Towns’ own team, led by attorney Bernard Alter, admitted as much via their own evidence. Of our 8,200 or so petition signatures gathered, Mr. Alter submitted over 2,800 as valid, giving us 2.5 times what is required (1,250) to be on the ballot. This is a far cry from Mr. Towns going on record in the media yesterday saying our petitions were the “sloppiest” he had ever seen. If that were truly the case, and it is not, why would the Board of Elections approve of our petitions in the first place, and why did Mr. Alter say just the other day that Kevin Powell for Congress 2010 had “quite an operation.”

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OKLAHOMA CITY – An 87-year-old grandmother subdued by police with a stun gun while she was lying in bed hooked up to an oxygen machine is suing her Oklahoma hometown.

Attorney Brian Dell said Tuesday that he filed the lawsuit June 21 on behalf of his client, Lona Varner. He did not specify the amount she’s seeking from the city of El Reno but said it’s at least $75,000.

Varner’s grandson called 911 on Dec. 22 and told the dispatcher his grandmother “wanted to end her life” and that he was concerned she had taken some unknown medicine.

Officer Thomas Duran says in a police report that Varner pulled a kitchen knife from under her pillow and threatened to stab and kill him if he tried to take her from her home.

Members of the nation’s oldest black sorority are alleging more financial misdeeds by their president, who is already accused of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of the group’s money on questionable expenses, including a wax statue of herself.

Eight members of Alpha Kappa Alpha filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court in June seeking to remove international president Barbara McKinzie.

Now they say she received nearly $500,000 in questionable payments from the Chicago-based sorority over six weeks this summer, starting June 19, the day before the lawsuit was filed.

The lawsuit says McKinzie spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in AKA money on herself, some of it to pay for the statue to be displayed in the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore.

It also alleges that McKinzie bought designer clothing, jewelry and lingerie with the sorority credit card, then redeemed points the purchases earned on the card to buy a big-screen television and gym equipment.

The lawsuit questions the legitimacy of $375,000 in compensation that McKinzie received in 2007, saying it was never approved by members. Past AKA presidents have received only small stipends, said Edward W. Gray Jr., an attorney for the sorority members who are suing.

The latest allegations stem from copies of checks that Gray said were sent to the plaintiffs anonymously. The checks, for a total of $499,699, are made out to McKinzie by the sorority. The copies have been posted on a Web site the plaintiffs set up.

Gray said it’s unclear who, if anyone, approved the payments. Ledger entries accompanying them indicate they are for “retirement.”

“There’s a veil of secrecy over their financial activities even though all of their financing comes from member support,” Gray said.

The sorority engages in a variety of charitable and service projects, and according to the lawsuit most of its revenue comes from member dues and registration fees for membership meetings.

In a letter to sorority lawyers last week, Gray emphasized that he could not vouch for the checks’ authenticity, but demanded that any such payments stop.

Asked whether the checks were genuine, AKA spokeswoman Melody M. McDowell said the sorority would have no comment beyond a letter from AKA lawyer Charles G. Albert. McKinzie has denied the claims in the lawsuit, calling them “malicious allegations.” A message seeking comment was left Tuesday at a home number listed for her.

In the letter, Albert referred to the check copies sent to Gray’s clients as “the wrongful disclosure of what appears to be the confidential financial information of the Sorority.”

“AKA is a multimillion-dollar business, and will continue to conduct its daily business consistent with its policies and procedures, and all applicable laws and rules,” Albert wrote to Gray. “Neither you nor the eight plaintiffs in this case can prevent the Sorority from conducting its business.”

AKA was founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington and boasts a worldwide membership of 250,000 women, including prominent black businesswomen and such luminaries as author Toni Morrison. Alpha Kappa Alpha has nearly 56,000 active members, about 10 percent of them undergraduates.

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Carmelo Anthony is suing his former business manager, alleging he misappropriated more than $2 million of the Denver Nuggets star’s assets.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Calif., on Monday, alleges that Anthony’s former business manager, Larry W. Harmon, and employees of Larry Harmon & Associates P.A., breached their fiduciary duties by transferring $1.75 million of Anthony’s money without his knowledge or consent to a company formed by Harmon, most of it in 2008.

Another $265,500 was discovered to have been invested in third parties without Anthony’s knowledge or consent between 2005 and 2008, according to the lawsuit, which seeks recovery of the approximately $2 million, plus punitive damages.

“I intend to aggressively represent Carmelo Anthony,” his Beverly Hills-based attorney, Robert W. Hirsh, told The Associated Press. “The evidence which I have reviewed strongly suggests that Carmelo Anthony’s former business manager plundered his assets. It is reprehensible that professional athletes are so often victimized.”

Reached at his office in Roseville, Calif., Harmon said he was unaware of the lawsuit.

He declined to comment on the allegations in the lawsuit or on his dealings with Anthony. “I guess I’ll just wait and see what he alleges,” Harmon said.

The discrepancies were discovered after Anthony ended his business relationship with Harmon and hired a new manager to manage his assets earlier this year, according to the lawsuit. That new financial management firm, Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, discovered the financial discrepancies.

The lawsuit alleges that significant documents were missing when Harmon transferred Anthony’s records to his new business manager.

“Further, portions of the books and records are miscoded in a deliberate attempt to hide moneys converted by defendants,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also contends that Harmon and the other defendants failed to produce any documents requested by Anthony’s lawyer to explain the transfers of Anthony’s money that are in question.

Anthony was the third selection in the 2003 NBA draft after leading Syracuse to the national title as a freshman. Last year, he led the Nuggets to their best season in 24 years after helping the U.S. team win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Anthony is entering the fourth year of a five-year, $80 million contract extension he signed in 2006.

A woman from Fort Bend County, Texas is suing Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man, for alleging shooting her with a pellet gun as she sought an autograph after a concert with Redman at the House of Blues in Houston.

Method Man, born Clifford Smith, is accused of shooting a pellet gun at Mary Anderson from the window of his tour bus, as she sought an autograph.

In the lawsuit which was filed on Thursday (July 30) in the District Court of Harris County, Texas, Anderson claims she was struck at least six times in the chest and torso area and required medical attention after the incident.

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From CNN

The suit alleges white officers post on and moderate the privately operated site, Domelights.com, both on and off the job.

Domelights’ users “often joke about the racially offensive commentary on the site … or will mention them in front of black police officers,” thus creating “a racially hostile work environment,” according to lawyers for the all-black Guardian Civic League, the lead plaintiff in the suit.

A look at the site’s forums Friday for racist comments found several possibilities.

Reads one: “In urban areas, it seems [African-Americans] living on welfare in paid for housing is ingrained in their culture as well as fighting. … Kids, along with adults can’t speak proper English or spell at a 3rd grade level, but they can sing among “theyselves” the lyrics to a rap song.”

Said another Domelights user of an African-American woman: “She is a classic example of that exact non tax paying, no car insurance driving, bad weave wearing, all the whitey’s are racist black women.”

The site’s tagline is “the voice of the good guys.”

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• Read the lawsuit (PDF) Warning: Contents may offend some readers

“Every time African-Americans do or say something in our city, we get this backlash of cops who think they’re anonymous on this Web site — just racist, nasty, hurtful things about what we do,” said Rochelle Bilal, the president of the Guardian Civic League and a 23-year veteran of the force.

The league’s attorney said other black officers echo Bilal’s statement.

“We’ve heard the same story over and over again, which is that [African-American officers] witness in the workplace Domelights being used and discussed [in a racial manner],” said Brian Mildenberg, whose firm is also representing a Philadelphia day camp that recently gained national attention when its mostly black campers were turned away from a swim club.

He said it was “a gift from the heavens in a way that the two things happened at once.”

While Mildenberg and Bilal said they had been monitoring the 10-year-old Web site for years, the pool incident did seem to play into the timing of the lawsuit.

“When they said something about our pretty, brown, young, innocent children and called them monkeys because they wanted to go swimming, that was enough,” Bilal said.

She may have been referring to this comment posted on Domelights: “Maybe the people who work for a living didn’t want to swim with a bunch of ghetto monkey faces.”

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A man who says he was assaulted and sodomized by New York City police officers has sued the city and the department.

Tattoo parlor employee Michael Mineo filed the lawsuit Thursday and is seeking $220 million in damages for permanent and severe injuries. He says he was attacked Oct. 15 in a subway station.

Officer Richard Kern was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and assault. Officers Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales were charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct on suspicion of covering up a crime.

All three pleaded not guilty.

A city law department official said she hadn’t seen the legal papers yet but planned to review them.

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On the day Chris Brown took to YouTube to say he’s “not a monster,” a photographer sued the R&B singer, saying Brown’s bodyguards beat him as he tried to take pictures at a gym.

Robert Rosen sued Brown and LA Fitness International, claiming he was assaulted by a bodyguard after snapping pictures in a gym in Universal City. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for multiple claims, including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

The suit states Rosen snapped photos of Brown and friends on the basketball court at the LA Fitness on May 13, roughly a month after the singer’s arrest for allegedly assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna. Brown has pleaded not guilty in that case, which is scheduled for a hearing Thursday.

Rosen’s lawsuit states he fell down a flight of stairs after being chased by Brown’s bodyguards, who assaulted him. It does not allege violence by Brown.

Rosen also claims he was blocked from leaving the gym by a gym employee. A phone recording at LA Fitness’ headquarters said the company was closed on Wednesday evening and did not allow a message to be left.

“This is a specious and frivolous lawsuit by one of the paparazzi seeking publicity and a payday,” Brown’s attorney, Mark Geragos, said in a statement. “He’s done this before and lost. We will vigorously defend against this.”

The filing does not state Rosen’s employer, but a paparazzo with the same name filed a similar lawsuit against Pierce Brosnan in 2007. That suit was later dismissed. Rosen’s attorney did not return a phone call Wednesday afternoon.

The lawsuit was filed on the same day Brown, 20, defended himself in a video posted on YouTube.

Brown is shown leaning in and speaking directly into the camera, which appears to be positioned in front of a bowling lane. He talks about his new album called “Graffiti,” and a single expected this summer.

Then he says: “Everybody that’s haters, they just been haters. All my real fans, I love you. I ain’t a monster.”

Brown, who’s been charged with felony assault and making criminal threats against Rihanna on the night of the Grammy Awards in February, did not mention his former girlfriend.

It’s not immediately clear when or where the video was shot. A publicist for Brown didn’t immediately respond to a requests for comment Wednesday about the video.

More than three years after Katrina stirred up the waters and washed out levees along a 75-mile, man-made shipping channel dubbed “hurricane highway,” a judge could soon decide whether the Army Corps of Engineers owes residents and businesses damages because of the massive flooding.

Arguments are set to begin Monday in the trial, which will be heard and decided by a judge, not a jury. And much is at stake: If the five residents and one business in this initial lawsuit are victorious, more than 120,000 other individuals, businesses and government entities could have a better shot at claiming billions of dollars in damages.

The residents argue the corps’ poor maintenance of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a shipping channel dug in the 1960s as a short-cut between the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans, led to the wipeout of St. Bernard Parish and the city’s Lower Ninth Ward when Katrina struck in August 2005. They are asking for damages between $300,000 and $400,000 for each individual.

The corps has argued that it is immune from liability because the channel is part of New Orleans’ flood control system, but the judge has allowed the case to move forward because residents claim the shipping channel was a navigation project.

One of the residents suing, 75-year-old Lucille Franz, lost her home in the Lower 9th Ward. “I’ve been through a lot,” she said.

Her sister drowned at St. Rita’s nursing home in St. Bernard near the MRGO, also known as “Mister Go.”

“They are responsible,” she said of the corps. “We wouldn’t have had that kind of water if it hadn’t been for the MRGO.”

The four-week trial will explore in detail the natural history, engineering and politics of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet.

The outlet was authorized in 1958 by Congress. The route went through largely pristine wilderness of marsh and swamp forest southeast of New Orleans.

Scientists say its construction destroyed about 18,000 acres of marsh and 1,500 acres of cypress swamps. The economic benefits never paid off, and few ships used it before Katrina. After the channel was built, larger vessels continued to use the Mississippi River because a bigger lock to the MRGO was never built.

The corps has acknowledged the area’s flood risk, and is in the process of closing the MRGO with rocks. The corps is also building a $1.3 billion floodgate.

“It’s really something the people of St. Bernard and the Lower 9th Ward, and New Orleans East, everybody in that area, have needed for a long time. What happened there should not happen in the United States of America,” said plaintiffs’ attorney John Andry. “It’s the largest preventable catastrophe in American history.”

The Department of Justice is defending the corps, but lawyers declined to comment. In court documents, the government has argued that Katrina’s massive storm surge, not the MRGO, caused the catastrophic flood.

“The only way in which the catastrophic flooding of the Lower Ninth Ward, St. Bernard, and New Orleans East could have been avoided would have been through the construction of a better hurricane protection system,” the government argues.

For decades, the corps has invoked immunity from lawsuits over flooding – granted by the Flood Control Act of 1928 – and maintained it has a good track record of carrying out Congressional mandates.

In this case, the plaintiffs have a glimmer of hope because U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval has ruled the corps can be held liable for flooding caused by the MRGO. By contrast, Duval threw out a similar suit in January 2008 over flooding caused by broken floodwalls closer to the city park and downtownNew Orleans, ruling the corps was immune.

“The claims are not new, nor is the defense new, but their application is novel in two ways: One, the size of the stakes and, two, the amount of the alleged negligence and malfeasance,” said Oliver Houck, environmental law professor at Tulane University.

The outcome of the trial may pivot on technical arguments.

The plaintiffs say the MRGO – and all the erosion it caused – allowed Katrina’s waves to destroy the levees and floodwalls.

“It was nothing but a city killer,” said G. Paul Kemp, a coastal scientist with the National Audubon Society who is expected to testify on behalf of the plaintiffs.

The corps disputes that analysis, saying it took concerns about the risk of flooding seriously, but after studying its effect determined the MRGO would not contribute to severe storm surge.

A makeup artist and a fashion stylist claim in coordinated lawsuits that they got ugly treatment from Queen Latifah when she cheated them out of $1 million.

Celebrity cosmetology consultant Roxanna Floyd says she lost $700,000 when the rapper-actress failed to pay her for work she did between July 2005 and February 2008.

In a separate lawsuit, celebrity fashion stylist Susan Moses said she was cheated of $300,000 during the same period.

The lawsuits were filed Monday in federal court in Manhattan.

Amanda Silverman, a spokeswoman for the actress whose roles in movies include “Hairspray” and “Mad Money,” says the lawsuits have no merit, but she can’t comment more on pending litigation.

From The San Francisco Chronicle

Family members of Oscar Grant, the unarmed BART rider shot to death by a transit agency police officer early New Year’s Day, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Monday that seeks $50 million from the agency, its chief of police and three officers.

John Burris, an attorney for the family, had asked for $25 million in a legal claim against BART after Officer Johannes Mehserle shot Grant on the platform of the Fruitvale Station in Oakland.

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The woman who was with Morgan Freeman the night of a car crash that injured both of them insists she was never romantically linked to Freeman and is suing the actor for negligence. Demaris Meyer and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, held a news conference Wednesday announcing that Meyer has filed a lawsuit against the 71-year-old Academy Award winner.

“I have been labeled as the other woman and have been accused of having caused the breakup of Mr. Freeman’s marriage,” Meyer said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I had hoped and prayed that Mr. Freeman or his representatives would have set the record straight and cleared my name, but they have not done so and that is why I have chosen to come forward to tell the truth about our relationship.”

In the days after the accident last August, Freeman’s lawyer, Bill Luckett, told media outlets that Freeman and his wife of 24 years, Myrna Colley-Lee, had been separated since December 2007 and were getting a divorce. Several media outlets reported that the 48-year-old Meyer was Freeman’s mistress.

Meyer said Wednesday she met Freeman the night of the accident at a dinner party at the Bayou Bend Golf and Country Club that she had been invited to by Luckett. Meyer said Freeman had been a “perfect gentleman” that evening and agreed to let her stay at one of three houses on his property, so that she “would have an easier drive to work the next morning.”

Allred said the accident occurred when Freeman was driving Meyer’s car with Meyer in the passenger seat from Luckett’s home in Clarksdale, Miss., to Freeman’s property in Charleston, Miss., some 40 miles away.

Meyer would not comment on whether Freeman was drinking that night or specify what caused the accident that left the actor with a broken arm, broken elbow and shoulder damage. Meyer’s injuries included a broken left wrist, right scapula and a torn labrum.

“The accident and its aftermath has literally changed my life in every respect,” Meyer said. “I sustained numerous injuries. I was unconscious following the accident … I could not take care of myself for several months. I have not been able to go back to work and still am suffering both physically and emotionally as a result of the accident.”

The lawsuit claims that Freeman failed to keep a proper lookout, maintain attention, keep the vehicle under control and obey the posted speed limit.

Meyer is suing for medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, permanent disability and property damage. Allred did not specify how much in damages that Meyer, who worked as an executive assistant, is seeking with the lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court in Northern Mississippi. She said that Freeman has only provided “minimal support” for Meyer following the accident.

Freeman, who won an Oscar for his performance in 2004′s “Million Dollar Baby,” co-starred in last summer’s “The Dark Knight.” His screen credits also include “Bruce Almighty,” “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Driving Miss Daisy.”

Freeman and Meyer were traveling on a dark, two-lane highway that cuts through the expansive farmlands of the Mississippi Delta when the car ran off the side of the road, authorities said last August. The vehicle flipped several times but landed upright in a ditch about 5 miles west of Charleston.

“We’re confident this will all be resolved,” Freeman’s publicist, Ken Sunshine, said Wednesday.

The Village People’s first cop wants a revamped version of the group to stop using his likeness and voice.

The lawsuit filed last week in San Diego by Victor Willis claims companies continue to use his voice and picture to promote the new Village People. He is seeking at least $1 million and a judge’s order that they can no longer use his image or voice.

Willis was the original police officer in the group and helped pen the Village People‘s greatest hits, including “Y.M.C.A” and “Macho Man.”

He is suing Sixuvus Ltd., a New York company that promotes the new Village People. He’s also suing the William Morris Agency as well as Can’t Stop Productions — which owns the trademark to the band’s name — and several venues where the new group has performed.

Phone messages and e-mail sent seeking comment from the companies were not immediately returned Monday.

A white social studies teacher attempted to enliven a seventh-grade discussion of slavery by binding the hands and feet of two black girls, prompting outrage from one girl’s mother and the local chapter of the NAACP. After the mother complained to Haverstraw Middle School, the superintendent said he was having “conversations with our staff on how to deliver effective lessons.”

“If a student was upset, then it was a bad idea,” said Superintendent Brian Monahan of the North Rockland School District in New York City’s northern suburbs.

The teacher apologized to the mother who complained and her 13-year-old daughter during a meeting Thursday that also included a representative of the local NAACP. But the mother, Christine Shand of Haverstraw, said Friday she thinks the teacher should be removed from the class.

“I think the teacher should have gotten some discipline,” Shand said. “I know if that was me, I would be uncomfortable going back to that class. Why should my daughter have to switch?”

Monahan refused to say what, if any, measures were taken against the teacher, Eileen Bernstein, who was still working on Friday. The school district said she was not available for comment.

“We encourage our teachers to deliver the curriculum in a variety of ways, to go beyond just reading the textbook,” the superintendent said. “We don’t want to discourage creativity. But this obviously went wrong because the student was upset.”

On Nov. 18, Bernstein was discussing the conditions under which African captives were taken to America in slave ships. She bound the two students’ hands and feet with tape and had them crawl under a desk to simulate the experience, Monahan and Shand said. Monahan said the girls were not the only blacks in the class.

Gabrielle Shand burst into tears at home, her mother said.

“There are other ways to demonstrate slavery,” Christine Shand said Friday. “It doesn’t matter the color of the kids, it’s just not right to tie them up. My daughter is still upset, still embarrassed. She didn’t go to school today.”

Wilbur Aldridge, director of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the history demonstration, first reported in The Journal News, “went wrong when she started to do that binding.”

“I don’t care what color, no one should be put in the position of having their hands and feet bound,” he said.

Aldridge said he feared that the teacher still “didn’t get it” after their meeting. He said the teacher apologized “because Gabrielle was upset, not because she admitted she did something wrong.”

Shand said she had not decided whether to take any further action, including filing a lawsuit.

Watch News Coverage of The Incident

Lawyers for the fast-food chain are calling 50 Cent’s federal lawsuit filed in Manhattan against Taco Bell just another attempt to “burnish his gangsta rapper persona by distorting beyond all recognition a … good faith offer.”

The beef is over a fake letter sent out by the company asking 50 Cent — aka Curtis Jackson — to change his name to “79 Cent,” ”89 Cent” or 99 Cent” for one day to help publicize its value menu.

In return, the company offered to donate $10,000 to the charity of Jackson’s choice. The rapper sued for trademark infringement.

Jackson’s attorney Peter Raymond said he wonders why Taco Bell would use his client’s name in an ad campaign if Taco Bell thinks 50 is such a bad character.

In the statement, lawyers for Taco Bell called 50 Cent a “self-described former drug dealer and hustler” and that “Jackson has used his colorful past to cultivate a public image of belligerence and arrogance and has a well publicized publicized track record of making threats, starting feuds and filing lawsuits”

Lawyers also said At the same time, Jackson holds himself out as a giver to charity and one who wants to give back to his community. This lawsuit is another of Jacksons’ attempts to burnish his gangsta rap person by distorting beyond all recognition a bona fide, good faith offer that Taco Bell made to Jackson”

Michael Jackson might be too sick to travel to London to testify in a suit claiming he owes an Arab sheik $7 million, the pop star’s attorney said Tuesday.

Jackson is seeking to give his testimony by video link from the United States.

“It would be unwise for him to travel, given what’s he’s got now,” lawyer Robert Englehart said, declining to elaborate “for the obvious reasons.”

A lawyer for Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa said the medical evidence presented by Jackson’s legal team was unsatisfactory.

“It’s not the first time a sick note has been presented by Mr. Jackson,” the lawyer, Bankim Thanki said. He gave no precise indication of what the illness might be, but told the court that Jackson’s condition could be treated with a bandage “if the diagnosis is positive.”

Jackson has often been seen wearing a surgical mask in public. In one infamous court appearance in California, he appeared to have a bandage hanging from his hollowed-out nose.

Despite much speculation about his radically changed appearance over the years, he has denied having had any alterations to his face other than two operations on his nose to help him breathe better to hit higher notes.

The judge in the current case, Nigel Sweeney, said he would decide the question of Jackson’s travel on Thursday to allow time for medical experts on both legal teams to talk.

Al Khalifa, the second son of the king of Bahrain, claims that Jackson reneged on a contract for an album, a candid autobiography and a stage play, after accepting millions from the sheik.

Al Khalifa was in court Tuesday for the second day of arguments and testimony.

The case is being tried in London by mutual agreement, Al Khalifa’s representatives have said, and it is expected to close by the end of the month.

Jackson, 50, and the Bahraini royal first made contact when Jackson was fending off accusations of child molestation in California. Once Jackson was cleared of the charges, Al Khalifa, an amateur songwriter, invited him to the small, oil-rich Gulf state to escape the media spotlight.

Thanki said that the pair even moved in to the same palace to work on music together.

However, Jackson dropped the project in 2006, leaving Bahrain and pulling out of the contract, a move Al Khalifa considered a slap in the face, Thanki said.

“It’s fair to say my client felt a considerable sense of betrayal by someone he thought was a close friend,” he said. Thanki said Al Khalifa suffered financially too: Jackson’s autobiography, intended to be “a frank and personal account” of the singer’s life, was alone expected to rack up $24 million.

In the meanwhile, Al Khalifa had given Jackson millions of dollars to help shore up his finances and subsidize Jackson’s lifestyle in the small Gulf state — including more than $300,000 for a “motivational guru.”

Thanki said Al Khalifa considered the money an advance on the profits Jackson would reap from their pop music project, but Englehart said the money was a gift.

“Sheik Abdulla, fortunately for himself, had the resources to be so generous,” Englehart said.

Englehart argued that Jackson wasn’t bound by the deal he struck because the contract was technically signed on behalf of 2 Seas Records, a venture which never got off the ground.

“This (contract) was one brick in a building that was never built,” Englehart said.

The Virginia chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s will return to federal court on Monday afternoon to argue the state is inadequately prepared to handle an enormous voter surge expected Tuesday.

State Republicans plan to oppose the NAACP’s request on grounds that altering voting procedures on the eve of the election would be disruptive and could unfairly disadvantage their candidates.

Record turnout is expected as Democrat Barack Obama tries to win 13 electoral votes in state that has backed Republican presidential candidates since 1968. Obama would be the nation’s first black president if elected.

The NAACP alleged the state failed to provide enough voting machines to handle the crowds, particularly in majority black precincts. The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Richmond asked for paper ballots to be provided as one option if lines got too long.

More than 436,000 new voters registered since Jan. 1, a 10 percent increase that pushed voter rolls past 5 million for the first time in Virginia, a state of 7.7 million residents. Much of the increase results from the Obama campaign’s aggressive registration drive.

At the close of the first fiercely contested presidential race in Virginia in generations, several polls show Obama slightly ahead.

The NAACP had withdrawn its request for a hearing on Thursday after receiving new information from state officials about the placement of election day resources. At the time, NAACP officials said a new hearing before the election was unlikely.

But after assessing the updated information, the NAACP concluded preparations were still insufficient and on Friday requested a new hearing.

“We went back and looked at the numbers, and it’s still the same old bad news. We’re still seeing disparities between black and white precincts,” said Ben Jealous, national NAACP president.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat and Obama ally, said the administration was surprised to see the lawsuit renewed. She said state law gives the governor no authority to extend poll hours.

“We feel confident that we’ll be prepared,” spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said. “I think that voters who are going to the polls on election day should go early and be prepared for the line, but we’re not anticipating any kind of major problems.”

Several Virginia Republicans have filed to intervene in the lawsuit, arguing that last-second changes at selected precincts the NAACP seeks could give the Democrats an unfair advantage.

Cleta Mitchell, attorney for the Republican Party of Virginia, said the GOP particularly opposes a longer voting day and paper ballots at select polling places.

“You just can’t have a situation 24 hours before the election where you go to court and start rewriting state law,” she said.

Robert D. Holsworth, a professor of government and political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, said some of the steps the NAACP suit seeks, such as extending the poll closing time from 7 p.m. Tuesday to 9 p.m., might be possible on short notice. But an overnight shuffle of voting machines, he said, would be extremely difficult at best.

“The enthusiasm and interest in this election – that in itself has introduced the potential for chaos and confusion,” Holsworth said. “The substantial reallocation of resources at the last minute adds one more element of uncertainty.”