T.I. says half of his wife’s private parts belong to him

T.I. and Tiny are turning heads after the rapper told his wife that half of her body belongs to him.

READ MORE: After divorce filing, Tiny says T.I. ‘needs to come back’

The rapper, 39, had quite a spicy conversation with Tiny, 44, on his ExpediTIously podcast. Listeners got an earful as they tuned in to hear the couple’s thoughts on sex, and what makes their marriage tick.

The two have had a rocky marriage wrought with cheating claims that caused the high-profile couple to split a few times. However, Tip said that since a marriage in a binding contract agreement, sex is a major part of the contract deal.

“So sex is important? (in marriage),” Tip asks Tiny.

“Yeah, sex is very important. I’m not saying that the woman that marries down don’t do nothing cause she still run it. She still like the breadwinner. She still may come home and cook for you. Give you sex and do everything.”

But that last “give you sex” comment rubbed Tip the wrong way.

“Give you sex? What do you mean? Give you sex? Man, that’s in the contract. Man.” he says.

“Make sure you are pleased,” Tiny says clearing up her previous comment.

Tip then lays down his man-law, letting Tiny know that he’s got the upper hand on the sex situation.

“I don’t give you nothing. See, you can’t be rationing out stuff, talking about what you’re going to give nobody because what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours. That means that little thing you got, that little sex box you got is half mine. So you pick which side you want, and that’s yours. The rest of it is mine. We can split it right down the middle of the…What do they call it? The, the, the, is it the, ‘Uvula’?

For the people in the back, Tip meant the vulva area which is a woman’s outside genitalia which includes the labia, clitoris and vaginal opening in a woman.

“Wait, wait, What?” Tiny says shocked.

READ MORE: Tameka ‘Tiny’ Harris reports $750k worth of jewels stolen from Lambo including wedding ring from TI

“The ‘Uvula,” Tip continues. “What I’m saying is, it’s half mine. And my half is on the inside….”

And for the record, the Uvula is that teardrop thing in the back of your throat.

T.I and Tiny have seemingly worked through their tough times instead of officially calling it quits. Back in 2016, Tiny filed for divorce. Tip praised Tiny for being “tolerant” of him for the last nine years.

“I can tell everyone how great it’s been to spend the last 9 years with such a tolerant woman. I will say she is very tolerant. Not very patient — but she is very tolerant, and accepting of who I am within my transition.”

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The 12 Best Foreign Horror Movies You Can Stream Right Now

Dim the lights, grab some popcorn, and hold on tight as you travel the world in search of some Halloween frights.

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NYC leaders call for investigation into fight between cops and teens

A melee in a NYC subway has prompted city officials to call for a probe to investigate what actually sparked a brawl between a crowd of teens and several NYPD cops.

READ MORE: Teen girls who started violent brawl at California McDonald’s sought by police

On Friday, multiple videos surfaced on social media sites featuring teens getting into fisticuffs with cops at the Jay Street-MetroTech Station in Brooklyn around 2:20 p.m.

In one particular video, an NYPD cops gets into a very physical confrontation with a teenager, which has upset many on social media and community leaders, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, NBC NY reports.

“The officer who punched the two teens should immediately be placed on modified assignment until a complete investigation can be carried out. At best, his actions were off base and reflect poorly on the men and women of the NYPD,” Adams said.

“I am also concerned about what led up to this melee. Reports indicate a group of teens were assaulting a young lady, which led to a teen spraying mace throughout the station. We can’t have innocent people placed in harm’s way from police or civilians,” Adams concluded.

According to reports, the officers were on hand to disperse a gathering of youths who were reportedly fighting at the station. A 15-year-old was said to have hit an officer, which reportedly ignited the fight.

READ MORE: Video of special needs girl brutally beat by bullies goes viral with #JusticeforJanise

In the end, five teens ages 15 to 18 were arrested and face multiple charges including resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and assault on a police officer, the NYPD said.

“Officers responded to a fight between two large groups, during which individuals began to interfere with police action and the situation escalated. Publicly available video does not show the entirety of the incident, and the department is conducting a review,” the NYPD said in a statement late Sunday.

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Egypt recall Mohamed Salah after his international rest

Egypt coach Hossam El Badry recalls Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah after resting him for a recent international friendly.

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What's Blockchain Actually Good for, Anyway? For Now, Not Much

Not long ago, blockchain technology was touted as a way to track tuna, bypass banks, and preserve property records. Reality has proved a much tougher challenge.

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Today’s Cartoon: Murder Podcast

They’ll clean it up in postproduction.

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Why Are Parking Lots So Tricky for Self-Driving Cars?

Here’s why Tesla’s “Smart Summon” feature is taking them on anyway.

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Aristide Bance stars for Horoya in Confederation Cup play-offs

Veteran Burkina Faso striker Aristide Bance scores a hat-trick for Guinea's Horoya in the first leg of a Confederation Cup play-off.

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'I was whipped with metal chains in an Egyptian prison'

For Ibrahim Halawa, what began as a family holiday in 2013 became four years in an Egyptian prison.

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Supercomputer analyzes web traffic across entire internet

Using a supercomputing system, MIT researchers have developed a model that captures what web traffic looks like around the world on a given day, which can be used as a measurement tool for internet research and many other applications.

Understanding web traffic patterns at such a large scale, the researchers say, is useful for informing internet policy, identifying and preventing outages, defending against cyberattacks, and designing more efficient computing infrastructure. A paper describing the approach was presented at the recent IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing Conference.

For their work, the researchers gathered the largest publicly available internet traffic dataset, comprising 50 billion data packets exchanged in different locations across the globe over a period of several years.

They ran the data through a novel “neural network” pipeline operating across 10,000 processors of the MIT SuperCloud, a system that combines computing resources from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and across the Institute. That pipeline automatically trained a model that captures the relationship for all links in the dataset — from common pings to giants like Google and Facebook, to rare links that only briefly connect yet seem to have some impact on web traffic.  

The model can take any massive network dataset and generate some statistical measurements about how all connections in the network affect each other. That can be used to reveal insights about peer-to-peer filesharing, nefarious IP addresses and spamming behavior, the distribution of attacks in critical sectors, and traffic bottlenecks to better allocate computing resources and keep data flowing.

In concept, the work is similar to measuring the cosmic microwave background of space, the near-uniform radio waves traveling around our universe that have been an important source of information to study phenomena in outer space. “We built an accurate model for measuring the background of the virtual universe of the Internet,” says Jeremy Kepner, a researcher at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Supercomputing Center and an astronomer by training. “If you want to detect any variance or anomalies, you have to have a good model of the background.”

Joining Kepner on the paper are: Kenjiro Cho of the Internet Initiative Japan; KC Claffy of the Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis at the University of California at San Diego; Vijay Gadepally and Peter Michaleas of Lincoln Laboratory’s Supercomputing Center; and Lauren Milechin, a researcher in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.

Breaking up data

In internet research, experts study anomalies in web traffic that may indicate, for instance, cyber threats. To do so, it helps to first understand what normal traffic looks like. But capturing that has remained challenging. Traditional “traffic-analysis” models can only analyze small samples of data packets exchanged between sources and destinations limited by location. That reduces the model’s accuracy.

The researchers weren’t specifically looking to tackle this traffic-analysis issue. But they had been developing new techniques that could be used on the MIT SuperCloud to process massive network matrices. Internet traffic was the perfect test case.

Networks are usually studied in the form of graphs, with actors represented by nodes, and links representing connections between the nodes. With internet traffic, the nodes vary in sizes and location. Large supernodes are popular hubs, such as Google or Facebook. Leaf nodes spread out from that supernode and have multiple connections to each other and the supernode. Located outside that “core” of supernodes and leaf nodes are isolated nodes and links, which connect to each other only rarely.

Capturing the full extent of those graphs is infeasible for traditional models. “You can’t touch that data without access to a supercomputer,” Kepner says.

In partnership with the Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) project, founded by several Japanese universities, and the Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), in California, the MIT researchers captured the world’s largest packet-capture dataset for internet traffic. The anonymized dataset contains nearly 50 billion unique source and destination data points between consumers and various apps and services during random days across various locations over Japan and the U.S., dating back to 2015.

Before they could train any model on that data, they needed to do some extensive preprocessing. To do so, they utilized software they created previously, called Dynamic Distributed Dimensional Data Mode (D4M), which uses some averaging techniques to efficiently compute and sort “hypersparse data” that contains far more empty space than data points. The researchers broke the data into units of about 100,000 packets across 10,000 MIT SuperCloud processors. This generated more compact matrices of billions of rows and columns of interactions between sources and destinations.

Capturing outliers

But the vast majority of cells in this hypersparse dataset were still empty. To process the matrices, the team ran a neural network on the same 10,000 cores. Behind the scenes, a trial-and-error technique started fitting models to the entirety of the data, creating a probability distribution of potentially accurate models.

Then, it used a modified error-correction technique to further refine the parameters of each model to capture as much data as possible. Traditionally, error-correcting techniques in machine learning will try to reduce the significance of any outlying data in order to make the model fit a normal probability distribution, which makes it more accurate overall. But the researchers used some math tricks to ensure the model still saw all outlying data — such as isolated links — as significant to the overall measurements.

In the end, the neural network essentially generates a simple model, with only two parameters, that describes the internet traffic dataset, “from really popular nodes to isolated nodes, and the complete spectrum of everything in between,” Kepner says.

The researchers are now reaching out to the scientific community to find their next application for the model. Experts, for instance, could examine the significance of the isolated links the researchers found in their experiments that are rare but seem to impact web traffic in the core nodes.

Beyond the internet, the neural network pipeline can be used to analyze any hypersparse network, such as biological and social networks. “We’ve now given the scientific community a fantastic tool for people who want to build more robust networks or detect anomalies of networks,” Kepner says. “Those anomalies can be just normal behaviors of what users do, or it could be people doing things you don’t want.”

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Helping autonomous vehicles see around corners

To improve the safety of autonomous systems, MIT engineers have developed a system that can sense tiny changes in shadows on the ground to determine if there’s a moving object coming around the corner.  

Autonomous cars could one day use the system to quickly avoid a potential collision with another car or pedestrian emerging from around a building’s corner or from in between parked cars. In the future, robots that may navigate hospital hallways to make medication or supply deliveries could use the system to avoid hitting people.

In a paper being presented at next week’s International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), the researchers describe successful experiments with an autonomous car driving around a parking garage and an autonomous wheelchair navigating hallways. When sensing and stopping for an approaching vehicle, the car-based system beats traditional LiDAR — which can only detect visible objects — by more than half a second.

That may not seem like much, but fractions of a second matter when it comes to fast-moving autonomous vehicles, the researchers say.

“For applications where robots are moving around environments with other moving objects or people, our method can give the robot an early warning that somebody is coming around the corner, so the vehicle can slow down, adapt its path, and prepare in advance to avoid a collision,” adds co-author Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The big dream is to provide ‘X-ray vision’ of sorts to vehicles moving fast on the streets.”

Currently, the system has only been tested in indoor settings. Robotic speeds are much lower indoors, and lighting conditions are more consistent, making it easier for the system to sense and analyze shadows.

Joining Rus on the paper are: first author Felix Naser SM ’19, a former CSAIL researcher; Alexander Amini, a CSAIL graduate student; Igor Gilitschenski, a CSAIL postdoc; recent graduate Christina Liao ’19; Guy Rosman of the Toyota Research Institute; and Sertac Karaman, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.

Extending ShadowCam

For their work, the researchers built on their system, called “ShadowCam,” that uses computer-vision techniques to detect and classify changes to shadows on the ground. MIT professors William Freeman and Antonio Torralba, who are not co-authors on the IROS paper, collaborated on the earlier versions of the system, which were presented at conferences in 2017 and 2018.

For input, ShadowCam uses sequences of video frames from a camera targeting a specific area, such as the floor in front of a corner. It detects changes in light intensity over time, from image to image, that may indicate something moving away or coming closer. Some of those changes may be difficult to detect or invisible to the naked eye, and can be determined by various properties of the object and environment. ShadowCam computes that information and classifies each image as containing a stationary object or a dynamic, moving one. If it gets to a dynamic image, it reacts accordingly.

Adapting ShadowCam for autonomous vehicles required a few advances. The early version, for instance, relied on lining an area with augmented reality labels called “AprilTags,” which resemble simplified QR codes. Robots scan AprilTags to detect and compute their precise 3D position and orientation relative to the tag. ShadowCam used the tags as features of the environment to zero in on specific patches of pixels that may contain shadows. But modifying real-world environments with AprilTags is not practical.

The researchers developed a novel process that combines image registration and a new visual-odometry technique. Often used in computer vision, image registration essentially overlays multiple images to reveal variations in the images. Medical image registration, for instance, overlaps medical scans to compare and analyze anatomical differences.

Visual odometry, used for Mars Rovers, estimates the motion of a camera in real-time by analyzing pose and geometry in sequences of images. The researchers specifically employ “Direct Sparse Odometry” (DSO), which can compute feature points in environments similar to those captured by AprilTags. Essentially, DSO plots features of an environment on a 3D point cloud, and then a computer-vision pipeline selects only the features located in a region of interest, such as the floor near a corner. (Regions of interest were annotated manually beforehand.)

As ShadowCam takes input image sequences of a region of interest, it uses the DSO-image-registration method to overlay all the images from same viewpoint of the robot. Even as a robot is moving, it’s able to zero in on the exact same patch of pixels where a shadow is located to help it detect any subtle deviations between images.

Next is signal amplification, a technique introduced in the first paper. Pixels that may contain shadows get a boost in color that reduces the signal-to-noise ratio. This makes extremely weak signals from shadow changes far more detectable. If the boosted signal reaches a certain threshold — based partly on how much it deviates from other nearby shadows — ShadowCam classifies the image as “dynamic.” Depending on the strength of that signal, the system may tell the robot to slow down or stop.

“By detecting that signal, you can then be careful. It may be a shadow of some person running from behind the corner or a parked car, so the autonomous car can slow down or stop completely,” Naser says.

Tag-free testing

In one test, the researchers evaluated the system’s performance in classifying moving or stationary objects using AprilTags and the new DSO-based method. An autonomous wheelchair steered toward various hallway corners while humans turned the corner into the wheelchair’s path. Both methods achieved the same 70-percent classification accuracy, indicating AprilTags are no longer needed.

In a separate test, the researchers implemented ShadowCam in an autonomous car in a parking garage, where the headlights were turned off, mimicking nighttime driving conditions. They compared car-detection times versus LiDAR. In an example scenario, ShadowCam detected the car turning around pillars about 0.72 seconds faster than LiDAR. Moreover, because the researchers had tuned ShadowCam specifically to the garage’s lighting conditions, the system achieved a classification accuracy of around 86 percent.

Next, the researchers are developing the system further to work in different indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. In the future, there could also be ways to speed up the system’s shadow detection and automate the process of annotating targeted areas for shadow sensing.

This work was funded by the Toyota Research Institute.

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Nigeria's 'torture houses' masquerading as Koranic schools

Parents find their children maltreated in what they thought were Islamic rehabilitation centres.

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Michigan Rep. John Conyers dies at age 90

Former Michigan Representative John Conyers passed away on Sunday at aged 90, his family announced.

According to the Huffington Post, the Democratic congressman served in the House from 1965 until December 2017, becoming the longest serving Black congressman until when he resigned following allegations that he sexually harassed several female staffers.

READ MORE: John Conyers will reportedly retire, grandson expected to run for seat

Born in Highland Park, Michigan in 1929, Conyers saw himself thrusted into the political arena during a tumultuous time during the Civil Rights Movement. During his first year in office, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, an important piece of legislation that guaranteed voting rights to Black Americans, which the new congressman helped to introduce.

Conyers would go on to be one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The Huffington Post noted that during his final three years in office, he was the “dean” of the House, a title given to the longest continuously serving member.

Yet Conyers’ longevity and legacy was not without its controversy, as the congressman was accused of giving female employees unwanted sexual advances and mistreating them, according to the Washington Post. Eighty years old at the time of his resignation, Conyers was hospitalized shortly after his resignation for what his attorney described as a stress-related illness.

READ MORE: House leaders Nancy Pelosi, Paul Ryan call for John Conyers’ resignation

“My legacy can’t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we’re going through now,” Conyers told a radio station, according to the New York Times.

It was later found that Conyers reached a $27,000 settlement with a former female staffer, which the Washington Post noted intensified scrutiny of Congress for its secretive system of settling harassment complaints. Yet, he still had many supporters.

It has not yet been revealed what caused Conyers’ death.

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Kamala Harris’ boycott threats got group that gave Trump criminal justice award the boot

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ scheduled appearance for a forum at Benedict College took a turn when she found out that the event’s sponsor, the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center, celebrated Donald Trump for his “criminal justice reform.”

A criminal justice forum slated Harris and nine other Democratic presidential candidates to speak, but Harris on Friday threatened to boycott the event after learning that the sponsor gave Trump an award, according to the Washington Post. Trump made a controversial appearance at the historically Black college that same day, which was marred by even more controversy when news got out that most of Benedict’s students were not allowed to attend the event, TIME reported.

READ MORE: Kamala Harris and Cory Booker blast Comcast in $20B Byron Allen civil rights lawsuit

During his speech at the event, Trump claimed that he has been an ally to the Black community without forgetting to acknowledge his disdain for the investigation into his competency as a president.

“All my life, I’ve been committed to advancing fairness and opportunity for the African American community,” Trump said. “You know that, you see what’s going on with the witch hunt. It’s a terrible thing that’s going on in our country. No crimes there; it’s an investigation in search of a crime. But in America, you’re innocent until proven guilty, and we don’t have investigations in search of that crime.”

Harris released a statement about her thoughts on Trump being honored.

“Donald Trump is a lawless President. Not only does he circumvent the laws of our country and the principles of our Constitution, but there is nothing in his career that is about justice, for justice, or in celebration of justice,” Harris said.

According to the Washington Post, Harris said on Saturday afternoon that the college dropped 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center and opened the event to the larger student body. Although it is unclear in what way the organization was dropped, the Washington Post also reported that a banner with its name was still displayed and members of the organization were present at the event, some even shared pictures on social media.

READ MORE: Sen. Kamala Harris home state poll numbers see significant dip

Harris did not hold her tongue about her confusion on why Trump had been honored with an award regarding criminal justice reform at the event.

“I just couldn’t believe that Donald Trump would be given an award as it related to criminal justice reform,” she said. “This is somebody that has disrespected the voices that have been present for decades for criminal justice reform. The people that have sacrificed to create justice in this system.”

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Bernie Sanders tells Black student ‘respect’ police to avoid being shot

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been a popular option among Black voters, but that may change after a video surfaced of him making controversial comments to a Black student about policing.

During an appearance at the Second Step Presidential Justice Forum at HBCU Benedict College, a Black student asked Sanders what advice he would offer him on encounters with police, if he was Sanders’ son. According to CBS News, the presidential candidate struggled to answer. Sanders began his answer by advising the student to be polite and things got worse from there.

READ MORE: Bernie Sanders: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be part of his White House

“I would respect what they are doing so that you don’t get shot in the back of the head, but I would also be very mindful of the fact that as a nation, we have got to hold police officers accountable for the actions that they commit,” he continued. “I would be very cautious if you were my son in terms of dealing with that police officer, but I would also defend my rights and know my rights and make sure if possible that police officer’s camera is on what goes on.”

He was not met with much crowd approval.

Democratic presidential front runner, former Vice President Joe Biden was asked the same question and seemed to be more confident as a Black female student asked him what she should do when pulled over by police, if she was his daughter.

READ MORE: New book ‘Barack and Joe’ reveals the awkward beginnings of a now infamous White House ‘bromance’

“If you were my daughter, you’d be a Caucasian girl and you wouldn’t be pulled over,” Biden said. “That’s what’s wrong.”

Biden went on to post a clip of his answer to Twitter. Sanders did not post his answer, but instead tried to clean up the mess by posting a clip of his take on the criminal justice system. Social media users were not having it.

In 2015 Bernie said black people were locked up more often than whites for drug crimes because “most drug dealers are African American”https://t.co/TcWnx1FL8n

— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) October 26, 2019

POLICE WILL SHOOT YOU WHETHER OR NOT YOU MAKE SUDDEN MOVEMENTS WTF do you know how ignorant you have to be about race relations not to understand that

— David Dennis Jr. (@DavidDTSS) October 27, 2019

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Second-time SNL host Chance the Rapper brings awareness to Chicago teachers

It is no secret that Chance the Rapper is passionate about contributing to his hometown of Chicago, so it came as no surprise that he used his platform on this week’s Saturday Night Live to bring awareness to the struggles faced by Chicago teachers.

The second-time SNL host came out during his opening monologue wearing a red Chicago’s Teachers Union sweatshirt. He also began by reminding the audience of his $1 million contribution to Chicago Public Schools in 2017.

READ MORE: WATCH: Cardi B., T.I. and Chance the Rapper are judges on new Netflix rap competition show ‘Rhythm + Flow’

“I’m happy to say it completely fixed everything,” he said ironically, which USA Today noted was his way of acknowledging that his contribution hasn’t solved all the school system’s problems.

He also gave a shoutout to the Chicago teachers that were on strike and said to the camera that he “fully” supports them.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the strike has been ongoing for seven school days. Teachers are looking to address class size and daily access to nurses, social workers and librarians.

READ MORE: Will Smith, Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino nominated for 2019 Webby Awards

In addition to the SNL episode’s social awareness plug, Chance is being praised for his solid performance in the sketches and as a host.

Chance did a rap honoring Chicago, also known as the Second City, paying homage to things and places considered to be second best. USA Today noted that the rapper went on to recite his favorites — Bing over Google; Burger King’s French fries over McDonald’s; Pepsi over Coke; Adam Carolla over Jimmy Kimmel and so on — as cast members Heidi Gardner and Melissa Villaseñor flipped picture cards detailing each example.

He was showed his comedy chops in several sketches where he played an array of characters that ranged from being a judge to a dance student.

 

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New Jersey NAACP chapter cancels screening of ‘Harriet’ to take stand in Comcast battle

In solidarity with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s ongoing fight with Comcast, the Southern Burlington County, New Jersey chapter decided to cancel a screening of the upcoming biopic about Underground Railroad trailblazer Harriet Tubman.

When local NAACP leaders realized that Comcast is the parent company of the film’s production company Focus Features, they decided it would not be such a good kick off to their annual Joint Freedom Fund Banquet. The national branch of the civil rights group has been vocal against Comcast.

READ MORE: Michael Strahan’s ex seeking half a mil, citing back child support payments

In the spirit of Harriet, ⁦@CynthiaEriVo⁩ shld speak out against Comcast’s efforts 2 dismantle the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Being courageous isn’t just playing #ADOS heroes in movies. It’s what u do in real life that matters. Show solidarity https://t.co/Iv0X4qEHac

— BreakingBrown (Yvette Carnell) (@BreakingBrown) October 26, 2019

#ados challenge @NAACP @ColorOfChange & @laurbanleague to #boycottharriet. @comcast should not have a film out on Harriet Tubman while attacking the Civil Rights Act of 1866 in the Supreme Court. We aren’t seeing Harriet in honor of Harriet Tubman. @CynthiaEriVo needs to speak up pic.twitter.com/CjYsZvd51d

— Antonio Moore (@tonetalks) October 26, 2019

According to the Burlington County Times, Comcast has been accused by the NAACP’s national office of seeking to undermine a critical part of the 1866 Civil Rights Act.

“The branch decided to take a stand as a long standing civil rights [law] is being threatened in court by the owner of the film’s production company, Comcast,” Marcus Sibley, the Southern Burlington County NAACP’s spokesman and communication chair.

For those that are not familiar with the case, Comcast has been a part of a longstanding lawsuit filed by Byron Allen, who is the Black entertainment mogul behind Entertainment Studios. Allen accused Comcast of refusing to air his various channels, including JusticeCentral.TV, Cars.TV, Pets.TV and Comedy.TV., on its cable devices, which he believed violated the 1866 Civil Rights Act’s Section 1981 that states Black people should not be discriminated against in business contracts, Burlington County Times reported.

Comcast denied any wrongdoing and claimed that they did not agree to air Allen’s channels due to low ratings.

“Mr. Allen’s frivolous, baseless claims — which a judge appointed by President Carter threw out three times as having nothing to do with race — debase and distort those laws. We are fully aligned with the view that this case should never have happened and we continue to hope that Mr. Allen will do the right thing and withdraw his claim — a move that would promptly terminate the Supreme Court case and bring this entire episode to an end,” a Comcast spokesperson said.

According to Burlington County Times, the NAACP became involved after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Comcast’s appeal of a 2018 decision by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in California overturned several lower court decisions dismissing the case. With Comcast arguing that race should be a determining factor instead of a motivating factor, the NAACP fears this case give a devastating blow to the landmark civil rights act.

READ MORE: In new Sudan, women want more freedom, bigger political role

“The Civil Rights Act of 1866 rendered equalizers for black people in this country as it relates to employment, contracting and building wealth. Our expectations of Comcast, Byron Allen (Entertainment Studios) and ALL companies are that they employ and/or contract with black people and not discriminate based on race,” Southern Burlington County NAACP president, Crystal Charley said. “At stake here is far bigger than Comcast or Mr. Allen. Our position regarding this case is based on irretrievable harm to black people and other marginalized communities.”

Despite the controversy, Comcast is still holding out hope that moviegoers will go out to see “Harriet” in November.

“Focus Features has a longstanding history of releasing and telling stories that matter,” the spokesperson said. “This film and seeing Harriet Tubman’s life on screen is about celebrating her courage and legacy, and we hope as many people come out to theaters to do just that.”

The Supreme Court is expected to begin hearing arguments in the case next month.

theGrio is owned by Entertainment Studios

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LaVar Ball is Restructuring Big Baller Brand

The resurrection has started! According to Sporting News, LaVar Ball, father of New Orleans Pelican’s player, Lonzo Ball, has stated that his disheveled sneaker company, Big Baller Brand, is restructuring amid a fractured relationship with former business partner, Alan Foster.

“The Big Baller Brand is alive and well. The Brand has been restructuring, and we are working to reveal the new website in the next few weeks. It will have a new look and a new name. www.BigBallerBrandInc.com” LaVar Ball reveals on his Twitter account.

“Unfortunately, Alan Foster continues to try and leverage the Ball Family name for his own gain. Alan Foster is a convicted felon who served 7 years in jail for defrauding people out of their money. He is a thief and con man and cannot be believed or trusted.”

Back in March, Lonzo Ball told ESPN that he believes that Alan Foster, a friend of Lonzo’s father for almost a decade who owns 16.3% of Big Baller Brand, had “used his access to my business and personal finances to enrich himself. As a result, I have decided to sever all ties with Alan, effective immediately.”

“This has been a very difficult decision as I had a great deal of love and respect for Alan,” Lonzo said at that time. “But the time has come for me to take responsibility for my own career both on and off the court.”

 

According to documents and emails reviewed by ESPN, Lonzo’s financial adviser, Humble Lukanga of Life Line Financial Group, alleged in an October email that Lonzo’s and Big Baller’s taxes could not be completed on time due to an inability to account for the whereabouts of $1.5 million.

In the meantime, Foster has taken over the Big Baller Brand website and when you click on the site’s logo, it redirects you to his website, Alan Foster Official, where he advertises an online mentoring course via the Baller Financial Network.

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A piece of Finland in Uganda

A Finnish couple keep up the very Finnish tradition even in the East African heat.

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Save Your Business the Headache (and Money) and Get Ahead of Bad Customer Service Experiences

I recently visited Boston for a speaking engagement. As I was arriving to the hotel I noticed picketers with signs and heard loud drums. My rideshare driver was confused because he didn’t know how to pull into my hotel, which was a luxury brand. The protesters were lining the entire sidewalk and blocking the entrance to this Back Bay hotel.

I reluctantly got out in the street with my bag, alongside angry protesters. I was feeling weird about crossing the picket line (I mean isn’t that forbidden?). I asked the bored-looking police officer standing in the street to walk me through the protesters, who were chanting loudly and angrily while someone beat loud drums. Pulling my own luggage, I walked up the circular driveway to the hotel door, where the bell attendants were standing doing absolutely nothing (they saw me coming). I was greeted, but no one apologized for the inconvenience of my arrival. They directed me to take the escalator up to the check-in desk.

The clerk at check-in greeted and welcomed me to the hotel and asked how she could help me. I told her I wanted to check in and she asked me for my name and my ID and I gave it to her. Once again I’m speaking to a hotel employee and it had not been acknowledged that I had to walk through a protest line to get inside of the hotel. As I was waiting for the woman to check me in I noticed they had a printed letter on their letterhead on the counter. The letter did explain that they were having a labor dispute and that guests would be experiencing some delays and reduced staffing. I mentioned protesters and that I was unable to be driven up to the door and that I had to cross the picket line to get inside the hotel to the clerk. At that point, she did apologize for the inconvenience but offered me no concessions.

If a company knows if they are going to have a customer service issue in advance, should they have provisions in place to deal with unhappy patrons?

I share this as a rhetorical question because the answer is emphatically YES! There should be no question that this hotel should have prepared to assist its staff in managing unhappy guests. I even asked for something because I actually felt uncomfortable walking across that line and getting a police escort. This high-end hotel, at minimum, should have offered a monetary value voucher to use within the hotel for the inconvenience to anyone who was unhappy, but they failed to do that.

My advice to any business owner who knows about a potential customer service matter that would make customers uncomfortable or unhappy is there should always be a plan in place to ensure that it is easier for customers to overlook any inconveniences. Something as simple as a gift card or a credit for as little as $10 for use at your business would likely bring additional revenue, especially if the amount you are offering is less than any one thing that you sell.

The cost of a bad customer service experience is lasting. In today’s age of review websites and Google business pages, many negative reviews could have been avoided if the business had gotten ahead of the issue. Instead, bad reviews have long-term adverse effects that often cut into the bottom line. Anyone who has tried to remediate a poor review on Yelp will tell you the costs are astronomical and it would’ve been well worth it if they had done something to get ahead of the problem in the first place.

How to get ahead of bad customer service

If service is not up to a customer’s standards they are likely never going to be satisfied. However, if you know in advance that your customer experience will be compromised there a number of things that can be done to help smooth out the issues:

1. Offer a free gift: if you have the type of business that you can offer a credit or a discount, then you can prepare your staff to offer one of them to get ahead of any customer complaints about your known issues. You can also prepare a small gift bag with some inexpensive items such as snacks and promotional items to make the customer feel better about the situation. Remember most customers just want you to recognize that they’ve been inconvenienced and if you do that ahead of time, it’s a win.
2. Tell them you are sorry before THEY say something: I actually encountered three to four hotel employees before I got to the check-in desk, and no one acknowledged that I had just walked through a picket line. When I got to the door it would’ve been simple for the bell captains to say we are so sorry for the inconvenience and help me up to the next floor so I could check-in. This was a simple thing, but it was completely overlooked in this case. Acknowledgment of the issue or inconvenience is simple and free—don’t waste the opportunity to do that by pretending that everything is OK.
3. Empower staff to make things right: I asked for something for my trouble. I was offered nothing. The hotel desk staff was well aware of what was going on outside, yet she had nothing to offer me to ease my anxiety. If she had been empowered by hotel management to make things right with me or anyone else who said something about the protesters, you would likely be reading a more positive story about my experience. I have spoken to customer service representatives with major online retailers who have offered me a refund and a $10 credit for not receiving my packages. Most importantly, it happened without me having to wait on hold for a manager’s approval. Trusting staff to make these types of decisions in the moment is key.

No matter the type of business or service you offer, a high-quality experience is key to keeping customers happy. If you can avoid a negative customer service experience you should do so at all costs and I mean at all costs. Be sure to offer concessions when it makes sense to avoid having to clean up a very dirty mess on the internet that can harm your reputation and ultimately cut into your bottom line.

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Black Enterprise Contributors Network

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John Steenhuisen to head South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance

John Steenhuisen is chosen to head the Democratic Alliance as it struggles with a race row.

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S Africa beat Wales in Rugby World Cup semi-final

Wales fall agonisingly short of a first Rugby World Cup final as Handre Pollard's 76th-minute penalty hands the Springboks victory.

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I Tracked Everything My Baby Did Until Nothing Made Sense Anymore

Has a baby pooped at all if it can’t be viewed as part of a Poop Frequency Trend Chart going back three months?

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Kurt Okraku: New Ghana FA president embraces opportunity for change

New Ghana Football Association president Kurt Okraku says he is getting to work immediately after he was sworn in for a four-year term on Friday.

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Danger for Pedestrians, a Tesla Profit, and More Car News This Week

The US government said pedestrian fatalities rose for a second consecutive year. But, hey, Tesla's back in the black, and promising record deliveries this quarter. 

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Trump's Impeachment Tweet Tops This Week's Internet News Roundup

For yet another week, the congressional investigation into the president—and his polarizing tweets about it—are driving online conversation.

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Physicists Get Close to Knowing the Mass of the Neutrino

The KATRIN experiment is working to “weigh the ghost,” which could point to new laws of particle physics and reshape theories of cosmology.

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How to Change the Default Apps on All Your Devices

Don't settle for the preinstalled apps Apple, Microsoft, and Android stick you with. Mix it up a little\!

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Scientists Take Baby Steps Toward Extraterrestrial Babies

Can sperm survive microgravity? Do eggs hold up to radiation? The new science of off-planet procreation is now getting underway.

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East African children found in Belfast 'cold and hungry'

A lawyer who has met some of the children found at Belfast Harbour says they are "coping well".

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Libya in chaos as endless war rumbles on

For years competing militias, rival governments and foreign players have been battling for control.

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Royle King: Lighting A Path To Success for Boys And Young Men

BE Modern Man: Royle King

Public servant, non-profit founder; 32; Public Information Specialist – Citizen Engagement Liaison, Leon County, Tallahassee, Fla.; Founder, The Omega Lamplighters Inc.

Twitter: @TheRoyleKing; Instagram: @TheRoyleKing

By day I work in county government, but my passion is the mentoring program I founded 11 years ago, The Omega Lamplighters Inc. Our mission is to light a path to success, to empower secondary-school aged youth with the academic and social skills, community connections, and progressive opportunities necessary to ensure their roles as active, educated, and responsible citizens.

I’m with them every day all day. They have dress up days at school to teach them the importance of professionalism. We meet monthly to do a community service project, monthly for a life skills workshop, tutoring twice a week, a social activity, weekly mentoring sessions, weekly prayer call (lead by the young men), and quarterly church service. Our step team, the #LightTeam, practices several times a week, competes all over the United States and are currently ranked the 4th best high school male step team in the National Step League.

For six years we’ve embarked on a 500 Miles of Freedom College & Civil Rights tour, exposing our young men to HBCUs and sites related to African American history. I want them to see that the blood that runs through their veins is that of power, of kings, and the blood of the slave who overcame. Most of our kids have never been out of Tallahassee, let alone the state of Florida. The impact is huge on their view of the world and crucial in shaping their vision to achieve their dreams.

Today, all of the active young men in the program have graduated high school and gone on to be accepted to college, joined the military, or attended a trade school. The program truly lights a path to success for boys and young men, and prepares them for life. We started 11 years ago with 15 young men as a pilot, and in 2011 we rolled out what the program looks like today and have grown to over 115 young men in the program. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but we’re a community-based program, all volunteer, all men and women who believe in our vision and want to give our young men a chance and light a path to success.

Nationally, the program has spread like wildfire. I now have more than 22 chapters all over, from Florida, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, and even Naples, Italy, for awhile. I always said I wanted to change the world one youth at a time, but it wasn’t actually until I began to believe it that it started to happen.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN LIFE?

I would have to say the Omega Lamplighters in everything and all things. I don’t have any children, but I relate it to the feeling a parent has watching their baby grow and be successful—witnessing them change before your eyes. But these aren’t just my kids, they’re our kids; we all have a responsibility to raise our black boys and light the path to success.

I have a thing where I thank all of my kids; I constantly tell them thank you. Eventually, they all ask, “Why do you keep saying thank you, Mr. King?” The first answer is for saving my life. You gave me hope; you gave me purpose; you saved my life. The second is for allowing me to be part of of theirs. This program and these kids saved me, raised me, shaped me.

HOW HAVE YOU TURNED STRUGGLE INTO SUCCESS?

In college, I struggled. I dug myself into a hole, not taking it seriously and playing around so much so that I lost all of my support and funding, and was left at a crossroads. It took me six years to graduate, trying to fix my earlier mistakes. I was left with a decision to quit or keep going. I didn’t quit. To many people had made sacrifices for me and poured into me for me to quit. I worked three jobs, had to get on food stamps. That struggle taught me more about myself then anything—that hunger for success, and the mentality that nothing could stop me. That struggle gave birth to a man and since that accomplishment, mentally, nothing and no one can stop me.

WHO WAS YOUR GREATEST MALE ROLE MODEL AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM HIM?

As a kid, it was the Allen Iversons, Shaqs, and celebrities of the world, but as a man, it’s always been my dad. During all of my big and small moments, he was there. He didn’t have to say anything; it was his presence. He taught me the most important rule of life: that you have to show up.

HOW DO YOU DEFINE MANHOOD?

I define it by the little things, holding doors for ladies, yes sir, no sir. Manhood is respect for those who paved the way for you. Treating all men the same, the janitor and the CEO. I’m old school! I just believe that a man is supposed to lead and when he can’t or where he’s weak he leans on others to help him be strong in that area.

WHAT PRACTICES, TOOLS, BOOKS, ETC. DO YOU RELY ON FOR YOUR SUCCESS?

Fairly new, but over the last year, every morning after I say my prayers, I look at a list of all my dreams written out. It’s the daily reminder of everything I said I wanted out of life. Another is calling my mother and father every day. Not always a long call, just a quick reminder of where I come from. When I hear their voices, even if for a few seconds, it reminds me that I need to honor them everyday for what they’ve done in creating me.

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BE Modern Man is an online and social media campaign designed to celebrate black men making valuable contributions in every profession, industry, community, and area of endeavor. Each year, we solicit nominations in order to select men of color for inclusion in the 100 Black Enterprise Modern Men of Distinction. Our goal is to recognize men who epitomize the BEMM credo “Extraordinary is our normal” in their day-to-day lives, presenting authentic examples of the typical black man rarely seen in mainstream media. The BE Modern Men of Distinction are celebrated annually at Black Men XCEL (www.blackenterprise.com/blackmenxcel/). Click this link to submit a nomination for BE Modern Man: https://www.blackenterprise.com/nominate/. Follow BE Modern Man on Twitter: @bemodernman and Instagram: @be_modernman.

 

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'The selfie that revealed I was a stolen baby'

Aged 17, Miché Solomon discovered she had two mothers - one real, one false.

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Trina and Trick Daddy To Replace Rickey Smiley With New Morning Radio Show

Reunited and it feels so good! It’s been reported on The Jasmine Brand that Miami rappers Katrina Laverne Taylor, a.k.a. Trina, and Maurice Samuel “Trick Daddy” Young will have their radio show in the new year.

The Love & Hip Hop: Miami pair will be joining Miami’s 99 JAMZ/WEDR, replacing the Rickey Smiley Morning Show, which currently airs in that market. Social media and digital media marketing strategist Karen Civil posted the announcement on her Twitter page, “Trina & Trick Daddy To Announce New Radio Morning Show, Replacing Rickey Smiley In Miami Market http://bit.ly/2MFdIql“

The pair of rappers have recently been beefing, particularly after the last time they both appeared on Love & Hip Hop: Miami. They were supposed to be working on a joint album titled TNT, which is appropriate due to their explosive relationship. No one knows if the project will ever get off the ground but with this upcoming radio show, there’s bound to be much attention paid to the two.

Trina is going through some tough times since the death of her mother, Vernessa Taylor, last month. She took to Instagram to give thanks to the many supporters who have been there for her. “All I can give and take is day by day, moments by moments right now and I am just asking for everyone to please understand that. We all grieve differently and this is the hardest loss I’ve endured, to say the least! In this phase, I may even stumble a bit but I can’t let up on what I’ve built as a woman and as an entertainer,” she wrote. “Thank you to my team who has held me down during this time, I know things have not been easy on your end but I’m grateful to have you in my darkest moments!”

This took place after Trick Daddy and Trina hosted a foodie bus tour on Sept. 1, as part of the Miami Gardens Food & Wine Festival. Trina just released her latest album, The One on June 21, 2019, by Fast Life Entertainment and her label, Rockstarr Music Group.

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Ocean Cleanup’s New Plastic-Catcher … Kinda Already Exists?

The anti-plastic crusaders have another plan to keep junk from reaching the sea: trash-eating barges in rivers.

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‘Slave Cry’: ‘Slave Cry’: Filmmaker tackles Black actor roles in movies set in Virginia

The main role that Black actors are given in the state of Virginia is that of a slave, according to a filmmaker who hopes to both shine light on and update the narrative.

Indeed, the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown nearly 400 years ago, setting the stage for slavery in the U.S., but Jai Jamison, a Richmond filmmaker, is hoping to change the narrative for films set in the state of Virginia.

READ MORE: TI rips cop accused of manhandling 11-Year-Old girl: ‘Poor excuse for a man’

He points to film and TV projects shot in Virginia, including Harriet, Turn and Mercy Street as examples that the roles need to broaden for Black actors in the state. He said he wrote the short film, Slave Cry, to address the issue. The 13-minute film debuted Saturday at the Virginia Film Festival, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“The only roles for black actors are as slaves,” Jamison told the newspaper. “I worked on Turn for five months. I’d see these amazing actors come into town to play these rote roles that were full of trauma. Virginia is my home, but we’re so much more than this.”

Jamison’s film derives its name from a term his sister, Courtney, uses. She stars in Slave Cry and has struggled to find roles in Richmond, outside of what she terms “slave cry” roles.

“That real ugly cry, with sobs and snot…that 12 Years a Slave cry, Courtney’s character explains in the film, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Jamison said while he was writing the film, Courtney was applying to theater programs and ultimately earned an acceptance from the Yale School of Drama.

“I wanted to create a role for my sister that was meaty and nuanced,” Jamison told the newspaper. “While also wanting to write about Richmond, my home town, as it is now. There is so much culture here and young people and stories that don’t have anything to do with history. There are so many stories and different sides about Richmond to tell,” Jamison said.

In the movie, Courtney dons a slave costume as an historical interpreter side gig and stands in front of the town’s Robert E. Lee statue. Courtney also stops by the Maggie Walker statue, which allows the viewer to see her dreaming of a better life as an actress.

READ MORE: Cop resigns after charges of using excessive force on 11-year-old girl

Tim Reid, perhaps best known for his role as Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati plays Courtney’s father in Slave Cry. Some scenes from the movie were shot at Reid’s film studio in Petersburg.

Slave Cry will be shown before the feature film screening of Clemency, a movie starring Alfre Woodard that tells the story of a death row prison warden.

The post ‘Slave Cry’: ‘Slave Cry’: Filmmaker tackles Black actor roles in movies set in Virginia appeared first on theGrio.

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Journalist Gwen Ifill Honored with USPS Forever Stamp

According to TheGrio, trailblazing journalist Gwen Ifill is being honored with a commemorative Forever stamp in the new year.

“These miniature works of art offer something for everyone interested in American history and culture,” said U.S. Postal Service Stamp Services Acting Executive Director William Gicker. “From notable figures such as golf legend Arnold Palmer and esteemed journalist Gwen Ifill to the cultural phenomenon of hip-hop to a celebration of the great outdoors, this program is wide-ranging and adds to the history of our great nation as recorded through the U.S. stamp program.”

As posted on the United States Postal Service website, the 43rd stamp in the Black Heritage series honors Gwen Ifill (1955–2016), one of America’s most esteemed journalists. The stamp features a photo of Ifill taken in 2008 by photographer Robert Severi. Among the first African Americans to hold prominent positions in both broadcast and print journalism, Ifill was a trailblazer in the profession. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp.

Also being honored with Forever Stamps are:

Voices of the Harlem Renaissance
These stamps celebrate one of the great artistic and literary movements in American history, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, which firmly established African Americans as a vital force in literature and the arts. Twenty stamps showcase four stylized pastel portraits of these literary figures: writer, philosopher, educator, and arts advocate Alain Locke; novelist Nella Larsen; bibliophile and historian Arturo Alfonso Schomburg; and poet Anne Spencer. African-inspired motifs are used as background elements of each portrait. The pane header shows a cityscape in silhouette with a sun in its midst and the title “Voices of the Harlem Renaissance.” The artist for these stamps was Gary Kelley. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps.

Hip-Hop
The Postal Service celebrates hip-hop with four new stamps in a pane of 20. Since its inception more than four decades ago, the electrifying music, dance, and art movement has profoundly influenced American and global popular culture. The stamp art features photographs taken by Cade Martin that depict four elements of hip-hop: MCing (rapping), b-boying (breakdancing), DJing, and graffiti art. The bold, digitally tinted images are intended to appear in motion. The words “Forever” and “USA,” “Hip Hop,” and the name of the element featured appear across the top of each stamp. Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamps, which are highlighted with a vivid yellow, green, red and black color scheme. The title of the stamps, printed in red and black, is centered on the top of the pane.

 

19th Amendment: Women Vote
With this stamp, the Postal Service commemorates the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees women the right to vote. Inspired by historic photographs, the stamp features a stylized illustration of suffragists marching in a parade or other public demonstration. The clothes they wear and the banners they bear display the official colors of the National Woman’s Party — purple, white and gold. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp with original art by Nancy Stahl.

 

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TI rips cop accused of manhandling 11-Year-Old girl: ‘Poor Excuse for a man’

Rapper TI had some fiery words for the recently resigned New Mexico police officer who slammed an 11-year-old girl to the ground.

In an Instagram post, TI told his IG followers the video made him want to throw hands at the officer.

READ MORE: Cop resigns after charges of using excessive force on 11-year-old girl

“Maaaan I’ll beat yo bitch ass down in the streets just like you did this baby, you weak ass Poor excuse for a man!!” TI writes in the post addressing the actions of Officer Zachary Christensen. “And be clear, IDGAF WHAT SHE MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE DONE….I can & will utilize ALL MY RELATIONSHIPS AND RESOURCES TO BRING JUSTICE TO YO HO ASS because Y’all hateful racist muthafuckaz ain’t gon understand wtf it mean to keep y’all hands to y’all selves and OFF OF OUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN until we get ahold of that ass and treat you just how you treated ours.”

TI, clearly angry and bothered by what he witnessed, then addressed the girl, a sixth-grade student at Mesa View Middle School in Farmington, New Mexico.

READ MORE: Eddie Murphy dishes about that time Barack Obama asked him two questions

“On my sweet dear sister Precious…I’ll happily accept my due process of consequences for showing one (or some) of you what it feels like to face a man (or men) on a mission. Now I’m working on myself and my spirit but y’all gon pull me back out of my evolution & get me to getting dead on y’alls ass about bringing hurt harm & danger to our innocent women and children,” TI said. “And ANY MAN who don’t feel the same about protecting US & OURS please do me a favor and Get tf off my page!!!” TI signed off #DeadDeFuqSeriousSIR.

Christensen, who worked as a school resource officer at Mesa View Middle School in Farmington, was filmed on video Aug. 27 trying to detain the 11-year-old girl, who he accused of assaulting two school employees as she tried to leave the school. Police Chief Steve Hebbe said the girl has been cleared of all wrongdoing because the accusations “proved not to be true”, according to The New York Daily News.

Video, which was shot from the officer’s lapel camera, was released to the media, showing Christensen pulling the girl’s backpack off before pushing her against a wall and then to the ground, as she hollered: “I’m not resisting. Get off of me — you’re hurting me.”

We respect how hard you rep for the babies, TI. Yes, sir.

 

 

The post TI rips cop accused of manhandling 11-Year-Old girl: ‘Poor Excuse for a man’ appeared first on theGrio.

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Cop resigns after charges of using excessive force on 11-year-old girl

A New Mexico police officer has quit the police force after he came under fire for pinning a sixth-grade girl to the ground inside her middle school.

READ MORE: Cop accused of racism and excessive force named ‘Officer of the Year’, angering citizens

Officer Zachary Christensen, who worked as a school resource officer at Mesa View Middle School in Farmington, was filmed on video from his lapel camera trying to detain the 11-year-old girl, whom he accused of assaulting two school employees as she tried to leave the school. However, the girl was cleared of all wrongdoing, according to The New York Daily News, which quotes Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe, saying the accusations “proved not to be true.”

Video from the incident that occurred on Aug. 27 was released to the media, showing Christensen ripping the girl’s backpack off before slamming her against a wall and then to the ground, as the girl cried: “I’m not resisting. Get off of me — you’re hurting me.”

While Christensen held the girl down, a school administrator can be heard talking off-camera to the officer and accusing him of using excessive force.

“Officer Christensen, you need to allow her to stand up, sir,” the administrator said, according to the Daily News. “Officer Christensen, she is not a threat to yourself or others at this moment. You need to allow her to stand up.”

“… you’re not going to use excessive force to get this done,” the administrator adds.

“We’re not being excessive,” Christensen responds.

The officer accused the girl of starting trouble by taking “more milks than she was supposed to” from the school cafeteria and throwing one “on the ground,” according to the Daily News.

The girl’s family has retained an attorney, who told KRQE that she suffered a concussion and pain to her arm and shoulder from Christensen.

“While it is appreciated that the principal and vice-principal asked the officer to stop, there is a question as to what the administrators could have done to prevent this from occurring at all,” attorney Mark Curnutt told KRQE.

READ MORE: S.C. sheriff and deputies indicted for allegedly using excessive force—then trying to cover it up

Police Chief Hebbe said he personally apologized to the girl and her family for the officer’s actions.

“There’s no excuse for the way this girl was treated,” Hebbe said in a video statement Sunday. “As the chief of police, I am extremely disappointed that we failed to perform at our expected standards. We value our relationship with our community and will continue to work hard to maintain the public’s confidence in our department.”

 

 

The post Cop resigns after charges of using excessive force on 11-year-old girl appeared first on theGrio.

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Surprise! Popular health care software fails Black folks

Blacks are more likely to get overlooked for health care programs than white patients, and this could be because of a widely used by flawed software program that puts money over need.

READ MORE: Virginia woman gives birth to healthy son in bathtub after hospital sends her home

A new research study led by Dr. Ziad Obermeyer of the University of California, Berkeley, and published in the Science journal, found that the software program directed millions of high-cost patients, who are disproportionately white, into health care risk management programs even if they were healthier, than Blacks who were reportedly not as healthy and in greater need for the programs, according to The Associated Press.

This flaw is due to the software predicting costs rather than need, according to Dr. Obermeyer. Fixing it could result in a huge hike in the number of Black patients who will become eligible to participate in these programs.

“The problem was the algorithm was built to predict who’s going to cost money next year, not who’s going to need health care,” Obermeyer, who studies machine learning in medicine, told The Associated Press.

The study looked at patient data from a large hospital system and found that Blacks cost $1,800 less per year than whites who had the same number of chronic illnesses. That pattern has been duplicated at other hospitals across the country.

The software developer, a company called Optum, called the study’s findings “misleading” and said it was ever intended to be the sole determinant for health care decisions.

“The cost model is just one of many data elements intended to be used to select patients for clinical engagement programs, including, most importantly, the doctor’s expertise and knowledge of his or her patient’s individual needs,” Optum spokesman Tyler Mason told the Associated Press.

READ MORE: Millions of children to lose health care because GOP was too busy passing unpopular tax bill

In recent years, health insurers have attempted to identify patients with chronic medical conditions to sign them up for health care management programs designed to help them maintain a certain level of consistency and care. This reduces emergency room visits and hospital stays and ultimately brings down huge health care costs.

But as this study indicates, big data is not immune from bias and inherent flaws as well and could end up resulting in racial disparities in health care delivery and services the same as poverty, doctors’ unconscious beliefs and Black people’s distrust of hospitals and the health care system.

The post Surprise! Popular health care software fails Black folks appeared first on theGrio.

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Eddie Murphy dishes about that time Barack Obama asked him two questions

Eddie Murphy, who sizzled in his portrayal of Rudy Ray Moore in “Dolemite Is My Name,” dropped by “The Late Show” Friday night to talk movies, his upcoming gig hosting Saturday Night Live and Barack Obama.

READ MORE: Eddie Murphy on playing Rudy Ray Moore in ‘Dolemite Is My Name’: ‘He wasn’t a genius’

When Murphy received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015, it was President Obama who surprised him by asking him two questions: when he was coming back to standup, and what dye he used in his hair, according to The Huffington Post.

“It’s a great picture I have of me talking to him in the White House … and it looks like we’re having this thing, and at that moment he’s going, ‘so, what kind of rinse do you use?’” Murphy told Stephen Colbert. “I was like, what?”

Murphy said he is several months older than Obama but still gets gray hairs in his mustache and nose. Those he just cuts out, he said.

Murphy’s star continues to rise with his electric performance in Dolemite, which is in theaters and playing on Netflix. Fans also eagerly await his hosting job at SNL in December, where he said he may revive old character favorites like Gumby, Buckwheat and Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood. “I would imagine yes,” Murphy told Colbert, who asked him if he missed playing those roles. “I don’t miss (it), but I’m looking forward to going back and doing that stuff, but I hope it’s funny.

“I always wanted it to be funny, as funny as it can be,” Murphy said. “SNL is such a big part of who I am. I don’t want to go back after 35 years and they say oh it was alright.”

Murphy said he started doing standup at 15 and when Colbert asked if his mom was ok with it, Murphy shot back: “Ummm yes, when I started bringing them checks home.”

READ MORE: Eddie Murphy talks about making his comeback with…well, comic timing

Next year, Murphy is also slated to revive his stand-up career, and he will soon begin shooting the second installment of “Coming to America,” a cult-classic that also starred Arsenio Hall.

Thanks for asking, Obama!

The post Eddie Murphy dishes about that time Barack Obama asked him two questions appeared first on theGrio.

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Martin Ekechukwu: Marketing Strategist Sees Purpose In Helping Others

BE Modern Man: Martin Ekechukwu

Entrepreneur, music and marketing strategist; 42; Head of Media & Marketing, Brand Partnerships and Strategy, WHTWRKS, Inc.

Twitter: @martinchilaka; Instagram: @martinekechukwu

At WHTWRKS, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be in a position to create amazing content that connects with social and digital media audiences. Our role, and my role, in particular, as a marketing strategist, is to generate ideas that help brands connect with their target audience, leveraging culture while using influencers to drive the conversation. Influencers could be in music, film, or in a completely different category. But we don’t stop there; we create the campaign strategy for the brand and see it entirely to fruition by developing the content and launching it. The impact it has had on brands has been beyond our expectations. We not only tell incredible stories using culture, but also share our culture with the world even more while encouraging people that don’t look like us to pay attention.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN LIFE?

I’m most proud of my daughter and the young woman that she is growing up to be. Children are the best reflection of who you are. When they do well, are well adjusted, and prepared for the future, the sense of pride is incredible.

HOW HAVE YOU TURNED STRUGGLE INTO SUCCESS?

My first company, Village Tea Company, started as a massive success, but as with all good things that grow too quickly, the fall back down was painful and we never fully recovered. With all the challenges from my first company, I was very discouraged and initially swore off of entrepreneurship, but quickly realized that the failure and my failed approach was due to a lack of enough real-world experience. I narrowed down the skill sets I needed, returned to a corporate job, and eventually took my learnings from the first company, with my skill sets and got back to my entrepreneurial roots as a brand and marketing strategist, where we’ve been going five years now, with year-to-year, double-digit growth.

WHAT PRACTICES, TOOLS, BOOKS, ETC. DO YOU RELY ON FOR YOUR SUCCESS?

I surround myself with people that are much smarter than me. I am a decent student, but I learn better watching and paying attention to others and how they handle themselves. I wish I were one of those people that can read a ton of books and miraculously see improvements. I need more hands-on engagement for me to improve.

WHO WAS YOUR GREATEST MALE ROLE MODEL AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM HIM?

My father was my greatest role model. I learned that no matter your accomplishment, you have to humble yourself and put your family first. In spite of all his achievements—Rhodes Scholar, Oxford graduate—nothing was beneath him when it came to providing for his family. As a family of immigrants, his greatest priority was our comfort. He taught the value of relationships and honor. My gentlemanship was sowed directly from my father.

HOW DO YOU DEFINE MANHOOD?

Manhood is not about masculinity. It is about understanding the responsibility one carries as a man not just to provide for a family and protect, but to also provide guidance towards duty, honor, love, and achievement. Manhood for me has always been about sharing with others my own story and helping those who have not had a traditional nuclear family experience to reach their full potential.

WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?

Help first and ask questions last. Our purpose on earth is to help each other in one way or another. If there is an opportunity to make some money, great; however, that should never be the driving factor.

HOW ARE YOU PAYING IT FORWARD TO SUPPORT OTHER BLACK MALES?

We as black males usually have poor access to resources, leadership, and advice when it comes to not only business, but life’s lessons. I haven’t been around a long time, but I do know that my role is meant to help others. As a marketing strategist, I volunteer with the minority program at my business school every year. I offer my time to young black males who have aspirations or are seeking feedback toward their career choices. I also happily speak during career day at local inner-city middle schools.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT BEING A BLACK MAN?

It’s not hard to say what I like most about being a black man. I love the feeling of being a descendant of kings and from a continent rich with thousands of years of history. Having been born and raised in Nigeria, the feeling of being black and the honor of being part of an African diaspora creates an incredible sense of pride. I love that we have our own culture, language, swagger, style, and frankly beautiful approach to all things creative and analytical that only we can deliver.

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BE Modern Man is an online and social media campaign designed to celebrate black men making valuable contributions in every profession, industry, community, and area of endeavor. Each year, we solicit nominations in order to select men of color for inclusion in the 100 Black Enterprise Modern Men of Distinction. Our goal is to recognize men who epitomize the BEMM credo “Extraordinary is our normal” in their day-to-day lives, presenting authentic examples of the typical black man rarely seen in mainstream media. The BE Modern Men of Distinction are celebrated annually at Black Men XCEL (www.blackenterprise.com/blackmenxcel/). Click this link to submit a nomination for BE Modern Man: https://www.blackenterprise.com/nominate/. Follow BE Modern Man on Twitter: @bemodernman and Instagram: @be_modernman.

 

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