Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Henry Golding Might Star in the Next 'G.I. Joe' Movie
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Caster Semenya: Double Olympic champion 'never felt supported' by women in sport
Baltimore principal says ‘race-baiting’ police officer humiliated him in front of his son
A Baltimore high school principal is speaking out about how he was treated like “the n-word” by a white police officer in one of the city’s suburbs in late July.
Vance Benton, principal of Patterson High School in East Baltimore, claims he was insulted and demeaned by the officer in Owings Mills, Md., as he and his teen son watched the arrest of a young Black male a block from their home.
Benton was not involved in the crime that police were investigating but said he wanted to make sure the Black man at the scene of the incident was being properly handled by the officers.
READ MORE: Baltimore mayor makes Office of Civil Rights independent to avoid police conflict of interest
In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Benton detailed the July 29 experience, during which the white officer approached him and “ranted” about how people try to hinder investigations. He also warned Benton: “Don’t you buck up at me.”
“Did you see me buck up or even raise my voice?” Benton said he asked his son. “I told him that’s how Black boys and men get killed by the police when police choose to see things that are not there.”
The officer, whose name is being withheld by the department, then shined a flashlight in Benton’s face. When Benton asked for his name and tried to read his badge through the light, the policeman asked: “‘Can you even read?’ Then he spelled out his name “in an exaggerated way,'” Benton told The Sun.
“He saw me as the ‘n-word’ and not as a Black man with his son. He saw me as another opportunity to degrade someone and he relished that opportunity to do it in front of my son,” Benton said.
The officer then told his son, Taj, that “I will be seeing you again,” implying the teenager is bound for trouble and run-ins with the law.
Benton alerted the county’s new police chief Melissa R. Hyatt and about the policeman’s “innate racial biases and belittling actions,” writing in a letter that he experienced “degradation, disrespect and humiliation,” according to The Sun.
“The lives of innocent citizens, especially those that are African American, are in jeopardy if (the officer’s) innate racial biases and his belittling actions to ‘bait’ citizens into being arrested aren’t analyzed and addressed immediately,” Benton wrote in the letter.
Baltimore County police confirmed the matter was under investigation and have refused The Sun’s request for the release of the officer’s bodycam footage.
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Black lacrosse player files lawsuit over Athletic Association ban for calling out death threats and n-word taunts from opposing white players
A Black high school lacrosse player says potential future college scholarship are on the line after enduring violent, racist taunts from opposing teams in Florida.
During a press conference last week, 17-year old, Luther Johnson V, who plays for Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, met with members of the media to discuss his suspension from playing both football and lacrosse during his senior year, a decision his lawyer are calling out as being racially motivated.
Johnson maintains he’s been banned from sports by the Florida High School Athletic Association because of how he reacted to racist taunts from players who attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, while playing a game where he was the only Black student on the field, Local 10 news reports. Johnson says racial slurs, including the n-word and death threats, were hurled at him from these students.
After returning from that suspension, Johnson played in another game against Belen Jesuit Preparatory School and received an additional unsportsmanlike call for “targeting.”
According to WVFN, Johnson’s attorney Rawsi Williams said two independent lacrosse coaches reviewed the game footage and disagree with the ban.
“Not one coach who reviewed that agreed to a year ban, or even a few games,” Williams said. “They were saying these are in-game penalties.”
The Florida High School Athletic Association banned Johnson from high school sports for the full football season and the first half of the upcoming lacrosse season, a decision Johnson contends could cost him a college scholarship.
“That’s my future, my college future, for playing sports if I want to play sports,” Johnson told reporters.
His high school coach, David Dunn, agrees.
“Him not being able to play his senior year, that would be devastating to him and his family,” Dunn said.
READ MORE: Black home buyer who found KKK memorabilia in cop’s home receives death threats
Johnson’s attorney announced last Friday that the family is filing a lawsuit in civil court against the Florida High School Athletic Association, alleging their decision was unfair and racially motivated.
“Luther was playing against Marjory Stoneman Douglas [High School]. He is not only the only African American kid on his team. There, he was the only Black kid in the whole game,” Williams said.
Johnson and his attorney said the other players from Stoneman Douglas were using racist language and making death threats in the moments leading up to the plays in question.
The suit seeks to have Johnson’s season-long football and half-season-long lacrosse ban lifted.
Johnson’s legal team has launched a social media campaign to support lifting the ban using the hashtags #HelpUsFightForLJV and #LetHimPlay and are calling on supporters to contact state leaders and the FHSAA with calls on his behalf.
They are requesting immediate reinstatement of Luther Johnson to play all sports without restriction, or that he be allowed to play all football games this season while missing only some lacrosse games next spring; and, an investigation of the racially discriminatory treatment at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas game.
Williams is also seeking a court hearing for an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order against FHSAA’s ban on Thursday.
“If that order is granted, our motion is granted, that means he gets to go out there and play,” Williams told WSVN. “Those items are necessary to stop the board’s actions in its tracks, so that Luther can play while the lawsuit is determined.”
READ MORE: Black teen becomes second Parkland shooting survivor to commit suicide in a week
Luther Johnson, the player’s father, told reporters his son maintains a 4.0 GPA and had several letters of interest from Ivy-League schools. But now, he concerned that the suspension could threaten his son’s college prospects.
“Playing sports is one love that I have, and I just don’t want to stop over a decision that people make, and I can’t make,” the younger Johnson said. “I’m just ready to get back on that field.”
The Johnson’s supporting their son Luther Johnson V ’20 at the @univmiami‘s Rising Juniors Football Camp. #CPride #Adelante pic.twitter.com/yzCIUSPqWt
— Columbus High School (@ColumbusHS_Mia) June 20, 2018
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Cardi B releases clip of sit-down with Bernie Sanders to talk raising minimum wages
Cardi B has released a short clip from that sit-down she had back in July with2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders questioning the Democratic contender about his agenda to help folks make a livable wage.
—Cardi B teams up with Bernie Sanders to film 2020 campaign video—
“What are we gonna do about wages in America?” the Money rapper asked during a convo at Ten Nail Bar in Detroit.
She then discussed her former challenges paying her monthly bills, The Daily Mail reports.
“For example, as a New Yorker — not now but when I was not famous — I felt like no matter how many jobs I get I wasn’t able to make ends meet,” the 26-year-old said.
Cardi opened up about why she became a stripper saying her $200 a week supermarket job didn’t cut the mustard.
Sanders complimented Cardi on her “’excellent and important” question and explained his plan for raising the minimum wage to $15.
“Right now we have tens of millions of people making what I call starvation wages,” Sanders said. “How do you pay your rent? How do you pay for food? How do you pay for transportation? You can’t.”
Last month, Cardi teased that she teamed up with Sanders to shoot a commercial to discuss how to include young people in the political process and they discussed a number of issues affecting underrepresented communities.
Sanders wrote on Facebook last month: “Cardi B and I had a great conversation about the future of America. Together, we’ll get millions of young people involved in the political process and transform this country. Stay tuned for our video coming soon!”
Tuesday Cardi wrote: “So I know this is long over due but here it is ! A couple of weeks ago I asked my followers if you all had the chance to ask a Democratic candidate a question, what would that question be? The topic that was mentioned the most by all of you was about raising MINIMUM WAGE.
“I got the chance to ask @berniesanders about this, and these are his answers. Keep sending your questions, we will be addressing more of these soon.”
The post Cardi B releases clip of sit-down with Bernie Sanders to talk raising minimum wages appeared first on theGrio.
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Stacey Abrams beefs up plans for Fair Fight 2020 ‘We have to make certain every eligible American can cast a ballot in 2020’
Stacey Abrams has upgraded plans for her voter’s rights organization Fair Fight 2020 that includes training activists to protect voters against election abuse, intimidation at the polls and interference in next year’s election.
—Stacey Abrams says she is “as capable” to be president in 2020 as others—
Abrams and her aide Lauren Groh-Wargo sat down with the AJC to discuss their extended plans to fight against voter suppression in 20 states ahead of the presidential election.
When asked if the Georgia Democrat plans to run against Brian Kemp again for the governor’s seat in 2022, she pivoted and spoke about her passion for helping voters get a fair shot during elections.
I am excited to announce the launch of #FairFight2020, a comprehensive initiative to staff, fund, and train voter protection teams on-the-ground in battleground states across the country.
Join our fight to protect the vote at https://t.co/kwO6JZ0kHE. pic.twitter.com/ymf3rSf5GD
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 13, 2019
“My political future will be determined in the future. But my present and the work that needs to be done before my party chooses the nominee will be focusing on electoral opportunities and fighting voter suppression,” Abrams said.
“We have to make certain that every eligible American can cast a ballot in 2020 – and that work has to start now.”
Abrams said she intends for Fair Fight 2020 to have a hand in ensuring that voter processes are adhered to counter potential attacks by the opposing party.
“We’re going to be operating in 20 states. The goal is to ensure there is infrastructure in every single one of those states. Where voter protection processes aren’t something that wait until September of 2020 but they stay in place for the duration of 2020,” she revealed.
“The goal is going to be for us to have meaningful effects on ensuring that voters know their rights, they have access to ballots, that they will be able to effectively counter what Republicans will be doing. The reality is that we don’t know what the contours of their attacks will be, on top of what’s already in place …
—White man arrested after spitting in Black girlfriend’s face over slave game—
Abrams said her organization’s work will extend beyond the presidential races.
“This is focused on not simply the presidential election but also the Senate races that are so critical and the down-ballot races that for many states determine who draws the maps for redistricting,” she said.
“My responsibility is to ensure that every American who is eligible to vote has the right to vote in the upcoming elections. Elections are not about politicians. They’re about people having their say. And my responsibility, if I truly believe in this mission, is to focus on that outcome and not any ancillary effect it has on me. If I do my work, I’ve done my job as an American.”
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Shift to renewable electricity a win-win at statewide level
Amid rollbacks of the Clean Power Plan and other environmental regulations at the federal level, several U.S. states, cities, and towns have resolved to take matters into their own hands and implement policies to promote renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One popular approach, now in effect in 29 states and the District of Columbia, is to set Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), which require electricity suppliers to source a designated percentage of electricity from available renewable-power generating technologies.
Boosting levels of renewable electric power not only helps mitigate global climate change, but also reduces local air pollution. Quantifying the extent to which this approach improves air quality could help legislators better assess the pros and cons of implementing policies such as RPS. Toward that end, a research team at MIT has developed a new modeling framework that combines economic and air-pollution models to assess the projected subnational impacts of RPS and carbon pricing on air quality and human health, as well as on the economy and on climate change. In a study focused on the U.S. Rust Belt, their assessment showed that the financial benefits associated with air quality improvements from these policies would more than pay for the cost of implementing them. The results appear in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
“This research helps us better understand how clean-energy policies now under consideration at the subnational level might impact local air quality and economic growth,” says the study’s lead author Emil Dimanchev, a senior research associate at MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, former research assistant at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, and a 2018 graduate of the MIT Technology and Policy Program.
Burning fossil fuels for energy generation results in air pollution in the form of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Exposure to PM2.5 can lead to adverse health effects that include lung cancer, stroke, and heart attacks. But avoiding those health effects — and the medical bills, lost income, and reduced productivity that comes with them — through the adoption of cleaner energy sources translates into significant cost savings, known as health co-benefits.
Applying their modeling framework, the MIT researchers estimated that existing RPS in the nation’s Rust Belt region generate a health co-benefit of $94 per ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) reduced in 2030, or 8 cents for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of renewable energy deployed in 2015 dollars. Their central estimate is 34 percent larger than total policy costs. The team also determined that carbon pricing delivers a health co-benefit of $211 per ton of CO2 reduced in 2030, 63 percent greater than the health co-benefit of reducing the same amount of CO2 through an RPS approach.
In an extension to their published work focused on the state of Ohio, the researchers evaluated the health effects and economy-wide costs of Ohio’s RPS using economic and atmospheric chemistry modeling. According to their best estimates, an average of 50 premature deaths per year will be avoided as a result of Ohio’s RPS in 2030. This translates to an economic benefit of $470 million per year, or 3 cents per kWh of renewable generation supported by the RPS. With costs of the RPS estimated at $300, that translates to an annual net health benefit of $170 million in 2030.
When the Ohio state legislature took up Ohio House Bill No. 6, which proposed to repeal the state’s RPS, Dimanchev shared these results on the Senate floor.
“According to our calculations, the magnitude of the air quality benefits resulting from Ohio’s RPS is substantial and exceeds its economic costs,” he argued. “While the state legislature ultimately weakened the RPS, our research concludes that this will worsen the health of Ohio residents.”
The MIT research team’s results for the Rust Belt are consistent with previous studies, which found that the health co-benefits of climate policy (including RPS and other instruments) tend to exceed policy costs.
“This work shows that there are real, immediate benefits to people’s health in states that take the lead on clean energy,” says MIT Associate Professor Noelle Selin, who led the study and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and Institute for Data, Systems and Society. “Policymakers should take these impacts into account as they consider modifying these standards.”
The study was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air, Climate and Energy Centers Program.
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White man arrested after spitting in Black girlfriend’s face over slave game
They say what’s done in the dark will come to light and that appears to be the case for a white man and his Black girlfriend’s bizarre bedroom slave game that resulted in a call to the cops.
—Black home buyer who found KKK memorabilia in cop’s home receives death threats—
Tampa police answered a call of a nasty verbal fight between Kenneth Atkins and Ashley Edwards that took a turn for the worst when Atkins spit in her face because he didn’t want to play a role in her game “slave and slaver,” according to an Aug. 6 affidavit, The NY Daily News reports.
“Ashley stated she wanted to play slave and slaver because she is African American and he is Caucasian,” according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s office report. “Kenneth did not wish to partake and became verbally aggressive.”
Things got heated and Atkins pushed back and spat in his girlfriend’s face, police reported.
Sounds like he played anyway…
Atkins was also arrested for simple battery although he denied hitting Edwards.
Atkins can reportedly still have ‘consensual contact’ with Edwards but is scheduled for arraignment on September 8.
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DeepMind's Losses and the Future of Artificial Intelligence
Dell XPS 13 (2019) Review: A Great Compact Laptop
BREAKING NEWS: A$AP Rocky CONVICTED of assault by Swedish court
A$AP Rocky has been found guilty of assault and handed a conditional sentence after a street brawl in Stockholm that was caught on video.
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3 Animals Hurt By the New Endangered Species Act
Cicely Tyson joins cast of Ava DuVernay series on OWN
Cicely Tyson will join the cast as a series regular in Ava DuVernay’s new romance anthology series on OWN, “Cherish the Day.”
The network said Tuesday that the 94-year-old legend will play Miss Luma Lee Langston, a star of stage and screen in decades past. She joins previously announced leads Xosha Roquemore and Alano Miller.
The series, which premieres in 2020, will chronicle the lives of one couple per season, with each episode spanning a single day. It’s DuVernay’s second series on OWN since the creation of “Queen Sugar.”
Roquemore plays Gently James, Luma’s live-in assistant who is encouraged by Miss Luma Lee to strike up a romance with Evan Fisher, played by Miller. DuVernay is the creator and executive producer.
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Movie Review: Shark sequel to ’47 Meters Down’ is a toothsome success
At the beginning of “47 Meters Down: Uncaged,” a quartet of young women are given some pretty good advice before going out to sea: “Don’t get eaten by a shark.” It’s advice, as you might expect, not all take.
Which of the four makes it out alive fuels this absolutely satisfying sequel to “47 Meters Down,” this time with a new cast and set in some ancient underwater labyrinthine tunnels in Mexico. Forty-four years after “Jaws,” there’s still a shark thriller that makes your heart pound.
Director and co-writer Johannes Roberts returns to dangerous waters after the surprising success of his “47 Meters Down” in 2017, which was made for just $5 million and earned $62 million. That one starred Claire Holt and Mandy Moore as sisters whose shark cage diving experience in Mexico, shall we say, did not go as planned. Sorry, again, Mexican tourism industry. (Not to rub salt in the wounds, much of it was filmed in the Dominican Republic anyway.)
Four young actresses — half with famous parents — have jumped into the aqua this time: Sophie NĂ©lisse, Corinne Foxx (daughter of Jamie), Brianne Tju and Sistine Stallone (daughter of Sylvester). There’s a “Mean Girls”-like vibe to the setup and none of the actresses are given enough to become three-dimensional, but at least their chatter isn’t about boys. The film manages to pass the Bechdel Test, unless the sharks are male.
In terms of plot, like its predecessor, “47 Meters Down: Uncaged ,” is pretty tidy: Our quartet of high school students — including feuding step-sisters — foolishly go exploring in a submerged Mayan city that they are unaware contains — you guessed it — sharks. Massive blind sharks. Massive blind sharks that are hungry.
Roberts — who with Ernest Riera co-wrote both films — follows a similar slow wind-up, including echoing opening scenes, and is a little too fond of showing our heroines cavorting in bikinis. But once submerged, he has intense skill combining light, water, bubbles and shadow. We sometimes see sharks before our heroines do, but they still sneak up on us, even though we know they’re coming.
The dialogue may be banal — “This place is insane, right?” and “We can’t give up!” — yet there is an unpredictability to Roberts’ action sequences, both nodding to the conventions of shark thrillers and subverting them. (No sharks were harmed making the film — they’re all computer-generated.)
There are little in-jokes throughout. In a film set in Mayan tunnels, we hear a song by Aztec Camera. The girls all attend the Modine International School for Girls, a play on Matthew Modine, who played the boat owner in the first film. The tossing of buckets of chum in the second film is a callback to the use of it in the first.
Roberts has clearly been given a bigger budget and it shows in the nicely realized submerged city the poor young women must navigate. He’s saddled with a terrible film title — 47 meters was the depth of the ocean floor in the first film — but none of that matters once the air tanks and masks go on. He’s like one of his sharks: Shaky on land but a master in the water.
“47 Meters Down: Uncaged,” an Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for “creature related violence and terror, some bloody images and brief rude gestures.” Running time: 89 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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