A study finds that 58 percent of faculty at four prominent universities have received grants, fellowships, or other financial support from 14 tech firms.
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Sunday, October 4, 2020
Saturday, October 3, 2020
Megan Thee Stallion makes a statement during her SNL debut
Megan danced in front of a backdrop that read ‘Protect Black Women’
On Saturday night, Megan Thee Stallion made her Saturday Night Live debut. The show was hosted by Chris Rock and featured a number of sketches pertaining to the presidential debate, the coronavirus pandemic and President Donald Trump‘s recent diagnosis.
But the most powerful moment of the night came from Megan. Her first performance was her song “Savage Remix” featuring BeyoncĂ©.
Megan and her back up dancers wore bold, black and white zebra print outfits and danced in front of a backdrop that read “Protect Black Women.”
Read More: Jim Carrey, Maya Rudolph preview their Biden-Harris characters in SNL promo
In the middle of her song, Megan stopped and gunshots rang out. The voice of Malcom X then narrated some of his most famous words.
“The most disrespected, unprotected, neglected person in America is the Black woman. Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair, the color of your skin, the shape of your nose? Who taught you to hate yourself, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet?”
The voice of Tamika Mallory, activist and cofounder of the Women’s March then rang out. “Daniel Cameron is no different than the sellout negroes that sold our people into slavery.”
The stage then began to turn red and Megan said “We have to protect out Black women and love our Black women, because at the end of the day, we need our Black women. We need to protect out Black men and stand up for our Black men because at the end of the day, we tired of seeing hashtags of our Black men.”
Read More: Jim Carrey, Maya Rudolph preview their Biden-Harris characters in SNL promo
Megan returned later on for a second, lighter performance to close out the show. Joined by Young Thug, the two artists performed their new song “Don’t Stop,” which was released on Friday.
Megan was also featured in a few sketches. One of the most memorable was a music video about wearing masks while dating during the pandemic.
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Oscar-winning filmmaker documented Trump’s coronavirus response
The film documents five months of Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus
Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney released the first trailer for his latest movie, “Totally Under Control.” The Oscar-winning filmmaker names the movie after President Donald Trump‘s now-infamous comment during the early days of the pandemic.
The documentary film chronicles the Trump administrations’s mishandling of the coronavirus.
“[The film is] the definitive account of the Trump administration’s incompetence, corruption and denial in the face of this global pandemic,” said the production team, Los Angelos Times reported.
Read More: President Trump and first lady test positive for COVID-19
The movie compares how the White House handled the coronavirus to how South Korea, a country much closer to China, the virus’s country of origin, handled it.
“On January 20th, 2020 the U.S. and South Korea both discovered their first cases of COVID-19,” the film’s synopsis reads.
“However, nine months later, the novel Coronavirus has claimed the lives of over 200,000 Americans and caused staggering economic damage, while in South Korea, there were no significant lockdowns and, in an urbanized population of 51 million, only 344 lives have been lost. Where did we go wrong?,” the report continued.
The film was in production for the past five month, with Gibney and co-directors Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger speaking to scientists, medical professionals and government officials on the inside. The team also spoke to whistleblower Rick Bright.
Bright, an immunologist, public health official, and former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) filed a whistleblower complaint, alleging that his early warnings about the COVID-19 pandemic were ignored.
The former director claimed he was illegally retaliated against when he was ousted from his role and moved to a new position.
Bright said that scientists knew how to respond to the viral threat, “the plan was in front of us, but leadership would not do it.”
Read More: U.S. to hit 200K dead; Trump sees no need for regret
The documentary has assured that it will show, “damning testimony from public health officials and hard investigative reporting” and aims to expose “a system-wide collapse caused by a profound dereliction of Presidential leadership.”
“Totally Under Control” will be made available on Oct. 13 through Apple TV+, iTunes, Amazon, FandangoNow, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu and other on-demand digital services. Hulu will stream the film on Oct. 20.
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Dr. Dre does not have to pay $1.5 million to estranged wife
Young originally wanted more than $2 million per month in spousal support
Dr. Dre won a battle in his ongoing divorce dispute with his estranged wife Nicole Young.
As theGrio previously reported, Young requested more than $2 million per month from her husband. The expenses included a $20,000 telephone bill, $125,000 budget for charity, and more.
Her request was eventually reduced to $1.5 million, before being thrown out altogether.
Young now says she is receiving death threats.
Read More: Dr. Dre’s wife requests $2 million per month in spousal support
According to a TMZ report, the judge also dismissed Young’s request to have Dre pay her lawyer’s fees, estimated to be around $5 million.
TheGrio also reported that Young’s legal team claims she is “having difficulty paying her bills” and that Dr. Dre has “been exerting financial control” over his ex by “ordering his agents to scrutinize her bills” before he decides on paying them or not.
TMZ has noted people on the internet were saying things like, “If she dies, she dies,” and “For a small fee she can disappear.”
The judge rejected her claim, saying that she got rid of her security team, which was paid by Dre. She said she wanted to hire security on her own, and she claimed Dre threatened to fire the security if security disobeyed his orders, TMZ reported.
Read More: Dr. Dre’s wife Nicole Young explains $2 million per month divorce request
Dre’s lawyer, Laura Wasser, told the judge Dre wants to pay all of Young’s expenses pending the divorce, including security.
The judge told Young that she can choose her own private security company, but it can’t cost more than what Dre was paying, according to TMZ.
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NFL postpones Patriots-Chiefs QB showdown after Cam Newton tests positive for virus
The newly minted New England Patriots quarterback will be on the COVID injured list for what was billed as a quarterback showdown
Football’s Superman has found his kryptonite.
According to multiple reports, New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton has tested positive for the coronavirus and will be out for the team’s upcoming game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Soon after news broke of Newton’s diagnosis, the Patriots-Chiefs matchup scheduled for Sunday was postponed, making it the second Week 4 Sunday game to be postponed.
Members of the Chiefs organization have also reportedly tested positive for the disease, though no one was named. The game, however, is being considered to be played either Monday or Tuesday.
According to ESPN’s well-sourced Adam Schefter, the NFL is “more likely” to punt the matchup to Tuesday.
The weekend’s marquee matchup was expected to be a quarterback battle with the veteran Newton, 31, who was on the losing side of Super Bowl 50 in 2016 with the Carolina Panthers, versus the league’s reigning Super Bowl MVP in Patrick Mahomes, 25, who led the Chiefs to victory in the February championship game.
READ MORE: New Patriots QB Cam Newton honors Chadwick Boseman with touchdown salute
The news broke Saturday morning, and immediately a deluge of #NotCam posts hit social media. The quarterback played nine seasons with the Panthers, compiling a 68-55-1 record, before he was released earlier this year while rehabbing from surgeries on his throwing shoulder and a Lisfranc foot injury. New Panthers owner David Tepper and new Panthers head coach Matt Rhule obviously wanted a restart.
Newton rebounded from the controversial release to sign with the Patriots for a one-year contract. Going into week 4 of the season, Newton has been healthy and surprised the league with his good relationship with the perpetually irritable head coach Bill Belichick, who coached Tom Brady and the Pats to six Super Bowl victories over the last 20 years.
The team’s current 2-1 record matches that of Brady’s, who is now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Patriots issued a statement Saturday morning saying an unnamed player was diagnosed for COVID-19 late Friday and is now quarantining. Those in close contact of the person have since tested negative for the disease.
Though the Patriots have so far not had any players previously test positive for the coronavirus, they did have a league-leading eight players opt out of playing the 2020-2021 season. Fortunately, none of them were quarterbacks and the Patriots have both Brian Hoyer and Jarrett Stidham as backups on the main roster, as well as Jake Dolegala on the practice squad.
Elsewhere in the NFL, the Tennessee Titans organization recorded eight new infections among players and several more among personnel this week. This week’s headline-grabbing outbreaks in new infections, which has also roiled the highest level of American government, has opened up questions about the continued viability of a football season outside of an NBA-like ‘bubble.’ Since the NBA revived its season in July after being suspended in March, the league has made its way through this week’s start of the NBA Finals without a single positive COVID-19 test among players, staff and team personnel in Florida.
The Titans vs. Steelers game scheduled for Sunday has been postponed to Oct. 25. Their Titans’ previous opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, have not had a positive test.
Newton has so far held up and is among the Patriot’s most steady players thus far. His stats through the first 3 games were 62-of-91 for 714 yards, with two touchdown passes and two interceptions. He also had 35 rushes for 149 yards personally scoring 4 touchdowns and has received rave reviews for his work ethic and will to win from teammates, staff, and even Belichick. He praised Newton on a call with media on Friday.
READ MORE: A record 10 Black quarterbacks started this NFL season
“Cam does a great job of connecting with everybody, whether it’s his teammates, his receivers, guys on defense, other people in the organization,” Belichick said. “Again, I think the captain voting – not that that’s the ultimate or final determination of leadership – but I think the fact that he has been here a pretty short amount of time and earned that type of respect and support from his teammates is pretty impressive.”
As far as who will play quarterback or if the Patriots will travel to or play the game in Kansas City, it’s all up in the air right now, per Shefter.
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Grand jury audio details raid that killed Breonna Taylor
Fear and confusion that played out after midnight at Taylor’s Louisville home was detailed in 15 hours of audio recordings
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Police said they knocked and announced themselves for a minute or more before bursting into Breonna Taylor’s apartment, but her boyfriend said he did not hear officers identify themselves, according to Kentucky grand jury recordings released Friday. In the hail of gunfire that ensued, the 26-year-old Black woman was killed.
The dramatic and sometimes conflicting accounts of the March 13 raid are key to a case that has fueled nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism. When police came through the door using a battering ram, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired once. He acknowledges that he may not have heard police identify themselves because of where he was in the apartment. If he’d heard them, “it changes the whole situation because there’s nothing for us to be scared of.”
The fear and confusion that played out after midnight at Taylor’s Louisville home was detailed in 15 hours of audio recordings made public in a rare release. While the recordings added rich detail about what happened as police fired 32 shots in the last moments of Taylor’s life, nothing on them appeared to change the fundamental narrative that was previously made public.
The recordings also do not include any discussion of potential criminal action on the part of the officers who shot Taylor because Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron determined beforehand that they had acted in self-defense. As a result, he did not seek charges against police in her killing — a recommendation the grand jury followed.
Grand jury proceedings are typically kept secret, but a court ruled that they should be released after the jury’s decision last week angered many in Louisville and around the country and set off renewed protests. One of the jurors also sued to make the proceedings public. The material does not include juror deliberations or prosecutor recommendations and statements, none of which were recorded, according to Cameron’s office.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said it will release its own assessment of how the evidence was presented after a review of the recordings. Sherrilyn Ifill, the group’s president, said releasing the recordings “is a critical first step.”
READ MORE: Breonna Taylor grand jury indicts former officer Brett Hankison – but not directly for her death
At Jefferson Square Park, which has been at the center of protests for months, a small group gathered in a mood far more subdued than the outcry that followed the grand jury’s decision.
On the March night in question, police arrived after midnight at Taylor’s apartment with a narcotics warrant to search the home. She and her boyfriend were in bed. Within minutes, she had been shot five times.
Though police had a “no knock” warrant that would have allowed them to burst in unannounced, they agreed it was better to “give them a chance to answer the door,” said Louisville police Lt. Shawn Hoover. Detective Myles Cosgrove said the officers had been told to “use our maturity as investigators to get into this house.”
In a police interview played for the grand jury, Hoover said the officers announced themselves as police and knocked three times. He estimated they waited 45 seconds to a minute before going through the door.
Another officer said they waited as long as two minutes.
Walker said he heard knocking but that police did not respond to his and Taylor’s repeated requests that whoever was at the door identify themselves. He told police that he grabbed his gun, and they both got up and walked toward the door.
“She’s yelling at the top of her lungs, and I am too at this point. No answer. No response. No nothing,” Walker said.
Police said they used a battering ram to enter the apartment, hitting the door three times before getting inside. Detective Michael Nobles said officers made so much noise that an upstairs neighbor came outside.
Walker, who has said he thought the police were intruders, fired once, hitting Detective Jonathan Mattingly in the leg as soon as he leaned inside the apartment.
Mattingly said in testimony, some of which was previously released, that he fired his gun while falling on his backside.
Cosgrove came through the door and saw Mattingly on the ground. In his interview with investigators, he spoke to the confusion of the confrontation. He told investigators that he thought he fired four or fewer shots, but the evidence showed he fired 16 rounds, including the bullet that killed Taylor.
Officer Brett Hankison, who has since been fired, told investigators that he saw flashes from a gun coming from inside the apartment and feared his fellow officers were “sitting ducks.” Hankison said he began shooting, and when gunfire inside the apartment continued, moved to fire through a window. He fired 10 bullets.
Hankison was the only officer indicted by the grand jury, which charged him with wanton endangerment for shooting into another home with people inside. He has pleaded not guilty.
“What I saw at the time was a figure in a shooting stance, and it looked as if he was holding, he or she was holding, an AR-15 or a long gun, a rifle,” Hankison said.
Walker was, in fact, using a handgun. He said he and Taylor both dropped to the ground when the officers returned fire.
READ MORE: Breonna Taylor’s mother says police, law ‘not made to protect’ Black women
“I’m scared to death,” Walker said, before it dawned on him that it was the police.
Walker said he then looked at Taylor, who was bleeding. Seeking help he called his mother, 911 and then Taylor’s mother. Walker told a 911 dispatcher: “Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”
While Walker told police he did not hear officers identify themselves, he also said he doubted he could have, considering the couple was at the opposite end of a long hallway.
“If we knew who it was, that would have never happened,” Walker said.
But Hoover, the police lieutenant, said he believed Walker and Taylor “ambushed” the officers.
“They knew we were there. I mean, hell, the neighbors knew we were there,” he said.
Police interviews with Taylor’s neighbors, however, didn’t clear up the confusion. Two neighbors said they didn’t hear the police knocking. One of them also said he was certain he didn’t hear police identify themselves. Another man gave three differing accounts — in two of them saying he heard officers identify themselves.
After the burst of gunshots, the officers focused on the wounded Mattingly. No one else entered Taylor’s apartment until a SWAT team arrived — even as she lay bleeding.
A neighbor, Summer Dickerson, told investigators she was jolted out of bed by the gunshots. Outside the apartment, she said, an officer she recognized told her that “some drug-dealing girl shot at the police.”
Walker initially told police that Taylor was the one who shot at them. He later said he was the one who fired the gun.
One law enforcement officer testified that no drugs were found in the apartment but that police ultimately never executed the search warrant.
___
Associated Press writers from around the country contributed to this report.
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Health and safety rules upgraded for upcoming VP debate
When Kamala Harris and Mike Pence take the debate stage, safety protocols will be more rigid
Vice President Mike Pence and vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris are scheduled to square off in a debate next Wednesday in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the two will be subjected to upgraded COVID-19 protocols in the wake of a coronavirus outbreak that has stunned the Republican Party.
After last Tuesday’s wild presidential debate and the subsequent rash of positive COVID-19 cases among President Donald Trump‘s family, staff and associates, including the positive test for the president himself, the Commission on Presidential Debates has agreed on a new safety measure to deter transmission of the disease.
The measure says that the candidates should be seated 12 feet apart, according to Politico. The rule is the result of ongoing negotiations between the Trump and Joe Biden camps, negotiations that only became more fraught after the president revealed in the first hours of Friday morning that he tested positive for the deadly disease, hours after senior aide Hope Hicks‘ positive diagnosis was scooped by a reporter. First Lady Melania Trump and advisor Kellyanne Conway are other high-profile administration members to have contracted the virus.
That was in addition to the 11 news cases reported linked directly to the debate, the online news outlet reports.
Read More: 11 positive coronavirus cases in Cleveland linked to presidential debate
Harris and Pence will be seated during the debate, although the Biden campaign advocated for the two to stand. The agreement to add more space between the two was led by the Biden campaign, which, given the known virus contractions and medical recommendations to physically distance, that the 12-foot distance would be safer.
“We are open to more space between the candidates, which we will be happy to negotiate,” Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign spokesman told Politico.
Harris tested negative for the coronavirus on Thursday and Friday. Biden announced on Friday that he and wife, Jill, were also negative. Pence and his wife have also tested negative.
Read More: Obama wishes Trump and first lady ‘best wishes’ after coronavirus diagnosis
Harris and Pence will have the 90-minute debate next Wednesday at the University of Utah. Harris was on the campaign trail in Nevada on Friday and will travel to Utah next, where she will remain until the debate, according to Politico.
Trump, who is said to have a ‘low-grade fever’ is working from Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland in an “abundance of caution” after contracting the virus. The White House says they expect the 74-year-old to recover, but no announcements have been made yet about the upcoming presidential debates scheduled for Oct. 15 in Miami and Oct. 22 in Nashville.
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Rochester mayor, embroiled in Daniel Prude controversy, indicted on felony campaign finance fraud charges
Lovely Warren, mayor of the Upstate New York city, faces two charges while also contending with mismanagement of Daniel Prude’s death
An Upstate New York mayor, who is at the center of controversy over the police-involved death of a Black man earlier this year, has been indicted after being suspected of campaign finance fraud related to a past reelection bid.
Lovely Warren, the Democratic mayor of Rochester, New York, was indicted Friday, The New York Times reports. Two associates were also charged.
Warren, 43, who has been the mayor since 2013, is already embroiled in an investigation into the mishandling of the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who was killed by police in March after his brother called for a mental health check.
As reported by theGrio, Prude was nude and unarmed when he was handcuffed and place in a “spit hood” by police, which officers allege was used to protect them against the novel coronavirus. After an officer applied force to hold down his head, Prude was rendered unconscious and died a week later in the hospital.
Prude’s death did not become public knowledge until September when his family was finally granted access to the body cam video of his arrest. They allege that the details of the arrest were covered up. The Rochester police chief has stepped down, and there have been calls for Warren to do the same. New York Attorney General Leticia James announced in September she will convene a grand jury in the case.
Read More: Police leaders pressed Rochester to keep Prude video secret
Now, she may be the next to step down. If convicted, it would lead to her vacating the position.
The indictment says that Warren, her campaign treasurer and the city’s finance director “knowingly and willingly” attempted to evade campaign contribution limits and were involved in a “systemic and ongoing” attempt to defraud “more than one person.”
“We all want our elections to be run fairly, and these are laws on the books to allow and ensure that people who are entering political office follow the rules,” Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said at a press conference on Friday. “We all want fair campaigns.”
Read More: Rochester police chief fired in fallout over Daniel Prude death
The mayor and her co-defendants, Rosiland Brooks Harris, the finance director, and Albert Jones, Jr., the campaign treasurer, are scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.
Warren has denied any wrongdoing, blaming the financial irregularities on what Doorley described as a “substantial sum” on bookkeeping errors.
“Her position has not changed one bit, and that is, she’s innocent,” her lawyer Joseph Damelio told the Times. “She is anxious to get this process started and she’s ready to go to trial.”
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Bob Gibson, legendary Cardinal and second Black player to win Cy Young, dies at 84
The talents of the well-decorated MLB pitcher, who at his peak was considered the best starter in league history, inspired a rule change in the late 1960s
Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, the dominating St. Louis Cardinals pitcher who won a record seven consecutive World Series starts and set a modern standard for excellence when he finished the 1968 season with a 1.12 ERA, died Friday. He was 84.
The Cardinals confirmed Gibson’s death shortly after a 4-0 playoff loss to San Diego ended their season. He had long been ill with pancreatic cancer in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
Gibson’s death came on the 52nd anniversary of perhaps his most overpowering performance, when he struck out a World Series record 17 batters in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series against Detroit.
One of baseball’s most uncompromising competitors, the two-time Cy Young Award winner spent his entire 17-year career with St. Louis and was named the World Series MVP in their 1964 and ’67 championship seasons. The Cards came up just short in 1968, but Gibson was voted the National League’s MVP and shut down opponents so well that baseball changed the rules for fear it would happen again.
Gibson died less than a month after the death of a longtime teammate, Hall of Fame outfielder Lou Brock. Another pitching great from his era, Tom Seaver, died in late August.
READ MORE: Famed baseball legend Lou Brock dies at 81
“I just heard the news about losing Bob Gibson and it’s kind of hard losing a legend. You can lose a game, but when you lose a guy like Bob Gibson, just hard,” Cardinals star catcher Yadier Molina said. “Bob was funny, smart, he brought a lot of energy. When he talked, you listened. It was good to have him around every year. We lose a game, we lose a series, but the tough thing is we lost one great man.”
At his peak, Gibson may have been the most talented all-around starter in history, a nine-time Gold Glove winner who roamed wide to snatch up grounders despite a fierce, sweeping delivery that drove him to the first base side of the mound; and a strong hitter who twice hit five home runs in a single season and batted .303 in 1970, when he also won his second Cy Young.
Baseball wasn’t his only sport, either. He also starred in basketball at Creighton University and spent a year with the Harlem Globetrotters before totally turning his attention to the diamond.
Averaging 19 wins a year from 1963-72, he finished 251-174 with a 2.91 ERA, and was only the second pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts. He didn’t throw as hard as Sandy Koufax, or from as many angles as Juan Marichal, but batters never forgot how he glared at them (or squinted, because he was near-sighted) as if settling an ancient score.
Gibson snubbed opposing players and sometimes teammates who dared speak to him on a day he was pitching, and he didn’t even spare his own family.
“I’ve played a couple of hundred games of tic-tac-toe with my little daughter and she hasn’t beaten me yet,” he once told The New Yorker’s Roger Angell. “I’ve always had to win. I’ve got to win.”
Equally disciplined and impatient, Gibson worked so quickly that broadcaster Vin Scully joked that he pitched as if his car was double-parked.
Ball in hand, he was no nonsense on the hill. And he had no use for advice, scowling whenever catcher Tim McCarver or anyone else thought of visiting the mound.
“The only thing you know about pitching is you can’t hit it,” Gibson was known to say.
His concentration was such that he seemed unaware he was on his way to a World Series single game strikeout record (surpassing Sandy Koufax’s 15) in 1968 until McCarver convinced him to look at the scoreboard.
During the regular season, Gibson struck out more than 200 batters nine times and led the National League in shutouts four times, finishing with 56 in his career. In 1968, thirteen of his 22 wins were shutouts, leading McCarver to call Gibson “the luckiest pitcher I ever saw. He always pitches when the other team doesn’t score any runs.”
He was, somehow, even greater in the postseason, finishing 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 81 innings. Despite dominating the Tigers in the 1968 Series opener, that year ended with a Game 7 loss — hurt by a rare misplay from star center fielder Curt Flood — and a rewriting of the rules that he would long resent.
Gibson’s 1.12 ERA in the regular season was the third lowest for any starting pitcher since 1900 and by far the best for any starter in the post-dead-ball era, which began in the 1920s.
His 1968 performance, the highlight of the so-called “Year of the Pitcher,” left officials worried that fans had bored of so many 1-0 games. They lowered the mound from 15 to 10 inches in 1969 and shrank the strike zone.
“I was pissed,” Gibson later remarked, although he remained a top pitcher for several years and in 1971 threw his only no-hitter, against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Gibson had a long major league career even though he was a relatively late bloomer and was in his early 30s in 1968. Signed by the Cards as an amateur free agent in 1957, he had early trouble with his control, a problem solved by developing one of baseball’s greatest sliders, along with a curve to go with his hard fastball. He knew how to throw strikes and how to aim elsewhere when batters stood too close to the plate.
Hank Aaron once counseled Atlanta Braves teammate Dusty Baker about Gibson.
“Don’t dig in against Bob Gibson; he’ll knock you down,” Aaron said, according to the Boston Globe. “He’d knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don’t stare at him, don’t smile at him, don’t talk to him. He doesn’t like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don’t run too slow, don’t run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don’t charge the mound, because he’s a Gold Glove boxer.”
Only the second Black player (after Don Newcombe) to win the Cy Young Award, he was an inspiration when insisting otherwise. Gibson would describe himself as a “blunt, stubborn Black man” who scorned the idea he was anyone’s role model and once posted a sign over his locker reading “I’m not prejudiced. I hate everybody.”
But he was proud of the Cards’ racial diversity and teamwork, a powerful symbol during the civil rights era, and his role in ensuring that players did not live in segregated housing during the season.
He was close to McCarver, a Tennessean who would credit Gibson with challenging his own prejudices, and the acknowledged leader of a club which featured whites (McCarver, Mike Shannon, Roger Maris), Blacks (Gibson, Brock and Flood) and Hispanics (Orlando Cepeda, Julian Javier).
“Our team, as a whole, had no tolerance for ethnic or racial disrespect,” Gibson wrote in “Pitch by Pitch,” published in 2015. “We’d talk about it openly and in no uncertain terms. In our clubhouse, nobody got a free pass.”
Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty, who is Black, grew close to Gibson in recent years. The right-handers would often talk, the 24-year-old Flaherty soaking up advice from the great who wore No. 45.
“That one hurts,” said Flaherty, the Cardinals’ losing pitcher Friday night. “He’s a legend, first and foremost, somebody who I was lucky enough to learn from. You don’t get the opportunity to learn from somebody of that caliber and somebody who was that good very often.”
“I had been kept up on his health and where he was at. I was really hoping it wasn’t going to be today. I was going to wear his jersey today to the field but decided against it,” he said.
Born Pack Robert Gibson in Omaha on Nov. 9, 1935, Gibson overcame childhood illness that nearly cost him his life. His father died soon before his birth, and he grew up in poverty. His mother was a laundry worker, trying to support Gibson and his six siblings.
“Growing up without a father is a hardship and deprivation that is impossible to measure,” Gibson wrote in “From Ghetto to Glory,” one of a handful of books he published.
Gibson went to Omaha Tech High School and stayed in town, attending Creighton from 1954-57, and averaging 20.2 points during his college basketball career. The roughly 6-foot, 2-inch Gibson, who seemed so much taller on the mound, spent the 1957-58 season with the Globetrotters before turning his full attention to baseball.
At Omaha in the minor leagues, he was managed by Johnny Keane, who became a mentor and cherished friend, “the closest thing to a saint” he would ever know in baseball.
Gibson was often forced to live in separate hotels from his white teammates and was subjected to vicious taunts from fans, but he would remember Keane as “without prejudice” and as an unshakeable believer in his talent.
His early years with the Cardinals were plagued by tensions with manager Solly Hemus, who openly used racist language and was despised by Gibson and other Cardinals. Hemus was fired in the middle of the 1961 season and replaced, to Gibson’s great fortune, by Keane.
The pitcher’s career soon took off. He made the first of his eight National League All-Star teams in 1962, and the following year went 18-9 and kept the Cardinals in the pennant race until late in the season.
In 1964, a year he regarded as his favorite, he won three times in the last 11 games as the Cardinals surged past the collapsing Philadelphia Phillies and won the National League title. Gibson lost Game 2 of the World Series against the New York Yankees, but he came back with wins in Games 5 and 7 and was named the MVP.
The series was widely regarded as a turning point in baseball history, with the great Yankee dynasty falling the following year and the Cardinals embodying a more modern and aggressive style of play. Keane stuck with Gibson in Game 7 even after the Yankees’ Clete Boyer and Phil Linz homered in the ninth inning and narrowed the Cardinals’ lead to 7-5. He would later say of Gibson, who retired Bobby Richardson on a pop fly to end the series, that he had a commitment to “his heart.”
Gibson was also close to Keane’s successor, Red Schoendienst, who took over in 1965 after Keane left for the Yankees. Gibson enjoyed 20-game seasons in 1965 and 1966 and likely would have done the same a third straight year, but a Roberto Clemente line drive broke his leg in the middle of the season. (Gibson was so determined he still managed to finish the inning).
Gibson returned in September, finished 13-7 during the regular season and led the Cardinals to the 1967 championship, winning three times and hitting a home run off Red Sox ace Jim Lonborg in Game 7 at Boston’s Fenway Park. The final out was especially gratifying; he fanned first baseman George Scott, who throughout the series had been taunting Gibson and the Cards.
But 1968 was on a level few had seen before. He began slowly, losing five of his first eight decisions despite an ERA of 1.52, and fumed over the lack of hitting support. (“Starvation fare,” Angell would call it).
But from early June to late August, Gibson was unbeatable. He won 15 straight decisions, threw 10 shutouts and at one point allowed just three earned runs during 101 innings. One of those runs scored on a wild pitch, another on a bloop hit.
He was at his best again in the opener of the World Series, giving a performance so singular that his book “Pitch by Pitch” was dedicated entirely to it.
On a muggy afternoon in St. Louis, facing 31-game winner Denny McLain and such power hitters as Al Kaline — who also died this year — Norm Cash and Willie Horton, he allowed just five hits and walked one in a 4-0 victory. Gibson struck out at least one batter every inning and in the ninth fanned Kaline, Cash and Horton to end with 17, the final pitch a slow breaking ball that left Horton frozen in place.
“I was awed,” Tigers second baseman Dick McAuliffe later said. “He doesn’t remind me of anybody. He’s all by himself.”
In Game 4, Gibson homered as he led the Cards to a 10-1 romp over McLain and 3-to-1 advantage in the series. But the Tigers won the next two and broke through in the finale against Gibson, who had a one-hitter with two out in the seventh inning, and the score 0-0.
Gibson allowed two singles before Flood, a Gold Glove center fielder, misplayed Jim Northrup’s drive to left center and the ball fell, before the warning track, for a two-run triple. The Cardinals lost 4-1 and Gibson would grimace even decades later when asked about the game.
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By the mid-1970s, his knees were aching and he had admittedly lost some of his competitive fury. On the last day of the 1974 season, with a 2-1 lead and a division title possible, he gave up a two-run homer to the Montreal Expos’ Mike Jorgensen in the eighth inning and the Cards lost 3-2.
He retired after 1975, humiliated in his final appearance when he gave up a grand slam home run to the Chicago Cubs’ Pete LaCock. (When the two faced off a decade later, at an old-timers game, Gibson beaned him).
Gibson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981, and the Cards retired his uniform number. He had a far less successful career as a coach, whether for the New York Mets and Braves in the 1980s, or for the Cardinals in 1995.
He was married twice, most recently to Wendy Gibson, and spent much of his retirement at his longtime home in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue. He was active in charitable causes and hosted a popular golf event in Omaha that drew some of the top names in sports.
Gibson worried that young people were forgetting about baseball history, and he spoke with dismay about a Cardinal player who knew nothing about Jackie Robinson. But in 2018, Gibson himself was honored when the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra commissioned a rap song in his honor.
The lyrics inspired by “From Ghetto to Glory” — “He was a game changer The complete gamer Throw a pitch so fast It’ll rearrange ya He’s no stranger He’s Bob Gibson been on a mission He changed the game forever The pitcher was his position.”
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Father and Son Open New Hardware Store Franchise in Their Neighborhood
Warren Pegram and his stepson, Charlston Austin, have opened an Ace Hardware franchise in their neighborhood in the city of South Fulton, Georgia. It is one of the first hardware stores in their community.
According to the City of South Fulton Observer, the new store is a great addition to the current retail lineup at the Old National Marketplace. Its opening came right on time as the city has been encouraging more small businesses to do business in the area.
The Ace Hardware franchise promises to particularly offer home improvement products that are most needed in the community. Pegram said that unlike other franchises, they will also sell party rental equipment such as commercial grade snow cone machines, inflatables, popcorn machines, and many more.
Austin, who used to work as a former retail account executive, is making sure to connect with the community to know the products they need and to be able to provide it in their hardware store. His father, on the other hand, is ensuring the high level of customer service so everyone who comes to the store will have an awesome shopping experience.
Because of the newest hardware store in the area, residents in the community don’t have to go further away for their home improvement needs. They are also hoping to inspire the younger generations to become entrepreneurs.
To keep their customers safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, they are currently offering pick-up and delivery options. They are located at 6385 Old National Hwy Suite 120, South Fulton, GA.
This article was originally published by BlackBusiness.com.
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This 12-Year Old Just Started His 2nd Year in College, Majoring in Aerospace Engineering
Caleb Anderson, a 12-year old gifted boy from Georgia, has already finished his first year in college and has just started his second year. He is majoring in Aerospace Engineering at Chattahoochee Technical College.
Caleb was just 9-months old when he learned to sign more than 250 words. He eventually learned to speak and read when he turned 11-months old. Aside from the English language, he also learned Spanish, French, and Mandarin.
Caleb’s parents, Claire and Kobi, knew he was special and has been very supportive of him ever since.
“As we started to interact with other parents, and had other children, then we started to realize how exceptional this experience was because we had no other frame of reference,” Kobi told CBS News.
At the age of 3, Caleb qualified for MENSA. He joined at the age of 5, making him the youngest African-American boy to be accepted at that time.
Caleb has exceptional from elementary to middle and high school. His mother said Caleb thought those were boring and not challenging so he wanted to go to college already and he was enjoying it so far.
“It was exactly how I expected it to be like if I were 18 or something,” Caleb said.
Caleb has 2 other younger siblings, Aaron and Hannah, who are also gifted. Their parents are all proud of them and encourage other parents to nurture their children’s potential.
Moreover, Caleb is set to graduate at the age of 14. He says that he plans to continue his studies at Georgia Tech as well as MIT.
This article was originally published by BlackBusiness.com.
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Friday, October 2, 2020
11 positive coronavirus cases in Cleveland linked to presidential debate
Trump announced in a tweet early Friday morning that he and the first lady tested positive for the coronavirus.
11 people involved in the planning and set-up of the presidential debate in Cleveland on Tuesday have tested positive for COVID-19.
The news coincides with the announcement that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are both COVID-positive.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the majority of those infected (so far) are out of state residents, WKYC reports. The non-profit medical center issued a statement on Friday noting that everyone with access to the debate hall tested negative for the virus prior to entry. Moderator Chris Wallace revealed that Trump and his family arrived too late to take the test.
Read More: Trump’s former adviser Kellyanne Conway tests positive for COVID-19
In a statement released on Friday, the clinic made clear that the individuals who tested positive were not permitted inside Samson Pavilion, where the debate was held.
“It’s important to clarify the 11 people who tested positive never accessed the debate hall. These individuals were either members of the media or were scheduled to work logistics/set-up the days prior to the event. Individuals did not receive credentials or tickets to enter the debate hall until they had a negative test, and all were advised to isolate while they awaited their test results,” Cleveland Clinic said.
“It is important to note that everyone affiliated with the debate – with credentials to be in the event perimeter – was tested upon arrival. Only those with negative test results were allowed within the pavilion. While CDPH was not on-site for the debate, we were in contact with organizers and those responsible for enforcing safety measures inside the venue,” the statement continued.
Trump announced in a tweet early Friday morning that he and Melania tested positive for the coronavirus. The news followed confirmation that White House senior aide Hope Hicks is in quarantine amid her positive diagnosis, theGRIO reported.
The president was last seen by reporters returning to the White House on Thursday evening and looked to be in good health. At 74 years old and obese, the former reality TV star is at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has now killed more than 200,000 people nationwide.
Read More: President Trump and first lady test positive for COVID-19
During the first Trump-Biden detate, members of the president’s family were seen seated in the audience without wearing a mask.
“I don’t wear masks like him,” Trump said of Biden. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from me, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
Both Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris have tested negative, their campaign said. Vice President Mike Pence has also tested negative for the virus and “remains in good health,” his spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Cleveland city officials are working with the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Cleveland Clinic on its contact tracing process.
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