Once the $10 billion Webb Telescope is blasted into orbit, it will seek out water on Earth-like planets, stars being born, and more elusive interstellar quarry.
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Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Monday, October 21, 2019
Van Lathan reportedly FIRED from TMZ over issue with coworker
It looks like Van Lathan is leaving TMZ.
The man who made headlines when he took Kanye West to task for his “slavery is a choice” comments has reportedly been fired from he outlet following a verbal altercation with his co-worker, Michael Babcock.
According to PageSix, the pair had a disagreement while filming an episode of TMZ Live about a week and a half ago and although the spat was edited out, the saga continued once the cameras stopped rolling. The outlet reports Lathan and Babcock were arguing over politics and things got heated.
Sources told PageSix that Van Lathan made it clear there would be “trouble” if Babcock ever “embarrassed” him like that again, and was suspended shortly after. He was reportedly fired a few days later.
Lathan, who also hosts the Red Pill podcast seemed to confirm the news with a couple of cryptic tweets on Monday night.
It’s looking like tomorrow is going to suck. 😂😂😂😂. We good up there God? Okay, cool Just checking.
— VanLathan (@VanLathan) October 21, 2019
Considering the fact that Van Lathan is the only reason we ever tune in to the show, it’s hard to believe they would let him go for something that seems so small. Still, we’re guessing he will have plenty of options when he decided to jump back in to the rat race.
I’m okay. Promise you guys. Seriously.
— VanLathan (@VanLathan) October 22, 2019
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Here’s why Whoopi Goldberg and PETA are beefing’ over bacon
Whoopi Goldberg and PETA are beefing’ over bacon and if that sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is.
The View co-host was slammed by the organization (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) after an episode of the daily gabfest where she professed her love of bacon during a conversation with Sunny Hostin.
When Hostin insisted that she loved the vegan patties provided to the show’s crew once a week, Goldberg joked that she prefers the real thing.
“How old do I look to you?” Goldberg asked Hostin. “I don’t want that. I don’t want it [and] I don’t like it. What I don’t want is no choice…I like bacon. I know I’m not supposed to. I know it’s the scum of the Earth. I want the bacon, I like the bacon… you don’t have to eat it.”
Whoopi Goldberg rocks a radical change to her locs on ‘The View’
It wasn’t long before PETA decided to chastise Whoopi on social media with a scathing post that included a video of a squealing pif, presumably ready for slaughter.
We can’t help but call out @WhoopiGoldberg for her rant on @TheView over… bacon.
Really, Whoopi? Eating bacon is your Friday cause? Your "choice" really hurts. Be kind. pic.twitter.com/ShXsqXp3y9
— PETA (@peta) October 11, 2019
Goldberg fired back with some social media quips of her own.
“Hey I understand @peta is making a fuss because I like bacon. i never said I was a vegan & just like I want choice over my body I want the same 4 what goes into my body. i would NEVER suggest that ANYONE pressure any 1 of YOU 2change your vegan habits. Go Eat a couch if you want,” she posted.
Hey I understand @peta is making a fuss because I like bacon. i never said I was a vegan & just like I want choice over my body I want the same 4 what goes into my body. i would NEVER suggest that ANYONE pressure any 1 of YOU 2change your vegan habits. Go Eat a couch if you want.
— Whoopi Goldberg (@WhoopiGoldberg) October 18, 2019
PETA didn’t stop there, but continued the conversation with a final plea to the swine-loving superstar.
“Animals should have a choice though. Eating bacon causes enormous suffering and ends a pig’s life…It’s so easy to make choices that don’t support suffering and death. We urge you to consider that,” they posted.
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Scene at MIT: Hockfield Court
The scenic quad formerly known as North Court, one of the major gateways to campus from Main Street and Kendall Square, is now Hockfield Court, in honor of Susan Hockfield, who was president of MIT from 2004 to 2012.
The new moniker was bestowed in an Oct. 4 ceremony celebrating Hockfield and her contributions to the Institute. As MIT’s 16th president, and the first woman to serve in the role as well as the first life scientist, Hockfield focused MIT’s strengths on a range of important problems, from cancer research to advanced manufacturing. She championed the convergence of the life sciences with the engineering and physical sciences, oversaw the establishment of the MIT Energy Initiative, and furthered MIT’s regional and global engagement, fostering the burgeoning Kendall Square innovation cluster, among other visionary initiatives.
Hockfield, who continues to hold a faculty appointment as professor of neuroscience and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, has also been a vocal advocate for making MIT a more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming environment.
At the naming ceremony Hockfield reflected, "As the first woman and first life scientist to serve as president, I felt a particular responsibility for paving new paths and setting new directions that would be welcoming to all. ... I have confidence that MIT will continue to open, and hold open, new windows of opportunity, so that, as I said when I was first elected to MIT’s presidency, MIT can be the dream of every child who wants to make the world a better place ... and also the dream of every engineer, scientist, scholar, and artist who draws inspiration from the idea of working in a hotbed of innovation, in service to humankind.”
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Pushy robots learn the fundamentals of object manipulation
MIT researchers have compiled a dataset that captures the detailed behavior of a robotic system physically pushing hundreds of different objects. Using the dataset — the largest and most diverse of its kind — researchers can train robots to “learn” pushing dynamics that are fundamental to many complex object-manipulation tasks, including reorienting and inspecting objects, and uncluttering scenes.
To capture the data, the researchers designed an automated system consisting of an industrial robotic arm with precise control, a 3D motion-tracking system, depth and traditional cameras, and software that stitches everything together. The arm pushes around modular objects that can be adjusted for weight, shape, and mass distribution. For each push, the system captures how those characteristics affect the robot’s push.
The dataset, called “Omnipush,” contains 250 different pushes of 250 objects, totaling roughly 62,500 unique pushes. It’s already being used by researchers to, for instance, build models that help robots predict where objects will land when they’re pushed.
“We need a lot of rich data to make sure our robots can learn,” says Maria Bauza, a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) and first author of a paper describing Omnipush that’s being presented at the upcoming International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. “Here, we’re collecting data from a real robotic system, [and] the objects are varied enough to capture the richness of the pushing phenomena. This is important to help robots understand how pushing works, and to translate that information to other similar objects in the real world.”
Joining Bauza on the paper are: Ferran Alet and Yen-Chen Lin, graduate students in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS); Tomas Lozano-Perez, the School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Excellence; Leslie P. Kaelbling, the Panasonic Professor of Computer Science and Engineering; Phillip Isola, an assistant professor in EECS; and Alberto Rodriguez, an associate professor in MechE.
Diversifying data
Why focus on pushing behavior? Modeling pushing dynamics that involve friction between objects and surfaces, Rodriguez explains, is critical in higher-level robotic tasks. Consider the visually and technically impressive robot that can play Jenga, which Rodriguez recently co-designed. “The robot is performing a complex task, but the core of the mechanics driving that task is still that of pushing an object affected by, for instance, the friction between blocks,” Rodriguez says.
Omnipush builds on a similar dataset built in the Manipulation and Mechanisms Laboratory (MCube) by Rodriguez, Bauza, and other researchers that captured pushing data on only 10 objects. After making the dataset public in 2016, they gathered feedback from researchers. One complaint was lack of object diversity: Robots trained on the dataset struggled to generalize information to new objects. There was also no video, which is important for computer vision, video prediction, and other tasks.
For their new dataset, the researchers leverage an industrial robotic arm with precision control of the velocity and position of a pusher, basically a vertical steel rod. As the arm pushes the objects, a “Vicon” motion-tracking system — which has been used in films, virtual reality, and for research — follows the objects. There’s also an RGB-D camera, which adds depth information to captured video.
The key was building modular objects. The uniform central pieces, made from aluminum, look like four-pointed stars and weigh about 100 grams. Each central piece contains markers on its center and points, so the Vicon system can detect its pose within a millimeter.
Smaller pieces in four shapes — concave, triangular, rectangular, and circular — can be magnetically attached to any side of the central piece. Each piece weighs between 31 to 94 grams, but extra weights, ranging from 60 to 150 grams, can be dropped into little holes in the pieces. All pieces of the puzzle-like objects align both horizontally and vertically, which helps emulate the friction a single object with the same shape and mass distribution would have. All combinations of different sides, weights, and mass distributions added up to 250 unique objects.
For each push, the arm automatically moves to a random position several centimeters from the object. Then, it selects a random direction and pushes the object for one second. Starting from where it stopped, it then chooses another random direction and repeats the process 250 times. Each push records the pose of the object and RGB-D video, which can be used for various video-prediction purposes. Collecting the data took 12 hours a day, for two weeks, totaling more than 150 hours. Humans intervention was only needed when manually reconfiguring the objects.
The objects don’t specifically mimic any real-life items. Instead, they’re designed to capture the diversity of “kinematics” and “mass asymetries” expected of real-world objects, which model the physics of the motion of real-world objects. Robots can then extrapolate, say, the physics model of an Omnipush object with uneven mass distribution to any real-world object with similar uneven weight distributions.
“Imagine pushing a table with four legs, where most weight is over one of the legs. When you push the table, you see that it rotates on the heavy leg and have to readjust. Understanding that mass distribution, and its effect on the outcome of a push, is something robots can learn with this set of objects,” Rodriguez says.
Powering new research
In one experiment, the researchers used Omnipush to train a model to predict the final pose of pushed objects, given only the initial pose and description of the push. They trained the model on 150 Omnipush objects, and tested it on a held-out portion of objects. Results showed that the Omnipush-trained model was twice as accurate as models trained on a few similar datasets. In their paper, the researchers also recorded benchmarks in accuracy that other researchers can use for comparison.
Because Omnipush captures video of the pushes, one potential application is video prediction. A collaborator, for instance, is now using the dataset to train a robot to essentially “imagine” pushing objects between two points. After training on Omnipush, the robot is given as input two video frames, showing an object in its starting position and ending position. Using the starting position, the robot predicts all future video frames that ensure the object reaches its ending position. Then, it pushes the object in a way that matches each predicted video frame, until it gets to the frame with the ending position.
“The robot is asking, ‘If I do this action, where will the object be in this frame?’ Then, it selects the action that maximizes the likelihood of getting the object in the position it wants,” Bauza says. “It decides how to move objects by first imagining how the pixels in the image will change after a push.”
“Omnipush includes precise measurements of object motion, as well as visual data, for an important class of interactions between robot and objects in the world,” says Matthew T. Mason, a professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Melon University. “Robotics researchers can use this data to develop and test new robot learning approaches … that will fuel continuing advances in robotic manipulation.”
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The REAL story of the Tulsa race massacre of 1912 depicted in ‘Watchmen’
The highly-anticipated premiere of HBO’s new series Watchmen was full of striking moments, but the opening scene was by far the most astounding. In it, we see the series that stars Regina King take on the horrifying Tulsa race massacre of 1921, a real event that is often skipped over in history classes, despite the fact that it is considered one of the deadliest events in American history.
Seeing so many tweets that #Watchmen was the first time they heard about Black Wall Street and had no idea that our opening depicted the Tulsa Massacre which had not been taught in US history classes made me want to post this post from The Post: https://t.co/jiLH9M4Wt6
— Regina King (@ReginaKing) October 21, 2019
5 Reasons HBO’s new ‘Watchmen’ series with Regina King is a MUST SEE!
Less tha 100 years ago, hundreds of Black people were murdered when white supremacists attacked them in the Greenwood district of Tulsa known as Black Wall Street. The area boasted more than 300 Black-owned businesses and was home to Black millionaires, doctors, and two theaters.
As expected, the community full of successful Black folks angered many whites who resented their ability to create a self-contained epicenter for excellence and those tensions hit a tipping point on June 1, 1921 when the town was viciously attacked, leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless.
Shortly after a 19-year-old Black man named Dick Rowland was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white woman named Sarah Page in an elevator she operated. While she never pressed charges, the authorities did, and by the end of the night, the rumor mill had exaggerated the allegations to rape and throngs of white people gathered outside the courthouse.
The Black community had gathered in a show of support for Rowland and an altercation between an armed white man and an unarmed Black man resulted in a scuffle, with the white man ultimately being shot. That’s when chaos ensued and a reported 10,000 white residents unleashed their fury on the 35 blocks known as Black Wall Street.
Survivors claim planes dropped bombs from the sky while others smashed, shot, and burned the Greenwood district into oblivion. People were shot, beaten, dragged, and burned with an estimated 300 Black folks left dead.
Those who survived received little help in the aftermath with every insurance claim and every claim for damages was denied. The devastating event was deemed a “riot” shielding the culprits from the threat of prosecution from family members down the line.
While the opening scene of Watchmen was rattling on its own, people were shaken to their cores when they realized it was depicting a real event that’s rarely discussed.
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Kanye West wanted to stop his rap career because it’s “the devil’s music”
Kanye West has been on a mission to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, having recently been saved. The rapper has also been on his own personal pilgrimage around the globe performing his Hip-Hop gospel during “Sunday Services.”
READMORE: ‘Sunday Service’ goes irie as Kanye West takes event to Jamaica
But Yeezy’s pastor, Adam Tyson, told a Christian podcast, Apologia Studios, that once upon a time, the rapper was ready to put a plug in his rap career because it was “the devil’s music.”
“One time, he told me that he wasn’t going to rap,” Tyson said in the interview. “I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘That’s the devil’s music.’ I said, ‘Hey, man. Rap is a genre. You can rap for God.’ I think he was already thinking about it a little bit, but I definitely said, ‘Hey, bro. I think you need to use your talents that God’s given you and use that platform for God.'”
Tyson is pastor of Placerita Bible Church in California and welcomed West to the church back in May.
“[Kanye] said, ‘About five weeks ago, I got radically saved,'” Tyson explained. “He just started telling me a little about his testimony.”
READ MORE: Kanye West praises Republican Party for freeing slaves at Utah Sunday Service
Part of West’s confessions included his feeling about the secular music that made him the worldwide star he is.
“The guilt of sin brought him down low,” the pastor said. “He would say the devil basically brought him to a place where he just felt like he was in bondage to his sin. So he said, ‘I got delivered.’”
Although West is leading his life with a new vision that involves ministry, he was criticized on Friday when he brought his Sunday Service to Jamaica.
READ MORE: Kanye West brings Sunday Service to Howard University, warns crowd to avoid ‘slave nets’
“I don’t know [Kanye] as a Christian and someone who is being led by the Holy Spirit,” Pastor Stephen Blake of Acts of the Holy Spirit Ministries International told the Jamaica Star. “We have to examine the motive here.”
West and his 120-person choir held a show at the Emancipation Park in Kingston on Friday evening performing songs such as “Prince of Peace,” Damian Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock” and “Jesus Walks,” during his two-hour show, Highsnobiety reports.
West is reportedly getting ready to roll out an album titled Jesus is King.
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Milwaukee woman charged after savagedly stabbing victim
A Milwaukee woman named Bianca Moody was in apparently in a mood, and faces charges for stabbing a woman because she was “tired of being disrespected and being treated like garbage.”
READ MORE: Understanding cry for justice, two pro athletes to pay for costs of Atatiana Jefferson’s funeral
The 26-year-old racked up a first-degree charge of recklessly endangering safety for viciously stabbing a victim on October 14 who irked her. The victim was found outside a home near the driveway, holding a towel against her neck to stop the bleeding from a gash.
The victim reported that Moody stabbed her with a kitchen knife and she was transported to a local hospital where she was treated for a 5 cm wide puncture wound to her top right shoulder, CBS58 reports.
Blood filled the woman’s chest cavity, making it even more life threatening.
According to the criminal complaint, Moody’s motive, was cited as being “fed up” and tired of the woman talking to her life she was “garbage.” What even more strange is that the two lived together and share kids fathered by the same man.
The victim had moved into the home recently.
The victim said she didn’t even see the assault coming as Moody attacked her in front of her children.
“I just sat there. I was terrified,” the mother said. “I just knew I was about to die,” Fox6Now reports.
“My kids were screaming, and screaming for her to stop.”
READ MORE: Shaquille O’Neal donates a year’s rent to family of paralyzed 12-year-old shooting victim
“When I turned around to look at her, she tilted her head and smiled,” the victim said.
“She brought the biggest one — a butcher knife,” the woman said. “She just ran to me from the back and started to stab me.”
The wound, the victim said was pretty serious.
“I was told, two more inches in, I would have died right here in front of my children,” the mother said.
“When I asked her, ‘Why did you do this? Why would you stab me?’ She said, ‘Because I’m sick of you being around,'” the victim said.
Sounds like a case of some serious baby mama drama.
Moody is due back in court November 5.
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Two from MIT elected to the National Academy of Medicine for 2019
Sangeeta Bhatia, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science and of health sciences and technology, and Richard Young, an MIT professor of biology, are among the 100 new members elected to the National Academy of Medicine today.
Bhatia is already a member of the National Academies of Science and of Engineering, making her just the 25th person to be elected to all three national academies. Earlier this year, Paula Hammond, head of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, also joined that exclusive group; MIT faculty members Emery Brown, Arup Chakraborty, James Collins, and Robert Langer have also achieved that distinction.
Bhatia, who is a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, develops micro- and nanoscale technologies to improve human health. She has designed nanoparticles and other materials to diagnose and treat disease, including cancer, and she has also engineered human microlivers that can be used to model liver disease and test new drugs. She and her students have founded several biotechnology companies to further develop these technologies.
Young, who is a member of MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, studies the regulatory circuitry that controls cell state and differentiation. His lab uses experimental and computational techniques to determine how signaling pathways, transcription factors, chromatin regulators, and small RNAs control gene expression. Since defects in gene expression can cause diabetes, cancer, hypertension, immune deficiencies, neurological disorders, and other health issues, improved understanding of this circuitry should lead to new insights into disease mechanisms and the development of new diagnostics and therapeutics.
“I am humbled to have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine,” Young says. “More than just a personal honor, it is an affirmation of the importance of basic biomedical research to understanding, preventing, and treating disease.”
Young was also elected to the National Academy of Science in 2012.
Bhatia and Hammond, both of whom have spent most of their careers at MIT, are now the only two women of color to belong to all three of the National Academies.
“I’m incredibly honored to be part of this group of thinkers and doers that I have long admired,” says Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “I’m grateful to have been supported by MIT for decades and to have benefited from the gender equity movement that Nancy Hopkins and colleagues initiated in the 90s. My position, salary, promotion trajectory, space, leadership opportunities, and sense of community with amazing people like Paula are all the products of deliberate, hard work to overcome systemic unconscious bias. I hope we can serve as examples of what is possible for the next generation of researchers and the institutions that support them.”
“I am delighted to share this honor with my wonderful colleague, Sangeeta,” Hammond says. “We have truly benefited from the hard work of so many of our colleagues here at MIT who have stood up and voiced the importance of equity among scholars across race, culture, and gender. MIT has been an incredible place for me to further my career and to find outstanding male and female colleagues who continuously uplift and support each other. It is through the constant efforts we make together as a community to become a better place that we create opportunities for current and future scholars to shine.”
The National Academy of Medicine, established in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine, is an independent organization of eminent professionals from fields including health and medicine, as well as the natural, social, and behavioral sciences. Election to the National Academy of Medicine is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
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Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, calls 1st year of marriage difficult
By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — The Duchess of Sussex says her first year of marriage to Britain’s Prince Harry has been difficult because of the pressure from Britain’s tabloid press.
The former Meghan Markle told ITV in an interview broadcast Sunday that her British friends warned her not to marry the prince because of the intense media scrutiny that would follow in his country. But the U.S. television star said she “naively” dismissed the warnings, because as an American she didn’t understand how the British press worked.
“I never thought this would be easy but I thought it would be fair. And that is the part that is hard to reconcile,” she said. “But (I) just take each day as it comes.”
The royal couple revealed their struggles with the media during the ITV documentary “Harry & Meghan: An African Journey,” which followed them on a recent tour of Southern Africa. Both said they had struggled with the spotlight, particularly because they say much of what is printed is untrue.
The pressure was aggravated by the fact that the duchess was a newlywed, then pregnant and then a new mother.
“Any woman, especially when they’re pregnant, you’re really vulnerable. And so that was made really challenging, and then when you have a newborn, you know?” she said, adding that it was a struggle.
Later she added: “I would say thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m OK, but it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”
The 35-year-old Harry did acknowledge there have been some differences between him and his older brother, 37-year-old Prince William, although he said most of what has been printed about a rift between the two has been “created out of nothing.”
“Part of this role and part of this job and this family being under the pressure that it’s under, inevitably stuff happens,” he said. “But, look, we’re brothers. We’ll always be brothers. We’re certainly on different paths at the moment, but I will always be there for him, as I know he’ll always be there for me.”
Harry has lashed out at the British media in the past for its treatment of Meghan, accusing the media of hounding her the way it did his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a 1997 car crash while trying to elude paparazzi. Harry insisted he didn’t want such history repeated.
During the trip to Africa, Harry walked through the same minefield in Angola that his mother visited just before her death as she publicized efforts to clear thousands of mines left behind by the country’s 27-year civil war.
He told ITV that one of the most difficult parts of being constantly in the public eye is that every click of a shutter and flash from a camera is “the worst reminder” that his mother’s life ended so young, at only 36.
But he added, “I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my mum.”
At the close of their African tour, Harry and Meghan each brought separate legal actions against the media.
The duchess earlier this month sued the Mail on Sunday tabloid, claiming it illegally published a letter she wrote to her father. Harry sued over the alleged illegal interception of voicemail messages by journalists from the Sun, the News of the World and the Daily Mirror newspapers.
Harry, who has joined his brother in promoting a more open discussion of mental health issues throughout society, described his own mental health struggles as being a matter of “constant management.”
“Part of this job, and part of any job, like everybody, is putting on a brave face and turning a cheek to a lot of the stuff,” he said. “But again, for me and again for my wife, of course, there is a lot of stuff that hurts, especially when the majority of it is untrue.”
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REPORTS: Lori Harvey ARRESTED for hit and run
Lori Harvey had a rough weekend.
According to reports, she was arrested for attempting to flee the scene of a car accident she was involved in on Sunday.
Diddy and Lori Harvey spotted hanging out in Italy with her family
The beauty who had recently been linked to Diddy was allegedly driving a Mercedes SUV that collided with a parked car, causing hers to flip over. She reportedly had to be pulled from the car and left the scene before being apprehended by law enforcement.
She was arrested for a hit and run and delaying a police investigation. She was given a misdemeanor citation and didn’t actually get booked, but promised to appear in court.
Report suggests Diddy and Lori Harvey may have a baby on the way
Sources told OK! that Lori Harvey was texting and driving at the time of the collision and police told the outlet they did not suspect she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the accident.
Just last week, Lori Harvey and Diddy raised eyebrows when they unfollowed each other on social media. Fans are speculating that their rumored romance may be over for good.
Meanwhile, others are likely wondering if Harvey’s famous family (Steve Harvey and Marjorie Harvey) had anything to do with her avoiding a trip to jail following her weekend excursion.
Thoughts?
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Elijah Cummings’ window rumored to run for his Congressional seat
Maya Rockeymoore, widow of Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., is reportedly preparing to step into big shoes left behind by her late husband by running for his House seat.
READ MORE: Rep. Elijah Cummings, Donald Trump relations soured amid House investigations
Rockeymoore, 48, the chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, is grieving the tremendous loss of Cummings. Cummings was not only her husband, but a change maker who chaired the House Oversight Committee and was a powerful Baltimore Democratic Congressman in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District. He was also beloved by his city.
According to reports, she has ambitions to continue his work by assuming his House seat.
Cummings died last week, and as his family grieves, no announcements on Rockeymoore’s plans will be made, according to Maryland Matters. Still there is wide speculation that she will run.
READ MORE: Rep. Elijah Cummings: Politicians and celebrities react to sudden death of Baltimore congressman
Cummings will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol this week and a funeral is planned in Baltimore on Friday.
“We ask the public and the press to allow Maryland Democratic Party Chair Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings — and the rest of the Cummings family — time and space to grieve their loss,” the Maryland Democratic party said.
Rockeymoore has been a political force, working previously for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and previously she served as chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.
Back in 2018, Rockeymoore ran for governor in Maryland but her plans were sidelined and she dropped out of the race when Cummings got sick.
READ MORE: Famed Emmett Till memorial in Mississippi is now bulletproof
A special election for Cummings seat is expected to be planned in the next 10 days by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Cummings chaired the House Oversight Committee and was an ardent supporter of the impeachment of President Donald Trump. In fact, he was one of the political leaders guiding the impeachment inquiry from the House Democrats.
Cummings, who was 68, died last Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital from complications from longstanding health challenges, according to a statement provided by his office.
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At the Center for International Studies, a student endowment for women in international affairs
The Center for International Studies has announced that its longtime colleague, the sociologist of science and national security Jeanne Guillemin, has established an endowed fund to provide financial support to female PhD candidates studying international affairs. The first disbursements of this fund will be made in the spring for the next academic year.
“My hope is that the endowment will help women graduate students find new options for special projects that will energize their sense of inquiry and search for knowledge,” says Guillemin, who has been a research associate and senior advisor at the MIT Security Studies Program since 2006.
“On behalf of CIS, I want to express to Jeanne our deepest gratitude. She is a model of interdisciplinary excellence to all — and especially women. She was instrumental in establishing a women’s international security speakers series at CIS, which has been effective in reaching women graduate students, fellows, and faculty in the greater Boston area. This endowment, which is such a gracious and thoughtful gesture on her part, will provide extra support to our women PhD students,” says Richard Samuels, director of the MIT Center for International Studies and Ford International Professor of Political Science.
Guillemin was trained in medical sociology and anthropology at Harvard and Brandeis Universities. She is an authority on biological weapons and has published four books on the topic.
Her first book, “Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak” (University of California Press, 1999), documents her epidemiological inquiry into the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak in the Soviet Union.
With a MacArthur Foundation writing award, she next wrote “Biological Weapons: The History of State-sponsored Programs and Contemporary Bioterrorism” (Columbia University Press, 2005), a valued course text.
Her 2011 book, “American Anthrax: Fear, Crime, and the Investigation of the Nation's Deadliest Bioterrorist Attack” (Macmillan/Henry Holt, 2011), was praised by reviewers as the definitive version of the 2001 letter attacks that changed national policy regarding bioterrorism. It was awarded a 2012 Mass Center for the Book/Library of Congress Award in nonfiction.
Her most recent book, “Hidden Atrocities: Japanese Germ Warfare and American Obstruction of Justice at the Tokyo Trial” (Columbia University Press, 2017) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It explains how Imperial Japan's use of biological weapons during World War II failed to be prosecuted at the Tokyo war crimes trial, 1946-48.
In addition to consulting and lecturing, she was a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on WMD (2009-13), served on the board of Transaction Books, and is an associate of the Harvard-Sussex Program on chemical and biological weapons disarmament.
Prior to joining MIT, she was professor of sociology at Boston College, where she taught for 25 years.
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Television’s Weather Channel wades into climate debate
By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The Weather Channel is moving beyond cold fronts and heat waves to wade into the politics of climate change, with a special planned for early next month that includes interviews with nine presidential candidates on the topic.
The campaign’s most prominent climate change skeptic — President Donald Trump — declined an invitation to participate.
The hour-long special, scheduled to debut Nov. 7, interviews candidates at various sites chosen to illustrate the impact of climate change. Sen. Bernie Sanders, for example, speaks at the site of a devastating California wildfire and Sen. Kamala Harris along a flood-prone area of the Mississippi River.
The Weather Channel has done specials on the impact of climate change in Alaska and along the Louisiana coast, for example, but this is the first time the network has gotten involved directly in a political campaign.
“It gets the conversation going in a big way,” said Rick Knabb, the network’s on-air hurricane expert and former director of the National Hurricane Center. He and meteorologist Stephanie Abrams traded off on the interviews.
The Weather Channel wanted to do the special through its own scientific lens, said Nora Zimmett, the network’s senior vice president for content and programming. Although other networks inquired about joining and doing a town hall-style event, TWC turned them down.
“We didn’t want to have a food fight about whose plan is better,” she said.
While the special is something new for the network, Zimmett said executives weren’t concerned about turning off weather fans who view it as a refuge from politics, or people like the president who see less urgency in addressing the issue. Despite a “vocal minority,” surveys show most viewers want to learn more about the issue and potential solutions, she said.
Trump may not be there, but the special won’t ignore him or what his administration has been doing, Knabb said.
Trump recently mocked Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter for a United Nations speech to world leaders and skipped a UN meeting on the issue.
All three announced Republican challengers to Trump — Joe Walsh, former Illinois congressman, Bill Weld, former Massachusetts governor, and Mark Sanford, former South Carolina governor and congressman — are interviewed. For time reasons, organizers chose the top seven Democrats in the polls: in addition to Sanders and Harris, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Former Vice President Joe Biden was not interviewed; his campaign said it was a scheduling issue.
Knabb said the interviews have taught him a lot about the complexities of proposed solutions.
“The public is going to learn a lot from this,” he said.
The Weather Channel’s show is separate from the Covering Climate Now initiative, which encouraged news organizations to do more stories on climate change. There’s been some criticism that the issue hasn’t received enough attention during the presidential debates.
“We’ve been lonely here on these issues,” Zimmett said, “and all we can do is hope that our friends at other media outlets join us.”
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Michelle Obama shows off fit body and fitness regimen on Instagram
Michelle Obama’s body is more than goals; it’s the gold standard.
READ MORE: First lady Michelle Obama promotes fitness at basketball tourney
On Sunday, the former FLOTUS flaunted her chiseled bawdy on Instagram, making fans drool while causing an Internet traffic jam of comments praising her workout flow.
On her IG, Obama shared a photo of her on bended knee, lifting up an exercise ball while sharing some of the painful moments that comes with progress: “It doesn’t always feel good in the moment,” Obama, 55, wrote.
“But after the fact, I’m always glad I hit the gym. How did you all take care of yourself on this #SelfCareSunday? 💪🏾,” the prolific “Becoming” author asked.
(To answer that, I was eating myself into a food coma, but I’m inspired now to become better.)
READ MORE: POLL: Michelle Obama would be Dem front-runner if she entered the 2020 race
The mom of two has been on a mission to help women and children make a healthier lifestyle a priority. As first lady, Obama promoted the “Let’s Move!” fitness program during the eight years Barack Obama was in office.
And during her whirlwind “Becoming” tour, she was interviewing by CBS This Morning news anchor Gayle King and spoke about the importance of women putting wellness first.
“When it comes to our health as women, we are so busy giving and doing for others that we almost feel guilty to take that time out for ourselves,” she said.
“A lot of mothers will understand this, because I found myself looking around after I had my kids, and I didn’t have time for me, but my husband was at the gym every day. And I was like, well, how are you going to the gym? He was like, ‘I make time for the gym.’ I was like, what?” she recalled about her own time balancing motherhood.
READ MORE: Toddler awestruck by Michelle Obama portrait, promotes new kids’ book
“This was right when we started going to counseling, y’all, so this was one of our issues, you know? But I found myself getting mad at him because he was doing what he needed to do for him. And I think for us as women, many of us, we have a hard time putting ourselves on our own priority list, let alone at the top of it,” Obama said.
“If we don’t have our act together as women, as mothers, as grandmothers, we aren’t going to be able to get our kids on track.”
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Michael Strahan’s ex seeking half a mil, citing back child support payments
Michael Strahan’s ex-wife says he’s more than half a million dollars in the hole with child support, and she wants her coins to care for their kids.
READ MORE: Michael Strahan announces new gig hosting third hour of GMA
Strahan has an ongoing court battle with Jean Muggli Strahan, the mother of his twin daughters Sophia and Isabella and as previously reported, last week their legal reps were set to appear in court to address Jean’s claims that Strahan’s being a financial deadbeat of sorts.
Muggli and Strahan divorced in 2006 and he reportedly shelled out $15.3 million.
Now Muggli says Strahan has been close-fisted in shelling out money toward their 14-year-old daughters riding lessons, and he “reneged” on a promise to pay half of what was owed. She is claiming that Strahan owes a whopping $547k, TMZ reports.
READ MORE: Michael Strahan battles ex-wife in court over child support issues
Jean wants $225k from him for half of the riding lessons, but Strahan is pushing back on that claim, saying he never promised to pay half of their costs.
Back in 2007, Strahan reported was ordered to pay $18,000 a month to Muggli who resides in North Carolina with their daughters, which was reduced to $13,000 in 2009, the outlet reports.
However, she’s looking for more dough saying that since the athlete-turned-tv host has gigs on FOX NFL Sunday and Good Morning America, he can afford to pay more because of his new jobs. She wants him to pay $18k again.
READ MORE: Joseline Hernandez battles Stevie J for more child support amid custody battle
“Michael has always honored his commitments regarding his children. These accusations are completely false,” a source close to Strahan previously told Page Six. “The reason they are in court is that Jean continuously asks for more money. Michael intends to do what is best for his children, as he always does. He is properly handling this in the court.”
The two will square off again in November when a judge will make a decision on the payments.
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Sunday, October 20, 2019
Antarctic ice cliffs may not contribute to sea-level rise as much as predicted
Antarctica’s ice sheet spans close to twice the area of the contiguous United States, and its land boundary is buttressed by massive, floating ice shelves extending hundreds of miles out over the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. When these ice shelves collapse into the ocean, they expose towering cliffs of ice along Antarctica’s edge.
Scientists have assumed that ice cliffs taller than 90 meters (about the height of the Statue of Liberty) would rapidly collapse under their own weight, contributing to more than 6 feet of sea-level rise by the end of the century — enough to completely flood Boston and other coastal cities. But now MIT researchers have found that this particular prediction may be overestimated.
In a paper published today in Geophysical Research Letters, the team reports that in order for a 90-meter ice cliff to collapse entirely, the ice shelves supporting the cliff would have to break apart extremely quickly, within a matter of hours — a rate of ice loss that has not been observed in the modern record.
“Ice shelves are about a kilometer thick, and some are the size of Texas,” says MIT graduate student Fiona Clerc. “To get into catastrophic failures of really tall ice cliffs, you would have to remove these ice shelves within hours, which seems unlikely no matter what the climate-change scenario.”
If a supporting ice shelf were to melt away over a longer period of days or weeks, rather than hours, the researchers found that the remaining ice cliff wouldn’t suddenly crack and collapse under its own weight, but instead would slowly flow out, like a mountain of cold honey that’s been released from a dam.
“The current worst-case scenario of sea-level rise from Antarctica is based on the idea that cliffs higher than 90 meters would fail catastrophically,” Brent Minchew, assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. “We’re saying that scenario, based on cliff failure, is probably not going to play out. That’s something of a silver lining. That said, we have to be careful about breathing a sigh of relief. There are plenty of other ways to get rapid sea-level rise.”
Clerc is the lead author of the new paper, along with Minchew, and Mark Behn of Boston College.
Silly putty-like behavior
In a warming climate, as Antarctica’s ice shelves collapse into the ocean, they expose towering cliffs of grounded ice, or ice over land. Without the buttressing support of ice shelves, scientists have assumed that the continent’s very tall ice cliffs would collapse, calving into the ocean, to expose even taller cliffs further inland, which would themselves fail and collapse, initiating a runaway ice-sheet retreat.
Today, there are no ice cliffs on Earth that are taller than 90 meters, and scientists assumed this is because cliffs any taller than that would be unable to support their own weight.
Clerc, Minchew, and Behn took on this assumption, wondering whether and under what conditions ice cliffs 90 meters and taller would physically collapse. To answer this, they developed a simple simulation of a rectangular block of ice to represent an idealized ice sheet (ice over land) supported initially by an equally tall ice shelf (ice over water). They ran the simulation forward by shrinking the ice shelf at different rates and seeing how the exposed ice cliff responds over time.
In their simulation, they set the mechanical properties, or behavior of ice, according to Maxwell’s model for viscoelasticity, which describes the way a material can transition from an elastic, rubbery response, to a viscous, honey-like behavior depending on whether it is quickly or slowly loaded. A classic example of viscoelasticity is silly putty: If you leave a ball of silly putty on a table, it slowly slumps into a puddle, like a viscous liquid; if you quickly pull it apart, it tears like an elastic solid.
As it turns out, ice is also a viscoelastic material, and the researchers incorporated Maxwell viscoelasticity into their simulation. They varied the rate at which the buttressing ice shelf was removed, and predicted whether the ice cliff would fracture and collapse like an elastic material or flow like a viscous liquid.
They model the effects of various starting heights, or thicknesses of ice, from 0 to 1,000 meters, along with various timescales of ice shelf collapse. In the end, they found that when a 90-meter cliff is exposed, it will quickly collapse in brittle chunks only if the supporting ice shelf has been removed quickly, over a period of hours. In fact, they found that this behavior holds true for cliffs as tall as 500 meters. If ice shelves are removed over longer periods of days or weeks, ice cliffs as tall as 500 meters will not collapse under their own weight, but instead will slowly slough away, like cold honey.
A realistic picture
The results suggest that the Earth’s tallest ice cliffs are unlikely to collapse catastrophically and trigger a runaway ice sheet retreat. That’s because the fastest rate at which ice shelves are disappearing, at least as documented in the modern record, is on the order of weeks, not hours, as scientists observed in 2002, when they captured satellite imagery of the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf — a chunk of ice as large as Rhode Island that broke away from Antarctica, shattering into thousands of icebergs over the span of two weeks.
“When Larsen B collapsed, that was quite an extreme event that occurred over two weeks, and that is a tiny ice shelf compared to the ones that we would be particularly worried about,” Clerc says. “So our work shows that cliff failure is probably not the mechanism by which we would get a lot of sea level rise in the near future.”
This research is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation.
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Famed Emmett Till memorial in Mississippi is now bulletproof
After years of repeated vandalism the marker in Mississippi dedicated to civil rights icon Emmett Till, is now bulletproof.
The new sign is the fourth and was dedicated on Saturday by the The Emmett Till Memorial Commission, after being vandalized by gunfire earlier this year, according to Fox News. The first was thrown in the river. The second and third signs were shot at and became riddled with bullet holes.
READ MORE: School security guard called racial slur then fired for verbally reprimanding the student
Till was a 14-year-old Black teenager from Chicago visiting his family in Money, Mississippi in 1955 when he was kidnapped for allegedly whistling at and grabbing Carolyn Bryant, a white woman in a local market. Till was then beaten, shot, and lynched with a cotton gin fan and left in the Tallahatchie River.
The two suspects in Till’s murder were Bryant’s husband and her brother-in-law. Both men were acquitted by an all-white jury at the time.
The new marker is made of steel and is 10 times heavier than the previous ones. It can be found near the Tallahatchie River where Till’s body was found days after his gruesome death, according to the Huffington Post.
“This marker answers the question as to what we do with our history. Do we learn from it? Do we use it to help our society have greater respect for humanity? This answers that,” Rev. Willie Williams, co-director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, said about the memorial.
The last living witness to Till’s 1955 kidnapping is his cousin Rev. Wheeler Parker, who attended the ceremony with another cousin and her daughter, Fox News reported.
READ MORE: Lee Merritt critiques DA in charge of Atatiana Jefferson case
Till’s murder has served as a pivotal part of the civil rights movement not only in 1950s and ’60s but in today’s society as well.
The US Justice Department recently reopened the investigation into Till’s death citing new information.
The new sign was approved days after three University of Mississippi students were suspended from the Kappa Alpha Fraternity after posing in front of the bullet-riddled memorial with guns, according to TheGrio.
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DaBaby uses his influence to help homeless mother’s small business
A homeless mother received cash and an unexpected increase in her business sales this weekend after meeting rapper DaBaby, born Jonathan Kirk.
DaBaby hosted a pop-up shop at clothing store Pure Atlanta in Lenox mall Thursday where he was seen giving the mother $1,000 in cash for the sale of her knit hats, according to The New York Post.
Amanda Rose, who waited for three hours to see DaBaby, has been living out of her 1999 Nissan Maxima with her son. Rose is a struggling small business owner who sells knit hats. After she explained her struggles to DaBaby, he not only gives her cash but embraces her as well.
The entire exchange was captured on video and shared on social media. With over six million followers on Instagram Da Baby was able to make an even bigger impact on Rose’s life by bringing awareness to her business.
READ MORE: ‘Sunday Service’ goes irie as Kanye West takes event to Jamaica
Rose admitted to DaBaby she struggled to make a profit with only three to four orders a month. The rapper’s post about her encouraged 4,000 new orders to be placed for Rose’s woven hats, TMZ reported.
When approaching the artist she said, “It took a lot for me to come here,” as she shows him her line of bougee beanies, one with brown and orange stripes, that she carried with her in a plastic bag.
When receiving the cash the mother was visibly grateful for the gift.
“This is my son,” she told him, while wiping away tears from her eyes.
“We’re sleeping wild, bro. Thank you so much.”
READ MORE: Willow and Jaden Smith are gearing up to hit the road for concert tour
This type of exchange from DaBaby is one that some have never seen before. DaBaby, has be seen with his security in the past fighting fans or people that have taunted him, according TheGrio.
In his IG post featuring Rose, the chart-topping rapper stated “GOD’s WORK. No recognition needed.”
DaBaby’s most recent album “Kirk,” debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard 200.
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School security guard called racial slur then fired for verbally reprimanding the student
A student in Wisconsin is said to have repetitively used the n-word last week during a heated exchange with a high school security assistant, however in the end, the security guard lost his job.
When security assistant, Marlon Anderson, said he tried to explain what the word meant and how offensive it was, his use of the word ultimately cost him his job.
On Oct.9 Anderson said despite repeated requests to refrain from use of the slur, the student kept calling him a “nigger” during their exchange at West High School in Madison. Anderson and the student are both Black, The New York Times reported.
Less than a week after the conversation, Anderson was terminated from employment due to the school districts zero-tolerance policy on the use of derogatory language by staff members.
READ MORE: Atatiana Jefferson’s funeral cancelled at the last minute
The West High community is now uniting in the fight with Anderson to get his job back. He said the school system’s rule failed him in his use of the n-word.
“So if the class is reading ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and the teacher is reading the book out loud and it gets to the part where the N-word is, the teacher gets fired?” Mr. Anderson asked.
The Madison Metropolitan School District, school board president, Gloria Reyes said in a statement on Thursday, they hear the community and will reexamine the matter.
“We’ve taken a tough stance on racial slurs, and we believe that language has no place in schools,” Ms. Reyes said. “We have also heard from the community about the complexity involved — and our duty to examine it.”
“As a board, we plan to review our approach, the underlying policies, and examine them with a racial equity lens understanding that universal policies can often deepen inequities. We will ask the community for help in that process. I have requested that this item be placed on our board agenda as soon as possible,” she said.
READ MORE: Fetty Wap charged with battery after brawl with security guard in Las Vegas
Anderson, has worked at both West High School and East High School in Madison for over 10 years. He said the incident began when an assistant principal radioed for assistance with a disruptive student, according to The New York Times.
The student, a senior, finished classes for the day and took another student’s cell phone when the assistant principal stepped in, the student then pushed the assistant principal, according to Anderson.
Anderson then tried to escort the student out of the building and while doing so, he said the student called him “nigger” about 15 times. The security assistant then repeated the word when telling the student not to use it.
Assistant principal, Jennifer Talarczyk, turned on the microphone of her walkie-talkie, so that Anderson could be overheard by school officials in the building.
“I’m not going to be called that word. I have a right to not be called that word, I believe. I feel like she tolerated it for the entire ordeal,” Anderson said.
Two days after the incident Anderson was asked to leave by the school’s principal, Karen Boran.
On Friday, Many students participated in a walkout and marched to the district administration building in Madison. Also included with these students was Anderson’s son, Noah Anderson, a senior and president of the Black Student Union. Madison Teachers Inc., teacher union also filed a grievance on Anderson’s behalf.
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New video surfaces of high school gym coach disarming a student with a gun
A high school in Portland, Oregon was saved earlier this year from what may have turned into another fatal school shooting.
Surveillance footage from Parkrose High School in Portland, OR that was recently released shows a quick-thinking coach disarm a student carrying a large gun and then diffuse the confrontation with an embrace.
Angel Granados-Diaz, can be seen on video walking into the fine arts building of Parkrose High with a shotgun stashed away under is jacket on May 17, 2019, NBC News reported.
READ MORE: 8 injured in Colorado STEM school shooting, student gunmen in custody
But before anything could happen Keanon Lowe, Parkrose High’s security guard and track-and-field coach, said he saw a concerning expression on Granados-Diaz’ face, “The look in his eyes. I looked at the gun and I realized it was a real gun and then my instincts just took over.”
Other students can also be seen running away as Lowe, a former wide receiver for the University of Oregon Ducks, takes the gun from Granados-Diaz. Lowe then passes the gun to another teacher and goes in for a tight embrace with Granados-Diaz that turns into a hug, according to NBC News.
“I just wanted to let him know that I was there for him. I told him I was there to save him. I was there for a reason and that this is a life worth living.” Lowe said. “The universe works in amazing ways. I’m lucky and I’m happy that I was in that classroom for all those kids and I was able to prevent that tragedy,” he said.
Although no one was injured at the school, surveillance footage also shows police arriving later on to take Granados-Diaz into custody.
READ MORE: Superintendent say students will be armed with rocks in case of school shooting
A local judge sentenced the 19-year-old to 36 months of probation and an immediate check into mental health and substance abuse treatment center.
Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Parakram Singh, told NBC affiliate KGW, “Through the course of the investigation it became clear to law enforcement and our office that Mr. Granados-Diaz did not have the intent to hurt anyone other than himself while at Parkrose High School.”
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Atatiana Jefferson’s funeral cancelled at the last minute
Atatiana Jefferson, who was fatally shot in her home by a Fort Worth, Texas police officer over a week ago, while playing a video game with her 8-year-old nephew, has yet to be laid to rest.
The original funeral was scheduled to happen on Saturday, October 19th but was cancelled due to a family dispute.
Jefferson’s father, Marquis A. Jefferson, was granted a temporary restraining order by a local court halting the funeral services from happening. Her father argued that he was not a part of the planning process for his daughter’s funeral and wanted to be included, according to NBC News.
READ MORE: Funeral plans announced for Atatiana Jefferson and will be open to the public
The funeral was set to take place at Bishop TD Jakes’ church, The Potter’s House of Dallas, where Jakes was going to officiate the service. News of the cancellation came from the Potters House on Saturday morning.
In addition to allegedly being left out of the funeral arrangements, Marquis Jefferson also said he can afford the funeral costs to pay for his daughter’s funeral, but supported jumped at the chance to set up a GoFundMe account seeking monetary donations for Atatiana’s funeral expenses.
After Atatiana’s death, her mother, Yolanda Carr, hired lawyer S. Lee Merritt, to fight in a legal battle for what happened to her daughter.
READ MORE: Lee Merritt critiques DA in charge of Atatiana Jefferson case
According to NBC News, Merritt tweeted Saturday that Carr had “hired me to seek justice for her daughter.”
Merritt also spoke with The Dallas Morning News and stated former Dallas Mavericks player Harrison Barnes, his wife, Brittany Barnes, and Philadelphia Eagles player Malik Jackson would cover the costs for the funeral.
Jefferson’s family is due back in court on Monday and the funeral should be held shortly after that Merritt said.
“She has been very ill & unable to make media appearances. We worked hard all week to get her prepared to attend her daughter’s funeral. This has been extremely hard on her.”
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Black NBA Players Don’t Have To Save The World
Don’t ask any of the black players in the NBA to clean up the league’s mess with China.
Despite having talents that seem superhuman at times, it’s not the responsibility of black players to fix the NBA’s business relationship with one of their biggest partners, which was strained due to a now-deleted tweet from Houston Rockets General Manager, Daryl Morey.
It’s bad enough that James Harden had to offer an apology last week for Morey’s controversial tweet in support of protesters in Hong Kong. But since then, he’s realized that this isn’t his cause.
“I’m staying out of it,” said Harden. “I’m focusing on what we have and trying to get better. We’re a week and a half away from the regular season.”
I’ve heard some ask where LeBron James has been in all this, given that he’s used his platform to be a change agent. And although James was helpful in getting California Senate Bill 206 passed, so that student-athletes could make money off their likeness, this one isn’t his fight.
As a player, James is focused on leading the Los Angeles Lakers back to glory this upcoming season. As a black man, James is more than likely reeling, like most of Black America, from the death of Atatiana Jefferson.
Jefferson is the latest innocent black person to become a hashtag, given that the 28-year-old was killed by a Texas police officer while babysitting her nephew. These are the kinds of things African Americans deal with in 2019, so excuse players like James and Harden for not having any desire to throw on their capes to help save an American professional sports league from something that has nothing to do with them.
However, James broke his silence on Monday night.
“We all talk about this freedom of speech,” he said. “Yes, we all do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others, and you’re only thinking about yourself. I don’t want to get into a… feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke.”
It’s been interesting to watch how things have played out. Morey has slid into the background as the attention has unfairly shifted towards the players. It’s amazing when you think about it, given just how much damage was done by a single tweet, as Morey has somehow been absolved of fixing the problem he started.
Which is why it’s problematic to expect black players to be diplomatic in this moment.
Black people don’t owe the world their time, especially since no one is making the same demands of white athletes.
Read the full story at The Shadow League…
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