- Jay-Z is still addressing the drama surrounding his involvement
with upscale department store Barneys in the face of its alleged racial
profiling in New York City his latest venue to speak out is a new Rick Ross
track. During a guest spot on Ross’ “The Devil is a Lie,” H.O.V.A. raps: “See
what I did to the stop and frisk?/Brooklyn on the Barneys like we own the b*tch/Give
the money to the hood, now we all win/Got that Barneys floor looking like a
V.I.M.” The V.I.M. reference is an allusion to a Brooklyn-based jeans and
sneaker chain and let’s just say that Barneys is likely not flattered by the
comparison. One might argue that when major retailers like Barneys and Macy's
are accused of profiling black shoppers who say they were detained by police
after buying luxury items under New York's "shop-and-frisk" policy,
you might want to do more than bust a few rhymes about it. Since the first
lawsuit surfaced, Jay-Z has faced mounting pressure to back out of his
collaboration with Barneys. That would mean pulling the plug on a holiday event
in which the store is selling items by designers inspired by Jay-Z with the
proceeds going to his charity, the Shawn Carter Foundation. Jay-Z has
previously said he is "not making a dime" from the collaboration and
refused to end the partnership. "While I await the findings of the
Attorney General’s Office, I have agreed to move forward with the launch of BNY
SCC collection under the condition that I have a leadership role and seat on a
council specifically convened to deal with the issue of racial profiling,”
Jay-Z said. He vowed to affect change directly and maybe this track is the
first step in that process……..
- Most people wrongly sent to prison for 15 years in the
prime of their life would be bitter. Brooklyn resident Donald Kagan seems amazingly at
peace with his plight even though the judge who sentenced him to a state prison
in 1999 now admits he made a horrible mistake based on racism and bigotry. Judge
Frank Barbaro testified at a special hearing last week in Brooklyn that he was
biased against Kagan when the young defendant appeared in his courtroom for
trial in 1999.
Barbaro is asking another judge to overturn the guilty verdict
he rendered in the case and although Kagan did put himself in a bad position at
trial by selecting a trial by (racist) judge over a jury trial, sending someone
to jail based on bigotry is a real problem. During the trail, Kagan testified
that 22-year-old Wavell Wint tried
to steal his gold chain after a movie at the Linden Multiplex in East New York.
He testified that he acted in self-defense and his gun went off during the
struggle. Barbaro found Kagan, who is white, guilty and later admitted that he
viewed Kagan as a bigot “who had assassinated an African-American person.” With
a sentence of 15 years to life, Kagan has his first parole hearing next year,
the same year he turns 40. He said that despite Barbaro’s admission, he is not
bitter at the judge. “I’m not angry, I’m not angry,” Kagan said. “A lot
of people in his position would not come forward and do what he’s doing now. I
have a lot of respect for him for coming forward.” Kagan added that his time in
prison has helped him become a better person and with a new district attorney
taking office soon, this seems like a solid time to rectify a wrong………
- When is a threat to bomb the sh*t out of a neighboring
country hilariously funny? When North Korea and its mutually assured
destruction via 20-year-old office technology is involved, that’s when. Yes,
those wacky communists as the north end of the Korean Peninsula are at it
again. This time, the North is pissy because of protests against its regime
held across the border in Seoul, South Korea. In response to rallies
by several conservative groups and North Korean defectors that took place in
the South on Tuesday, the North Korean military faxed – yes, faxed – a strongly
worded statement proclaiming that the demonstrations insulted North Korea’s
“highest dignity,” referring to despotic young leader Kim Jong
Un-too-many-fudge-bars. The cherubic dictator and his military arm threatened a
“merciless” attack without notice in response to the anti-North rallies and
while inflammatory rhetoric is nothing new, how does no one in the K.J. Un
posse have an iPhone, Droid or a tablet so they can at least break off an email
or, at the risk of being too bold, Skype their threats to the South? How does
anyone say, “Those treacherous pigs! They have insulted us for the last time.
They must pay….fire up the fax machine!” and not have everyone laugh them out
of the room? Yet the fax went through to South Korean National Security
Council, which kept the facsimile farce going by sending a return fax vowing to
“sternly react” to any provocations. Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok made it
clear that his country would not be bullied by its northern neighbor for any
reason. Here’s hoping for more protests and threats via carrier pigeon in the
near future………
- Much to the surprise of no one, the New York Yankees set another salary record and the Houston Astros
performed down to the level of their record-breakingly miniscule salary base.
According to the annual report released Wednesday by the Major League Baseball
Players Association, the Astros – a robust 51-111 last season - had the lowest
average in the major leagues in 14 years. While the overall big league average
rose 5.4 percent this season to a record $3.39 million, the Astros did their
best to hold that number down. Not surprisingly, the Yankees had the highest
average for the 15th consecutive season at $8.17 million, breaking the mark of
$7.66 million set when they won the World Series in 2009. Yet the MLBPA was
more concerned with the Astros, who gutted their roster and stocked up on
bargain-basement talent so they could make as much money as possible without
the hassle of trying to contend. Their average of $549,603 was the lowest since
the 1999 Kansas City Royals at $534,460, well below the Miami Marlins at
$830,069, down from $3.77 million in 2012. Because baseball's collective
bargaining agreement requires a team to use revenue-sharing money it receives
"in an effort to improve its performance on the field, the MLBPA promised
to scrutinize both the Astros and Marlins to make sure they abide by that rule.
"We are watching both clubs closely, but were already aware what their
2013 spending would be and that there wasn't enough there to move beyond
acknowledging as much," new union head Tony Clark said. “Both clubs are
being monitored, and MLB recognizes that there is a potential for a dispute if
the clubs do not move in the right direction." The positions that paid the
best were first basemen ($10.5 million average), starting pitchers ($6.3
million) and second basemen ($5.8 million)……….
- Science, credit where credit is due. Today, you have done
something worthy of commendation and that something is installing the first
artificial heart. French biomedical firm Carmat, the developer of the world’s most
advanced total artificial heart project, announced Friday that it had begun the
first human trial of an artificial heart aimed at overcoming shortages of
organs available for transplant. The operation took place Wednesday at the
Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris and according to the company, the procedure “went
satisfactorily.” The unidentified patient is "is conscious and speaking to relatives," Carmat
said in a statement while noting that it is still too early to draw longer-term
conclusions about the operation. What makes this particular situation
noteworthy is that artificial hearts have been in use for many years as a
temporary fix for patients awaiting a transplant, but they are not used as
permanent replacements for human hearts. Because thousands die each year due of
a lack of available organs, finding a way to make artificial hearts work would
be a colossal leap forward for humanity. Wednesday’s operation took several
hours, with
the prosthesis automatically providing normal blood flow. Afterward, the
patient was reported to be awake and able to speak with his family while
remaining in intensive care. “We are
delighted with this first implant, although it is obviously far too early to
draw conclusions given that this is the first such implant and surgery has only
just been performed,” Carmat CEO Marcello Conviti said………
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