Soul 'Godfather' James Brown dies

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.

Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.

Copsidas said Brown's family was being notified of his death and that the cause was still uncertain. "We really don't know at this point what he died of," he said.
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Five killed in Haiti slum raid

At least five people have been killed in Haiti's largest slum during a raid by security forces targeting armed gangs in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The raid came hours after Edmond Mulet, the UN's chief envoy to Haiti, said the government had given the go-ahead for a crackdown on areas controlled by gangs.

About 400 UN soldiers, led by Brazilian peacekeepers and backed by Haitian police forces, entered the Bwa Nef district in the slum of Cite Soleil at 3am local time on Saturday.read more

Local Black Newspaper Burns The Pages With Another Super-Hot Topic: Are Wealthy Blacks Sharing The Wealth?

Springfield, IL (BlackNews.com) - The Capital City Courier (CCC), a local black newspaper, continues to raise thought-provoking and intriguing questions. The latest offering from the nationally-acclaimed newspaper pursues the question of social and fiscal responsibility in this month's lead story, "Do Wealthy Blacks Give Back to the Black Community?" Written by Kim E. Gordon with her usual investigative style, this very informative article follows the Capital City Courier's tradition of probing the past while examining the present in a well-researched and interesting format.
"We believe in educating while entertaining so that the reader comes away with a depth of knowledge he or she might not have previously had." Exploring charitable practices within the African diasporic community, the article dares to call on the super-rich, black elite to take their consciousness temperature. Who seeks out the spotlight and who remains an anonymous angel, giving without fanfare?read more

Cuban Eyes Focus on Leader Who Isn’t There

Raúl Castro, Cuba’s acting leader, next to the empty chair of his brother, Fidel, at a parliamentary meeting Friday in Havana. When Fidel Castro presided over meetings from that chair, he asked many questions.

By MARC LACEY
Published: December 23, 2006
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 22 — Cuba’s acting leader, Raúl Castro, sat silently as the country’s Parliament opened its year-end session in Havana on Friday, and all eyes were on the empty chair next to him from which his elder brother, Fidel, usually presides.

The first meeting of the National Assembly since Fidel Castro went into surgery in late July was, according to news service reports, much like many other legislative sessions in Havana: bland.

But this one was watched closely just in case the ailing octogenarian leader, who used to pepper underlings with questions, showed up — he did not — or in the unlikely event that the Assembly opened a debate on the island’s future.
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In the Third Day of Fighting in Somalia, Worries of a Sharp Escalation by Ethiopian Forces

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: December 23, 2006

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania, Dec. 22 — Any hope of a quick peace in Somalia vanished in a burst of artillery shells on Friday, as fighting between rival forces raged for a third straight day.

Residents of Baidoa, the seat of the internationally recognized transitional government, said they saw columns of Ethiopian tanks chugging toward the front lines, heightening worries that Somalia’s internal problems could soon become regional ones. Meanwhile, residents in Mogadishu, the battle-scarred traditional capital and the base of Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement, said they saw sailboats packed with foreign mercenaries landing on the city’s beaches.
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U.S. Gives Grants to 4 Gulf Coast States to Upgrade Disaster Housing

By ERIC LIPTON
Published: December 23, 2006

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 — FEMA trailers, the cramped, impersonal housing units that have come to define the federal response to major disasters, may be on the way out, thanks to $388 million in federal grants, announced Friday, that will test half a dozen cozier, more permanent models of postdisaster housing.

The program will offer new housing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to thousands of families, among the 100,000 still living in trailers across the Gulf Coast, by placing them over the coming year in these studier, roomier, better ventilated homes, many of which have front porches, large windows and even small attics.

Mississippi came out on top in the contest for the grants, receiving $280.8 million, compared with $74.5 million for Louisiana, $16.5 million for Texas and $15.7 million for Alabama.
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After Losing the Foundation, What’s Often Left Is the Cellar

By LIZ ROBBINS
Published: December 24, 2006

On his way out of Philadelphia last week, Allen Iverson retraced the path taken by the other superstars the 76ers traded — franchise players who later made the Hall of Fame their final N.B.A. address.


Wilt Chamberlain. Moses Malone. Charles Barkley.

The Sixers never won a title as a result of those trades. Like many other N.B.A. teams that jettisoned franchise players without receiving equal value, Philadelphia fell into disarray and was forced to start anew each time.

Even with Iverson, the Sixers were not heading to the N.B.A. finals, a fact both parties realized, precipitating Iverson’s trade to Denver. Whether the Sixers, who last reached the finals in 2001, do so again soon depends largely on the 2007 draft. They have three first-round picks, two of them coming in the trade with the Nuggets.
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A Joint Attack on Many Perils of Africa’s Young

Vanessa Vick for The New York Times
Manama Bejie, center, and his family grieving for 14-month-old Suonguno, who died in a village in northern Ghana that lacked a doctor.


PONYAMAYIRI, Ghana — In this poor, dusty village of 550 people, four babies died of malaria in October, among them 11-month-old Yire Are. As word spread that the government would be handing out mosquito nets that prevent malaria, his uncle made sure he was there with his own children, their heads shaved in mourning.

“I came to claim a mosquito net,” the uncle, Konyiri Doorkono, said firmly, his 3-month-old son clasped in his arms.
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Racism -- fact or faith?

The truth is, in today's America, intolerance is no longer tolerated.
By Shelby Steele, SHELBY STEELE, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, is the author of "White Guilt," published earlier this year.
December 23, 2006

FROM A POLICE shooting in Queens, N.Y., to a racially charged legal battle involving the Los Angeles Fire Department, from the self-immolation of comedian Michael Richards to the failed Senate campaign of Tennessee's Harold Ford, race is back in the news, bringing with it a batch of new and disturbing questions.

Is racism now a powerful, subterranean force in our society? Is it so subtly infused into the white American subconscious as to be both involuntary and invisible to the racist himself? A recent CNN poll tells us that 84% of blacks and 66% of whites think racism is a "very serious" or "somewhat serious" problem in American life. Is this true?read more

Rice: U.S. ready to elect Black President

Published Friday, December 22, 2006
From asap

America is ready to elect a black president.

That's the word from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice is the nation's highest-ranking black government official. She has repeatedly said she will not run for president, despite high popularity ratings and measurable support in opinion polls.

IN HER WORDS

"Yes, I think a black person can be elected president," Rice said in an Associated Press interview Thursday. She declined to say whether she would like to see her predecessor, Colin Powell, become a candidate. Powell is a fellow black Republican.
"I'm not going to give Colin any advice and he's not going to give me any advice on this one," Rice said.
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Twin girls for rap star P Diddy

US rapper P Diddy has become the father of twins after his partner Kim Porter gave birth to two girls in New York.

The 37-year-old flew to a hospital in Manhattan from Toronto where he had been filming movie Raisin in the Sun.

Publicist Robert Zimmerman said he had made it to Porter's bedside "just in the nick of time for the delivery".

The older twin was named D'Lila Star, and the younger daughter was given the name Jessie James. "Both Kim and the girls are doing great," Zimmerman said.
Both children were named after their great-grandmothers.
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Research Links Obesity to Mix of Bacteria in Digestive Tract

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 21, 2006; Page A12

Obese people have a distinctive mix of bacteria in their digestive systems that seems to make them prone to gaining weight, a startling discovery that could lead to new ways to fight the obesity epidemic, researchers reported yesterday.

Obese people have more digestive microbes that are especially efficient at extracting calories from food, the researchers said, and the proportion of these super-digesting organisms ebbs as the people lose weight. Moreover, when the scientists transplanted these bacteria from obese mice into lean mice, the thin animals start getting fat. This provides more support for the provocative theory that the bacteria that populate the intestine play an important role in regulating weight.read more

Nigeria Fears e-waste 'Toxic Legacy'

By Liz Carney
BBC World Service's Dirty Business

The accumulation of mountains of electronic waste in Nigeria - increasingly the world's PC dumping ground - has so alarmed the country's government that there is now a national committee to deal with the problem.

Up to 50 million tonnes of old PCs are thrown away each year on waste dumps where they pose a pollution threat to the environment and to people.

Legislation exists that should prohibit the simple sending of old PCs to be dumped - but the problem is that Nigeria's booming second-hand computer industry gives ample scope for computer waste to be smuggled in.
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Tourists 'Fuel Kenya's Sex Boom'

BBC Africa
Up to 30% of girls in some Kenyan resorts are involved in the sex industry, according to a UN report.

The UN children's fund Unicef, which looked at resorts along Kenya's coast, found that 15,000 girls aged 12 to 18 were engaged in casual sex for money.

Another 2,000-3,000 girls and boys were involved in full-time prostitution, said the study - carried out jointly with the Kenyan government.

European men represented half of all their clients, the report said.

The 15,000 girls are said to live in the resort areas districts of Mombasa, Kilifi, Malindi and Kwale.
Poverty is the reason, Unicef says: many families see the sex industry as the only way of putting food on the table.
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Racism in the NBA? You Don’t Say

Posted By Phil Reggio On 20th December 2006 @ 00:07 In Phil Reggio, Philadelphia 76ers, Main Page | No Comments
Just a few days ago, the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets decided to engage in a bench-clearing brawl that saw Carmelo Anthony sucker punch an opposing player. Melo’s 15 game suspension (worth around $600,000) is now being scrutinized by Steve Francis, the often-injured, over-paid, falling star of the New York Knicks.

“In other sports, there are incidents that are way worse than basketball,” said Francis who referenced the abundance of media coverage from Saturday night’s fracas. “So many worse things happen every game or four or five times a year, but because there are more black players in the NBA, it’s under the microscope more than baseball or hockey.”

Might color play a role in the suspension of NBA players? Is Steve Francis suggesting that racism exists in the Association?
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BEYONCE KNOWLES: ‘Dream’ preferred

Songbird wows audiences in new movie.
By Kenya M Yarbrough
(December 20, 2006)
*And the buzz just keeps getting louder. As the release date approaches and nominations have been made, the film “Dreamgirls” is stealing all of the holiday hoopla.

The all-star cast includes Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, and Pop diva Beyonce Knowles and has the critics raving and fans anxious.

Though Knowles has graced the silver screen before, she told reporters that once she heard the Broadway hit was to become a film, she had to be a part of it and she had to use it as an opportunity to really show her talent as an actress.

“I’d heard about the Broadway play since I was 15. I wouldn’t know what a diva was if it wasn’t for this play,” she said, “So when I heard they were doing the film I said, ‘I have to be a part of it. I don’t care if I’m in it for five minutes; I just want to be a part of this movie’.”
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Heavy Clashes Reported in Somalia

Heavy fighting is being reported on at least two fronts near the weak Somali interim government's base in Baidoa.

A deadline from Islamists for Ethiopia to withdraw troops from Somalia or face "major attacks" expired on Tuesday.

Residents say pro-government forces and the Islamic militia exchanged mortar shells at Burhakaba, 25km from Baidoa.

A European Union envoy is in Baidoa meeting officials. There are fears an all-out war would plunge the entire Horn of Africa region into crisis.
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Maryland High Court Calls Halt to Executions

Lethal Injection Blocked Over Procedural Issue

By Eric Rich and John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page B01

Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday that the state's procedure for carrying out executions was adopted improperly, a defect that the court said must be addressed before any more condemned inmates are put to death.

The unanimous ruling by the Court of Appeals moved the debate squarely into the political realm, where Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) or his Democratic successor, Martin O'Malley, must act if executions are to resume.
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Zahn: Show on Racism Provokes Strong Reaction

By Paula Zahn
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- After ex-"Seinfeld" star Michael Richards' bigoted tirade at a comedy club last month, my staff and I started talking about what could possibly drive a person to say such vile and hateful things.

This discussion raised a series of questions we decided to explore on our program: Is there an inner racist in many of us, just waiting to explode? And is racism thriving today, just underneath a well-masked surface of political correctness and civility?

As we started gathering research on these questions, we read about Vidor, Texas, an East Texas community of 11,000 formerly known as a "sundown town," a place where African-Americans weren't welcome after dark. Like many other towns around the United States in the early 20th century, Vidor was rather open about being closed to blacks.

So we decided to find out what this town looks like today and how its legacy of racism has affected its efforts to integrate and heal the wounds of years past.

We sent correspondent Keith Oppenheim, who filed a memorable report from Vidor last week showing that much progress has been made.read more

Reality check: 95 percent of Americans had premarital sex

NEW YORK (AP) -- More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.

"This is reality-check research," said the study's author, Lawrence Finer. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades."
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AAA Offers Free Tows To Tipsy Drivers For The Upcoming Holiday Periods..

HOUSTON -- Tipsy Tow and away you go.
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Fugitive American James Ujaama Arrested in Belize

Belize police arrested an American fugitive with Al Qaeda ties and handed him over to U.S. authorities, a local television station reported Monday.

James Ujaama, who was arrested in 2002 in connection with plots to poison water supplies and later pleaded guilty to dealing with Al Qaeda and providing various types of material support to the Taliban, was wanted for violating his parole.
"He entered Belize about 10 days or so ago using a Mexican passport," Assistant Police Commissioner Eduardo Wade told Belize's Channel 5 station.

"Police conducted an investigation and some time around midnight last night or earlier this morning this fugitive was apprehended here in Belize City."

Wade said the 41-year-old Ujaama, also known as Ernest James Thompson and Bilal Ahmed, had since been taken out of the country.
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Iverson quits 76ers for Nuggets

Philadelphia's NBA superstar Allen Iverson is to leave the 76ers after 10 years and join the Denver Nuggets.

The trade will send forward Joe Smith, guard Andre Miller and two 2007 first-round picks to the 76ers for Iverson and forward Ivan McFarlin.

The 31-year-old guard has not played for six games after he asked to be traded nearly two weeks ago.
Philadelphia (5-18) have struggled so far this season, and only Memphis (5-19) have a worse record in the NBA.

Iverson, who had two years and $39m left on his contract after this season, was the 76ers' number one pick in the 1996 NBA draft.
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Leaders decry schools' efforts to integrate black children

Early edition: A coalition is pressing Pinellas school officials to set a timetable for closing the achievement gap between black and white students.
By THOMAS C. TOBIN, Times Staff Writer

ST. PETERSBURG - A coalition is pressing Pinellas school officials to set a timetable for closing the achievement gap between black and white students.

But the group also sounded a conciliatory note Monday, calling for a grassroots effort to fix some of the breakdowns in family life that often cause black students to perform poorly in school.

"When it comes to this community, we will sound the call for mentors, volunteers, men and women who can help us wrap arms around our children, our single mothers, our grandparents raising grandchildren (and), yes, our ex-felons fathers," said Louis Murphy, a prominent St. Petersburg pastor and a member of the coalition.
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Libya firm on HIV death sentences

Libya says that it will not bow to international pressure over death sentences passed on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor.
The group were sentenced by a court in Tripoli for knowingly infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.

The sentences have drawn international criticism, while academic bodies have argued that the guilty verdicts run counter to scientific evidence.

But Libya's foreign minister said it was now up to Libya's Supreme Court.

"Libya will never deal with such pressure from any side - from America, from Europe, from anywhere," Abdurrahman Shalgham said.
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NYPD NAMES A BLACK BOROUGH COMMANDER

BY ROBERT F. MOORE and MICHAEL WHITE
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU

Long criticized for being overwhelmingly white at the top, the NYPD today is naming an African-American commander to a critical post, sources said.
Assistant Chief Gerald Nelson, 54, currently the commanding officer of the school safety division, is expected to be appointed Brooklyn North borough commander.
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DREAMGIRLS BREAKS RECORDS AT BLACK REEL NOMINATIONS

Movie musical DREAMGIRLS has set a new record at the Foundation for the Advancement of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF) Black Reel Awards by becoming the first film to land more than 10 nominations in the event's 11-year history
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Three killed In Kenya after rally turns violent

Nairobi - Police were deployed to the sprawling Kibera slum, which houses an estimated 800 000 people, after a political rally became unruly, with opposing sides pelting each other with stones and some forcing a passing train to ground to a halt.
It was unclear who shot at the crowd. The independent Daily Nation newspaper said on Monday some of the rally attendees were armed.

Of the four people shot in the clashes, three had died by late Sunday night. The fourth person was said to be in serious condition in hospital.

The rally was called in support of Ndura Waruinge, a leader of the banned Mungiki sect, who is looking to run in Kenya's elections next year
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California Seeks To Improve Lethal Injection Method

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered his staff on Monday to fix the state's use of lethal injection for executions so it satisfies a federal judge who declared it unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel in an opinion issued on Friday wrote that California's use of lethal injection was such a mess as to be "broken," but he said it could be fixed to withstand constitutional challenges.

"When properly administered, lethal injection results in a death that is far kinder than that suffered by the victims of capital crimes," Fogel wrote.

"At the present time, however, defendants' implementation of California's lethal-injection protocol lacks both reliability and transparency," he wrote.

Fogel wrote that in six executions the prisoners may not have been properly sedated when the dose of a lethal chemical was administered. The judge gave the state 30 days to let him know how they planned to fix the system
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Marijuana Top US Cash Crop, Analyst says

By David Alexander
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. growers produce nearly $35 billion worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country's largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study released on Monday.
The report, conducted by Jon Gettman, a public policy analyst and former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also concluded that five U.S. states produce more than $1 billion worth of marijuana apiece: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington.
California's production alone was about $13.8 billion, according to Gettman, who waged an unsuccessful six-year legal battle to force the government to remove marijuana from a list of drugs deemed to have no medical value.
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U.S. Is Proposing to Cut Medicaid’s Drug Payments

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: December 18, 2006

The Bush administration on Monday will propose sweeping reductions in payments to pharmacies as a way to save money for Medicaid, the health program for more than 50 million low-income people.

The goal is to ensure that Medicaid can get drug discounts similar to those provided to large customers in the private market, including companies like Caremark Rx and Medco Health Solutions that manage drug benefits for people who have health insurance through an employer. Congressional investigators have found that Medicaid pays 35 percent more than the lowest price available in the private market for some commonly used brand-name drugs.

States, which share the cost of Medicaid with the federal government, make the final decision on what pharmacies are paid, subject to federal limits.
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Black Women Have Lower Breast Cancer Survival

SCIENCE NEWS
December 18, 2006
Black women have lower breast cancer survival

By Ed Stoddard

DALLAS (Reuters) - Black women with early-stage breast cancer have lower survival rates than their white counterparts even after taking into account variables such as tumor size and socioeconomic differences, researchers said.

"I think it's due to biological factors in the actual cancer, and this means that race may be a surrogate for a more adverse molecular profile within the cancer," said Dr. Kathy Albain, the study's senior researcher and a professor of medicine at Loyola University Chicago Medical Center.

The study, conducted by the Committee on Special Populations of the Southwest Oncology Group that Albain chairs, used databases from two national clinical trials done in the early 1990s.read more

Is Obama The New "Black"?

By Gregory Rodriguez:

The possible presidential candidacy of the biracial senator has sparked an illuminating debate on race.

WE KNOW this: Barack Obama is a rising star. He's a powerful speaker and a gifted writer. He is the only African American serving in the U.S. Senate. But is he black?

That's what New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch asked last month, and his answer was decidedly "no." No, Crouch wasn't just employing the old "blacker than thou" canard. Nor was he concerned with the fact that Obama was raised by his white mother. Rather, he was treating blackness not just as a racial (shared biology) identity but as an ethnic (shared historical experience) one. And isn't that what the switch of terms from "black" to "African American" was all about?

Think back to the late 1980s, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson became the most prominent black to call for the adoption of the term African American. "Just as we were called colored, but were not that," he said, "and then Negro, but not that, to be called black is just as baseless…. Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of maturity." The problem, of course, is that most black Americans are descendants of slaves who had their African cultural heritage brutally stripped from them.read more

FBI Data Shows Violent Crime Still on Rise in United States

WASHINGTON — Murders and robberies continued to rise across the country during the first six months of 2006, on pace for an increase in violent crime for a second straight year, preliminary FBI data released Monday show.

The overall 3.7 percent uptick in violent crime between January and June comes amid a still-incomplete Justice Department study of 18 cities for clues on why criminal activity is increasing.



Property crimes like auto theft and other larcenies were down by 2.6 percent over the same six-month period, the data show. But the number of arsons shot up by nearly 7 percent, the FBI reported.

The numbers reflect what police across the country have been saying for months: that the lull in crime between 2001 and 2004 appears to be over.

"This is a concern we've been focused on," said Gene Voegtlin, legislative counsel for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which represents an estimated 20,000 law enforcement officials and has been pushing for more crime-fighting funding. "A lot of (police) agencies are really stretched thin when it comes to the budget and their ability to aggressively combat crime.
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UN launches $98m Haiti aid appeal

The UN has made an appeal for $98m (£50.26m) to help Haiti's transition.

The appeal, for the period 2006-2007, aims to strengthen Haiti's government and to help it meet humanitarian needs.

It is also aimed at "ensuring that authorities are better prepared in the event of natural disasters", said Joel Boutroue of the UN's Haiti mission.

"All indicators show that Haiti continues to be the poorest country in the northern hemisphere," Mr Boutroue told journalists.
Mr Boutroue, who is the UN's deputy special representative in Haiti, launched the appeal in Geneva. read more

Two explosions in Nigeria's Delta..Oil Properties Hit

At least two explosions have hit separate oil facilities in Nigeria's restive Niger Delta region.
One blast hit property belonging to the Royal Dutch Shell in Port Harcourt. The other hit the fence of a compound belonging to Italian company Agip.

Little damage has been reported, and no-one was hurt.

The militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) has claimed responsibility for what it described as car bomb attacks.

Correspondents say it is the first time Mend have targeted residential compounds.

Shortly before the attacks, Mend emailed a statement to local reporters saying a series of car-bomb attacks were imminent.
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Black Group Buys 12.2% of Mass-Market Banker Capitec

Posted to the web on: 18 December 2006
Black group buys 12,2% of Capitec
Stephen Gunnion

Financial Services Editor


MASS-market banker Capitec has sold a 12.2% stake in its business to a consortium of black companies, trusts and individuals in a deal worth R300m.

Capitec said on Friday it would issue 10-million new shares at R30 each to the Coral consortium, which is led by Litha Nyhonyha, executive chairman of Regiments Capital and also includes black staff at the bank, who will own 5% of the 12,2% stake through the Capitec Bank Share Empowerment Trust.

Regiments Capital was co-founded by Nyhonyha and five other investment bankers in 2004. The group is black-controlled and managed. It focuses on specialist funds business and advisory services.
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L.T. Breaks Scoring Mark Against Chiefs

Dec 17 9:49 PM US/Eastern

By BERNIE WILSON
AP Sports Writer


SAN DIEGO



Another week brought another record for LaDainian Tomlinson. San Diego's star running back broke Paul Hornung's 46-year-old NFL single- season scoring record on a 15-yard touchdown run to give the Chargers a 7-0 lead over the Kansas City Chiefs after the first quarter Sunday night.

Prior to kickoff, there was a video tribute and moment of silence for Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who died Wednesday night of complications from prostate cancer. He was 74.

Hunt was the founder of the AFL and a driving force in the merger with the NFL. He even came up with the term "Super Bowl."

The TD run gave Tomlinson 180 points, breaking Hornung's record of 176 set with the Green Bay Packers in 1960. Hornung was a kicker as well as a halfback for Green Bay.
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In Her Own Words..An Interview With Nicole Paultre

Nicole Paultre grasps a photograph of her, Sean and their children. She was photographed for exclusively for ESSENCE.

In Her Own Words
In a heartbreakingly honest interview Nicole Paultre speaks exclusively with ESSENCE about her fiancé's death, their last words to each other and what she told their children
By Cynthia Gordy and Tatsha Robertson


Photo Credit: Peter Chin



The day before Nicole Paultre and Sean Bell were to get married, life was good. There was none of the petty bickering that goes on between most nervous couples. Nicole’s dress, a white sleeveless gown she had purchased just weeks earlier, was pressed and ready. She had even prepared her own version of a song—Mary J. Blige’s "Be Without You"—to sing to Sean, the father of her two girls.

That afternoon Bell kissed Nicole and their little girls goodbye before dropping them off at her mother’s home on Long Island, where she was holding the bridal shower that evening. He called her later that day, as he always did, still debating whether or not to bother going out for a bachelor party before finally resolving to go. For all Nicole knew, the day the two had been waiting for, the day her beloved had secretly planned by himself as a surprise, had come. She went to bed that night happily anticipating her special day. Then around 4:00 A.M., her mother, visibly shaken, rushed into her room.
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Bling Bling: Can Africans Really Benefit from the Diamond Industry?

Russell Simmons Says Yes
By Angela Bronner, AOL Black Voices

Since hip-hop gave the world "bling," and the diamond-encrusted lifestyle that it inspires, it makes perfect sense that hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons and his over-the-top, on-again-off-again wife, Kimora Lee Simmons would get into the diamond business.

After all, Simmons, considered the Godfather of hip-hop because he co-founded seminal rap label Def Jam as well as hip-hop fashion house Phat Farm, has always been a pioneer on the business side. And his "fabulous" wife Kimora has also made a pretty penny for herself with her ready-to-wear women's line, Baby Phat.
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The Economy: Drawing A Bead On The Future

Business Week Magazine
December 25 Cover Story

We put four key economic questions to 58 experts for a sneak peak at the year to come

Smart investors always ask plenty of questions. Getting the rightanswers is the hard part, especially answers about the future of the economy--and the windshifts that can make or break your portfolio. BusinessWeek offers some help on what we think are the four key questions that will play the biggest roles in shaping the investment climate in 2007.


We gathered 58 experts and their best estimates for our annual outlook survey. The overview looks like this: On average, the economists see an investor-friendly economy, with growth cooling to 2.6% from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007. That's a notch slower than the 3.1% pace expected for 2006, but they project a slight pickup in the pace as the year progresses. The slowdown will cause the unemployment rate to drift up--though not by much--from 4.5% to 4.8%. The slump in home construction is expected to end by midyear, yet by the end of the year, home prices are still projected to dip nationally by an average of 1.7%.
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How An iPhone Could Rock Wireless

Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and LG might be secretly rooting for the iPhone to be a (minor) hit.
By Stephanie Mehta, Fortune senior writer
December 15 2006: 3:52 PM EST


NEW YORK (Fortune) -- If Steve Jobs' Apple decides to build a wireless phone, as widely rumored, the company has the chance to shake up not just the wireless device business - an industry dominated by the likes of Motorola and Nokia - it also could upend the entire wireless distribution model in the United States.

We know very little about the so-called iPhone. Apple isn't talking ("We don't comment on rumor and speculation," a spokesman told me) but we do know that wireless represents a huge opportunity - and threat - for Apple, and every other consumer electronics and computer maker.

Wireless phone makers increasingly are adding MP3 players to their devices, with the capability to download songs over the air. It certainly makes sense for Apple to want a piece of this action.

How Apple makes this happen is a topic of great swirl in tech and telecom circles. UBS telecom analyst John Hodulik recently published a report positing that Apple would seek to become a virtual phone company, buying airtime wholesale from Cingular and reselling wireless service, along with its new phone, sometimes in the first quarter of 2007.more

Demonstrators Flood The Streets Of Manhattan To Protest Police Shooting

Support for Sean on Fifth Ave.

BY MIKE JACCARINO, WARREN WOODBERRY JR. and ROBERT F. MOORE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS


The Rev. Al Sharpton, joined by police brutality victim Abner Louima (r.), pushes wheelchair carrying Trent Benefield, who was wounded in 50-shot spree by cops, during protest.
Thousands of marchers protesting the fatal police shooting of Sean Bell and wounding of two of his friends fill Fifth Avenue and across 34th Street to 7th Avenue.
A sea of demonstrators flooded the heart of Manhattan yesterday on one of the busiest shopping days of the year to protest the police shooting that killed Sean Bell on his wedding day.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who billed the march as a moral appeal for a change in city police practices, led thousands of protesters down Fifth Ave. as scores of holiday shoppers stared from the sidewalks.
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Mbeki Warns On Africa-China Ties..

Africa must guard against falling into a "colonial relationship" with China, South African President Thabo Mbeki has warned the continent.

His comments come as fast-growing China is continuing to increase its push for raw materials across Africa.

Mr Mbeki said African nations must strive for their relationship with China to be based on equal trade. read more

Death Sentence For Ngugi Attack

A Kenyan court has sentenced three security guards to death for attacking and robbing renowned Kenyan novelist and playwright, Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

His wife was also raped and burnt with cigarettes during the attack on the apartment in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.
full story

Mayor Takes Homeless To See 'The Pursuit Of Happiness'

Associated Press

(12/16/06 - CHATTANOOGA, TN) - Inspired by his father, who was homeless for a time as a teenager, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield tried to raise the hopes of a group of homeless people by taking them to see a new movie that tells a rags-to-riches story. read more

Baby's Daddy,Redefined

Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 17, 2006; Page A01

When 19-year-old Donné McDaniel became pregnant last year, Tim Wagoner didn't consider marrying her.

"Nah, man, it wasn't really discussed. We're just friends.
" read more

Texas City Haunted By 'No Blacks After Dark' Past

By Keith Oppenheim
VIDOR, Texas (CNN) -- As a reporter for CNN, I've spent a lot of time travelling around the United States. And along the way, I've developed some impressions of who we are, and where we are, as a society.
When it comes to relations between blacks and whites, it's no surprise to me that we are, in many places, still separated, despite a desire for better relations. African-Americans often live in one neighborhood, whites in another.
When I was recently assigned to cover a story about the history of racism in Vidor, Texas, for the "Paula Zahn Now" show, it turned out that I was surprised by some of the things I found, namely that some whites were openly telling me they still wanted separation from blacks..
ckick here for more

Moving On After Apartheid...

South African Government To Spread Black Economic Power?
read more here

High Arrest Rate In San Francisco Raises Concern

Is the high rate of arrests in San Francisco a case of Racial Profiling Or Criminal Activity? read more

Will Rapper Common 'Ressurrect' Gap Inc Sales?

Word on the street is the 'young crowd' can't get enough of those 'hoodies' Common and a bunch of other celebrities are shown wearing in several Gap's ads..but what bout the overall sale of Gap's apparel?
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Forget The Mall For A Second..How Bout Bargains In The Stock Market?

It's Holiday Season and most of you are likely to spend chunks of money buying gifts for yourself,friends and family.
Personal spending increased 0.6% last month
here and it will probably increase by the end of the year
Everywhere you turn retailers are trying to lure you to shop and spend in ways so subtle you probably don’t know what’s happening to you. Or your wallet.
So what bout spending money on something else other than consumer products?What bout stocks?I mean who knows..you could be become the next George Soros overnight or in a few years
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Americans:Who They Are And What They Do

Yet another Census Data exposing the lives and habits of Americans[in the USA that is]..from Spending,Homosexuality,Height,Accidents etc
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Oh You Haven't Heard?Iodized Salt Prevents Brain Damage In Infants

Yes even moderate deficiency, especially in pregnant women and infants, lowers intelligence by 10 to 15 I.Q. points, shaving incalculable potential off a nation’s development read more

Another Brawl In The NBA?

It seems like 'professional' Basketball players in the NBA would rather put their hands on each other instead of the ball..
click here

Unauthorized Biography Of Oprah?

Famous bestselling biography-writer Kitty Kelley is gearing up to write an unathourized biography of billionare Oprah Winfrey..read more

Why Do Men Have Deeper Voices than Women?

by Erika Englehaupt
All Things Considered, December 16, 2006 ·
In addition to finding socks that match and reserving a table at the right restaurant, men may have one more thing to worry about before going out on that next date: their voice. According to experiments conducted by Dan Puts, an anthropologist at Michigan State University, men with deeper voices may have more luck in attracting members of the opposite sex.
full story

Two More Years For Zimbabwe's Mugabe??

Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party has backed a move to extend the mandate of President Robert Mugabe by two years.

The annual party conference approved a plan to postpone the next presidential election - when Mr Mugabe has said he will retire - from 2008 to 2010.
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A Call to Action for Our Schools

Ending high school at 16, paying teachers according to merit, turning schools over to independent contractors — a new report on U.S. education envisions radical change
By CLAUDIA WALLIS


Posted Friday, Dec. 15, 2006
If Americans want to maintain their customary high standard of living in today's global economy, we've got to rethink almost every aspect of our education system, including when kids finish high school and who runs our schools.

That was the conclusion of a blistering report from a blue-ribbon panel called the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce, released Thursday in an all-day event in Washington, D.C. The commission of heavyweights included four former cabinet secretaries, the president of the American Manufacturers Association, the chancellor of the California State University system, executives from Viacom Inc. and Lucent Technologies, and other government and education leaders.

Its call-to-action report, entitled Tough Choices or Tough Times, cites studies showing that the U.S. share of the world's college-educated workers has shrunk from 30% to 15% in recent decades and that, even after all the outsourcing of the past decade, some 20% of U.S. jobs remain vulnerable to automation or offshoring to educated workers overseas.more

Hopes Over New Malaria Treatment

British scientists have helped to develop a new malaria treatment which they hope could save many thousands of young lives in Africa.

Imperial College in London collaborated with experts in Kenya to develop a technique based on fluid replacement for children ill with malaria.
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Black Label Executive[Gospel] To Give Away Free Cars,Clothes And More To Women In Need..

too good to be true? read more

Actor Wesley Snipes Pleads Not Guilty..

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Bush Tells NAACP He Wants to Build Trust

By DEB RIECHMANN
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, addressing the NAACP after skipping its convention for five years, said Thursday he knows racism exists in America and that many black voters distrust his Republican Party.

Bush lamented the GOP's rocky relations with blacks. He pledged to improve that relationship and work with the NAACP's new leader to achieve common goals.

"I understand that racism still lingers in America," Bush told more than 2,200 people at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual gathering. "It's a lot easier to change a law than to change a human heart. And I understand that many African-Americans distrust my political party."

That line generated boisterous applause and cheers from the audience, which generally gave the president a polite, reserved reception.
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Serial 'Returners" Beware..

By Michelle Singletary
Sunday, December 10, 2006; Page F01

Are you a serial returner?

By that I mean, do you routinely return items, especially holiday gifts? If so, be forewarned. Some retailers have resorted to using a computer database to track customer returns and catch fraudulent or excessive returns.
get the scoop here

Financial Health Reality Check

By Michelle Singletary

Thursday, December 7, 2006; Page D02

The end of the year often provokes questions about your financial state. If it doesn't, it should.

That was on my mind after receiving this query from one reader during a recent online discussion: "I am 45 years old and unmarried. I own two homes worth $800,000 free and clear. I have next to no savings, however. I do have $50,000 in a 401(k) and $50,000 in regular savings. That is it. Am I in decent shape or bad shape for my age?"

Now you are probably thinking: Is this person kidding?read more