Jada Pinkett Smith: ‘I had an unhealthy relationship to porn’
Jada Pinkett Smith is opening up about once having a problematic relationship with pornography.
The 47-year-old actress shared on “Red Table Talk,” her Facebook Watch talk show, that she “had a little porn addiction” in the past.
“I wasn’t in a relationship when I had a porn addiction, believe it or not, thank goodness,” she told her co-hosts, daughter, Willow Smith, and mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones.
She continued, “I actually feel like I was using ‘addiction’ a little lightly. And maybe I’ll say now that I had an unhealthy relationship to porn at one point in my life where I was trying to practice abstinence.”
Pinkett Smith, who has been married to actor Will Smith for nearly 22 years, said she resorted to outside stimulation because she felt an “emptiness,” adding that porn gave her “false expectations” when it came to interacting with real partners.
In the more-than-20-minute episode, Pinkett Smith and her family discussed how there is a stigma around enjoying porn, but also how addiction to it can be detrimental to a person’s career and personal relationships.
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Queens basketball coach arrested for punching boy
GREENVALE, New York— A basketball coach from Queens has been arrested after he punched a child in the face in Greenvale, Nassau County Police said Monday.
Police responded to a call for an assault that took place at Sid Jacobsen Jewish Center on Saturday around 4:30 p.m.
Detectives arrived to the home of a young boy, who complained of substantial pain and bruising which he sustained while playing basketball at the center, police said.
Police were told that the injuries sustained by the child were inflicted by Cheikh Kadim Ndiaye, a 28-year-old intramural basketball coach, who allegedly punched the boy in both of his arms, with a closed fist, during a basketball practice, a Nassau County Police spokesperson said.
Ndiaye was placed under arrest and faces a single charge of third degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
He is set to be arraigned in Hempstead.
A spokesperson for the Sid Jacobsen Jewish Center released a statement saying
The individual in question has been prohibited from entering the premises and has been suspended without pay pending the investigation. We are cooperating fully with law enforcement and have launched a comprehensive internal investigation.
The security and well-being of all of our members especially our youth is of paramount importance. We will not tolerate any environment that is not safe and healthy for all in our community, including our youngest, every participant and member, and our staff.
The Nassau County Police Department has requested anyone who believes they may be a victim of the defendant to contact Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS.
All callers will remain anonymous.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/05/20/queens-basketball-coach-arrested-for-punching-boy-police/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Ohio students accused of putting semen, urine in food for teachers
POWELL, Ohio — Multiple middle school students are under investigation after they allegedly put bodily fluids into food served to their teachers, according to WBNS.
The incident, which happened Thursday at Hyatts Middle School, could constitute felony assault, the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office said.
Students allegedly put either urine or semen on crepes being served to teachers at the school. Video of the incident was shared with administrators the same day, WBNS reported.
The school district released a statement saying the incident was under investigation and anybody found to have violated school policies will be “held accountable for their actions.”
via: https://pix11.com/2019/05/20/ohio-students-accused-of-putting-semen-urine-in-food-for-teachers/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
After 7 artist Melvin Edmonds, brother of Babyface, dead at 65
R&B singer Melvin Edmonds, a member of the group After 7 and brother of superstar Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, has died at 65.
He died Saturday, After 7 co-founder Keith Mitchell confirmed on the group’s Facebook page Monday. The cause of death has not been revealed.
After 7 rose to fame in the 1990s with hits like “Can’t Stop,” “Ready or Not” and “Heat of the Moment.” The group was founded in 1987 by Melvin Edmonds, his brother Kevon Edmonds and Mitchell.
“Melvin was, without any doubt, the ‘Soul’ of After 7,” the Facebook post read in part. “His ability to ‘signaturize’ a vocal melody in Rhythm and Blues music produced a vocal sound that can never be erased or duplicated. … Melvin’s love for audiences and fans everywhere who supported our music is what drove him on stage and in life. He is and will be missed by my family, fans, and friends.”
Melvin Edmonds grew up in Indianapolis and was one of six brothers. One of them, known as “Babyface,” is one of R&B’s most successful artists and producers, with 11 Grammy Awards.
The group signed with Virgin Records in 1988 and its self-titled album was certified platinum. In 2015, Melvin Edmond’s son Jason Edmonds joined the group.
Melvin Edmonds battled health issues in recent years, including a stroke in 2011. He was able to rejoin the group in 2016 in time for its comeback album, “Timeless.” It had hits such as “Runnin’ Out,” “I Want You,” and “Let Me Know.”
He is survived by his four children, Melvin, Chris, Jason and Courtney.
CNN has reached out to Babyface’s representatives and After 7 for comment.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/05/20/after-7-artist-melvin-edmonds-brother-of-babyface-dead-at-65/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
10-year-old girls at slumber party fight off naked man who allegedly broke in and assaulted them
CLOVIS, Calif. – Two 10-year-old girls at a slumber party fought off a naked man who allegedly broke into the home and sexually assaulted them.
Timothy Jay Picard, 26, of Fresno, Calif., was arrested and faces charges of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under 14, first-degree burglary, and violating his probation, according to Clovis police.
Police said Picard entered the home at about 12:30 a.m. last Sunday through an open window while the victims were sleeping.
The girls woke up to Picard inappropriately touching them and fought him off, according to police.
Picard escaped through a window and was arrested after the victims alerted the adults in the home who called 911.
Police responded and were assisted from the air by a California Highway Patrol airplane.
Picard has multiple prior arrests which include stalking and burglary. He had been on probation for stalking.
“The Clovis Police Department would like to commend the two juveniles for their bravery and quick action in fighting off the attacker and for the assistance of the CHP’s airplane in helping with this arrest,” Clovis police said in a press release.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Dad mistakes daughter for intruder, shoots her to death
GREENVILLE, S.C. — A South Carolina man fatally shot his daughter after mistaking her for an intruder, authorities said.
The Greenville County Coroner’s office said 23-year-old Nadeja Pressley was trying to enter her Greenville residence just after 1 a.m. Sunday when she was killed.
Pressley’s father told investigators he fired through a door at what he believed was an intruder, who turned out to be his adult daughter.
Greenville County EMS responded to the shooting, and Pressley was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy is planned for Monday as authorities continue to investigate.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
2 men charged after urinating on memorial for New Jersey boy who died from brain cancer
NEW JERSEY (CNN) –Two men are facing charges after a “disgusting act” of vandalism was posted on social media over the weekend in New Jersey.
Police said 23-year-old Bryan Bellace is the man who was seen urinating and laughing on a memorial at Underhill Park in Mays Landing in a video posted online Sunday.
In the video, it zooms into a boy’s face on the memorial after the incident.
The boy has been identified Christian Clopp, a 9-year-old who died of brain cancer five years ago.
“As a single parent you think, what if that was my child?,” said Desmond Walker.
Walker and another good Samaritan Paul Burgen saw the video and immediately reacted with kindness.
“We went down here, came with gloves, sanitizer and we got it cleaned up,” he added.
It didn’t take them too much time to clean up the mess but they say it was meant to show the Clopp family that the community doesn’t stand for that sort of bad behavior.
“It’s a disgusting act,” Burgan said. “We come together. This is our community. When stuff like this happens, we come together and we take care what needs to be done.”
The memorial sits in an all-access playground and it was built in Clopp’s memory.
Clopp’s father took to social media to thank those who reached out in support of his family.
“I don’t understand this world today. A friend of ours came over today to inform us that a video was posted of two scumbags urinating on christian’s memorial at his playground,” the boy’s father wrote.
Bellace was charged with lewdness, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.
The man recording the video, 23-year-old Daniel Flippen, was cited for having an open container of beer at the park.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/CNN via KYW
Amid #MeToo, Illinois among 10 states debating to teach consent to kids
Inside a Catholic school in Portland, Oregon, high school sophomores break into groups to discuss some once-taboo topics: abusive relationships and consent.
At one desk, a girl with banana-colored fingernails begins jotting down some of the hallmarks of abuse: Physically hurting you, verbally abusive, can be one-sided. She pauses to seek input from her classmates, boys and girls alike, before continuing: “It messes up your mentality and your, like, confidence.”
For the first time this year, Central Catholic High School, like public schools in the city, is using educators from a domestic violence shelter to teach kids about what it means to consent. The goal is to reduce sexual violence and harassment among teens and help them understand what behavior is acceptable — and what’s not — before they reach adulthood.
“We’re talking about dating violence, sexual assault, relationships, #MeToo — all of those things. I think you have to be intentional about bringing this program into our classrooms,” says David Blue, the school’s director of diversity and inclusion. “How do you look at all of these constant conversations in our society right now?”
What’s happening at this Catholic school in liberal Portland represents a larger debate unfolding in blue states and red, as lawmakers, educators and teens themselves re-examine whether sex education should evolve to better address some of the issues raised by #MeToo. Central to the conversation is whether schools should expand curriculums to help kids understand consent — a concept often defined differently from state to state.
“#MeToo has brought the issue of consent into the national spotlight, but it’s abundantly clear that people still struggle with the culture shift that’s happening,” said Jennifer Driver, state policy director of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, which favors liberal sex ed policies. “When done right, sex education can serve as violence prevention. But first, we have to get these policies (enacted).”
Since January, dozens of new sex ed bills have been floated in statehouses, but only five have passed and just two of those require specific instruction about consent, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks sexuality and reproductive health issues. In all, 10 states and the District of Columbia require that consent be part of sex ed curriculum. The states are: California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.
Meantime, according to Driver’s group, 32 states require that abstinence be stressed in schools that teach sex education. And most federal funding for sex ed in recent years has gone to abstinence programs, to the tune of $2 billion since 1981.
The divide over how to teach sex ed has long split on the question of whether kids are “sexual beings,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, an education professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The pendulum has swung from the explicit information on sex, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases taught amid the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s to the abstinence-focused agenda that followed the rise of conservative politics, especially in the Bible Belt.
With the #MeToo movement, the pendulum may be inching back, at least when it comes to efforts to curb sexual violence.
A few abstinence-focused states, such as Virginia and South Carolina, have added consent to the curriculum.
And Oklahoma lawmakers this year considered a bill that would have forced high schools to teach consent. Called “Lauren’s Law,” the measure was named for a teen who said she was raped at a high school party. The Legislature eventually passed a narrower measure requiring that schools with a sex ed curriculum incorporate teaching about consent. It leaves other districts of the hook, but state Sen. Carol Bush, the Republican sponsor, called it “baby steps.”
Bush said she raised two daughters in a Christian home but that a background in public health taught her of the need for comprehensive sex ed programs.
“I hate that we call it sex ed. It’s more that you’re a valued person — boy or girl — and we need to help our children understand that,” said Bush, adding the bill was palatable to conservative colleagues because it lets teens know they have the right to say “no” to sex. She believes an increase in the number of women and younger lawmakers this year helped build consensus.
As with most issues in education, local school districts play a big role in shaping sex education curriculum, and many state laws on sex ed are intentionally vague.
In Cadillac, Michigan, a reliably Republican town of about 10,500 people, school leaders proactively teach consent after the school board voted more than a decade ago to change its sex ed curriculum from “abstinence only” to “abstinence based.” These days county prosecutor Jason Elmore regularly visits the town’s high school to deliver a sometimes startling message about consent.
Speaking to a freshmen health class last month, he patted his chest, lower abdomen and inner thighs while explaining that anyone under 16 cannot engage in sexual contact there without committing a crime — “even if it’s a boyfriend or a girlfriend.”
Elmore let the concept of who can do what with whom sink in as the students sat silently. Then he explained what it means for sexual contact to be “freely and honestly given” and how alcohol and marijuana are often involved in cases he sees. In the past year alone, he told the class, he’s prosecuted a half-dozen sex-related cases involving Cadillac students.
“In this school?!” one bewildered boy exclaimed.
A 2017-18 survey found that 15 percent of Cadillac ninth-graders and 55 percent of 11th-graders said they’d had sexual intercourse. And 1 in 10 said they’d been hit by a dating partner.
Health teacher Cathy Booher believes more students today understand what it means to give consent and respect boundaries. But inevitably, not long after Elmore’s class, she said: “A week or two later, we’ve had an incident.”
In Tennessee, where the state mandates an abstinence-based curriculum, some teenagers are leading their own discussions about consent. The state’s sex ed law, known as the 2012 “Gateway Law,” not only prohibits the discussion of sexual activities that stop short of intercourse — so-called “gateway sexual behaviors” — it imposes $500 fines on instructors who wade into the topic.
In Memphis, students who are part of the advocacy group Memphis Against Sexual Harassment and Assault have lobbied the school district to fill its Title IX director’s job, conducted peer training on consent, organized “Survivor Power Coffee Hours,” and taken part in a “Memphis Says No More” poster campaign designed to promote awareness about sexual harassment and violence. The school board has agreed to distribute the posters in all middle and high schools this fall, the teens said.
These issues are personal to youth leaders Devin Dearmore and Savanah Thompson. Dearmore, 18, said she was sexually harassed by a staff member before transferring high schools. Thompson, 15, said she was catcalled, groped, pinned against a locker by another student — and later blamed for it — in eighth grade.
“I think there’s this thing in the South that you just don’t talk about things — provocative things,” Thompson said. “We’re being taught all of these things preparing us for college . but they’re not teaching you how to cope with things that can derail your life. … That’s where our school system — and school systems nationwide — have failed us. In middle and elementary school, I didn’t know I could say no.”
Some who oppose teaching consent believe it signals an approval of teen sexual activity.
Mary Anne Mosack, who runs an abstinence education group called Ascend, said her group has been talking about consent for years but in the context that “avoiding sex is your best option.” Ascend has trained some 1,500 instructors to teach what it calls “sexual risk aversion” in public and private schools, clubs, foster homes and more.
Measures like Tennessee’s “Gateway Law” are not meant to chill discussion on important issues, Mosack said, but to limit those that stray too far into supposed safe-sex topics such as “naked cuddling” and “showering together.”
“In Tennessee and in other states, too, people were looking at those kinds of topics that were being presented, and felt they were inappropriate,” she said.
Critics of abstinence-based programs say they shut down urgently needed conversations. And if they are meant to curtail sexual activity in places like Tennessee, the results appear questionable. A study last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Memphis was first among 17 metro areas surveyed in the rate of boys engaged in preteen sex. The survey found 1 in 4 boys have sex before their 13th birthday.
As for teaching students to delay sex until marriage, Columbia University researcher John Santilli considers that unreasonable in a country where just 3 percent of people do so.
“Abstinence until marriage in America in 2019? It’s an impossible goal,” said Santilli, who studies pediatrics and population health and said that more than half of Americans have sex before leaving high school. “On the other hand, I think we ought to tell young people if they’re not ready to have sex with people, if they’ve had too much to drink, if they somehow feel uncomfortable with somebody, they can say no. To me, that’s feminism in action.”
He led a recent study that found teaching “refusal skills” in high school can cut the chances someone is raped in college in half.
In Oregon, Central Catholic High Principal John Garrow hoped to balance students’ need for information with the Roman Catholic creed on abstinence before marriage. He evaluated several programs before choosing Raphael House, whose mission includes work with sexual and domestic assault survivors.
“We’re trying to do our best to follow the teachings and at the same time be realistic, because as a school you lose your relevance real quickly if you’re not real,” Garrow said.
In the sophomore wellness class in April, two Raphael House instructors asked students to consider signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships. Does your partner make you feel valued? Stupid? Scared?
“It, like, opened my eyes,” said Ramaya Wright, 15. “I didn’t know those are a lot of the signs of an abusive relationship.”
Julia Tycer, a Raphael House educator, said consent comes into play not just in dating relationships but in all of our interactions, every day.
“It’s never really too early to be talking about consent,” she said. “Practicing consent is really just asking, ‘Are you OK?'”
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Aspiring Nurse’s Body Is Found in Dumpster: ‘Worst Feeling I’ve Ever Felt,’ Says Brother
Elizabeth Candice Laird, known as “Candy” by those closest to her, envisioned a life of helping others before her own life was taken.
The 27-year-old Detroit woman was weeks away from completing her degree as a surgical technician, and dreamed of becoming a nurse, when her body was discovered at about 9 a.m. Wednesday in a dumpster after police were called to the scene by someone who reported blood in an elevator at a nearby apartment building, reports local TV station WXYZ.
“She didn’t deserve this,” her mother, Diana Cann, told the outlet.
“My daughter was bright,” she said. “She was intelligent. She always wanted to be someone special in life.”
The victim’s older brother, Curtis, told the news station: “It’s the worst feeling I’ve ever felt in my life. I’m broken up in a million pieces.”
Detroit police Chief James Craig described suspect James Quill Cockerham as “a career criminal” in a news conference following Cockerham’s arrest on Saturday.
“That violent, predatory, cowardly suspect is now in custody,” he said.
Police were alerted on Wednesday to reports of blood in the elevator at the Parkview Towers and Square apartment building, and later said Laird and Cockerham had been seen together inside an elevator in the building, reports WDIV.
The victim’s family said she had been there at the gated building visiting her boyfriend. It was not clear how Cockerman gained entry.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office listed Laird’s manner of death as compressive asphyxia and ruled it a homicide, according to Fox2Detroit.
Prior convictions for Cockerham include those for weapons charges, criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery and car theft, and he is a registered sex offender, according to court records.
He was being held Monday morning in the Detroit Detention Center awaiting formal charges after his arrest on suspicion of parole violation and murder, a jail spokesman tells PEOPLE.
No bond was listed, and it could not be determined if he had entered a plea or acquired an attorney who might speak on his behalf.
“He should have never been let out,” said Laird’s brother Curtis, reports WXYZ.
“Looking at my baby in a casket — I think that’s going to be the hardest thing in my life that I’ll ever have to do,” Laird’s mother told the outlet. She recalled her daughter as someone who “wanted to save lives.”
A family friend, Michael Hines, said: “She was a great young lady, and I loved her,” according to Fox2Detroit. “She had a bright future. She was going to school to be in the nursing field. She told me she was going to make something of herself.”
“You shouldn’t kill no one like that — like throwing away garbage,” he said.
The police chief said: “We pray for that young lady and it should have never happened.”
Photo Credit: start.att.net
Azealia Banks Sides With Alabama: “Abortion Is A Luxury Provided By Modern Science”
Article via HotnewHipHop
Azealia Banks voiced her controversial remarks in response to Munroe Bergdorf’s personal stance on the abortion topic.
Azealia Banks is the latest public figure to address the issue of Alabama’s change in legislation governing abortion. For the sake of objectivity, I’ll refrain from criticizing her opinion, mostly due to the fact that as a woman of color, Azealia Banks has more to gain/lose from this ongoing debate. That said, Azealia Bank’s decision to stand behind what other’s perceive as oppressive measures by the Alabaman senate (and other caucuses in the Confederate States) is riddled with nuances and contradictory statements.
For starters, Azealia Banks stands on two fronts. She stands behind the criminalization of Abortion, but only as it pertains to control the Pharmaceutical Industry maintains over the practice itself. In the closing sentence of her public address, Banks defines abortion as a “modern luxury provided by modern science,” while altogether showing a semblance of solidarity with the anti-establishment and pro-choice movement in America.
As she clearly states in the caption of the Instagram posting, her PSA was written in response to Munroe Bergdorf dedicated efforts on the same platform. For added context: Bergdorf is an English transgender model and activist who was herself ejected from a lucrative L’Oréal sponsorship after her racial commentary was taken out of context.
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