Father accused of abandoning 5-year-old son at Walmart
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (WGCL) — A father is accused of abandoning his 5-year-old son at a Georgia Walmart.
Gainesville police said someone found the little boy wandering around the store alone on Saturday. With the public’s help, investigators identified the child and his father.
The father, Alejandro Cruz-Cervantes, 36, was arrested and charged with reckless conduct. Authorities said he left the boy by himself and made “no attempt to retrieve the child.”
His 5-year-old son is now in the custody of the Department of Family and Children Services.
Additional charges are possible, according to police.
Photo Credit: Hall County Sheriff
Former first lady Michelle Obama wins her first Grammy
(CNN) — Former first lady Michelle Obama has snagged her first Grammy win for the audiobook version of her best-selling memoir “Becoming.” It’s the third Grammy win for the Obama household.
Obama’s husband won for the audiobook recordings of his memoirs “Dreams of My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope” in 2006 and 2008.
Obama’s win for best spoken word album beat out nominees John Waters and the Beastie Boys, among others. She did not attend the ceremonies.
The text version of “Becoming” has sold millions of copies, and had the longest streak at No. 1 on Amazon for any book since “Fifty Shades of Grey” in 2012. The memoir traces Michelle Obama’s Chicago roots to her time in the White House.
Obama isn’t the only former first lady to win a Grammy for best spoken word album. Hillary Clinton won in 2003 for “Living History.”
Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Stephen King says Oscars are ‘rigged in favor of white people’
Someone give this guy an Oscar for flip-flopping.
Less than two weeks after appearing to poo-poo the need for dedicated diversity efforts when it comes to Academy Awards recognition, best-selling author Stephen King is sounding off on the ongoing need for inclusion in the film industry.
“I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong,” the 72-year-old tweeted Jan. 14, sparking heated backlash from “When They See Us” filmmaker Ava Duvernay and activist-author Roxane Gay.
Cue the cultural mea culpa: The Oscars “are still rigged in favor of white people,” King, 72, now declares in a new op-ed for the Washington Post.
The man whose pop-lit catalog spawned cinematic classics such as “Carrie,” “The Shining” and “Shawshank Redemption” goes on to proclaim that “creative excellence comes from every walk, color, creed, gender and sexual orientation, and it’s made richer and bolder and more exciting by diversity, but it’s defined by being excellent.”
King continues, “Judging anyone’s work by any other standard is insulting and — worse — it undermines those hard-won moments when excellence from a diverse source is rewarded (against, it seems, all the odds) by leaving such recognition vulnerable to being dismissed as politically correct.”
Referencing the initial tweets that sparked online outrage, the “It” author stands by his pronouncement that “judgments of creative excellence should be blind” — but apparently this could only be “the case in a perfect world, one where the game isn’t rigged in favor of the white folks.”
The bottom line, King contends in his column, is that the Motion Picture Academy’s voting body stubbornly remains dominated by white males, citing stats that rank female membership at 32% of voters and members of color at 16% even after the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite forced the academy to adopt diversity reforms.
Still, not everyone in the Twitterverse was buying his newfound enlightenment.
“Came a long way in a week there, Stephen,” tweeted one snarky pundit, summing up the feelings of more than a few social media users.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/01/27/stephen-king-says-oscars-are-rigged-in-favor-of-white-people/
Photo Credit: WireImage
L.A. Landmarks Lit in Purple and Gold to Honor Kobe Bryant
Los Angeles lit up its landmarks in Lakers’ purple and gold Sunday night to honor the legacy of Kobe Bryant.
Aerial video from Sky5 over downtown showed the U.S. Bank Tower and Los Angeles City Hall both bathed in the Lakers’ colors. The Intercontinental Hotel at Wilshire Grand Center also displayed Kobe’s original number 8 in lights on the side of the building.
A purple and gold water show greeted visitors to downtown’s Grand Park and Santa Monica’s ferris wheel displayed a dazzling light show.
Even travelers arriving and departing from LAX couldn’t miss the tribute to the basketball legend, as the iconic pylons were illuminated overnight in the Lakers’ colors.
Bryant played his entire 20-year career with the Lakers.
He won five NBA championships with the club, including back-to-back-to-back titles alongside Shaquille O’Neal in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
“There are no words to express the pain I’m going through now with this tragic and sad moment of loosing my neice Gigi & my friend, my brother, my partner in winning championships, my dude and my homie,” O’Neal said upon learning of his former teammate’s death.
Bryant also won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.
He was killed on Sunday, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
via: https://ktla.com/2020/01/27/l-a-landmarks-lit-in-purple-and-gold-to-honor-kobe-bryant/
Photo Credit: ktla.com
Husband of woman who died in crash that killed Kobe Bryant speaks out about tragedy
“I got three small kids and am trying to figure out how to navigate life with three kids and no mom,” Matt Mauser said of the death of his wife, Christina.
The husband of a woman who died Sunday along with Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash said there are “no words” to describe the tragedy.
“It’s horrible,” Matt Mauser said, holding back tears while talking about the death of his wife, Christina Mauser.
“I got three small kids and am trying to figure out how to navigate life with three kids and no mom,” he said during an interview Monday on the “TODAY” show.
Christina Mauser, 38, was one of seven people, in addition to Bryant, 41, and his daughter, 13, who died Sunday morning in the Calabasas crash. She was the assistant coach for Gianna Bryant’s Mamba Academy basketball team, a job for which Mauser said Bryant personally selected her.
“He picked her because she was amazing,” Mauser said. “I was so proud of her and she was so happy.”
Matt and Christina Mauser, whose three kids are ages 11, 9 and 3, were both teachers working at a small private school that Bryant’s daughters attended. Mauser said he was the basketball coach and his wife was the assistant coach when Bryant noticed “what an amazing mind” Christina Mauser had for the game and brought her on his coaching team.
“He asked her to teach the kids defense,” Mauser said of his wife, adding Bryant said that wasn’t his specialty. “They called her the mother of defense.”
“She was beautiful, smart, funny,” he said of Christina Mauser. “She was incredibly deep … just an amazing person.”
Other victims included John Altobelli, the head baseball coach at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California; his wife, Keri; and their daughter Alyssa. The college, in confirming the deaths, said in a statement that Altobelli had coached there for 27 years.
“John meant so much to not only Orange Coast College, but to baseball,” the school’s athletic director Jason Kehler said in a statement. “He truly personified what it means to be a baseball coach.”
Altobelli led his team to four state championships during his career, and was named the National Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association in 2019.
Kehler said Altobelli, who people called “Coach Alto,” treated his players like family and offered the school’s deepest condolences to the whole family.
Payton Chester, a 13-year-old basketball player, and her mother, Sarah, were also passengers on the helicopter. Calling the crash a “freak accident,” Payton’s grandmother Catherine George told NBC News that “they had to get on the helicopter as a convenience today, they usually drove by car.”
Mauser said he and his family have been trying to avoid watching the news, but when he briefly turned on SportsCenter last night, one of his daughters turned to him and said it was “nice to know everyone was hurting along with us.“
“I’m scared, I think more than anything, I’m a little scared about the future,” Mauser said of his life without his wife.
Article via NBC
Recording Academy announces new diversity initiatives in midst of Grammys scandal
As the Grammys face accusations of lacking diversity and being a “boys club,” the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has announced new initiatives developed in partnership with its Diversity Task Force. Recording Academy Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer Harvey Mason Jr. made the announcement in a message obtained by CNN which was sent to his organization’s members Sunday morning.
“Six months ago, when I put my hat in the ring to be your Chair, I did so because I believed that the Academy could do better — could be better,” Mason wrote in his message. “The music we create has always reflected the best of ourselves and our world. But what was true of music has historically not been true of the music business as a whole.”
“Too often, our industry and Academy have alienated some of our own artists — in particular, through a lack of diversity that, in many cases, results in a culture that leans towards exclusion rather than inclusion,” he added.
According to his message, the Academy has agreed to implement 17 out of 18 initiatives suggested by its Diversity Task Force — which was formed in February 2018 and “made up of distinguished individuals from outside the Academy, to take a hard, independent look at our organization specifically and the music industry as a whole.”
The initiatives include the following:
- The Academy will hire a dedicated diversity and inclusion officer. This person will be hired within the next 90 days.
- The organization will establish a fellowship, funded by the Academy, that will be responsible for independent review and reporting of the progress of the Academy’s diversity and inclusion efforts. This will be in place within 120 days.
- It will create a fund to be distributed annually to different “women in music” organizations that will be managed by the diversity and inclusion officer. This will go into effect immediately.
- The Academy will recommit to meeting all 18 of the Task Force Recommendations as outlined in the full report and in a manner that will endure, with the caveat that we will have a deeper exploration, along with the task force into voting processes for the Grammys.
The Academy is also committing to meeting with the task force to review progress on all of the suggested initiatives with the first meeting happening in 45 days. “The movement to ensure that the Academy — and the music business — is truly representative of artists and their audiences has been going on for a long time,” Mason said in his message to academy members. “And that struggle will continue, not just for women and people of color, but for members of the LGBTQ+ community, for artists struggling to make ends meet, for those suffering from addiction or mental health challenges, for people of all shapes and sizes and backgrounds, and for groups we may not even recognize today.”
The Grammys finds itself in the midst of controversy after its former CEO Deborah Dugan filed a lawsuit last week against the Academy alleging she was wrongfully fired after raising allegations of sexual harassment and irregularities with Grammy nominations.
Dugan says she was put on administrative leave three weeks after she sent an email to the Academy’s managing director of human resources outlining numerous bombshell allegations against the organization and its “historically male dominated leadership,” according to the EEOC complaint.
“The decision to put Ms. Dugan on leave was clearly made in retaliation for her complaint, and came with thinly veiled threats of termination in the event that Ms. Dugan persisted in pursuing claims against the Academy,” the lawsuit says.
The Academy said in a statement to CNN earlier that it’s “curious” that Dugan didn’t raise the allegations until legal claims were made against her by another employee who alleged she “created a ‘toxic and intolerable’ work environment and engaged in ‘abusive and bullying conduct.'”
During an appearances last week on “Good Morning America” and “CBS This Morning” Dugan described the Academy as a “boys club” and its nomination review committees as “mostly white male.”
The new diversity initiatives announcements also come after rapper/producer/mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs took the Academy to task Saturday night during his speech at Clive Davis’ legendary pre-Grammys gala.
“Truth be told, hip-hop has never been respected by the Grammys,”Combs said. “Black music has never been respected by the Grammys to the point that it should be.”
A rep for the Academy declined to comment on Combs remarks.
CNN has reached out to a rep for Combs for additional comment.
Article via CNN
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A Georgia death row inmate who argued a racist juror voted for his sentence has died, attorneys say
A Georgia death row inmate who had argued a racist juror voted to put him to death because he was black has died, according to the Georgia Resource Center. Keith Tharpe died Friday night, likely from complications of cancer, the organization said. He was 61. In appeals following his sentencing nearly 30 years ago, Tharpe’s lawyers pointed to an interview with juror Barney Gattie, who used a racial slur in reference to African-Americans and also questioned whether “black people even have souls.”The US Supreme Court stayed Tharpe’s scheduled execution on September 26, 2017. The court said the death row inmate’s legal team produced a “remarkable” affidavit from a juror that presented a “strong factual basis” for Tharpe’s argument. The court sent the case back to the 11th US Circuit Courtof Appeals, which again ruled against him. The country’s highest court refused to take up the case in 2019. “The courts’ failure to confront the racism tainting Mr. Tharpe’s death sentence remains a stain on the judicial system and calls for increased efforts to eradicate the poison of racism in our criminal courts,” Georgia Resource Center attorney Marcia Widder said in a statement Saturday. Widder was one of Tharpe’s attorneys at the nonprofit organization, which offers free legal representation to prisoners on death row.The center said Tharpe had spent the last years of his life “strengthening his bonds with family and friends, and deepening his Christian faith.” CNN has reached out to the Georgia Department of Corrections to confirm the death.
Juror ‘harbored very atrocious, racist views,’ attorney said
Tharpe was convicted in 1991 for the murder of his sister-in-law, Jaquelin Freeman. Duringthe trial, prosecutors alleged he stopped Freeman and his estranged wife on their way to work, shot Freeman, threw her into a ditch and shot her again, killing her. Then, prosecutors said he raped his wife and took her to withdraw money from a credit union where she was able to call police for help, court documents showed. Tharpe was sentenced to death three months after his conviction. In his appeals, he did not deny killing Freeman but sought a stay of execution based in part on racist comments from a juror who voted to put him to death.Seven years after the sentencing, the Georgia Resource Center conducted interviews with each juror as part of a routine investigation to prepare for a petition. In his interview, Gattie showed that he “harbored very atrocious, racist views about black people,” Georgia Resource Center attorney Brian Kammer said. According to his affidavit, Gattie said, “In my experience I have observed that there are two types of black people: 1. Black folks and 2. “N****rs.”Gattie went on to say in his affidavit, “I felt Tharpe, who wasn’t in the ‘good’ black folks category in my book, should get the electric chair for what he did.” As of 2001, Georgia carries out its executions by lethal injection.”After studying the Bible, I have wondered if black people even have souls,” Gattie said.Gattie later said in a deposition that he did not intend to use the n-word as a racial slur, according to court documents.Following that interview, the state — doing “damage control,” Kammer said — had Gattie sign a second affidavit that undercut his statements to Tharpe’s attorneys, claiming he was drunk at the time he made them.Gattie also had said during jury selection he had no connection to Freeman’s family. But in the same affidavit he made his remarks, he admitted to knowing the Freemans.
Article via CNN
A Nintendo Theme Park is Officially Coming to Universal Orlando
Experience life in the Mushroom Kingdom first hand.
Comcast reps recently confirmed that a Nintendo theme park will be coming to Universal Orlando, following rumors that have been circulating over the past few years. According to USA Today, the upcoming Nintendo theme park is expected to open in 2023 and is part of a massive expansion project that will double Universal Orlando’s size.
The new 750-acre park will venture a few miles away from Universal Orlando’s current location and will employ an additional 14,000 workers on top of Universal’s already-existing 25,000 Orlando-based employees.
Those looking forward to Orlando’s Nintendo park can likely expect similar details to those found at Super Nintendo World Osaka, which is set to open this spring. The park’s Japan location will reportedly offer rides, shops and interactive opportunities that aim to immerse visitors in classic Nintendo games.
An overall immersive experience offered in Osaka will be wearable wristbands called “power up bands” that, along with an app, allow guests to collect digital coins just like Mario and use them to play games against other visitors at the park. “You’re not just playing the game; you’re living the game, you’re living the adventure,” explains Thierry Coup, the senior vice president and chief creative officer at Universal Creative. “Nintendo’s most iconic locations and experiences will be brought to life, including Mushroom Kingdom, Peach’s Castle, an incredible Mario Kart ride, Bowser’s Castle – and more.”
Article via Hypebeast
Cobbler’s thumb cut off during shoe accident, replaced by his big toe
Doctors can do amazing things these days.
After losing his thumb in a horrific shoe repair accident, David Lee thought he was going to lose his job. Fortunately, doctors were able to find a replacement… on his foot.
It was his big toe.
Now, after a long recovery, Lee is cobbling like nothing happened.
Lee, a professional cobbler, was trimming the heel of a shoe last January when his hand got snagged in the machine, SWNS reports. The accident reportedly resulted in Lee’s thumb getting severed from his hand.
“I shouted for someone to ring an ambulance, but I couldn’t see how bad it was. I saw my thumb drop on the floor,” he told SWNS. “I had no pain though. I didn’t look initially as I compressed it with my jumper. I calmly turned the machines in the shop off. Straight away, I knew how bad it was and I just worried that I wouldn’t be able to fix shoes again.”
Lee admits that he “cried my eyes out when I thought about it, as I thought I was going to lose my shop. I was more concerned about that than my thumb because this is my passion.”
Amazingly, Lee says that because it happened so fast, he felt “no pain at all” and was able to turn his machines off. He then “went outside for a cigarette while I waited for the ambulance.”
After being taken to a nearby hospital, he was transferred to the Pulvertaft Hand Centre, at Royal Derby Hospital, where doctors suggested using his big toe to replace the thumb. Lee agreed, saying his main concern was his business.
When asked about his new appendage, he said, “It feels heavy having a toe where the thumb should be.”
Now, after recovering from the injury, Lee is back to cobbling and he’s even able to use his toe-thumb to paint shoes, which he says is a hobby of his.
Article via FOXNews
Selena Gomez Opens Up About Being Emotionally Abused by Justin Bieber
Selena Gomez has endured a roller coaster over the past few years, battling lupus and mental health issues, as well as dating and dealing with breakups in the public eye. She’s come out of it stronger and has a lot to say about it in her recently released album, Rare. In a Jan. 26 interview with NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Gomez opened up about her mental health struggles and suffering emotional abuse when she dated Justin Bieber.
Gomez explained why she needs to “claim my story”
During her NPR interview, when Garcia-Navarro stated, “a lot has happened to you since your last album, Revival, came out in 2015, and a lot of it in the public eye,” Gomez remarked with a laugh, “Right. Super fun.”
The singer shared why she’s been “so vocal” about what she’s been through, telling the interviewer, “people were already going to narrate that for me. I wasn’t going to have a choice because of how fast everything moves now.”
She continued: “And most of the time, yes, it’s not true, or it’s an embellished version of what the truth is. I want to be able to tell my story the way that I want to tell it. And all of these things happened, and I wasn’t going to deny that, I wasn’t going to pretend to put a smile on when it actually was awful — a few of the worst moments of my life. And I don’t know if I would have made it. And that’s medical reasons, obviously, and emotional reasons. I just had to find a way to claim my story.”
Gomez wanted “respectful closure”
In discussing her song “Lose You To Love Me,” Gomez shed some light on dating Bieber. She said of the song: “I’m very proud of it. It has a different meaning to me now from when I wrote it. I felt I didn’t get a respectful closure, and I had accepted that, but I know I needed some way to just say a few things that I wish I had said.”
She continued: “It’s not a hateful song; it’s a song that is saying — I had something beautiful and I would never deny that it wasn’t that. It was very difficult and I’m happy it’s over. And I felt like this was a great way to just say, you know, it’s done, and I understand that, and I respect that, and now here I am stepping into a whole other chapter.”
When the interviewer noted, “saying goodbye to Justin Bieber, who I’m assuming you’re speaking about,” Gomez responded, “You had to get the name in, I get it.”
Gomez admitted she was emotionally abused by Bieber
The singer opened up about the emotional abuse when she shared that she’s “found strength in” the painful parts of her life, adding, “It’s dangerous to stay in a victim mentality. And I’m not being disrespectful, I do feel I was a victim to certain abuse…”
When the interviewer interjected, “You mean emotional abuse?,” Gomez shared, “Yes, and I think that it’s something that — I had to find a way to understand it as an adult. And I had to understand the choices I was making. As much as I definitely don’t want to spend the rest of my life talking about this, I am really proud that I can say I feel the strongest I’ve ever felt and I’ve found a way to just walk through it with as much grace as possible.”
Article via CheatSheet