Cartoon Network and Black-owned animation studio launch awards show honoring Black animators
(CNN) — Cartoon Network Studios is partnering with animation house Black Women Animate to establish the Black in Animation Awards Show.
The online event will be held Sunday and aims to recognize Black creatives who have left a tremendous mark and continue to do so within the field of animation.
“This is a time to celebrate and honor Black creatives who often do not get the recognition that they deserve within the media industry,” said JLove Calderón, the managing partner of Black Women Animate. “Many Black animators have been doing this work for so long and are often overshadowed. This awards show will not only pay respect to them but also inspire the next wave of future Black animators, producers, and creatives alike.”
The inaugural ceremony will be hosted by Grammy-winning artist Estelle, who voices one of the characters on the Cartoon Network series “Steven Universe.” Estelle will perform as well.
“When JLove and I came up with the idea, we were surprised to learn that there wasn’t already a platform to celebrate Black animators yet,” said Taylor K. Shaw, founder and CEO of Black Women Animate.
“This is so important in this moment because we have had a very challenging year, and this year for Black people especially, has not been the easiest. As we think about the way this country and the entertainment industry is going, it’s even more critical that Black folks are being centered and honored for our contributions to the media and animation industry.”
Black Women Animate, also known as BWA, was founded by Shaw in collaboration with Calderón, the organization aims to create content and offer production-related services to other studios and companies within the animation industry.
“The name of our studio is very intentional; it serves as a call to action that our studio is a place to support the rise of Black female talent in animation,” Calderón said. “When we first started, we were told that no one was going to work with us due to our name. Fast forward three years later, when you are focused on authentic representation it makes a greater impact in our content, mission, and influence on the entertainment industry.”
BWA is run by Black female creative professionals and focuses on hiring and creating content produced by minorities.
“We are a mission-driven animation studio it is our goal to create awesome content that is reflective of the African diaspora,” Shaw said. “And while doing that, we want to make sure that we are consciously hiring Black women, women of color, and non-binary people of color. We exist as a studio to amplify creativity and Black talent.”
BWA hopes that the award show and future events the studio is planning can help inspire the next generation of creatives.
“My message to the future generation of creators is you can, and you will,” said Shaw. “And these people that you are watching in the award show are examples of what is possible to become in the field of animation and beyond as well. Keep your dream alive.”
The inaugural Black in Animation Awards show will be broadcast online on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Viewers must register to watch the show at BWA’s website.
via: https://www.kmov.com/cartoon-network-and-black-owned-animation-studio-launch-awards-show-honoring-black-animators/article_b4ded204-1715-559e-a7ae-88a20021f293.html
Photo Credit: Courtesy Kristina Bakrevski
‘I couldn’t save either one of them.’ ICU nurse loses husband and mom to Covid-19
(CNN) — Oklahoma City ICU nurse Lizanne Jennings comforted her husband, Dennis, in the moments before he succumbed to Covid-19.
“Are you ready to be at peace?” she recalled asking him on November 23.
‘He said, ‘Uh-huh.’ And I said, ‘OK. Mom’s fine. She’s back at the house. She’s going to stay with me.’ Because I knew he would keep fighting if I told him my mom had already died. And so they started giving him morphine and Ativan. I turned him over and I rubbed his back. I said, ‘I love you.’ He said, ‘I love you.’ And I said, “You’re going to go now, OK? You can finally be at peace.'”
Dennis took his last breath 30 minutes later, Jennings told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Tuesday. Her mother, Linda, who had also been infected with Covid-19, had died just three days earlier.
“It’s just so raw,” Jennings said in an interview, struggling to keep her composure as her son Brayden placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Sometimes I’m grieving for my husband and then I realize my mom’s gone. And I’m grieving for my mom. I just think … oh, I’m going to go tell Dennis but then Dennis is gone. So the two people that would have been so supportive … you know, they’re both gone.”
The sense of loss leaves her and her two sons feeling like they’re drowning, she said.
“As we go down, we’re trying to push the other one back up to take a breath,” she said. “It didn’t have to be this way…. Our family didn’t have to be gutted.”
Her son Brayden, an attorney, lamented that he couldn’t be there to support his mother when he also became infected.
“It’s kind of like we’re broken, but we’re continuing to break,” he said. “And at that time when I got that positive result that, that took away her support system. They were both in the hospital, and I couldn’t come hug my mom because I couldn’t get her sick.”
Jennings and her son remembered Dennis as strong and “full of life.” Before becoming ill, dad had beaten his son in a pushup contest.
But, months after warning her husband about the deadly virus, Jennings now watched him lying on his stomach in a hospital bed. Moments after he died, she bathed him and cut his hair.
“And then I left him,” she said. “There’s nothing else. I couldn’t save either one of them. If people don’t wear masks, they don’t want to wear a mask… This got brought into our home. My mom never left the house. My husband was so careful. Stop being selfish. Stop being selfish. That’s all.”
In March, during the start of the first wave of the pandemic, Jennings talked to her husband about how much worse things were going to get.
“‘Look at me. This is going to get bad. This is going to get so bad,'” she told him.
“I said, ‘One of us could die and I need you to hear that and I need you to wear your mask and I need you to hand sanitize. And so he did… Mom stayed home for eight and a half months. And so you have people that are doing everything right and we didn’t get to hug my mom and we didn’t go anywhere… And we still lost them. It doesn’t matter how strong you are. People are like, ‘Oh man, Dennis is so strong. He’s going to make it.’ It happens no matter what. The virus keeps winning.”
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/i-couldnt-save-either-one-of-them-icu-nurse-loses-husband-and-mom-to-covid/article_a09de7ea-1a66-5c77-8602-3e0dcceff716.html?block_id=985911
Photo Credit: CNN
Model claims sunbathing vagina for 2 hours a day boosted her libido
A Brazilian model claims that she increases her sex drive with a little afternoon d-light by way of sunning her vagina.
“Nothing better than a morning sun…,” 23-year-old Letícia Martins, who goes by Lunna Leblanc, captioned a nude Instagram post of herself this week in which she displays her naked body, legs spread at the sun.
“Did you know that exposing your private parts to the sun can provide you with more energy, increase your libido, improve circadian rhythm (which regulates the entire functioning of the human body) and still help you get a good night’s sleep?” the bikini influencer continued in Portuguese, ending the post with a question to her 14,400 followers. “What did you think of this experience?”
The majority of comments on the photo, which has racked up more than 1,200 likes since being posted, are mostly fire and heart emojis and comments on Martins’ body, with a few stragglers warning of the sun’s dangers, including its cancer-causing abilities. “If you want to upload more juicy content do it but don’t mess with practices that can be fatal,” wrote one troubled viewer, reprimanding Martins and telling her “don’t mislead your followers.”
Several studies have linked vitamin D to sex drive changes, although Martins doesn’t cite any scientific backing for pointing your genitalia at the sky.
Last year, wellness influencers were gripped by another nude trend involving pointing one’s nether regions at the sky: perineum sunning. Medical experts, however, were quick to dismiss its benefits.
“There is no evidence that sunbathing in this way has any effect on physical well-being,” Dr. Diana Gall of UK-based online doctor service Doctor 4 U told Insider at the time. “Yes, practicing mindfulness and meditation, and getting your dose of vitamin D, is beneficial for mental and physical health, but you don’t need to damage your skin in the process from sun exposure.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/04/model-claims-sunbathing-vagina-daily-boosted-libido/
Photo Credit: Instagram
Virginia boy brings gun to school after grabbing wrong backpack
A 5-year-old boy from Virginia brought a gun to school after grabbing an adult’s backpack by mistake, authorities said.
The boy pulled out the weapon from the bag during class at Anne E. Moncure Elementary School in Stafford on Thursday, the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
School staff immediately confiscated the firearm and called the sheriff’s office.
An investigation revealed the boy had accidentally grabbed an adult’s backpack — which had the gun inside — before he was dropped off at school.
The sheriff’s office said charges against the gun owner are pending.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/05/virginia-boy-brings-gun-to-school-after-grabbing-wrong-backpack/
Photo Credit: iStockphoto
Mom admits to murder of daughter, 5, who drank from her bong and was poisoned by meth
A young mom in Rifle, Colorado, whose five-year-old daughter died after consuming bong water that was infused with crystal meth, has pleaded guilty to murder, The U.S. Sun reports.
The 27-year-old mom, Stephanie Alvarado, could get slapped with up to a 48-year prison term for allowing her daughter, Sophia Larson, to drink the meth-poisoned bong water a year ago.
The mom had been indulging in meth via bong hits with two of her cousins the night of December 10, 2019, when they should have been taking care of her young daughter.
Poor little Sophia got up in the middle of the night looking for a drink of water. She fatefully — and fatally — drank the bong water left behind by her drug-addled mother.
She immediately spat the water out and said “yucky”, but before long began experiencing hallucinations.
Did the mom and her cousins call for medical help after her daughter drank the meth-infused bong water?
No, they went the Christian Science route, praying and reading from the Bible.
The meth-using mom reportedly worried that she would lose her shared custody deal with her daughter’s father if she dialed 911 to report the disastrous bong water mishap.
True Crime Daily reports that Sophia perished the following day.
Prosecutors say Alvarado waited hours to take her daughter to the emergency room, even though she saw her 5-year old hallucinating after drinking from a bottle she didn’t know was laced with methamphetamine.
The disgraced mom will be sentenced on January 29 for her grave mistake in allowing her innocent daughter to fatally imbibe the meth-tainted bong water.
The coroner found that little Sophia had “very, very high” levels of meth in her system after the murderous mom’s daughter died from drinking the bond water.
When the cops sweeped the murder scene, they found small plastic bags filed with white power, as well as pipes and bongs strewn all over the apartment.
There was also evidence that the drug-happy relatives, all of whom, according to Fox Denver 31, have been charged with homicide, had been sniffing drugs: a dollar bill caked with drug residue.
Alvarado’s cousins Daniel Alvarado and Bertha Ceballos-Roma were charged with the girl’s death as well.
“I don’t know how to explain the amount that I miss her, you know. It’s not something that I really have the words for,” said Sophia’s grieving father, Alec Larson, 24, in the wake of her daughter’s death from the meth-infused bong water while she was in the care of her high-as-a-kite mother.
The father attended the hearing where his ex-girlfriend copped to slaying their child.
As for Alvarado, she appeared remotely from the Garfield County Jail.
“She killed my daughter. I don’t see it any other way,” Larson said, according to Metro.
via: https://knewz.com/mom-daughter-meth-bong/?utm_source=nypost
Photo Credit: knewz.com
$60,000 reward offered in shooting death of 1-year-old boy in Washington, DC
(CNN) — Authorities offered reward of up to $60,000 after a 1-year-old was shot and killed in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night, according to police.
The boy, Carmelo Duncan, was in a car when he was shot multiple times, police said.
Preliminary information indicates that a man was driving the car, and there may have been another child passenger, according to city Police Chief Peter Newsham. Neither was injured in the shooting.
It appears that the car had been moving when the shooting took place, Newsham said.
Police officers who arrived at the scene about 9:35 p.m. Wednesday were told DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services had rushed the boy to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead after life-saving efforts failed, the police department said in a statement.
The Metropolitan Police Department is offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible, the police said.
The Washington field office of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has offered an additional $25,000, and the FBI Washington field office has offered $10,000, bringing the total reward amount to $60,000.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called the shooting a “heinous crime.”
“There are no words for the sense of loss that our city will feel when they hear of this heartbreaking tragedy,” Bowser said in a statement.
“We cannot tolerate senseless gun violence, and we must continue to come together to have the tough conversations about what we must do to eradicate it,” she said.
Anyone with information should call the police at 202-727-9099 or text 50411.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the angel we lost, his loved ones, and those who know the agony of this terrible loss,” the mayor said.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/60-000-reward-offered-in-shooting-death-of-1-year-old-boy-in-washington-dc/article_9240e24a-be6b-588f-8159-3f0cc2932a60.html
Photo Credit: Metropolitan Police Department
Male student suspended for wearing nail polish at Texas high school
ABILENE, Texas (KTXS/Meredith) — Remember school dress codes? They’re still a thing, and one student in Texas is taking a suspension to show his school’s rules haven’t kept up with the times.
Clyde High School senior Trevor Wilkinson made a post on snapchat. He was in tears and showing his middle finger during a bathroom break from in school suspension.
“Oh yes, I was bawling my eyes out,” he said.
Wilkinson said he was put in suspension after he showed up to school Monday with his fingernails polished. He said he is being unfairly punished by the Clyde Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) for painting his nails.
“It is a complete double-standard because girls are allowed to have any form of nails they want, and honestly they can express themselves in any way they want,” he said.
For male students, the school district’s handbook says “Makeup and nail polish are prohibited.”
The handbook also says that the student “will be given an opportunity to correct the problem at school, if not corrected the student may be assigned to in-school suspension.”
Wilkinson started an online petition calling for the school to change the policy, garnering thousands of signatures so far. He wrote: “I am a gay male and I’m beyond proud. This is unjust and not okay.”
“You can express yourself in whatever way you please, and that you don’t need to conform to gender norms.”
Clyde CISD declined an on-camera interview, but released a statement to local news outlet KTXS.
“The district appreciates the feedback and input on this issue received from members of the community, and will take this into consideration when it conducts its annual review later this school year,” the statement read.
According to Wilkinson, the principal of Clyde High School told him he had three options. He could enter into virtual learning or he could remove his nail polish and come back to school.
His third option would be to remain in in-school suspension and keep his nails.
“…and that’s exactly what I’m doing,” Wilkinson said.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/male-student-suspended-for-wearing-nail-polish-at-texas-high-school/article_25759c51-baa8-5c3d-8274-5a18de38694c.html?block_id=990844
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Arizona police officer adopts child abuse survivor he met on duty
An Arizona police officer and his wife adopted a 4-year-old survivor of child abuse that he comforted while he was on duty.
Kingman Police Department Lt. Brian Zach met little Kaila when he and his partner got a call to go check on her home back in March 2018, he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
As he and the girl waited for officers from the Department of Child Services to show up, “We colored, we snacked,” Zach recalled.
“She held my hand and she was just this cute little thing.”
Kaila eventually had to be taken to a hospital to be treated for multiple injuries as a result of physical abuse, the report said.
Zach, who is a father to two other children, went home that night and told his wife Cierra about the encounter.
“He shows up, he’s like, ‘I got to hang out with the cutest little girl. She was so awesome,’” Cierra recalled to Arizona outlet KTVK.
Criminal charges were filed against Kaila’s caretakers and, when child protective services couldn’t find any family members willing to take her in, the couple decided to step in.
“She came with a sippy cup, a bag of clothes that didn’t fit her and that was it,” Zach told “GMA.”
The little angel immediately became part of the family and was enrolled in a local charter school, the couple said.
They first went through the foster process with Kaila, and during that time “We lived each week not knowing if she was going to go back to her biological parents, or how long we were going to keep her.
“Our goal was to love and care for this little girl for as long as it happened,” Zach said.
On Aug. 18, more than two years after she came into their lives, the Zachs officially completed the adoption process for Kaila.
The girl is a “character” and loves preschool, animals, dancing and playing.
“She is so comical, she is so witty,” Zach said.
When Kaila first came to live with the family, “she didn’t know how to talk,” the cop recalled.
“And now, she loves to talk,” he said. “She’s happy and she’s flourished.”
The officer told families considering adoption not to be daunted by the process.
“It’s well worth it,” he said.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/04/arizona-police-officer-adopts-child-abuse-survivor/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Gaming-obsessed Australian dad shook his newborn son to death after the innocent baby’s cries disrupted his game
Joseph McDonald, 23, pleaded guilty to child homicide in the heinous 2019 killing of 7-week-old Lucas McDonald in Victoria’s Supreme Court on Friday.
The father confessed to shaking the infant, placing him back in his rocker, then returning to play his PlayStation before falling asleep, 9News Sydney reported.
He faces up to 20 years in jail.
“The noise of Lucas crying because he was in the same lounge room, was interrupting [McDonald’s] game … he couldn’t concentrate on his game,” said Lucas’ grandmother Sharon Mills, according to 9News.
“He couldn’t play his game, so he broke.”
Prosecutors charge that on Oct. 24, 2019, McDonald shook Lucas and used “blunt force trauma” on his son.
“Whether that be by striking Lucas directly to the head or causing Lucas to hit his head on another object … it is difficult to say,” said prosecutor Mark Gibson, according to Australia Broadcasting Corporation.
He then lied to his former partner and the mother of the child, as well as doctors, about what had happened, 9News reported.
When medical scans showed Lucas sustained blunt force trauma and that his injuries could not have been caused by accident, McDonald fled the hospital, the report said.
He ultimately turned himself in to police.
Lucas’ grieving mother said Friday that McDonald does not have a right to call himself a parent.
“He doesn’t have the right to the title of being a dad, as far as I’m concerned, so I think that will be his life sentence,” said Sam Duckmanton, according to 9News.
In court, Duckmanton called her son “perfect” and said she wished she could protect him.
“I was right next door, like if I had just let him do the dishes and I looked after Bubby [Lucas], he’d be alive today. That’s what’s going to eat me and I couldn’t protect him because I trusted Joseph,” the heartbroken mother said, Australia Broadcasting Corporation reported.
“Lucas was innocent and he couldn’t defend himself,” she said.
Duckmanton added, “It’s a coward’s act and you’re his dad, you’re supposed to protect him. To this day I don’t think I’m really ever going to know what was inside of his head at that point.”
The court also heard that in the weeks before he killed his son, McDonald had used his phone to search “anger management Benalla [an Australian city].”
McDonald’s attorney said his client was “deeply remorseful for what he has done,” the local media outlets reported.
“He feels like he should be punished appropriately for what he’s done, whatever that might be,” lawyer Colin Mandy said.
“He has not sought to lay blame at the feet of others, and by his plea, has spared family members the traumatic experience of reliving these events in the witness box,” said Mandy.
Court documents revealed that McDonald had anger issues, often used drugs and was obsessed with gaming.
“His compulsive involvement in gaming was a further trigger for irritability, both when he was confronted about his behavior as well as when he became frustrated with losing a game,” the attorney said.
In court documents, Mandy said the killing was “a spontaneous act of rage,” the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
McDonald is slated to be sentenced at a later date.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/04/gaming-obsessed-dad-pleads-guilty-to-fatally-shaking-infant-son/
Photo Credit: Crime Watch Victoria
California dad arrested after his kids were found decapitated
Two children were found decapitated in their home early Friday, and their father has been arrested on suspicion of their grisly murders, authorities said.
Los Angeles County firefighters responded to a home in Lancaster before 8 a.m. on a report of a possible gas leak and found the headless bodies of a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Police arrested the father, Maurice Taylor Sr., on suspicion of killing his children. He’s being held on a $2 million bond.
Taylor was described as a “mellow” personal trainer who virtually taught his clients from home because of the pandemic.
One of Taylor’s clients told the Times she knew something was wrong when he failed to send a Zoom link for a scheduled session.
“I knew they weren’t out of town,” the client said. “They didn’t have money to travel.”
Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris believes the economy, school closures and being stuck at home may have created a stressful environment for the family.
“The social fabric of the country and the world has been shredded, and we are starting to see the aftermath,” Parris told the Times.
“What I’m seeing is more and more people feeling desperate, and that can only have one result.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/05/california-dad-arrested-after-his-kids-were-found-decapitated/
Photo Credit: nypost.com