Scientists – Corn Rows Will Make You Bald!

Bad news for wearers of this popular hairstyle!

This common style makes your hair fall out, scientists warn

A recent study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine offers evidence that not all hairstyles are created equally. According to a report from UPI, researchers have shown that women who pull their hair back tightly to make braids face a heightened risk of losing their hair later in life.

Scientists reviewed 19 studies and reported finding a strong association between hairstyles that pull the scalp and the onset of traction alopecia – gradual hair loss resulting from damage to the hair follicle. Traction alopecia is caused by prolonged and repeated tension on the hair root.

The study’s authors say traction alopecia is more common in African-American communities where tightly pulled hairstyles are popular – the study found that roughly one-third of African American women suffer from traction alopecia.

According to Dr. Crystal Aguh, an assistant dermatology professor at Johns Hopkins, “Hair is a cornerstone of self-esteem and identity for many people but ironically, some hair styles meant to improve our self-confidence actually lead to hair and scalp damage.” Hairstyles that can lead to traction alopecia include braids, tight ponytails, weaves, dreadlocks and extensions. Chemical treatments also influence the likelihood of traction alopecia.

But the news isn’t all bad – traction alopecia can be stopped and reversed if intervention comes soon enough. Researchers recommend alternating hairstyles between those that create tension on the hair root and those that ease the strain.

 

Couple Buys Car at Auction, Discovers it Was Stolen & Turns it in to Police…Gets arrested.

You buy a car at auction and have it towed home. When it arrives the Tow Truck Driver tells you the car is stolen because of the VIN Number. Being a good citizen, you call the Police, and turn the car over to the Police…For which they arrest you for car theft!

BUSTED: Georgia cop caught extorting couple wrongfully arrested after turning in stolen car

Clayton County, Georgia police officer was fired and placed under investigation after he was caught on an audio recording telling a local couple he could make their arrest “go away,” WSB-TV reported.

The recording by Michael and Michelle Pierce captures former Officer Grant Kidd telling the couple he knew someone in the local district attorney’s office that could help them with their case. For $1,500, he said — $1,000 up front — Kidd would act as a go-between to get the charges against them dismissed.

“You’ll never see him,” Kidd said of his unidentified contact. “You ain’t never going to talk to him.”

The Pierces were arrested and charged with stealing a car they had already turned in to police. According to WSB, the couple originally bought the Toyota Corolla for $1,700 at an auction. After paying for the car, however, a tow truck driver informed them that the vehicle’s identification number showed that it had been stolen.

The couple then notified police and turned the car in, only to get it back three days later when officials returned it. However, police once again impounded the car — with the Pierces’ consent — after a detective said it was wrongfully released to them.

A day later, however, they were arrested inside their thrift store and accused of stealing the car.

“They just threw the cuffs on me and put me in the back of the car,” Michelle Pierce said. “That was the worst thing.”

Shortly after their arrest, Kidd approached the couple and offered his help — for a price. The charges against the Pierces were later dismissed, while their attorney contacted District Attorney Tracy Lawson. Lawson then turned the investigation against Kidd over to federal officials.

Kidd’s former police chief, Michael Register, told WSB the recording captured “a conversation from my standpoint that just turns your stomach.”

Meanwhile, the couple is planning a civil suit.

“Instances such as this undermine public trust and confidence in our judicial system,” said Darryl Scott, who will represent them in the matter. “Their sense of security has been violated, and they did exactly what they were supposed to do by contacting law enforcement and it backfired.”

 

 

KKK Endorses Trump

The head honcho at the KKK, the chief beagle hiss-self has endorsed Trump because they share common views…

‘A lot of what he believes, we believe’ — KKK Grand Imperial Wizard endorses Trump

In an act of audacious reporting Chris Thomas drove out to the Virginia woods (albeit with an unmarked police car following him) where he met with the Grand Imperial Wizard (GIW) of the Rebel Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Or, as the Grand Imperial Wizard continually pronounced it, the “Klu Klux Klan.”

During the interview, the GIW said that the Klan was no longer a “racial” group, but now is “political.”

Thomas asked the GIW if he had an opinion as to who should be president. “I think Donald Trump would be best for the job.” he tells Thomas. “The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes in, we believe in. We want our country to be safe.”

As a consequence of the Klan’s political mission, the group has been blanketing leaflets through central Virginia. The GIW says that President Obama has been good for his organization. “He has been a very good recruiting tool for this organization. And it’s not because he is black. We are more political than racial.”

The GIW is also clear that his organization will never support Ted Cruz, preferring a Kasich presidency. The reason?

“[Ted Cruz] is not an American citizen. Even if I agree with some of the things that Ted Cruz says, I would not support him because he was born in Canada. He is not an American citizen.”

The interviews cover several topics, including what differentiates the Klan from Neo-Nazi “punk thug” Dylan Roof. “He was a Nazi Skin-Head. Neo-Nazis and Skin Heads are socialist. We are not socialist.”

Below is a new sick-trick Donald Trump campaign ad trying to tie Hillary Clinton to the KKK because of her eulogy for Robert Byrd…

 

Faux News Pundit Looking At 40 Years In Jail For Lying

Well, at least one Faux News pundit’s lies have caught up with him. And he is looking at 40 years in the Federal Pen, for lying about having worked for the CIA, and presenting himself to Faux viewers as an “expert” on National Security – supporting the right wing lie machine.

They should hang his ass for treason, along with the Faux News folks who had him on their shows. Typical of the folks Fox brings on as “analysts” and “experts”, this guy had a long criminal record.

Fox News Pundit Pleads Guilty To Faking CIA Ties

He faces up to 40 years in prison.

A Fox News guest terrorism analyst pleaded guilty on Friday to U.S. charges that he fraudulently claimed to have been a CIA agent for decades, federal prosecutors said.

Wayne Simmons, 62, of Annapolis, Maryland, entered the plea in U.S. district court in Alexandria, Virginia, a Washington suburb, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

The plea came in a hearing in which Simmons changed the not-guilty plea he had made in October.

“His fraud cost the government money, could have put American lives at risk, and was an insult to the real men and women of the intelligence community who provide tireless service to this country,” said Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Simmons had appeared on Fox News, the top-ranked U.S. cable television news network, as an unpaid guest analyst on terrorism since 2002.

A grand jury indicted him in October for portraying himself as an “Outside Paramilitary Special Operations Officer” for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1973 to 2000.

Simmons pleaded guilty to charges of major fraud against the U.S. government, wire fraud and a firearms offense. He faces up to 40 years in prison. Sentencing is set for July 15.

Simmons admitted that he defrauded the government in 2008 when he got work as a team leader in an Army program, and again in 2010 when he was deployed to Afghanistan as an intelligence adviser, the statement said.

He said he made similar false statements in a 2009 bid to get work with the State Department’s Worldwide Protective Service.

Simmons also admitted to defrauding an unidentified woman out of $125,000 in a bogus real estate investment. When he was arrested, Simmons illegally possessed two firearms, which he was barred from having because of prior felonies, including a state conviction and two federal firearms violations.

 

Why Conservatives Will Never Win Minority Vote

When your entire basis for an argument is a seines of counterfeit racist stereotypes, wandering in to the La La land of baseless dreams becomes reality.

One more time…It’s the racism, stupid!

This conservative writer draws on the entire list of racist conservative stereotyping drivel, from quoting reliable Uncle Toms like Larry Elder, to “blackwashing” the entire black community with the problems of a small part. Sort of like saying, Dennis Hastert is a convicted child molester. Other Republicans have been convicted of child sexual predation. As such, ALL Republicans are child molesters.

That is conservative racism 101, and the reason 96% of black folks can’t stand to be in the same room as these racist assholes.

Here is an example of a racist conservative trying to delude the Trumpazoids…

How Trump Can Win the Black Vote to Win the Election

In the welter of cable commentary over Donald Trump’s overwhelming victories in the so-called “Acela primary” Tuesday, among the most startling was an aside by CNN’s Van Jones that Trump could win the election if he got just 25% of the black vote. Now this didn’t make the African-American activist who co-founded and is the current president of Dream Corps, a “social justice accelerator,” particularly happy. Nor did or does it please BET’s Tavis Smiley, who has made similar mention of Trump’s possible inroads in the black community. But it’s true.

Donald Trump really could win the general election by being the first Republican in years to gain a significant percentage of the African-American vote. He just has to make a serious and sustained effort, with genuine proposals, to do it. If the attempt is simply self-referential bluster (like bragging about the actually paltry number of Hispanics who voted for him in Nevada) coupled with unspecified pledges of “greatness,” he might as well not bother. It will end up a disheartening misfire that will not only be an insult to his supporters but a continuing — and worsening — wound to our country.

Nevertheless, the auguries for Trump in this area are extremely good, certainly the best in recent years for a Republican,  if he should choose to act upon them. And for the sake of all Americans, he should. In fact, he’d better.

The African-American community is in a miserable condition that has been getting worse for decades and has reached its nadir under Obama — two-parent families disappearing, unemployment rates skyrocketing, incarceration rates catastrophic, drug addiction epidemic. We all look on in despair as gang members shoot children in the streets of Chicago and murders — almost all black-on-black — proliferate in Baltimore after years of decline.

What is to be done about all this? Hillary Clinton will certainly have plenty to say, but it will all be the same old disingenuous bilge. She can’t be part of the solution because she — like the Democratic Party she has served loyally for almost her entire life — is  part of the problem. For reasons of moral narcissism and political expediency, beginning with the Great Society that party has set up a system in black communities that has trapped African-Americans into a non-stop cycle of government dependency, turning them into what talk show host Larry Elder dubbed “victocrats,” believers in perpetual victimhood, a self-fulfilling prophecy, if there ever was one. The #blacklivesmatter movement is only the most recent avatar….Read the rest of this racist drivel here…

 

Deep Sea Human Robot

Currently human deep sea divers can work under the sea at depths of 450′. A few, very specialized dives can work as deep as 750′ for very short periods.

This technology is revolutionary as it lets a remote human operator, with electronic feedback that lets them actually feel objects the submersible robot is holding and see the ocean around them as if they were there. The prototype is capable of operating at 300 Meters, or close to 1,000 ft deep, and undoubtedly as the technology is further developed it will likely go much deeper. This is the very leading edge of robotic, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality Technology – and fundamentally changes the game in terms of underwater exploration, and eventual undersea habitation.

 

 

Jacksonville Cop Beats Handcuffed Drunk Woman While Other Cops Do Nothing

Drunk folks do stupid stuff, as any Cop should be well aware of. This Cop’s reaction to an already restrained woman is ridiculous. Indeed the Department should fire all present for letting this go on.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department fired a rookie deputy on Thursday after video was released showing him brutally punching a handcuffed woman he had pinned to a wall, reports JAX4.

In the video, 31-year-old Mayra Martinez can be seen being punched repeatedly by Akinyemi Borisade as she was being booked into Duval County Jail on charges of trespassing and resisting arrest.

According to police, Martinez was taken into custody after she became drunk and belligerent after she quit her job at a local bar on the first day. The police report states that she battled with officers when being placed in the police cruiser.

In surveillance video taken at the jail, Borisade can be seen placing a handcuffed Martinez against a wall where she she lashed out with her foot twice, attempting to kick the officer. As three fellow officers and another handcuffed suspect stood by, Borisade is seen repeatedly punching the defenseless woman who fell to the ground after the assault as the officers ignored her.

According to Undersheriff Pat Ivey, jail employees brought the video to their superiors leading to Borisade to be fired with prosecutors filing assault charges against him.

“He could have turned her around and held her in a transporting position that they are trained in back over to the location to wait by the door,” Ivey said in a statement. “He could have stood there with her, but there was no need to strike her.”

 

Trump Rally Spawns Violence in California

Looks like the Drumph is going to be in for a rough time in California….

Massive melee erupts outside Donald Trump’s first campaign rally in California

Violence returns as Trump’s campaign hits California’s biggest Republican stronghold — Orange County

Chaos broke out outside of a massive Donald Trump rally in Orange County, California, Thursday night.

The unrest erupted outside the Pacific amphitheater where Trump staged his first campaign rally in America’s most populous state at the Orange County Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.

ccording to ABC News, closer to 18,000 Trump supporters gathered inside as the Republican frontrunner gave the Golden State a tailored spin on his controversial campaign of xenophobia, parading a host of California families whose loved ones had been killed by undocumented immigrant in California and reaffirmed his pledge to build a giant border wall only miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Trump is here to save us all,” said Jamiel Shaw, Sr., whose 17-year-old son Jamiel Shaw, Jr., was killed by an undocumented immigrant in 2008.

Outside, thousands more flooded the streets in protest of Trump and things quickly turned violent in the heart of the state’s biggest Republican stronghold, as the Associated Press reported:

Dozens of cars—including those of Trump supporters trying to leave—were stuck in the street as several hundred demonstrators blocked the road, waved Mexican flags and posed for selfies. Police in riot gear and on horseback pushed the crowd back and away from the venue. … The crowd began dispersing about three hours after the speech ended. …

Earlier in the evening, a half-dozen anti-Trump protesters taunted those waiting to get into the venue. Trump supporters surrounded one man who waved a Mexican flag and shouted “Build that wall! Build that wall!”—a reference to Trump’s call to create a barrier between the United States and Mexico to stop illegal border crossings.

 

“Lucifer in the Flesh”…And Not the TV Kind

Coinciding with a poll resulting in Republicans having the lowest approval rating since 1992 – it seems that even Republicans don’t like Republicans anymore…

Maybe they should pass a separate bathroom law for conservatives?

Here the former Republican Speaker of the House unloads on Ted Cruz.

Boehner: Cruz is ‘Lucifer in the flesh’

The former House speaker also says that he would vote for Trump, and called the two of them ‘texting buddies.’

When it comes to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, even a few months’ time out of Congress has done little to lessen former House Speaker John Boehner’s contempt for his former Capitol Hill colleague.

“Lucifer in the flesh,” Boehner told an audience at Stanford on Wednesday night, according to the Stanford Daily. “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

In fact, Wednesday night was not the first occasion that Boehner has compared Cruz to “Lucifer,” using the epithet last month during a question-and-answer session with reporters at the Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Florida.

Cruz is notorious for his toxic relationship with his congressional colleagues. It turned radioactive in 2013 when the Texas senator played a pivotal role in shutting down the federal government with his high-stakes attempt to defund Obamacare.

Republicans were widely blamed for the historic disruption, and Cruz’s colleagues heaped scorn on him as a result.

The vitriol has waned some, but Trump has gleefully exploited it, maintaining that as the standard-bearer, he can unite the party — unlike Cruz, who has little support among the people who work with him in Congress.

On Thursday, Republican Rep. Peter King seized on Boehner’s comments and again showed he’s not letting bygones be bygones over the shutdown.

“Maybe he gives Lucifer a bad name by comparing him to Ted Cruz,” King said on CNN. “Listen, what John Boehner was most concerned about was Ted Cruz perpetrated a fraud and a hoax when he brought about the shutdown of the government on some kind of a vague promise that he was gonna be able to take Obamacare out of the budget or to end Obamacare.”

 

Hitting the NC Bigots Where it Hurts, NCAA May Pull Basketball Tournament

Non conversation about College Basketball is complete without the mention of two of the sports powerhouses, University of North Carolina, and Duke University. One of the reasons I am an ACC Fan, besides being an Alumni of a ACC School, is their go anywhere, beat you like a dime store guitar attitude, risking early season losses by playing against schools from the other majors like the Big East and the Big Ten – and one or more teams making the trek to Rupp Arena to take on SEC Powerhouse Kentucky. Something perennial sports writer favorites in the Big 12, and some pother leagues don’t do, usually resulting in being overrated and an early exit at the season ending tournament.

Tobacco Row is about Basketball. And, in recognition of the huge fan interest in North Carolina, the NCAA regularly schedules one of their regional competitions there, garnering several hundred million dollars for businesses in the State.

The effect of the NCAA effectively pulling their tournament out of the state could, in conjunction with private corporations pulling out operations, or events in the state, push the damages done to the state economy by the sanctimonious NC Republican bigot brigade over $1 billion and counting…This is hurting the state, which has a thriving high tech industry based around the Universities, as well as having become a major banking and insurance company haven – and those companies ability to attract highly qualified LGBT or straight people, who don’t want to live and work in a right wing theocracy where bigotry is legalized.

Did an article earlier abut the CBC. Why exactly aren’t they proposing a bill to cut off federal funding in states which pass this type of laws?

NCAA Joins The Fight Against North Carolina’s ‘Bathroom Law’

Now, we can only hope that “lawmakers are listening.”

Citing the need to maintain a “safe, healthy” atmosphere for both the players and the public, the NCAA doubled down on its anti-discrimination stance on Wednesday, approving a new decree mandating that all sites that hope to host NCAA events “demonstrate how they will provide an environment … free of discrimination.”

“The higher education community is a diverse mix of people from different racial, ethnic, religious and sexual orientation backgrounds,” chair of the NCAA Board of Governors Kirk Schulz stated. “So it is important that we assure that community— including our student-athletes and fans — will always enjoy the experience of competing and watching at NCAA championships without concerns of discrimination.”

The decision comes in the aftermath of the highly controversial Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act (HB2), which, among other discriminatory measures, forces transgender people to use the bathroom that accords with the “biological sex” on their birth certificate, not the restroom that matches the gender with which they identify.

The law directly affects public schools, thus ensnarling the NCAA in the debate.

Home to two perennial hoops powerhouses, the state of North Carolina is a common host for the annual men’s NCAA tournament. And while Greensboro was slated to hold opening round games next year, the site will now have to indicate how exactly its arena plans to “protect[] against discrimination” and ensure that all present will be “treated with fairness and respect” before the NCAA sets up shop come March 2017.

“The NCAA has sent a very clear message that unfair and unjust discrimination against LGBT people will not be tolerated by the association, and we hope lawmakers are listening,” Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin stated Thursday in response to the association’s decision. “We commend the NCAA Board of Governors for taking this critically important stand in favor of fairness and equality.”

This latest mandate falls in line with other, similar anti-discrimination postures the NCAA has taken in the past. For example, schools cannot host championship events if their “nicknames use Native American imagery that is considered abusive and offensive,” while predetermined neutral sites cannot host championship eventsif their respective state governments “display the Confederate battle flag.”

North Carolina prides itself on its long legacy of dominance on the hardwood. Let’s hope that the Association’s stand helps the state and its elected officials realize the importance of reversing HB2.

 

How the CBC Became Irrelevant

The Congressional Black Caucus is one of he most reliably Democrat organizations in politics. This has created a “go along to get along” mentality, which often fails to serve the black community has too often been the operational motif of the CBC. Part of that is due to a generational gap between the membership in the CBC and groups and organizations in the black community increasingly started and led by millennials, The other part of that dysfunction has to do with the Faustian bargain with conservative Republicans which essentially created “Black Zones”, principally concentrated in urban areas. A long term loosing proposition because of gentrification, and black flight to the suburban areas. Leaving the largest population of black folks in the US without representation, as black lawmakers respond to a steadily decreasing urban base, and urban issues.

On the flip side, the artificial gerrymandered whitening of the Districts surrounding urban areas provides ample fodder for white Republican candidates who cannot win in a district with above 20% minority population, and who are either diametrically opposed to the black/minority community, or see no political interest in serving it’s interests. Encouraging racial politics, and enabling a Republican majority in the House far beyond what any general vote totals would accord. The most egregious recent example of which is North Carolina.

The result of this is that the CBC ill serves those groups of black folks who either don’t live in the urban center, or whose educational, economic, and professional interests extend beyond asking for a welfare check. Ergo the very people driving black economic empowerment and inclusion into the social fabric of the nation. The very people who are the center of Color of Change and the BLM movements.

Another day, another Gala…

The Increasing Irrelevance of the Congressional Black Caucus

The group has failed to connect with young voters, which is not a good sign for its future.

On January 25, 1972, Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, announced her candidacy for president in a stump speech that sounded very much like those of today’s presidential candidates. Shetold the Brooklyn crowd, “I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests. I stand here now without endorsements from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop.” She also stood there without the support of the Congressional Black Caucus, which she helped found the previous year. The reason? Some of the CBC’s members thought Chisholm’s focus on gender and outreach to other groups subverted the caucus’s mission and explicit focus on race.

Four decades later, Representative Donna Edwards sought to become the first black senator from Maryland and only the second black woman ever elected to the body. Like Chisholm, she also did not enjoy the explicit support of the CBC. Edwards confronted CBC members, and they cited her “difficult nature” and failure to establish good relationships as reasons for not endorsing her. On Tuesday, Edwards lost her bid for the Senate seat in a close primary race that may have turned out differently if she’d received the endorsement from more members of the nation’s most powerful body of black legislators.

Among young African Americans, there is a growingsense that there are significant generational differences with the CBC and that the organization may have lost its conscience. Hillary Clinton has taken heat for the 1994 crime bill that led to the disproportionate incarceration of black people, but the bill was only assured passageonce the CBC withdrew its opposition. CBC members have clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters. And activists have criticized the CBC Political Action Committee, a separate but associated group, for the board’s ties to private prisons and big tobacco.

While some of these criticisms are valid, there is little question that the CBC is of immense value to African Americans and the nation at large. For decades, it’s been the organ through which the concerns of black Americans have entered the halls of Congress and the means by which policy victories have been delivered for disenfranchised minority communities. There is simply no doubting that the interests of black America remain central to the caucus’s aims. But there is also little doubt that the black electorate is changing, and the CBC will have to keep pace with this evolution if it wants to remain relevant to black Americans…

Protest is very much a part of the CBC’s character—many of today’s CBC members are contemporaries of the civil-rights movement. It would seem that today’s protest movements would be fertile ground for CBC goals. But many of today’s black activists are not as interested in what they see as respectability politics or dressing in their Sunday best for protests like their civil-rights-era predecessors. They are taking the stage whenever they choose and demanding that presidential candidates hear them. They are challenging leaders from previous generations, and some of those leaders don’t necessarily like it. In the black community, where eldership is revered, the boldness of today’s protesters has rubbed some CBC members the wrong way. Many black activists don’t care; they are less concerned with paying homage to elected officials and more interested in expedient policy outcomes…Read the Rest Here…

 

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Pretend Cop Gets Manslaughter In Eric Harris Murder

Some justice served here, even if it wasn’t what he should have gotten for a sentence…

Tulsa pay-to-play reserve deputy Robert Bates found guilty of manslaughter

Tulsa Rooter Tooter Pretend Cop, Robert Bates

The Oklahoma volunteer reserve deputy who fatally shot an unarmed suspect being subdued by regular deputies last year was found guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday by a jury that recommended he serve the maximum of four years in prison.

Prosecutors told jurors that Robert Bates, 74, an insurance executive who volunteered as a reserve sheriff’s deputy, deserved to be sent to prison for thrusting himself into the situation when there were several qualified deputies on the scene who could subdue the man.

It took the jury about three hours to reach a verdict.

Lawyers for Bates contended that he mistakenly thought he had a Taser in hand when he shot Eric Harris, 44, not realizing he had a pistol.

Bates is white and Harris was African-American. The shooting, captured on video, was one in a series that raised questions of racial bias in U.S. policing.

Harris was fleeing from deputies last April in Tulsa during a sting targeting illegal gun sales.

“You can expect human error,” defense lawyer Clark Brewster told the all-white jury. “It is not a mistake one goes to prison over.”

Prosecutor Kevin Gray told jurors in closing arguments that Bates made the decision to leave his car, join the deputies and draw a weapon on Harris, who was on the ground.

“People make mistakes all the time, but to equate the shooting of Eric Harris with that is absurd,” he said.

In a video seen previously in the media and played in court at the start of the trial a week ago, a Tulsa County deputy subdues Harris and a voice identified as Bates’ says, “Taser, Taser.”

A gunshot is then heard. A man Oklahoma authorities identified as Bates is heard saying “Oh, I shot him. I’m sorry.”

Harris is heard screaming, “He shot me. Oh my God.”

A deputy replies, telling Harris to “shut up,” and shouts a profanity at him.

Harris, who said in the video he was having trouble breathing, later died at a Tulsa hospital.

 

Billy Paul – 1936-2016

Philly R&B Crooner Billy Paul, whose hit single “Me and Mrs Jones” was a huge hit has passed.

Billy Paul, soul singer best known for Me and Mrs Jones, dies

Billy Paul, the soul singer best known for the number one hit and Philadelphia soul classic, Me and Mrs Jones, has died aged 80.

Paul, whose career spanned for more than 60 years, died at his home in Blackwood, New Jersey, his co-manager, Beverly Gay, told Associated Press. Paul, 80, had been diagnosed recently with pancreatic cancer, Gay said.

Known for his beard and large glasses, Paul was one of many singers who found success with the writing and producing team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, whose Philadelphia International Records also released music by the O’Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, and Lou Rawls.

Martha Reeves, the Motown singer, was among those who paid tribute on social media.

Me and Mrs Jones, which reached number one in the US at the end of 1972 and number 12 in the UK, was an extramarital confession and a characteristic Gamble and Huff production, setting Paul’s thick tenor against a lush and sensuous arrangement. Many fans best remember the moment when Paul’s otherwise subtle vocals jump as they reach the title words, stretching out “Me” and “And” into multiple syllables and repeating “Mrs Jones, Mrs Jones, Mrs Jones.” (Paul himself was married to the same woman for decades).

Paul’s voice made him “one of the great artists to come out of Philly and to be celebrated worldwide”, Gamble and Huff said in a statement late Sunday.

“Our proudest moment with Billy was the recording of the salacious smash Me and Mrs Jones. In our view, it is one of the greatest love songs ever recorded,” they said.

My favorite cover of Paul’s hit song was by the Dramatics in the Old Style of group R&B…

 

Van Hollen Beats Edwards in Democrat Senate Primary in Maryland

The establishment Democrats won out last night in Maryland, where old-line Democrat favorite defeated fiery upstart Donna Edwards in a bruising Primary Race with racial undertones. Not that Von Hollen isn’t a good guy, or a great candidate – it is just his willingness to cave to the Republican Reich with the other Yellowback Donkeys.

Van Hollen wins Maryland Democratic Senate primary

Rep. Chris Van Hollen has won the Democratic primary to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski in Maryland, defeating Rep. Donna Edwards tonight.

Van Hollen had 56 percent to 37 percent for Edwards with 14 percent of precincts reporting, when The Associated Press called the race. (See results here.)

Van Hollen had the support of Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and many of Maryland’s prominent elected Democrats, but Edwards’ campaign won strong support from African-American voters and EMILY’s List, which spent millions of dollars on her behalf. Van Hollen’s own campaign significantly outraised Edwards, though.

Van Hollen is unlikely to face a serious general election challenge in deep-blue Maryland.

 

 

Pirate Radio is Back

In the 60’s and 70’s there were a number of Pirate Radio Stations in the US – especially in New York City, where the maze of buildings, and low power transmissions typically limited the area in which the station could be heard to a few blocks. In those days, many of the Stations were either black, of broadcasting alternatives to the “Top 40” repetitive format broadcast by the licensed stations. Driving though New York you could pick up a marvelous tapestry of music you could never hear on commercial radio, as well as local talk shows dealing with issues in a specific community.

Starting with WHUR (Howard University Radio) in Washington DC, there was a 5 year trend to broaden the spectrum of music on the airwaves by licensed stations. HUR rocked the industry initially with a format that mixed every genre of black music in a commercial free format. The station was forced by economic needs to cave to commercial advertising in 1976, ending the fabulous experiment, and significantly narrowing the station’s playlist and style.

A Pirate Radio Station can be pretty small, and set up on a low budget.

With the elimination of local ownership rules by Republicans under Raygun, there was a massive consolidation of ownership of stations across the country, enabling behemoth’s like Clear Channel to own the majority of the airwaves, the rise of right wing talk, and the homogenization of playlists across the country. The consolidation killed local music, as well as the regional flavor of music across the country. Those appreciating music from the pre 80’s era will remember Atlantic Records and Southern Soul, Motown with it’s distinctive sound, and Philly Soul among others. Driving from region to region often presented an entirely different group of artists and sound palate. A combination of radio ownership consolidation, which was driven principally for political reasons, and the MTV-ization of America destroyed this creative landscape. And in the age of Hip-Hop – there are still some regional distinctions – to the exclusion of anything else.

Today’s Pirate Stations are driven principally by Immigrants, who are largely locked out of the broadcast community by a combination of cost, and audience size. Digital Broadcast Radio, once seen as a panacea for broadcasting is largely dead due to poor broadcast capabilities resulting in an inability to lock on to a station (poor coverage, much like the Digital TV failure), and the need for specialized equipment. Broadcast over the Internet has become hugely popular, but for poor communities, begs the issue of being able to afford an Internet Connection in the first place.

In Internet age, pirate radio arises as surprising challenge

In the age of podcasts and streaming services, you might think pirate radio is low on the list of concerns of federal lawmakers and broadcasters. You’d be wrong.

They’re increasingly worried about its presence in some cities as unlicensed broadcasters commandeer frequencies to play anything from Trinidadian dance music to Haitian call-in shows. And they complain the Federal Communications Commission can’t keep up with the pirates, who can block listeners from favorite programs or emergency alerts for missing children and severe weather.

Helped along by cheaper technology, the rogue stations can cover several blocks or several square miles. Most broadcast to immigrant communities that pirate radio defenders say are underserved by licensed stations.

“The DJs sound like you and they talk about things that you’re interested in,” said Jay Blessed, an online DJ who has listened to various unlicensed stations since she moved from Trinidad to Brooklyn more than a decade ago.

“You call them up and say, ‘I want to hear this song,’ and they play it for you,” Blessed said. “It’s interactive. It’s engaging. It’s communal.”

Last year, nearly three dozen congressional members from the New York region urged the FCC to do more about what they called the “unprecedented growth of pirate radio operations.” So did the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, which said pirates undermine licensed minority stations while ignoring consumer protection laws that guard against indecency and false advertising.

The New York State Broadcasters Association estimates that 100 pirates operate in the New York City area alone, carrying programs in languages from Hebrew to Gaelic to Spanish. Many also broadcast in and around Miami and Boston; FCC enforcement data shows agents have gone after at least one pirate in nearly every state in the past decade.

The FCC has been discussing possible solutions, such as penalizing pirate radio advertisers, and last month urged landlords and government officials to look out for rogue broadcasters.

The alleged pirates include Jean Yves Tullias, a barber living in Irvington, about 15 miles from New York. The FCC claims he appropriated an unused frequency to broadcast his show, which includes church services, gospel music and a call-in program for fellow Haitians.

Tullias denies any wrongdoing. Cutting hair recently at his barbershop, he said a friend broadcast his Internet radio show without telling him he used a pirated frequency.

Tullias, 44, started his show because the local Haitian community “had no communication, nobody to help them,” he said.

“When you get that radio station, that prayer line, you feel comfortable,” he said of older listeners who speak little English and feel isolated. “You feel happy.”

Broadcasters are increasingly concerned because the FCC has gone after fewer pirates in recent years. The commission issued more than 100 warnings and fines against alleged pirates last year, compared with more than 400 in 2010.

That number fell despite a “significant increase” in the number of pirate stations, tallied by David Donovan, president of the New York State Broadcasters Association.

Donovan said the signals interfere with the Emergency Alert System, which relies on a phone-tree-like chain of stations listening to one another. Listeners also can’t hear the alerts, he said.

In his response to lawmakers’ concerns, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler cited a stagnant budget and its smallest staff in 30 years. Fines and seizures are not enough, he added, because pirates often refuse to pay and quickly replace transmitters and inexpensive antennas.

For about $750, pirates can buy equipment to broadcast at a range of at least 1 or 2 miles, experts say….More Here…