MMMM does this has anything to do with Rapper MC STEELE!! Comedian D.L. Hughley was pummeled by critics when his weekend talk show debuted on CNN last fall. Here's an official statement from a rep from CNN, who tells us that it was Hughley's decision to end the show and not specifically related to budget issues:
"D.L. approached CNN about being permanently based in Los Angeles, where his family lives. To accommodate this, we agreed upon a new role where he will be a contributor for the network based in Los Angeles. We are eager to continue our relationship with D.L. who is a tremendous talent and a valued colleague
Days after moving out of Drew Peterson's home, the much younger woman he had called his fiancee said on national TV that they were never really engaged and the marriage plans were "more like a stunt."
On Monday Christina Raines, 24, who broke up with Peterson after the former Bolingbrook cop suspected in the disappearance of his fourth wife and whose third wife died under suspicious circumstances talked about their relationship in an interview with "Nightline" Thursday, told CBS' "The Early Show" that their relationship was "never an engagement, really. ... It was more like a stunt."
Raines said Peterson told her that "his lawyer had wanted him to be in the media and wanted to propose to someone at a restaurant."
Raines said she was hesitant to play along, but Peterson told her:
NEW YORK — With her slight frame and big grin, Sharell Butler still looks like a child. But the 15-year-old has been charged as an adult with killing two men over three days, including one whose dismembered remains were found in a garbage bag.
Butler pleaded not guilty over the weekend to second-degree murder in the deaths of 24-year-old Christopher Umpierre on Dec. 19 and 22-year-old John Hopkins-Drago on Dec. 21. She was being held without bail Monday.
Her attorney, Xavier Donaldson, referred to her as "just a kid" and said she is scared. Her father, James Butler, told the Daily News of New York that he believes his daughter is innocent.
Police say Sharrell Butler and others stabbed Hopkins-Drago at an apartment in the Bronx, perhaps as many as 40 times. A superintendent found the dismembered body stuffed in a garbage can outside a building the same day he was killed.
Hopkins-Drago, who had been adopted from a Russian orphanage by a suburban couple, was estranged from his family and had a history of drug arrests, his brother, Patrick Hopkins-Drago, told the Journal News. He had been living on the streets but had not been reported missing.
According to his brother, the victim was apparently trying to turn his life around this fall, hoping to enroll in classes at Westchester Community College outside New York City.
"He didn't deserve what he got," his mother, Ann Marie Hopkins, told the Daily News. "He's just an innocent kid."
Butler is also facing charges of criminal possession of a weapon and criminally negligent homicide in Hopkins-Drago's slaying. Prosecutors say she had a loaded gun at the time of the stabbing.
Officials said Monday that Butler may have killed Hopkins-Drago because she thought he might talk about the death of Umpierre, who was shot to death after a botched robbery at his apartment in the Bronx.
Authorities believe she and another suspect intended to rob Umpierre, but no one else had been charged in that slaying as of Monday.
Butler's nickname was Lady Red, which authorities say may refer to the notorious Bloods street gang. Butler's attorney denied that his client was involved with gang activity.
Four other suspects were in custody Monday in connection with both deaths, including a 23-year-old man suspected of hindering prosecution.
Hopkins-Drago was killed in the 23-year-old's apartment, but it wasn't clear whether the man was there at the time. Officials said he may have tampered with crime scene evidence. It also wasn't clear Monday what roles the other three might have played in the killings.
The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits. The company has retained Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, to act as its agent to secure financing, either in the form of a mortgage or a sale-leaseback arrangement, said James M. Follo, the Times Company’s chief financial officer.
The Times Company owns 58 percent of the 52-story, 1.5 million-square-foot tower on Eighth Avenue, which was designed by the architect Renzo Piano, and completed last year. The developer Forest City Ratner owns the rest of the building. The Times Company’s portion of the building is not currently mortgaged, and some investors have complained that the company has too much of its capital tied up in that real estate.
The company has two revolving lines of credit, each with a ceiling of $400 million, roughly the amount outstanding on the two combined. One of those lines is set to expire in May, and finding a replacement would be difficult given the economic climate and the company’s worsening finances. Analysts have said for months that selling or borrowing against assets would be the company’s best option for averting a cash flow problem next year.
Standard & Poor’s recently lowered its credit rating on the Times Company below investment grade, and Moody’s Investors Service has said it was considering a similar move. Times Company stock, which has lost more than half its value this year, closed on Friday at $7.64, down 30 cents.
NEW YORK – In a stark acknowledgment of the tough times ahead in the credit card industry, American Express Co. said Thursday that it plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its worldwide work force, in an effort to slash costs by $1.8 billion in 2009.
The New York-based credit card issuer said it is also suspending management level salary increases next year and instituting a hiring freeze.
The job cuts will be across various business units, but will primarily focus on management positions, the company said.
Additionally, American Express said it plans to scale back investments in technology and marketing and business development, and streamline costs associated with some rewards programs. The company also expects to cut expenses for consulting and other professional services, travel and entertainment and general overhead.
As a result, American Express plans to take a restructuring charge of between $240 million and $290 million in the fourth quarter.
The company has been gearing up for a big restructuring for some time, first announcing in July that it planned to reduce overall costs and staffing levels, and take a related charge during the second half of the year.
"We've been engaged for the past few months in an intensive, companywide review of priorities and staffing levels," said Kenneth I. Chenault, chairman and chief executive, in a statement. "The re-engineering program we announced today will help us to manage through one of the most challenging economic environments we've seen in many decades. It will also put us in position to ramp up investment spending as economic conditions improve so that we can take advantage of the substantial opportunities that will be available to us over the medium to long term."
Last week, American Express reported a better-than-expected 24 percent decline in third-quarter profit. But the report echoed recent results from JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Capital One Financial Corp. showing that the credit card environment is worsening as cardholders have trouble paying off debt and pull back their spending.
Even a company like American Express, which prides itself on catering to a more well-heeled clientele, is not immune.
The company's customers tend to be more affluent than those of other card companies, but they are more heavily concentrated in California and Florida, where the slumping housing market is taking a toll. American Express also has a higher percentage of small-business customers, and small businesses tend to miss payments more than individuals, executives have said.
"Cardmember spending is likely to remain soft," Chenault said in a statement last week. "Loan growth will be restrained, in part because of the steps we are taking to reduce credit risks, and credit indicators are likely to reflect the continued downturn in the economy and throughout the housing sector."
American Express has been able to finance its operations amid the tight credit markets, but the efforts have been tougher and more costly.
Shares rose $1.23, or 4.9 percent, to $26.44 in morning trading. Shares have traded between $20.50 and $61.55 in the past 12 months.
DENVER -- A 30-year-old Denver mother has been charged with sexually abusing her 2-year-old son, according Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.
Alicia Lee is free on a $50,000 bond after she was charged with sexual assault on a child, sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, and aggravated incest, all felonies, Morrissey said.
According to the charges, Lee performed oral sex on her son and took photographs, sending them through e-mail to a friend who forwarded them to the 2-year-old boy's father. The father then called police.
NEW YORK — An officer appears to have violated police department guidelines when he used a Taser stun gun on a naked, distraught man teetering on a building ledge, officials said Thursday.
Inman Morales, 35, was pronounced dead at a hospital after his nearly 10-foot fall Wednesday. Police said he suffered serious head trauma when he hit the sidewalk.
Officers had radioed for an inflatable bag as the incident unfolded, but it had not yet arrived at the scene when Morales fell.
"None of the ... officers on the scene were positioned to break his fall, nor did they devise a plan in advance to do so," said chief department spokesman Paul Browne.
The lieutenant who directed the use of the stun gun was stripped of his gun and badge, and the officer who shocked Morales was placed on desk duty as the investigation continues. Their names were not released.
Witnesses and neighbors said Morales had become distraught and threatened to kill himself earlier in the day. When police arrived in response to a 911 call, he fled naked out the window of his third-floor apartment, clambered down to a ledge and began jabbing at officers with an 8-foot-long fluorescent light.
An amateur video posted on the Web site of the New York Post shows one of the officers raising a stun gun at Morales, who freezes and topples over headfirst as the crowd screams.
The man's death renewed focus on the use of stun guns by the NYPD. Thousands of city police sergeants began carrying Tasers on their belts this year after the department expanded use of the weapons. The pistol-shaped weapons fire barbs up to 35 feet and deliver 50,000-volt shocks to immobilize people.
Browne said guidelines specifically prohibit the use of stun guns when the subject may fall from an elevated surface.
(photo&article nypost & MTO)
(UPDATE 10/2/08)Lt. Michael Pigott (pictured below) of the New York Police Department was found dead yesterday, exactly one week after ordering the fatal tasering of an erratic, naked man on a Brooklyn building
TUCSON, Arizona (AP) -- A 19-year-old woman was convicted Friday of murdering her roommate in their University of Arizona dorm room by stabbing her 23 times. Galareka Harrison made no expression as the jury's verdict was read. She was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 18-year-old Mia Henderson, a fellow Navajo tribal member from northern Arizona. She was also found guilty of three counts of forgery and one count of identity theft.
After court recessed, she gave a wan smile, stood up and put on a black coat before being led out of the courtroom by jailers.
oung men who die suddenly after being arrested by the police may be victims of a new syndrome similar to one that kills some wild animals when they are captured, Spanish researchers said on Tuesday.
Manuel Martinez Selles of Madrid's Hospital Gregorio Maranon reached the conclusion after investigating 60 cases of sudden unexplained deaths in Spain following police detention.
In one third of the cases, death occurred at the point of arrest, while in the remainder death was within 24 hours, Selles told the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.
All but one of the casualties were male and their average age was just 33 years, with no previous history of cardiovascular disease.
"Something unusual is going on," Sells said.
Just why they died remains a mystery but he believes young men, in particular, may experience surges in blood levels of chemicals known as catecholamines when under severe stress.
Adrenaline is one of the most abundant catecholamines.
"We know that when a wild animal is captured, sometimes the animal dies suddenly," he said.
"Probably when these young males are captured it is very stressful and their level of catecholamines goes very high and that can finish their life by ventricular fibrillation (cardiac arrest)."
Selles compiled his study -- the first of its kind in any country -- by scouring Spanish newspapers for cases of unexplained death after police detention over the past 10 years.
Only sudden deaths with no clear causes were included and autopsy reports were checked to exclude the possibility of mistreatment or past serious medical conditions.
Twelve of the victims were drug users but Selles said this was not thought to have contributed to their deaths.
Jonathan Halperin of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, who was not involved in the research, said the concept of a heart stress syndrome triggered by a flood of adrenaline or other chemicals was "a reasonable hypothesis."
"We all know stress is bad for you and this may be stress in the extreme," he said.
She may be the oldest murder victim in New York state history.
Police are hunting for the gunman who killed a 100-year-old woman in her home in the Hamptons.
Just over the bridge and off a peninsula from Sag Harbor, the tiny 2-and-half square mile village of North Haven, where residents were stunned to learn of the murder of one of East End's oldest residents.
"Obviously, this type of crime is out of character for the area, but also a 100-year-old woman being shot is unique," said Suffolk County Homicide Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick.
Jessie Burke celebrated her 100th birthday on Aug. 7. Three and half weeks later the matriarch of a well known family here was found shot dead in the back of the head, sitting in a chair in the den of her daughter's home on Payne Avenue.
Police said daughter Jean Burke, a former trustee who was once interviewed on "60 Minutes," discovered her mother's body and called 911.
"People are just shocked," neighbor Glenn Ficorilli said. "Just a quiet community and it is unbelievable to end the summer on a Labor Day like this."
"When somebody like that dies, living in the Hamptons, probably real-estate and family related," neighbor Seth Kelley added.
Police said Jessie Burke had all of her faculties and was quite active on a daily basis.
"Mrs. Burke was quite spry for her age, was alert, did the New York Times crossword every day," Det. Lt. Fitzpatrick said.
Police said there was no break-in, no forcible entry and nothing stolen. Jessie Burke had no caregiver, and leaves behind four children.
Among those being interviewed by police are Jessie Burke's children. Police said they have no suspects at this time.
Detectives are asking anyone with information to contact the homicide squad or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.
A three-metre (10ft) python has killed a student zookeeper who let the snake out of its enclosure in Venezuela while working a night shift at the zoo.
Horrified colleagues at the Caracas zoo had to beat the snake to make it release the body of Erick Arrieta, whose head it was swallowing, local media reported.
Marks on the biology student's wrist suggested the snake had bitten him before crushing him to death.
The intern, 29, had been supervising the section alone when he broke zoo rules by opening the snake's cage, according to press reports.
"The young man underestimated the animal's instinct," said Javier Hernandez, director general of the General Francisco de Miranda Park zoo.
The snake was donated to the zoo two months ago and was not on display.
New York - Investigators say neighbors waited more than a half hour to call police after hearing a woman's screams for help as she was being stabbed to death at a New York City apartment.
Police found 21-year-old Ebony Garcia lying in a pool of blood at about 2:10 a.m Saturday. She was stabbed about a dozen times and died two hours later at a local hospital.
Witnesses say neighbors ignored the woman's screams for more than 30 minutes before someone called the police. One neighbor says she ignored the cries because she thought the victim had been drinking.
Police want to question Garcia's boyfriend. She had obtained a restraining order against him.
"People are coming to work after a long commute, sitting in traffic watching their discretionary income burn up tired of their disrespectful bosses that dont appericate them . They're ready for a fight or just really upset,
The body of Esmin Green, the Jamaican woman who died under questionable circumstances at King's County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, last month, has been flown to Jamaica for burial.
Friends, loved ones and a concerned community said goodbye to her on Sunday, July 5, at a funeral service held at the church where Green worshipped in Canarsie, Brooklyn.
The Jesus Is Lord Sanctuary, a Seventh-day Church of God, was packed to capacity with mourners spilling over into the church yard and the streets.
They shared the tight space with police and members of the international media who turned out to cover the funeral of a mentally ill immigrant who died after waiting more than 24 hours for medical attention which she only received after she was dead.
Condemnation
While praise was being heaped on the deceased inside the church - who was remembered as an animated and generous woman who loved children - strong words of condemnation were being echoed outside for the system and the workers who failed her.
"It's a disgrace knowing that King's County falls within an immi-grant community and I would say some 90 per cent of the workers are immigrants, and for another immi-grant to be treated the way she was is a shame," said Michael Russell, a community activist who is running for City Council.
A security camera, in the emergency room of the psychchiatric ward where Miss Green was waiting to be seen, showed her falling off a chair at 5:32 a.m. on Thursday, June 19 - more than 24 hours after she was brought there by emergency medical service workers. Two security guards at different times peeked at her and one staff member even nudged her prone form, now on the hospital floor, with a foot. But no one assisted her.
An hour after she collapsed, medical staff moved in with their equipment to revive the now-dead woman.
"Those people who saw her and never came to help should be locked up," one of Green's friends expressed with horror.
"She was honest, a prayer warrior, always with her Bible," said another close friend, Pauline Robinson, whom everyone calls 'Miss Cherry'.
Miss Cherry explained that Green was a hard worker who had been laid off and had lost the lease on her rented apartment.
"She can't tek problem," she added, providing a clue to what may have caused her friend's mental breakdown.
Agitated state
Green had stayed with Miss Cherry over the three days preceding her death when she awoke agitated early Wednesday morning, June 18, insisting on calling her pastor, Marilyn Ann Johnson.
It was 4:15 a.m. when she ran off and, as Pastor Johnson later recounted, turned up 4:43 a.m. at the Bishop's residence where the pastor and her husband were staying.
This was the fourth time Pastor Johnson had seen her through a breakdown and once again, attempted to calm her parishioner's agitated spirit and get her medical help.
"She was screaming that her soul was in trouble; that she needs forgiveness and if she don't get forgiveness, she won't have mercy," the pastor explained.
Guarded privacy
Johnson said she guarded Green's privacy during her mental crises because the woman she called "a friend and a sister, a sweet person" was embarrassed about her situation and did not want anyone to know, including her family in Jamaica.
As the community attempts to put together the scenario which led to Green's death, what has emerged is a picture of a woman with a fragile mind, to whom the immigrant life had not always been kind.
In difficult times, she relied on friends and her church family for assistance but when she sought medical help for her fractured mind, she came upon a system with its own fractures and fell through those cracks.
Esmin Elizabeth Green, a dressmaker by training, was 49 years old when she died.
She was born in Lluidas Vale, St Catherine, and was the mother of six - Tecia, Darion, Susan, Tanya, Darryl and Travanis. She also had seven sisters and six brothers.
She started visiting New York in 1995 and moved there permanently in 2000. It was the last time her daughter Tecia saw her alive.
Heartbroken
When she saw her mother again with a handful of relatives from Jamaica, just over the weekend, it was to claim her body and escort her remains home.
The helpless woman that inter-national viewers have come to know via the disturbing videotape of her death is not the woman her daughter knew in life.
"My mother was one of the bravest, strongest women I've ever met in this world," a very tearful but stoic Harrison said to members of the press gathered at her mother's funeral. "My brothers and sisters are heartbroken. They're weeping, especially my brother Darryl. He's 20 years old. He was my mother's big son. They didn't see each other, but they talked a lot on the phone."
Klansman gang leader Tesha Miller was found with a cellular phone in one of his body cavities (rectum) during a routine search of his place of confinement conducted by prison officials yesterday, police said last night.
Miller, who has been in police custody since Friday afternoon, was also found with a cellular charger and Vaseline, the police added.
"The call record on Miller's phone is currently being processed by the police in order to ascertain who he has been in contact with since being taken into custody," a news release from the police said.
Miller, who was charged by the police with four counts of murder and three shootings in 2005, received bail when he first faced the charges. He subsequently absconded bail and fled the island to the United States in the same year. Miller was deported to Jamaica last year by the US authorities and was convicted for absconding bail and served nine months. He has been before the courts since then for the original charges but again was granted bail with specific conditions attached.
He was taken into custody in December 2007 at the Sting stage show in Portmore, St Catherine, again, for violating conditions of his bail. In this instance, Miller was ordered to pay a fine and was granted bail with the same conditions attached.
NEW YORK (July 1) - Video from a surveillance camera at a Brooklyn, N.Y., hospital shows a woman dying on the floor of a psychiatric emergency-room while people nearby ignore her. The video was released Monday by lawyers suing Kings County Hospital alleging neglect and abuse of mental health patients at the facility.
The video shows the 49-year-old woman keeling over and falling out out of her chair on June 19 and lying facedown on the floor, then thrashing before going still. About an hour passed before someone realized what was happening and tried to help.
The agency that runs the municipal hospital - the city's Health and Hospitals Corp. fired several staffers as a result. (45 minutes after she is dead these idiots notice her,that's some foul crap. )
What is wrong with people nowadays. First the people didn't help the man who was hit by the car and just watched him lie in the street and now this. What happened to compassion. To kindness. To giving help to those who need it. Very sad..not 5 minutes, 45 minutes. And we won't count the 24 hours that she was sitting, waiting to be helped by DOCTORS AT A HOSPITAL
Verne Troyer (a.k.a. Mini-Me) is suing the pants off of TMZ for showing footage of him without his tiny pants. Apparently, Mini-Me filmed a sex tape with ex-girlfriend Ranae Shrider (above) and, like any good amateur porn, it was stolen and found its way online. His lawyers claim to have sent several cease-and-desist letters before and after TMZ posted the footage. E! Online reports:
In addition to the gossip purveyor, which just posted the footage yesterday, Troyer has also sued One Night in Paris peddler Kevin Blatt. He claims that Blatt, who's known for his celeb-porn brokering ways, somehow acquired the stolen tape and, according to TMZ, is currently entertaining a $100,000 distribution offer from SugarDVD. Troyer is alleging violation of privacy, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, violation of right to publicity and misappropriation of name and likeness. (click on photo to englarge)
(click to enlarge) CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (June 26) - A millionaire who inflicted years of abuse on two Indonesian housekeepers held as virtual slaves in her Long Island mansion was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison.Varsha Sabhnani, 46, was convicted with her husband in December on a 12-count federal indictment that included forced labor, conspiracy, involuntary servitude and harboring aliens.
The trial provided a glimpse into a growing U.S. problem of domestic workers exploited in slave-like conditions.
The victims testified that they were beaten with brooms and umbrellas, slashed with knives, and forced to climb stairs and take freezing showers as punishment. One victim was forced to eat dozens of chili peppers against her will, and then was forced to eat her own vomit when she couldn't keep the peppers down, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt called the testimony "eye-opening, to say the least - that things like that go on in our country."
"In her arrogance, she treated Samirah and Enung as less than people," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Demetri Jones. "Justice for the victims: That's what the government is asking for."
