50 Cent, Boxing, Oscar De La Hoya
(Photo: Sergione Infuso/Corbis via Getty Images)
by Sharelle B. McNair

July 12, 2024

50 Cent’s Humor & Harmony Festival Denied Outside Liquor Permit By Louisiana City Council 

Isn't too hot to drink outside anyway?

Rapper 50 Cent’s upcoming Humor & Harmony Festival hit a major roadblock as the Shreveport city council voted against allowing public alcohol consumption at the event, KTBS reports. 

The 5-2 vote for Resolution 109 received mixed reviews from council members, some of whom raised concerns about safety. Others felt the denial would have economic consequences. Councilman Gary Brooks expressed issues with clean-up and security and what the overall benefit would be.

“I don’t see any tax benefit from people drinking outside,” Brooks said. “I just don’t see this being a good idea at all.”

The plan proposed by Councilwoman Tabatha Taylor would have allowed the open container zone to extend to the Red River District, consisting of Stageworks of Louisiana and Independence Stadium, during the upcoming festival. The festival is scheduled for August 8-11, with an estimated 60,000 visitors attending. 

According to KSLA, Taylor said outside alcohol consumption is typical for the city so it wouldn’t be a problem at the Humor & Harmony Festival.

“We’ve passed an open container regulation,” she said. “We’ve done amendments and ordinances to suspect the rules for alcohol 215 plus times since 2010 with the city of Shreveport administration, so I thought with the number of people that were coming into the City of Shreveport that this would be a workable plan because we’ve done it before.” 

“I just think that sometimes fear, false information appearing real, you know, let’s see if it works. If it doesn’t work, then we have a capable police department that can take care of whatever,” Councilman James Green said. “And I know they can take care of four blocks.” 

Other council members like Ursula Bowman wanted to make sure the crowd can control be controlled “and the crowd doesn’t control us.”

The proposed open-container zone would have gone into effect from 5 p.m. on Aug. 8 to 3 a.m. on Aug. 9. City Attorney Marcus Edwards said at least 10 vendors were scheduled to sell alcohol in the zone if the measure passed. Since the resolution did not pass, festival participants will have to finish their drinks at Stageworks prior to walking outside to stay in compliance.

Bahamas
(Getty Images)
by Stacy Jackson

July 12, 2024

Family Of Woman Who Went Missing In The Bahamas Demands U.S. Involvement

Taylor Casey's mom says her transgender daughter has been missing in the Bahamas for three weeks and demanded U.S. officials intervene.

The family of Taylor Casey, a Chicago woman who went missing in the Bahamas, is urgently appealing for the involvement of U.S. officials in the investigation.

On Casey’s 42nd birthday, her loved ones held a press conference demanding action from federal authorities. The woman’s mother, Colette Seymore, shared that her daughter had been missing for three weeks.

“Please help us find Taylor. I just want the senators to light a fire under the people in the Bahamas feet so they can correctly search for my child and help to bring my child home,” Seymore said. Casey went missing in the Bahamas during a yoga retreat and was last seen on Paradise Island on June 19, BLACK ENTERPRISE previously covered.

The family has urged U.S. officials to intervene with Bahamian authorities. During Thursday’s news conference, Emily Williams, Casey’s close friend, stated, “If we don’t have answers, we’re going to keep pushing…That’s why we’re calling on the senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, to put pressure on the State Department to tell the Royal Bahamian Police Force to get the FBI down there right now and find Taylor.”

Seymore expressed deep concern over the apparent lack of progress in the investigation during a Monday appearance on News Nation’s “Banfield” podcast. She voiced her apprehensions about potential bias affecting the case’s handling, citing her daughter’s identity as both Black and transgender. “I feel like my child had two strikes against her when she went to the yoga retreat. One is that she’s Black, and the other is that she’s transgender,” Seymore said.

According to NBC News, Sen. Durbin’s office acknowledged the distressing nature of Casey’s disappearance in the Bahamas, emphasizing the importance of continued U.S. cooperation with Bahamian authorities.

However, conflicting information has emerged regarding FBI involvement. While Bahamian National Security Minister Wayne Munroe suggested FBI advisory participation, the U.S. Embassy reportedly told the family that the FBI was not involved.

While no evidence of foul play has been indicated since Casey went missing in the Bahamas, the woman’s phone and journal have been recovered, and several of her belongings remained in her tent at the retreat. However, her passport has not been located.

Angel Reese, Women’s Sports, Togethxr
(Photo: John Mac, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 12, 2024

Angel Reese Extends Double-Double Streak In Front Of Record Crowd At Barclays Center

'The basketball gods keep blessing me. I don’t even know how I did that.'

Angel Reese has extended her record-breaking double-double streak to 15 games. The Chicago Sky rookie scored 10 points and collected 10 rebounds in the team’s 91-76 road loss Thursday, July 11, to the New York Liberty.

The “Chi Barbie” continues to have an excellent rookie season, although she admittedly didn’t have a great game. “The basketball gods keep blessing me,” Reese said. “I don’t even know how I did that. I didn’t have a great night tonight, obviously.”

The game against the Liberty proved to be a challenge for the WNBA rookie, with Reese nabbing her 10th rebound with 2:12 left in the game.

“She goes hard, she’s not out there for records, she’s out there for wins,” Chicago head coach Teresa Weatherspoon said. “She puts in the work, it just so happens every time you look at the stat sheet there she is again with a double-double. I’m sure she’d want the win more than just the double-double.”

Reese is in contention for the league’s Rookie of the Year Award. This week, she was the first rookie this season to win the WNBA Player of the Week. In week seven of the WNBA season, the former LSU star averaged 16.8 points, 14 rebounds, and 1.2 assists. She was also named to this month’s All-Star Game in Phoenix. 

Reese was named WNBA Rookie of the Month in June when she averaged 14.5 points and 13.2 rebounds per game and had double-digit rebounds in all 11 games. After her record-breaking performance in June, she now leads the league in rebounding with 11.4 a game.

Thursday’s game broke the previous home attendance record for the Liberty. Earlier this season, the team faced another star rookie and Reese’s nemesis, Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever. A record 17,758 people at Barclays Center witnessed Reese continue her double-double streak.

MGM Grand, Black Jack, casino
(Photo: Bob Owen/Flickr)
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 12, 2024

Detroit Woman Denied $127K Jackpot by MGM Grand for ‘Trespassing’ Now Suing Casino

Denise Ezell claims she's been going to the casino regularly since 2015.

A Detroit woman won a $127,000 jackpot while playing progressive blackjack at the MGM Grand in Detroit last October. It’s July, and she still hasn’t received her winnings, so she is suing the casino.

According to the Detroit Free Press, 65-year-old Denise Ezell thought she was walking out of the casino she frequented with her winnings but remarked, “I walked out of there penniless.”

In the lawsuit, she stated that she and a friend were at the venue when she won a side bet while playing progressive blackjack on October 30. She was then told by the casino that she would not be getting any money because she was trespassing.

Although she had visited the place every week since 2015, she said she was never informed that she was a trespasser.

“I had no clue as to what the hell they were talking about!” Ezell said. “Do you think I would have gone down there and spent my money for eight years, knowing I was trespassing?”

She was told that it was from an incident that took place in 2015. The casino accused Ezell of panhandling and ordered her out of the building. She said it was a misunderstanding. Ezell attended that day with her cousin. When they gambled together, if one ran out of money, the other would supply the one who needed it with some cash. She was on the losing end and asked her cousin for some money and was rejected, which led to the two of them arguing.

“A security guard came up and said, ‘You’re bothering this patron,'” Ezell recalled. “I said, ‘This is my god—- cousin.'” But, the security guard didn’t believe her and allegedly told her: “‘You have to leave. You’re panhandling.'”

After leaving, she said she was never given notice that she may have been banned from the casino. She claimed she returned to the MGM Grand two weeks later and has been a regular since.

On the night she won the jackpot, she said people were congratulating her when the pit boss approached her and requested a player’s card or her driver’s license. She was then informed that she wasn’t eligible to take home the money.

Ezell’s attorney, Ivan Land, said, “We wasted three months trying to get action.”

“They allowed her to gamble there and spend her hard-earned money for eight years, and then, when she hits the jackpot, they run this crap, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t be here in the first place?'” Land said. “We know the casinos always win.”

CNN
(Photo: Ayush/Flickr)
by Sharelle B. McNair

July 12, 2024

CNN Eliminates ‘Race and Equality’ Team As Part Of Layoffs

So much for diversity and inclusion...

The Race and Equality team at CNN no longer exists after the network’s “newsgathering operations restructure,” Phil Lewis reported in his What I’m Reading newsletter.  

CNN’s new chief executive, Mark Thompson, announced the news on July 10. One reporter was laid off. The other two were reassigned to different departments in the newsroom. 

The award-winning team produced coverage on Black maternal mortality, police brutality, and other topics pertinent to Black viewers. In 2020, a memo by former CNN president Jeff Zucker, who created the team, hailed it as a “significant, sustained commitment to ensure race coverage is a permanent part of our journalism.”

“The recent conversations we’ve had in our newsrooms have been informative and constructive. We have valued them, we heard you, and we will continue listening,” the memo read. “There are structural changes and investments we can and will make to better cover what is happening in our society. We are committed to doing that.”

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, segmented by the killing of George Floyd, a number of companies and media organizations, including CNN, made a pledge to fight against what was labeled a “racial reckoning” by examining internal policies and making donations to civil rights organizations. 

According to the New York Post, a spokesperson claimed the team was still employed as a mission-oriented unit, but later recanted.

“For all intents and purposes, the team is not a team anymore,” the spokesperson said. “They’re assigned to different areas so that their perspective and work [are] brought into all of our types of programming. It’s not a unit in the way it was before, but race and equality is very much still their focus.”

CNN’s laid off nearly 3% of the workforce, or 100 employees, including high-profile names like media critic Brian Lowry and senior tech writer Samantha Murphy Kelly. The network made headlines in 2023 after firing star anchor Don Lemon after 17 years. Rumors of Lemon leaving the network came after former CEO Chris Licht wanted to pull news coverage back to the center, catering to both sides of the spectrum regarding specific topics.

Under Thompson’s leadership, CNN will roll out its first-ever subscription product for the website. The subscription offerings will be “want to use” content produced by lifestyle journalists.

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DeRay Mckesson, Lawsuit, First Amendment Rights
(Photo: Jay Godwin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
by Shanique Yates

July 12, 2024

Landmark Ruling In DeRay Mckesson Lawsuit Protects First Amendment Rights

A landmark ruling in the case against prominent civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson upholds that a protest organizer cannot be held responsible for another person's violent actions during the time of the rally.

Civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson will not be held responsible for injuries inflicted upon an officer during a 2016 protest, upholding his First Amendment rights.

On July 10, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana ruled in favor of Mckesson and, in turn, changed the landscape around a person’s right to protest. The court held that, legally, a protest organizer cannot be held responsible for injuries inflicted by another person’s violent behavior at the time of the outcry. 

After an officer was injured during a protest organized by Mckesson to honor the life of Alton Sterling, the Black man shot and killed by two on-duty officers, on July 9, 2016, a lawsuit was filed against the prominent civil rights activist, claiming that he was a “negligent protest leader.”

“The goal of this lawsuit was to prevent people from showing up at a protest out of the fear that they might be held responsible if anything happens, which makes this decision a win not only for me but for all protest organizers and leaders across the country who are going to continue to show up and speak out. It’s heartening to know that the Constitution still protects our right to protest,” said Mckesson in a statement. “This has been a grueling eight-year process, and now that it is behind me, I can continue to channel all of my energy into the day-to-day work of envisioning a world beyond policing.”

Previously, the Supreme Court refused to hear Doe v. Mckesson, sending the case back to the district court in April 2024. However, thanks to a statement emphasizing a similar case, the Court’s decision in Counterman v. Colorado, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that the ruling, which determined that “negligence can never be the proper standard when it comes to political speech and that intent is necessary for incitement,” should also “govern any future proceedings in this case.” 

The district court agreed with Sotomayor’s statement. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) legal director David Cole noted that the Supreme Court has “long recognized that peaceful protesters cannot be held liable for the unintended, unlawful actions of others.”

“Cases like this are used as a scare tactic to stop communities from organizing with a fear of being held accountable for any and all actions that take place,” said Billy Gibbens, an attorney with Schonekas, Evans, McGoey & McEachin. “We are thrilled that this ruling protected the rights of DeRay Mckesson, and all organizers and protest leaders.”

Additional members of Mckesson’s legal team also celebrated the landmark ruling and its implications for the future protection of a person’s First Amendment rights.

“This win is not just important here in Louisiana, but across the nation,” said Donahue & Goldberg attorney David Goldberg. “It ensures the fundamental right to protest that this country was built upon stands strong.”

As Americans continue exercising their First Amendment rights, the ruling in Doe v. Mckesson affirms that protest leaders and organizers are neither liable nor responsible for another person’s actions during the events. 

RELATED CONTENT: College Students Tasered By Atlanta Police During 2020 George Floyd Protest Get $2M Settlement

Alpha Phi Alpha, Transgender
(Photo: Maryland GovPics; Inset: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
by Stacy Jackson

July 12, 2024

Alpha Phi Alpha To Determine Transgender Ban During Chicago Convention

Some Alpha Phi Alpha members believe the proposed amendment to ban transgender members is politically motivated.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, is currently deliberating a contentious bylaw amendment that could potentially bar transgender members from joining the historic African American brotherhood.

This decision is set to be finalized during the Constitutional Convention in Chicago, to be held July 10-14. The proposed amendment, as reviewed by GLAAD, would limit membership to “any male defined as a human being naturally born male, who remains and continually identifies as a male.”

This move has sparked a heated debate within Alpha Phi Alpha, revealing a generational and ideological divide between the more traditional national leadership and the often younger, more progressive general body and chapter leadership.

Deandre Miles-Hercules, a self-described “gender creative” Alpha who uses they/them pronouns, strongly criticized the proposal. “Their decision to alienate trans and nonbinary people from membership is reactionary, asinine, and unbecoming of an organization with a professed commitment to human rights…It’s ludicrous to be the fraternity of Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Jr. and come up with a policy that bans trans people.”

The Constitutional Convention, described by General President Willis L. Lonzer, III as an “opportunity to be a part of history,” will see delegates from over 700 chapters worldwide debating proposed amendments. In Lonzer’s letter to membership, he indicated the cultural shift, noting that “while the character and values of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. are as steadfast as the Great Sphinx of Giza, society’s are not.”

Many Alpha Phi Alpha members, including those from the GBTQ+ community, feel betrayed by the consideration of this amendment.

Lennex Cowan, who helped organize a letter to Alpha leadership in March, expressed disappointment that the amendment is still under consideration despite assurances it would be withdrawn. The potential bylaw change not only affects transgender members but highlights broader issues of inclusivity within Alpha Phi Alpha. The fraternity has reportedly never officially recognized Pride month, despite calls from GBTQ+ members for greater acknowledgment and support.

As the fraternity grapples with these issues, it faces a crucial moment that could define its future with the GBTQ+ community, college campuses, and current members.

Serena Williams, Drake, ESPYS, Kendrick Lamar, host,
(Photos from left: Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images; Cole Burston/Getty Images)
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 12, 2024

Serena Williams Takes Shots While Hosting ESPYS

'The next time Drake sits courtside at a Raptors game, they’re gonna Forrest Gump him.'

It seems like Drake can’t catch a break! Retired tennis icon Serena Williams took a jab at the Canadian rapper while hosting the ESPYS on July 11.

Williams poked fun at the rap beef, siding with rapper Kendrick Lamar. The Compton rapper grew up in the same town as Williams. Although the tennis great and Drake were once an item, the OVO label head dissed her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, on his 2022 song, “Middle Of The Ocean.”

It’s safe to say that Williams hasn’t forgotten. During her opening monologue at the ESPYs, Williams stated it was not a good move to go against Lamar, her Compton neighbor.

“And if I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that none of us—not a single one of us, not even me—should ever pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar.” At that moment, Lamar’s hit diss record, “Not Like Us,” played in the background, and Serena danced to the song with the crowd cheering her on. “He will make your hometown not like you. The next time Drake sits courtside at a Raptors game, they’re gonna Forrest Gump him. ‘Seat’s taken!'”

Drake wasn’t Serena’s only target. She dissed the Kansas City Chiefs’ Harrison Butker for comments he made about women’s place in society in his Benedictine College commencement speech earlier this year. CNN reported that during his speech, Butker suggested that women should find fulfillment by getting married and having children rather than pursuing a career.

While standing on stage with her sister, Venus Williams, and “Abbott Elementary” creator Quinta Brunson, the three women encouraged the audience to “go ahead and enjoy women’s sports” as much as they would men’s sports. After Venus gives that advice, Serena then says, “Except you, Harrison Butker. We don’t need you.” With Brunson adding, “At all. Like Ever.”

The retired tennis icon held her own as only the fourth woman to host the ESPYs in its history.

RELATED CONTENT: Serena Williams Fourth Woman To Host The ESPYs:’This Is A Dream Come True’

Dawn Staley, Southern, WNBA, NCAA
(Photo: Lance King/Getty Images)
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 12, 2024

Dawn Staley References Pay Disparity At ESPY Awards

'How do I not fight pay disparity when I do the same job and get paid less but win more?'

The ESPY Awards took place on July 11, and winning South Carolina basketball head coach Dawn Staley was awarded the Jimmy V Award, spotlighting perseverance. During her acceptance speech, Staley called out pay disparity by stating that she does “the same job” and gets “paid less” but wins more.

Stale is fresh off an undefeated season and her third NCAA Championship win with the South Carolina Gamecocks. The former WNBA player spoke about the pay difference women experience when doing the same job as men, yet not receiving matching salaries and compensation. Staley’s advocacy for equity matches the spirit and purpose of the Jimmy V Award, given to someone who has overcome obstacles in their journey.

Staley spoke about her influence on young women, specifically her impact as a head coach for the Gamecocks’ basketball team.

“How do I not fight injustice when I ask them to do things the right way? How do I not fight for fairness when I ask them not to cheat themselves? How do I not fight for equity when I tell them they can climb as high as they want, they can be all that they want.”

The veteran athlete also recognizes that the fight is still unfair regarding compensation between the genders. Staley is one of the most recognizable and successful basketball players and coaches (male or female), but her pay does not reflect her accomplishments. Staley took the opportunity to use her voice in the same way she encourages those who look up to her to use theirs.

“How do I not fight pay disparity when I do the same job and get paid less but win more? I can’t ask them to stand up for themselves if I’m sitting down. Nor can I ask them to use their voice for change if I’m only willing to whisper.”

RELATED CONTENT: Serena Williams, Fourth Woman To Host The ESPYs: ‘This Is A Dream Come True’

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