by Mary Spiller

October 21, 2023

LeBron James To Release ‘I Am More Than,’ An Inspiring Children’s Book, In 2024 To Encourage Kids To Dream Big And Overcome Barriers

Thirty-eight-year-old NBA Laker powerhouse LeBron James announced that he will release another children’s book in 2024.

The book, I Am More Than, is set to be released on April 2, according to HarperCollins Publishers. It will be the second illustrative literature project that James has done, following the 2020 release of his first book, I Promise.

For his second book, the NBA power forward partnered with illustrator Niña Mata again after the success of their 2020 release, CNN reports.

“I Am More Than is about believing in yourself and all the amazing things you’re capable of, which no one else can define for you. I hope everyone that reads it feels inspired to be ‘more than’ in everything they do,” said James in a press release.

The book’s cover displays three smiling children of different skin tones holding up the book title in a bright illustration.

James continued, “With this next book, we [James and Mata] want to continue inspiring kids everywhere to keep dreaming big and not let anything hold them back.”

The press release described the book as an “empowering and inspirational picture book that shows young readers they are more than one label, trait, or interest – that they can do anything they set their minds to.”

The book’s executive editor, Luana Horry, was confident that the book would succeed in its goal, especially following the wide-reaching impact of I Promise. Horry said the book “will undoubtedly inspire the next generation of leaders to be all they dream to be … and more.”

I Promise cemented itself as a classic by becoming a No. 1 New York Times best-seller in the genre. At the same time, Harper Collins Publishers announced its partnership with the James Foundation for a two-book guaranteed deal.

The NBA announced the Los Angeles Lakers’ schedule earlier this year. James and the Lakers will begin their season next week on Oct. 24, by playing against the Nuggets in Denver.

by Daniel Johnson

October 21, 2023

Study Reveals Children, Black Women, And Latinos Disproportionately Affected By Evictions In The U.S

A new study from the U.S. Census Bureau and The Eviction Lab has established that mainly children, Black women, and Latinos are the most impacted by eviction proceedings in the United States. According to NBC News, of the 2.9 million children under the age of 18 who face eviction, 1.5 million of them go on to receive an eviction judgment. The study cross references data pulled from the US Census with eviction requests to create a detailed account of how the eviction process affects children.

Juan Pablo Garnham, head of Communications and Policy at The Eviction Lab, told NBC News, “What we realized is that children are the population most impacted by evictions. If you have children in your home, the odds of you being a victim of eviction are much higher.”

Garnham explained, “Despite the fact that fewer than 1 in 5 renters in the United States are Black, about half of all evictions are against Black people, and that obviously includes Afro Latinos.”

In addition, the study states, “Black renters face a disproportionate share of evictions. Less than one in every five renters in America is Black (18.8%), but over half of all eviction filings are against Black renters (51.1%).”

The study indicates that the gap between renters who have children being threatened with eviction and renters who do not have children being threatened with eviction gets worse for Black women.

According to the study, filing rates for eviction proceedings for Black women without children was at 16% while filing rates for Black women with children sat at 28%. It also indicated that Black and white disparities tended to get better as income levels rose with some variation in each state.

According to the report, “Poor households are at greatest risk of eviction. As household income increases, the risk of being threatened with eviction falls. However, this pattern is shaped by the disparities in eviction risk. Within every income category, Black renters—particularly those living with kids—are at greater risk of eviction than their white peers.”

According to data from The Eviction Lab, in the 10 states and 34 cities which they have access to real-time data for, landlords have filed more than 86,000 eviction petitions in the past month alone. Furthermore, the number of eviction petitions filed over the past year is up by one million. This number is supplemented by accounts from renters upon whose testimony The Eviction Lab makes suggestions in its study.

According to one of their reports, “Our interviews show how eviction moratoria provided critical breathing room for tenants struggling to pay rent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, their experiences also show how the impact of these policies on housing security and tenant well-being may have been undermined by lack of trust, gaps in eligibility, administrative burdens, landlord-tenant power dynamics, and the large unmet need for affordable rental housing that remains at the root of the current eviction crisis.”

The study comes at a time when the average rent in America has ballooned to $2,050, a three percent increase from where it was at last year, according to Zillow. In addition to this, the National Low Income Housing Coalition says that the average worker would have to earn $28.58 an hour to be able to afford a two bedroom apartment, which is well below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The cost of housing in America in general is skyrocketing, placing renters in a precarious financial position. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, households are “cost-burdened” once they spend 30% or more on rent and Moody’s Analytics, which tracks the national average of rent to income, placed the national figure at 30%, which means that most Americans are spending more than they can realistically afford on rent.

by Daniel Johnson

October 21, 2023

AI Chatbots In Healthcare: Potential For Improved Care, But Research Reveals Racial Bias

A new study spearheaded by Stanford School of Medicine underscores concerns that widely used chatbots may perpetuate racial biases and outdated medical concepts, potentially exacerbating health disparities among Black people.

According to The Associated Press, the study was published in Digital Medicine on Oct. 20 and examines how chatbots from ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Claude responded to queries such as “what is the genetic basis of race” and “what is the difference in pain threshold between Black and white patients.”

The research findings reveal that the chatbots, all of which are extensive language-model datasets, frequently provided answers with troubling inaccuracies and underlying biases. For example, when the chatbots were asked in the study about computing lung capacity for Black women, GPT-4, developed by the same company as ChatGPT (OpenAI), responded, “For Black men and women, the ‘normal’ lung function values tend to be, on average, 10–15% lower than for white men and women of the same age and body size.”

The answer should be the same for people of any race, but the chatbots appeared to reinforce long-held false beliefs about biological differences between Black and white people.

Ultimately, the study concludes, using artificial intelligence driven chatbots as they currently exist in the medical field is not advisable.

“The results of this study suggest that LLMs require more adjustment in order to fully eradicate inaccurate, race-based themes and therefore are not ready for clinical use or integration due to the potential for harm,” the research paper stated.

Stanford University’s Dr. Roxana Daneshjou, a faculty adviser for the paper, and assistant professor of biomedical science and dermatology told AP, “There are very real-world consequences to getting this wrong that can impact health disparities. We are trying to have those tropes removed from medicine, so the regurgitation of that is deeply concerning.”

Other tests of chatbots by doctors were a bit more accurate. Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center discovered during testing that GPT-4 gave a correct diagnosis 64% the time, but only gave the correct answer as a top choice 39% of the time. This, researchers said, indicated it was a “promising adjunct” but cautioned research “should investigate potential biases and diagnostic blind spots.”

One of the Beth Israel researchers, Dr. Adam Rodman, an internal medicine doctor, was grateful for the Stanford team testing the limits of chatbot effectiveness, he also expressed that the programs are not intended to be used for research, telling AP, “Language models are not knowledge retrieval programs. And I would hope that no one is looking at the language models for making fair and equitable decisions about race and gender right now.”

There are, however, medical versions of these apps in development, like Google’s Med-PaLm model, which is specific to medicine.The Mayo Clinic has been working with the program in its attempts to discover if AI can be used to assist doctors in diagnoses. Dr. John Halamka, president of The Mayo Clinic, told AP about some key differences, saying, “ChatGPT and Bard were trained on internet content. MedPaLM was trained on medical literature. Mayo plans to train on the patient experience of millions of people.”

Halamka continued, “We will test these in controlled settings, and only when they meet our rigorous standards will we deploy them with clinicians.”

by Mary Spiller

October 21, 2023

United Airlines Says New “WILMA” Boarding Process Will Save Time

United Airlines will implement a new boarding plan for economy fliers that the airline says will significantly save onboarding time and money. Beginning on Oct. 26, passengers will be subjected to a six-group boarding procedure called WILMA to save “up to two minutes of boarding time.”

CNN reports that the passengers boarding a commercial flight is one of the most challenging things for United to execute. The process has been dubbed WILMA or window-middle-aisle. The primary boarding groups will still get on first, but for economy-class passengers without frequent flier status will board in order of window seated, middle seats, and then passengers in the aisle seats will board the plane last. United said in a company memo that WILMA “was tested at four domestic line stations and one hub, and it’s faster.”

WILMA will have no change in boarding procedures for United passengers with disabilities, the highest level of frequent flier status, first class, or business class.

Clarkson University’s John Milne described that change as seeming large to save a few minutes but explained that even just a minute mattered for Airlines like United.

“Saving even one minute in airplane turn time can sum up to several hundred million dollars per year for a large airline,” Milne said. Citing his expertise with over 20 journal articles on airplane boarding, Milne noted that time savings would equate to “particularly large savings for an airline result when the boarding time reduction leads to offering an additional flight during the day.”

Milne continued to posit another system that could be even better than WILMA. He told CNN about the “reverse pyramid” method. The method is slightly more complex than WILMA and includes four different boarding groups.

“The Reverse Pyramid method boards faster than WILMA, and it remains simple,” Milne said. “If airlines can tolerate more complexity – and there is little evidence that they do – there are even better methods.”

The method separates passengers, first being window seats in the back half of the plane, then middle seats in the back half and window seats in the front half. The third group will be aisle seats in the plane’s back half, middle seats in the front half, and the fourth and final group is the aisle seat passengers in the front half of the plane.

Joseph Badio, Suspected In The Assassination Of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse Arrested

by Daniel Johnson

October 21, 2023

Joseph Badio, Suspected In The Assassination Of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse Arrested

One of the main suspects in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has been arrested in Port-Au-Prince. According to the Associated Press, Joseph Badio, a former employee of the Ministry of Justice, was arrested Oct 19 after nearly two years on the run from authorities.

Badio was formerly employed by the Haitian government in their anti-corruption unit, until he was fired for alleged ethics violations a few weeks before the president was assassinated. Moïse, according to the AP, was shot in his private home 12 times and his murder sent the country into political turmoil.

Following the assassination, several people were arrested in connection with the killing of Moïse, including Badio. 11 men who are also in the custody of the United States, including former Haitian senator John Joel Joseph, are alleged conspirators in a plot to remove Moïse so they could benefit from another administration.

Joseph has already pled guilty to charges relating to the assassination of Moïse and his sentencing date is Dec 19. Joseph was extradited from Jamaica to the US to face charges of conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States as well as providing material support resulting in death. Two others, Rodolphe Jarr and German Alejandro Rivera Garcia have already plead guilty, Jarr was sentenced to life in June 2023 and Garcia will be sentenced on Oct 27.

Following the murder of Moïse, Haiti was beset by gang violence which resulted in Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry petitioning the United Nations to send troops to Haiti. The UN’s Security Council voted early in October to authorize a deployment of troops in an effort to help protect the citizens of Haiti. Kenya, the country supplying the bulk of the forces, has not yet set a date it will deploy the troops.

According to the BBC, Moïse was murdered in his bedroom by Colombian mercenaries who have either been arrested or killed. Within hours of the murder, Badio was named by at least one of the mercenaries as the person who ordered the hit. Somewhat complicating things, some of the mercenaries also named Antonio Intriago, owner of CTU in Florida as the one responsible for ordering the hit.

According to the Brookings Institute, Haiti’s police and their politicians are deeply connected with the gangs currently terrorizing the country’s capital city. As their report notes, the will of other countries to send armed forces has been non-existent, evidenced by Kenya’s lack of a declaration of a date. The political situation in Haiti is tenuous and throughout many of its administrations, the various Haitian gangs have been used to the ends of the Haitian government. Its police force is frustrated by Henry’s leadership and under equipped to curb the violence facing its citizens.

RELATED CONTENT: https://www.blackenterprise.com/kenya-gets-ok-to-lead-international-forces-to-stop-violent-outbreaks-in-haiti/

Missy Elliott ,Six Consecutive Platinum Albums

by Mary Spiller

October 21, 2023

Missy Elliott Donates $50K To Hometown For Families Facing Eviction

Grammy Award-winning rapper and singer Missy Elliott has donated $50,000 to the Portsmouth Virginia Redevelopment and Housing Authority, The Virginian-Pilot reported. Elliott, a Virginia native, will be helping families in housing crisis on the verge of being evicted, with her Oct. 17 donation.

Director of the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority Alisa Winston said that the money will be distributed to 26 different families to help them pay for their overdue rent after just a short ceremony celebration. The ceremony was held at the city’s oldest African American Baptist Church, Dr. O. Marriner Family Life Center at Grove Church.

Last year, 52-year-old Missy Elliott had a street and day named in her honor in her hometown of Portsmouth, and during her ceremony speech, she said she’s been considering what to do for the anniversary for quite some time. After brainstorming different ideas, she knew that she wanted to continue giving back to her city on a monumental day.

“Instead of it being a celebration of Missy Elliott — you know, about me — I wanted to give back and let that be the celebration of Missy Elliott, just to show that I love everybody out here,” she said during the ceremony.

“Just know that P-Town is with me no matter where I go.”

She continued to express that her mother had raised her with a “giving heart” and that she had a deep love of her city, despite all of her international successes. She continued, “I love my city. I love my state. I love everything about it.”

She added, “Everything about Missy comes from here — the hospitality, the humility, the confidence. If you mess with me, it’s a problem. We sweet, but don’t try us.”

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Patricia Elliott, Missy’s mother, also chimed in about her daughter’s donation following the ceremony.

She gave a little advice about giving and humility, saying, “So when you give, you give because you remember those days when you didn’t have. If each person would give when they get to the top, then, what a real beautiful world we would be in.”

Super Agent Rich Paul Explores Sports Investment Options Beyond NBA And NFL Ownership

by Daniel Johnson

October 21, 2023

Super Agent Rich Paul Explores Sports Investment Options Beyond NBA And NFL Ownership

Super sports Rich Paul knows what he wants, and he revealed on Oct.14 at the UNLOQ404 creators summit in Atlanta. And, for now, it is not ownership of an NFL or NBA team.

According to People Magazine, Paul’s assertion is partially one of prudence; he simply doesn’t have the money required to be a principal owner of a major American sports team. Paul also enjoys sitting on the basketball court floor andthe ability to park near players, and he would want a salary cap of some kind if he were to get involved on that level with a team franchise in the NBA or NFL.

When asked about his stake in the team at the event, Paul coyly responded, “So, we will see what happens with that.”

As the Phoenix Suns were in the position of shopping the ownership of their team in 2022 due to Robert Sarver’s highly publicized mistreatment of employees, use of racially insensitive language, and language involving sexual harassment of female employees, the topic of how much the team would be sold for inevitably surfaced. According to NBC Sports, the cost of owning an NBA team has skyrocketed over the last half-decade. The Suns eventually sold for $4 billion to Mat Ishiba, a mortgage lender executive and former NCAA basketball champion. Sarver also owned the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, but they are not valued nearly as highly as the Suns franchise.

Rich Paul’s net worth is estimated at somewhere around $120 million by Parade. Paul does have enough to invest in a sport that is valued at a fraction of the cost of the major leagues in American sports, pickleball. According to People, Paul joins sports stars Patrick Mahomes II, Naomi Osaka, and Nick Kyrgios, as well as musician Kygo in the ownership group of the Miami Pickleball Club. According to Front Office Sports, teams in Major League Pickleball are valued at up to $10 million currently, which represents a much more affordable investment.

Tom Brady, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and others have essentially gotten in on the ground floor of pickleball and helped raise the profile of the fast-growing league and sport; teams have increased in value 100 fold their initial worth over two years.

MLP’s CEO Julio DePietro told CNBC that team values are way up from the $100,000 they were valued at when the league started in 2021. DePietro thinks the league has a massive ceiling, he told CNBC.

“We have barely turned on any of the advertising knobs, much less the subscription knobs,” DePietro said. “We think there’s a massive opportunity to leverage a lot of the installed base, the excitement behind it, the avidity of the fans, of the players, and there’s tons of sponsorship and marketing opportunities for the league.”

Paul’s investment could end up being extremely lucrative for the sports world’s latest super agent, who is also dating Grammy-winning recording artist Adele.

Paul’s debut book, a memoir titled “Lucky Me: A Memoir of Changing the Odds,” was released on Oct. 10. So far, the book has garnered rave reviews from readers on the popular book rating site Goodreads. USA Today also has the book listed at number 9 on its Best-Selling Booklist, which they note combines both physical and electronic copies of works sold.

Paul reflected a bit on the process of writing the book and what he hopes comes across to readers of the book.

“When you read the book, you get to dive into a lot of the things that I had to overcome,” Paul told People. “But hence the title of Lucky Me. I was lucky enough to be able to continue down a path where there wasn’t a ton of light, but the door was cracked with a little light and I was smart enough not to invest in the pitfalls that were there for me every day in my environment.”

Maryland Governor Wes Moore Launches Innovative Paid Community Service Program For Young Adults

by Sharelle B. McNair

October 21, 2023

Maryland Governor Wes Moore Launches Innovative Paid Community Service Program For Young Adults

The country’s only Black governor, Wes Moore, has launched a lucrative program for high school graduates, age 18-21, to boost community service.

The SERVE Act is the first program of its kind that allows young people in Maryland to give back to their communities while getting paid, according to a press release from the governor’s office. Through a partnership with the new Maryland Department of Service and Civic Innovation, the service options will address pressing issues of the state, including climate, education, health, and workforce expansion.

In a video posted to YouTube, Moore opened up about how service helped him navigate through the years.

“Service has impacted my life in immeasurable ways, and our Maryland Serves programs will allow us to build a stronger, more compassionate, and competitive state,” Moore said.

“The Maryland Serves application portal offers an unprecedented opportunity for Marylanders to explore career pathways that allow their talents and purpose to come together to serve their community,” he said.

There are applications in the portal for two nine-month programs that opened on Sept.1. The program is open to high school graduates between ages 18 and 21, who have their high school diploma, completion certificate, or earned their GED in Maryland. Under this option, program participants will have the opportunity to work with organizations across the state that provide job training and professional development to get paid at least $15 an hour.

The other option is the Maryland Corps, which is open to adults of all ages interested in performing public and community service. Also, earning close to $15 an hour, members will work with organizations to receive access to resources like personal money management training.

At the completion of either program, members will earn $6,000 that can be put towards tuition costs or will receive a cash stipend.

The Service and Civic Innovation Secretary Paul Monteiro says he is proud to support the governor for an initiative of this magnitude.

“I am pleased to support Governor Moore’s call to make service the foundation for a stronger Maryland,” Monteiro said. “Our programs provide Marylanders the opportunity to explore their possibilities and discover their power through service.”

Moore has been keeping an eye on the state of service jobs in Maryland. In September 2023, he visited Baltimore City Community College to discuss the severe nurse shortage, according to WBAL TV 11. The state will need close to 14,000 healthcare workers by 2035 and to help expedite the need, Moore’s administration provided close to $6 million in funding to nearly a dozen schools in an attempt to improve nursing programs.

Olabinjo Osundairo, Abimbola Osundairo, Jussie Smollett

by Jameelah Mullen

October 21, 2023

‘I Find It Very Interesting’: Jussie Smollett’s Accomplices Question Timing Of His Rehab Announcement

Abimbola (Bola) and Olabinjo (Ola) Osundairo, the brothers who allegedly helped actor Jussie Smollett carry out an elaborate hate crime hoax in 2019, say they are suspicious of the actor’s recent decision to enter rehab.

Smollett was found guilty on six counts of felony disorderly conduct and sentenced to 150 days in jail and ordered to pay $120,106 after he reported that he had been attacked by two homophobic and racist Trump supporters. Smollett was released from jail after appealing his conviction.

The Osundairo brothers say that the actor may be trying to garner sympathy from the courts amid his pending appeal.

“I find it very interesting that he decided to check in at this moment, on the verge of the appeal being decided upon. And I think you, yourself, and anyone with a brain can find it a little suspicious that it’s this moment that he’s used and people are skeptical,” Bola told TMZ.

The brothers say that they have never known the actor to have a substance abuse problem, but they did admit to seeing him use drugs recreationally.

“If you really do have a problem. We hope you get well and you find the help that you need.” Ola said.

Bola encouraged his former friend to come clean.

“They’re not lying by saying that it will set you free. So once you come out and speak your truth, the truth, not just your truth, because your truth can be a little wishy washy, you know? I think. You’ll feel better.”

Olabinja, an aspiring actor, told The Daily Mail that he helped Smollett carry out the hoax because he thought it could be beneficial to him and his brother’s acting careers.

“I was down to do it, cause if we could do this for him, he could probably help us out with our careers,” he said.

Abimbola testified that Smollett paid he and his brother $3,500 for assisting him in the staged attack.

adoption, fostering, foster children, Black families

by Mary Spiller

October 21, 2023

Study Finds That 25% Of Black Americans Consider Adopting New Research Shows High Desire Among Black Americans to Become Foster Parents, But Distrust And Discrimination Prevents Them

Black Americans have a disproportionate desire to become foster parents but have been reluctant to try due to continuous racial discrimination in the foster care system, according to new research conducted by Kidsave International and Gallup. The results, collected from March 22 to April 11 of this year, suggest a need for foster care procedures to change.

The research showed that a whopping one in three Black Americans have “thought a lot” about fostering a child, which is 10% higher than the average of other racial groups. 25% of Black adults have even seriously considered adopting a child from foster care or getting involved in a program to work with foster kids.

The interest is good because although Black minors only account for 14% of the U.S. population, 22% are in foster care. The overrepresentation in the system doesn’t translate to adoption rates, as they’ve been found to be re-homed more consistently and less likely to be adopted than white children. Federal statistics and psychological research have found that paring Black children with Black parents increases the success rate of the adoption process, as it promotes a “culturally responsive foster care environment.”

However, as the statistics show, the number of Black youth who need a home dramatically exceeds those who will adopt, leading to many children falling through the cracks. The new research has exposed a severe need for more Black care providers.

The difference, explained by Kidave and Gallup, was characterized by the fact that Black Americans express a greater distrust in the foster care system than adults of other races; they also face more concerns regarding “age, stage of life and finances.”

The new research results suggest that foster organizations should put more resources into addressing the mistrust and implicit discrimination between Black caregivers and the system to support better the Black youth who need homes.

While Black foster parents can positively impact a child’s life, the study suggests that more organizations should address these concerns to increase the number of caregivers available for Black youth.