by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 28, 2023

Tyler Perry Offers $100K To Anyone Who Has Information About The Death Of Gay Black Man In Grenada

Tyler Perry hopes to help solve a murder mystery of a recently killed man in Grenada. He has put up reward money in anticipation of gaining information about the killing of a gay man close to one of his friends.

According to an Instagram post by the successful filmmaker, he is offering a reward of $100,000 to anyone who can supply authorities with information about the death of Josiah “Jonty” Robinson that leads to a conviction. He is doing so in support of Yvette Noel-Schure, who happens to be the publicist for Beyoncé. There is speculation that his sexuality is why he was targeted and killed. He was only 23.

“A few days ago, I got an extremely heartbreaking phone call from my friend, Yvette Noel-Schure. Through her tears and grief, she told me that in her home country of Grenada, a young man that was like a son to her was murdered. My soul ached as she shared that he was a young, gifted singer who was murdered because he was gay.”

Perry states in the post that the killing reminded him of a similar killing in Collier County, Florida, several years ago. Terrance Williams was found dead in prison, and the family old that he hung himself. He also brought up Mathew Shepard, a gay man who was beaten, tortured, and left to die when he was a student at the University of Wyoming on Oct. 6, 1998.

He states that the pain of not knowing what happened can be crippling.

He also wrote, “Yvette and I are offering a $100,000 dollar reward to anyone who brings forth information that leads to the conviction of the murderer of Josiah “Jonty” Robinson. Please pray for his mother and Yvette and all of those that loved him, as well as every family who has been impacted by senseless violence.”

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The Madea producer is asking that if anyone has any information about Robinson’s death, contact The Criminal Investigation Division at +1-473-440 3921.

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 28, 2023

Snoop Dogg Makes $10K Donation To 93-Year-Old South Carolina Woman Fighting To Save Her Home

Snoop Dogg is the latest big-name celebrity to show his support in hopes of saving the land of a 93-year-old woman in South Carolina.

According to CNN, the “Doggfather” donated $10,000 to stop developers in South Carolina from attempting to take the property of land owned by Josephine Wright.

“I did it from the heart,” Snoop Dogg told the news network in a written statement. “She reminds me of my mother and grandmother.”

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A GoFundMe account was initiated in May 2023. The fundraiser was started by Wright’s granddaughter, Charise Graves, to raise funds to fight real estate developers Bailey Point Investment Group.

The 93-year-old woman is fighting to save her home from the real estate developers in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Wright has said that the Bailey Point Investment Group is pressuring her to sell the property so it can develop the land around her home.

According to numerous reports, the issue escalated after Bailey Point Investment Group filed a lawsuit against the 93-year-old landowner in a move her family members called “frivolous.” Based on the paperwork filed, the investment group insists that Wright’s home infringes upon the land they bought. They recently forced her to move a shed, and now they say that her porch extends beyond property lines.

Many people have supported Graves and her grandmother, including Hollywood staple Tyler Perry and Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving. The former Brooklyn Nets player donated $40,000 to assist Wright in her fight against her home being snatched from her.

Other celebrities have commented on Perry’s initial Instagram post supporting Wright. Singer Fantasia, film producer Will Packer, and recording artist Meek Mill are just a few who promised support.

by Stacy Jackson

July 28, 2023

The L3 Agency Helps Create A Seat At The Table For Black Women In Leadership

Spending a decade working in media relations, advertising, and marketing firms led this Black businesswoman to launch her own full-service influencer marketing and communications firm.

Larvetta Loftin, founder of The L3 Agency, created a space for women of color to share their stories and be celebrated. According to the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Loftin launched her firm nearly 20 years ago, after feeling limited and undervalued in the corporate world.

“I wanted to design a space that would be suitable for the way I speak and create, and I wanted to bring young creatives, young women to the table and give them support and make them feel like their voices were heard,” she said.

The brand marketing strategist uses her firm to serve clients from a community- and a female-centric place. “We deliver culturally sensitive and relevant content, and that gives us an edge,” she said.

Loftin and her team boast a long client list of Fortune 500 companies, including Verizon, Bacardi, Toyota, McDonald’s, and CVS Pharmacy. Her team has worked on marketing and branding campaigns for municipalities, energy companies, and nonprofits. The firm also partners with small businesses as they develop a marketing strategy to elevate their own brands.

The technology lover has expanded her entrepreneurial endeavors to a weekly podcast series called Black Businesses Matter. Loftin launched the series as an inspirational outlet for minority business owners to discuss the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. During episodes, Loftin drops major gems on how minority business owners can grow their businesses. “We thought starting a podcast was a great way to be inclusive and talk to a wide audience,” she said.

The L3 Agency CEO is already preparing for the future of her firm and her podcast series. Loftin is in the process of building a new concept at The L3 Agency: merging podcasting with pop-ups, an extension of her live events and activations across the United States. Potential plans for her podcast include turning it into a docuseries.

by Stacy Jackson

July 28, 2023

WNBA Star Napheesa Collier On Building And Sustaining Her Brand Beyond The Court

Napheesa Collier manifested her career in the WNBA as early as high school.

The Minnesota Lynx forward discussed her love for sports and building her league, Unrivaled, with young fans who gathered at the Nike Unite store in Las Vegas for the WNBA’s All-Star Weekend. According to Boardroom, Collier expressed how life-changing the game of basketball was for her. “I love sports,” Collier said on the panel alongside several other WNBA stars. “Even if I weren’t playing, hopefully, I would still be around the game somehow.”

Collier detailed how being in the WNBA has guided her career-wise. The basketball star has expanded her passion and commitment to the sport by partnering with former college teammate and current New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart to launch Unrivaled. The two athletes are launching their new professional off-season league to give WNBA players another opportunity to play in the US. The league will span over 10 weeks, and 30 participating WNBA athletes will be compensated to compete in three-on-three and one-on-one face-offs across six franchises.

“We want to change the narrative around women’s basketball. We feel like it’s trending in the wrong direction,” Collier said. “You hear a lot of college players saying they’d rather stay in college because they’re making more money and they’re getting more exposure, and it’s true. That’s not good for our league. We want to continue to grow and change that.”

ESPN reported that Collier and Stewart are working to secure funding for the league scheduled to officially launch by 2025. The funding will ensure players are paid in proportion to what they earn during the WNBA season without having to seek overseas leagues during the off-season. The contests are slated to be held at a soundstage in Miami.

“It’s the ability for players to stay home, to be in a market like Miami where we can just be the buzz and create that with the best WNBA players,” Stewart said, explaining the players’ fight against the WNBA’s prioritization rule. “It is a rule that takes away our choices, which should never be a thing, especially as women, but it is still a rule,” she added. The rule interrupts overseas contracts because of the requirement for players to return by the start of WNBA training camps.

by Stacy Jackson

July 28, 2023

Boeing Announces Nearly $1M Scholarship Program To Train Pilots From Underrepresented Communities

Boeing launched a $950,000 scholarship program to train pilots from underrepresented communities, Essence reports.

According to a statement from the leading aerospace company and plane manufacturer, the award will be split in two ways. Around $450,000 will be used to encourage minority youth to pursue careers in aerospace. The amount will be given to Los Angeles-based nonprofit Fly Compton. According to the written statement, the “investment will increase flight training classes offered to students in L.A.’s Compton community and introduce career topics related to designing, building and maintaining airplanes and drones.”

The award will make a big impact on the organization. Demetrius Harris, president and executive director for Fly Compton, said the donation would help break down entry barriers into the piloting profession. Harris said, “At Fly Compton, we know that lack of exposure, access to resources, and the high cost of flight training prevents underrepresented populations from exploring careers in aviation. We focus on eliminating these barriers to entry, and this funding package from Boeing helps us continue this important work.”

Five organizations will be awarded the remaining $500,000. The organizations include the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Sisters of the Skies, Women in Aviation International, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and Latino Pilots Association. Boeing will award 25 total scholarships with the help of each organization.

Boeing’s nearly $1 million commitment will help Black pilots enter the profession. Samantha Whitfield, executive director for the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, spoke about the barriers aspiring Black pilots face. “Funding flight training is often one of the greatest barriers for students of color pursuing a pilot career. Scholarship partners like Boeing provide the much-needed support to fuel the careers of aspiring aviators,” Whitfield said.

The future of Black pilots matters. BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported airlines looked to recruit Black pilots to fill a shortage when COVID-19 hit the U.S.

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 28, 2023

Pryce Adade-Yebesi Prepares The World For A ‘New Internet Economy’ With His Company, Utopia Labs

In 2019, after working under an internship with Square Co-founder Jim McKelvey, a now 23-year-old man found what he wanted to do with his life.

According to AfroTech, Pryce Adade-Yebesi, the co-founder of Utopia Labs, was trying to figure out where to make the most impact on the lives of his people. Initially, he thought having a political career would be his calling, and he could make a difference. But something else made more sense.

“A lot of the areas that my mom took us to were areas that were very impoverished,” Adade-Yebesi said. “I saw that growing up, and for a while, I wanted to engage with politics, in government, but I started to see that it wasn’t quite the avenue in which I wanted to make an impact, and so I was interested in business and the potential things that I could build or make there.”

The fintech space was holding a door open for him to enter. Working at Square allowed him to learn that “fintech can change lives,” and he knew he wanted to “build something like Square one day.'”

Two years later, in 2021, he and his co-founders, Kaito Cunningham, Jason Chong, and Alexander Wu, laid the foundation for what bloomed into Utopia Labs. The company ended up being a startup intersecting traditional financing and cryptocurrency.

Adade-Yebesi and Utopia Labs are working toward the world accepting a “new internet economy.” Utopia Labs is entrenched in this by engaging services such as crypto payments and crypto treasury management.

“Our vision is to create a new internet economy. When value can pass so easily without so many middlemen and fragmented settlement systems, we have so many new opportunities to raise funds for causes people care about, start projects with people from all over the world that might end up being fantastic and powerful mechanisms for impact, but also can become billion-dollar companies,” Adade-Yebesi said. “Crypto enables so many interesting and novel ways of coordination and also just fixes so many of our fragmented value transfer systems and settlement systems across the world.”

This may reflect a better use for Adade-Yebesi and his talent than the world of politics.

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 28, 2023

Bow Wow Says ‘It Wasn’t Me’ In Latest Lawsuit Alleging He Swindled A Child Rapper Out Of $3K For A Feature

Hip-hop recording artist Chad Moss, whom we know as Bow Wow, has been hit with a lawsuit stating he scammed a rapper out of some coins. But Bow Wow is rehashing the Shaggy hit song by saying “It Wasn’t Me”!

According to TMZ, the Like Mike star is being sued by the father of a 10-year-old aspiring rapper who claims Bow Wow charged her $3,000 to do a feature on her song but never delivered it. His defense? It wasn’t him—she had been “catfished.”

Bow Wow stated on Twitter that this is the third time he has been accused of doing this and that he doesn’t do business via Cash App, which is how the alleged victim claimed the money was sent.

D pimpin done got yall again huh? 🤣 i dont conduct business on apps. I do NOT use or have cash app. So if you aint call management and send a wire .. you def was NOT dealing w me. Be careful who yall send yalls money to online. This happens everyday to folks. This the 3rd time…

— Bow Wow (@smoss) July 26, 2023

The lawsuit was filed by Steven Roberson, who claims he sent Bow Wow the $3,000 through Cash App in 2021. He wanted the vocals from the artist for his daughter for a single she had titled “Daddy’s Girl.” Roberson alleges that he was instructed to send the cash, and within two weeks of doing so he would get the feature from the recording artist. They have yet to receive those vocals.

The case is now pending in a Georgia court. The Instagram account of The Neighborhood Talk reported that Roberson is seeking $15,000 from Bow Wow “based on the foregoing and as a direct consequence of Defendant’s actions and failures, with the plaintiff’s total damages, including costs and attorney’s fees,” according to the legal filing.

by Sharelle B. McNair

July 28, 2023

Mother of 4 Dies In Freak Treadmill Accident at LA Fitness Gym

A routine workout turned deadly at a Kent, Washington, LA Fitness.

Delrie Rosario, 36, died while working out on a treadmill there, KIRO 7 reports. Rosario’s sister, Marissa Woods, was with her when the accident happened.

“She tried to slow the machine down. I thought maybe she just missed a step,” Woods said. “She just collapsed and hit her head on the machine.”

Rosario lost consciousness and Woods screamed for help. She said other gym goers came to her sister’s aid but “not one [LA Fitness] worker,” Woods said. “I think they were in shock.”

Rosario, an organ donor, died later at a local hospital. Doctors informed the family that Rosario’s heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver will help save five lives, according to HuffPost. “How big can your heart be to still be saving lives?” her sister said. “Just think, somebody is walking around…with her big heart. They don’t even know what heart they’re about to get.”

Death by machine, similar to this LA Fitness incident, is rare but not as uncommon as people think.

According to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 30 people died while being associated with treadmills between 2003 and 2012. Close to 16,000 patients were treated in emergency rooms for treadmill-related injuries during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Injuries reported include broken bones, sprains, abrasions, friction burns, and blunt trauma.

Director of Fitness and Wellness for Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University, Toril Hinchman, told tThe Washington Post that the best way to avoid injury is to pay attention to the online ratings and reviews for the machine you are considering purchasing.

As the main source of treadmill-related injuries is simply not paying attention, reading may be tedious but life-saving. “No one loves reading through the book but it’s good to at least take a look at it and see if there’s something you need to be aware of,” Hinchman said.

by Sharelle B. McNair

July 28, 2023

Looking For The Best In Black-Owned Food? Download The New Black Foodie Finder App

A year after Black Foodie Finder created a platform, now it’s making it easier to find the best Black-owned food business with a new app. Black Foodie Finder 2.0 is the go-to app to help foodies find Black-owned food destinations near and far.

The new concept presents an easier navigation experience, a new design, more features, and, most importantly—more restaurants. With BFF’s mission “advocating for the Black food experience and cultivating nourishing connections,” founder Brax Rich says the app will take things up a notch. “This new app is a major step forward in our mission to empower Black foodies and businesses,” Rich said. “We believe that this app will help to connect foodies with the best Black-owned food businesses in their area, and we are confident that it will be a valuable resource for the Black food community.”

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With one million followers on Instagram, covering 6,000 locations, and a directory with over 10,000 Black-owned restaurants, the tech company combines food, travel, and community through various forms of media. Food enthusiasts have found the best of the best in the Black culinary industry, and it continues to grow as it is constantly looking to promote new creators to the game.

Throughout its year in business, the website hosted interviews and in-depth editorials highlighting food professionals and creators committed to their crafts while honoring their heritage as African Americans. It also publishes news blogs and allows visitors to find and connect with restaurants and chefs that appeal to their food preferences. “Our community includes foodies, chefs, event planners, attendees, and anyone needing a virtual tastebud awakening,” Rich said in 2022. “We strive to be a resource for Black Foodies all around the world. We will continue to share meaningful content that inspires others to enjoy the Black Foodie Lifestyle!”

The app is available on iOS App Store and Android Google Play.

by Sharelle B. McNair

July 28, 2023

Baron Davis Sets Sail With New Investment in SailGP Racing League

Former NBA All-Star Baron Davis is diving back into the investment game with a new sailboat racing league team, TMZ reports.

Davis describes the sport as “Formula 1 on water” and says his new SailGP team will be unique, with investors having access to the team’s day-to-day operations, human resources issues—including hirings and firings—and what the team’s name will be. Davis says he’s excited about the growth potential of the league. “It’s a great time and a great opportunity to bring people together,” Davis said. “And the right type of people together.”

The former Golden State Warrior point guard got inspired by the sport after visiting St. Tropez last year and catching a race. Soon afterward, he knew he wanted to get involved. “For me, it was just like, I was fascinated by it,” he said. “I got a chance to, like, follow the boats. So it was a cool experience.” Fans can expect the new team to launch in 2024.

SailGP is another amazing notch in Davis’ already impressive investment portfolio. In March 2023, he teamed up with fellow NBA retiree Dwyane Wade to raise $1.4 million for Kiddie Kredit, an app that teaches children how to build credit through doing chores and other means of “fun.” During the 2021 holiday season he teamed up with Crypto.com NFT for its first “Black Santa: Giving Has No Season” NFT collection. The character-focused company was driven by vivid imaginations, positivity, and ongoing philanthropic support for various causes and organizations.

He is also the co-starter of a video game company that produces mobile games, with the first called “Getting Buckets.” When he’s not busy running or investing in businesses, he’s a sports analyst providing weekly commentary for NBA on TNT’s “Players Only.”