by Sharelle B. McNair

April 20, 2023

First Black-Owned, Woman-Owned Dispensary In Arizona Will Open—Wait for It—on 4/20

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There is more than just cactus growing in Arizona. A new cannabis company its making its mark in the southwest as the first Black-woman owned dispensary in the state.

Fourtwenty Collections was started in 2016 by Marvina Thomas with a focus on CBD-infused soap. “I founded my business with a bar of soap to help a friend with a skin condition. To this day, I make it my mission to help others,” Thomas said in a news release.

Thomas opened shop in Las Cruces, NM, last year and then decided to take it up a notch with CBD skincare and THC– and CBD-infused edibles. Now, according to MJ Biz Daily, she has acquired a vertically integrated medical dispensary license in Arizona.

“It has always been my dream to become the first Black-, women-owned, Arizona dispensary,” Thomas explained. “We are excited to inspire others to reach for the stars and have made history with our acquisition of the Safford license.” Collections is one of six new licenses issued in the state.

Thomas plans on opening on a very important holiday to cannabis fans across the country, April 20, also known as 4/20.

Not only is this the first Black-woman owned dispensary in Arizona, David Fowler, co-founder and executive director of the Marijuana Industry Trade Association of Arizona, said Thomas is the first Black marijuana store owner in the entire state.

“We look forward to becoming a part of the community there,” Thomas said.

As a former registered nurse, the money she makes from her new endeavors goes toward her nonprofit, Start Living Inc., helping people impacted by alcohol and substance abuse successfully reenter society. Her business offers job opportunities to graduates upon course completion.

More and more dispensaries are opening across the country. In December, New York’s first recreational dispensary opened. Last week, Black-owned dispensary Nuggets Cannibas Co., opened in Detroit.

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by Jeroslyn JoVonn

April 19, 2023

3 Teens Arrested After Fatally Shooting 9-Months Pregnant Woman in Case of Mistaken Identity

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Three Baton Rouge, Louisiana, teenagers are in police custody after fatally shooting a pregnant woman just days away from giving birth.

Kerisha Johnson, 36, died on Sunday at the alleged hands of three teenage suspects: Marques Porch, 19, Gregory Parker, 19, and Derrick Curry, 19, who allegedly fired rounds into her car in a case of mistaken identity, ABC News reports.

The shooting happened around 12:30 a.m. on North Carrollton Avenue near Renoir Avenue. Johnson was killed attempting to pick up people from a party she had just dropped off moments earlier, according to WAFB.

Officers found Johnson dead inside her car after responding to reports of shots fired. She tried to flee but was struck by the gunfire, killing her and her unborn child. Johnson was “due to give birth within several days,” authorities said.

The party was reportedly promoted as an Easter celebration for teens. Johnson was driving toward the party when “several individuals” started firing into her white sedan, believing she was shot into the air near the party earlier in the day while driving a similar car.

“It was just senseless,” Deanna Williams, a childhood friend of Johnson, told WBRZ. “She was an innocent person.”

An arrest warrant states that video footage shows the alleged gunmen “raising firearms, pointing them at the victim’s vehicle and then firing” before fleeing the scene.

Porch, Parker, and Curry were all booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison and were charged with second-degree murder and first-degree feticide. Porch, who allegedly told authorities he provided the firearms to the other two teens before the shooting, was shot during the gunfire but sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

“They all stated that they believed the white car was a vehicle from earlier in the night where [an] occupant had fired a round into the air as it drove past the teen party,” the warrant stated.

Porch was “immediately terminated” from his job as a corrections employee with the West Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office following his arrest on Sunday. During a court hearing on Monday, the three suspects were ordered held without bond after the shooting.

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by Iman Milner

April 19, 2023

Netflix In Hot Water Over Kanye West Documentary After Woman Files Suit For Exploitation

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jeen-yuhs: A Kanye West Trilogy may have been a welcomed walk down memory lane for fans of the Chicago rapper, but for one woman, it made her revisit a dark period in her life.

Cynthia Love, who is filing a lawsuit against Netflix and jeen-yuhs creators Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah, says she was exploited by the directors of West’s “Through The Wire” music video during a time in her life when she was in an “altered state and not capable of providing consent.” The documentary used footage from the video, earning Simmons and Ozah a reported $30 million. Love is seeking a minimum of $30,000 in damages.

The Chicago woman says that she faced issues with addiction at the time the video was recorded but has now been sober for 18 years, according to TMZ. After spending time repairing her relationship with family and friends and building a professional life for herself, Love says the documentary revealed her past to people unaware of her past struggles. Simmons was contacted by Love’s son about his decision to include her footage in the documentary, and he allegedly responded by saying he assumed she was dead, according to TMZ.

“Through The Wire” was the lead single from Kanye West’s debut album, The College Dropout, which has sold four million copies worldwide and earned the rapper the Grammy for Best Rap Album in 2004. The video became a cultural phenomenon following the controversial rapper’s near-death accident, the aftermath of which he chronicled in the visuals. The song itself spent five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 music charts and is considered, by many, to be one of the most prolific songs in hip-hop history. Featuring cameos from Jay-Z, comedian Deray Davis and West’s late mother, Dr. Donda West, the video was a rap classic at a time when stations dedicated to premiering music videos had heavy airplay.

An Oklahoma jail is on the hot seat after a former detainee is diagnosed with a severe facial rash and facial cellulitis.

Oklahoma woman Chandra Graham has filed a federal lawsuit against the Oklahoma County Detention Center (OCDC), alleging she suffered severe facial burns while in custody.

According to ABC News, the suit claims Graham was “subjected to inhuman conditions of confinement in the suicide watch wing” during her time at the detention center. The lawsuit names nine trustees representing the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority, the sheriff, the OCDC, and detention center officer Corporal McKinley.

After being taken into custody at an Oklahoma jail on March 24, 2021, Graham was reportedly detained in a suicide watch cell with no running water. The woman’s attorney, Peter Scimeca, said the water was off due to an overflow of feces and urine on the floor. The lawsuit stated that a mix of unknown chemicals and other substances splashed onto Graham’s face, and medical records show the woman was moved to a dry cell.

“She was crying out for help for hours, asking for a cup of water to clean her face,” said Scimeca. “[The corrections officers] let her scream in agony and pain instead of getting her an effing cup of water and her skin was burning. That’s how sorry those conditions are.”

Graham’s lawsuit was filed by Sebastian Van Coevorden, who said the woman was moved to a behavioral health unit where she was ignored for medical aid over 50 times.

“Time and time again, it comes from a lack of training, but also just an indifference to the conditions that Miss Graham had to deal with,” Van Coevorden said, adding that Graham’s family took her to the hospital following her release from the detention center.

“Even worse, when she’s finally released, and it’s so apparent that this girl has burnt her face off, they start trying to make excuses. And the excuse is she did it to herself,” Scimeca said.

The suit states that Graham was diagnosed by the hospital with chemical burns linked to a combination of urine and feces. Additionally, she was diagnosed with bacterial conjunctivitis in both eyes. 

Graham reportedly filed the lawsuit on March 27, 2023.

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by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

April 19, 2023

Florida High School Baseball Team in Racist Text Scandal Has Season Canceled After Walkout

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A high school principal in Florida has canceled the rest of the baseball team’s season after the players walked out in protest after their coach was fired.

“After meeting with every varsity baseball family and evaluating our options for the rest of the season, I must inform you that I have made the decision to cancel the rest of our baseball regular season and district play,”  Fort Myers High School Robert Butz wrote in an email to parents, according to the Fort Myers News-Press.

“This was not an easy decision to make, but the current status of our team and coaching staff does not provide a viable path forward for the remainder of the season.”

Butz’s decision ends a season that featured tumult early on.

On February 14  Alex Carcioppolo, Fort Myers assistant baseball coach, posted a text message to the team group chat wishing the players a “Happy Valentine’s Day.” In the text, he ended the message with a racial slur.

After the message was discovered, Carcioppolo was removed from the school on February 16. On March 8, Fort Myers athletic director Steve Cato sent an email to the players’ parents that that a Title VI investigation had been opened regarding the team.

Fourth-year head coach Kyle Burchfield was terminated on April 5. No cause was given by the district, and members of the baseball team staged a walkout during its game against Estero High on April 6.

Fort Myers High School was fined $500 for unsportsmanlike conduct after Cato self-reported the incident.

In his report to the Florida High School Athletic Association, Cato said the players walked out of their dugout and left due to an “ongoing situation within the baseball program.”

“We are still trying to identify all of the players and coaches involved,” Cato wrote to the FHSAA. “We did have 5-6 players who remained on the field and in the dugout to play the game, but without enough to continue we had to forfeit the game.”

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by Booker Jones

April 19, 2023

2 Texas Cheerleaders Shot After Mistakenly Getting Into Wrong Car

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Two cheerleaders were shot after one of the women got into a man’s car, mistakenly thinking it was hers. 

According to WKYT, Heather Roth got out of her friend’s car and into a car she thought was hers. Seeing that a man was in the passenger seat, Roth got scared and rushed back to her friend’s car. However, the man exited the passenger seat of the car he was sitting in, approached Roth’s friend’s car, and shot Roth and her friend. 

A bullet grazed Roth while her friend and teammate, Payton Washington, was shot in the leg and back, according to WKYT. 

Roth was treated at the scene. Unfortunately, the outlet reports that Washington was flown to a hospital, where she is in critical condition, and had to have part of her spleen removed. 

Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, was arrested and charged with engaging in deadly conduct. 

Washington is a cheerleader at a high school in Round Rock, Texas, north of Austin. Lynne Shearer, the owner of Woodlands Elite Cheer Company, told WKYT that Washington was born with one lung yet was the star of the team and had already committed to Baylor University’s acrobatics and tumbling team. 

“She’s really a huge face in the all-star cheerleading world,” Shearer said. “She’s a mentor and role model to so many kids in this industry. She’s an amazing athlete, an amazing kid, so everybody knows her and everybody’s praying for her.”

Roth and Washington’s shooting comes after Kansas City, Missouri, teen Ralph Yarl, who is Black, was shot twice after going to the wrong address to pick up his siblings. Also, in upstate New York, 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis, who is white, was fatally shot by 65-year-old Kevin Monahan after she turned into the wrong driveway while looking for a friend’s house. 

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by Booker Jones

April 19, 2023

Black And Mexican Americans Displaced From Palm Springs, California, Neighborhood Seeking Reparations

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Lawrence W. McFarland grew up on a parcel of land on a Native American reservation in Palm Springs, California. One day, the family was told to leave their home. As a little boy, McFarland, his mother, and his brother packed their belongings and moved to Cabazon, California.

McFarland told The Associated Press that his childhood home had been burned down and destroyed. 

“We thought they were just cleaning up some of the old houses,” McFarland said to The AP. 

In 2021, Palm Springs City Council voted to apologize to former residents for the city’s decision to displace them during the 1960s. The Native American reservation known as Section 14 was the home of Black and Mexican families, the outlet reports. 

Former residents of Section 14 say they are owed more than $2.3 billion, about $1.2 million per family, for being displaced. According to The AP, Cheryl Grills, a member of California’s reparation task force, helped study the families’ proposals. 

Over the past few years, especially with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ engrossing essay, A Case for Reparations, Black families have been seeking payback for disparities in housing, education, and jobs and as descendants of slaves. 

“California’s statewide reparations task force is evaluating how the state can atone for policies like an eminent domain that allowed governments to seize property from Black homeowners and redlining that restricted what neighborhoods Black families could live in,” The AP reported.

Renee Brown, associate curator and archivist at Palm Springs Historical Society told The AP that Section 14 is complicated because the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians owned the land. According to Brown, the Agua Caliente wanted to lease Section 14 to developers, and the city helped clear the land. With this, the city of Palm Springs seems to have had permission to clear Section 14. 

Despite the complications mentioned by Brown, Lisa Middleton, former mayor of Palm Springs, said it was important that the city apologize for displacing families of Section 14.

• News

by Iman Milner

April 19, 2023

Morris Chestnut Joins Hulu’s ‘Reasonable Doubt’ For Season 2

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Morris Chestnut is heading back to our TVs, and honestly, everything feels right in the world again.

The hit Onyx Collective and Hulu series Reasonable Doubt has been renewed for a second season, and things are heating up between Chestnut’s character, Corey Cash, and the show’s main character Jacqueline “Jax” Stewart, played by actress Emayatzy Corinealdi.

According to Deadline, Chestnut’s Cash is “a charming, media-savvy defense attorney who often represents the underdogs.” Things go awry “when Jax brings in Corey to help on a new high-profile case” and “soon realizes that he’s more shine than substance and threatening her position at the firm.”

Interesting!

Chestnut follows his partner in “forever fine” Michael Ealy, as one of the show’s male leads as well as McKinley Freeman, Tim Jo, Angela Grovey, Aderinsola Olabode, and Thaddeus J. Mixson in the series. The show follows Corinealdi’s Stewart, a high-powered criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles, struggling with her past traumas, a failing marriage, motherhood, and a murder case, while trying to keep her life together.

Fans of the series have been vocal about whether or not the streaming service would renew the show that has become a cult favorite. Executive producer Kerry Washington shared news of the renewal via an Instagram post earlier this week and saw a flood of positive comments.

Chestnut reprised his role as Lance Sullivan in The Best Man: The Final Chapters on Peacock last year alongside the original cast, including Nia Long, Sanaa Lathan, Taye Diggs, Terrence Howard, and director Malcolm D. Lee. The series followed the success of the 2013 sequel The Best Man Holiday, which received rave reviews from fans and critics alike. Chestnut also recently appeared in the short-lived FOX series Our Kind of People, based on the best-selling novel by Lawrence Otis Graham.

Yung Miami and Diddy are no longer an item. The City Girls rapper has confirmed her split from the hip-hop mogul.

The “Caresha Please” host got candid in a new cover story for The Cut about choosing to go public with Diddy last year and the type of relationship they had.

“I felt like, it is what it is. Eventually, people was gonna find out because he is who he is. I am who I am,” she explained.

“We was just like, if we’re going to put it out there, we’re going to be the ones that talk. I don’t like anyone talking for me.”

When asked if they’re still dating, Yung Miami, real name Caresha Brownlee, said not and elaborated on where things stood.

“We’re still friends! We’re still good friends!” she added. “But we’re single. That’s not my man.”

“We had our own situation. I’m not gonna put a title on it,” she continued. “We were f–king with each other hard. We were together every day at one point. He supported me, I supported him. I’ll let the internet call it whatever they want to call it.”

The pair first fueled dating rumors in 2021 when they were spotted holding hands at Pierre “Pee” Thomas’s black-tie affair in Atlanta. By June 2022, Yung Miami became a viral sensation after holding up a “GO PAPI” sign during Diddy’s performance at the BET Awards.

However, in September, the “Act Up” rapper claimed she and Diddy were still “single” but also dating at the same time

“People don’t know what ‘dating’ means,” she told XXL.

“That’s what I mean when I say we go together. When we’re together, we’re together. We’re having the time of our lives, but we’re still single.”

“He see other people outside of me and I see people outside of him. I’m young. I’m dating. I’m, you know, having fun,” she added. “I’m doing me. He’s doing the same thing. I can’t speak for exactly what he doing or who he seeing, but we single and we dating. But we are dating each other, but we single. I think it just went over people’s heads, you know? People just like to take whatever they wanna take from.”

She came further under fire in December when Diddy surprised the public and announced the birth of his daughter, Love Sean Combs. Yung Miami said she already knew about the baby, which was born in October.

Male music artists continue to diminish the contributions of women in rap, including Ja Rule.

After a recent interview with media company The Shade Room, the rapper is feeling the heat for failing to name female rap pioneers like Lil Kim, Missy Elliott, Trina, and Eve amongst the women who shaped the genre with their music. When asked whether Nicki Minaj receives her just due for her role in hip-hop, Rule responded, “I think Nicki gets proper praise. Her place in the game is solidified. It’s solid. There were no female MCs out and about until Nicki came back out. Before her, the last one was, like, Lauryn Hill.”

Fans were enraged to see some of their favorite female MCs left off the list and took to the comments to let it be known.

“So he’s just gonna skip Lil Kim like she wasn’t dominating the industry as an iconic female rapper for years?” one fan responded.

“Love Nicki but I’m truly tired of the Lil Kim disrespect.”

Not to be confused with the longstanding feud between the fanbases of the two New York-born female rappers, people also chimed in about other artists they felt had been snubbed by Rule.

“Missy Elliott had the game on lock for long period as well let’s not forget”, another commenter posted.

This follows a trend of rappers and producers dimming the light on female rappers, like Grammy-Award winner Jermaine Dupri, who was forced to eat his words about the growing number of artists who have skyrocketed to fame over the last few years. When asked about who of the new crop of talent he was a personal fan of in an interview with PEOPLE, he stalled before offering, “The reason why I can’t say is because I feel like they’re all rapping about the same thing.”

He continued, “It’s like strippers rapping and as far as rap goes, I’m not getting who’s the best rapper. I’m getting like, ‘Ok, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club.’ Who’s going to be the rapper?”

Twitter and female rappers alike responded with a myriad of artists and tracks that were diverse in storyline and ability. According to Rolling Stone, even Issa Rae noted that Dupri’s disregard was a catalyst for her HBOMax series Rap Sh*t.

Being loud and wrong is still the chosen avenue of some men in the music industry.