• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

February 23, 2023

Nipsey Hussle’s Killer, Eric R. Holder Jr. Sentenced to 60 Years in Prison

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The man who killed rapper Nipsey Hussle has been sentenced to serve the next 60 years in prison.

According to The Associated Press, Eric R. Holder Jr. was sentenced to 60 years to life for killing Ermias Asghedom, better known as Nipsey Hussle. Last summer, he was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of the Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles rapper in 2019.

The 32-year-old killed Hussle outside The Marathon clothing store the rapper owned in south Los Angeles.

Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke II sentenced Holder to 60 years to life in prison after hearing testimony about the considerable cost of killing the local rap star who remained in his neighborhood after national success. He also considered the rapper’s one-time associate’s lifetime of mental illness, abuse, and struggle.

“I am very mindful of what was presented as to Mr. Holder’s mental health,” Jacke stated. “I am also mindful of the devastation caused to the victims and their families. I believe this sentence balances the two.”

Holder was convicted of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a firearm for the gunfire that hit two other men at the scene who survived.

The judge sentenced Hussle’s killer to 25 years to life for the murder, 25 more for a firearm sentencing enhancement, and 10 years for assault with a firearm. The sentences will run concurrently.

Hussle and Holder had known each other for years when the two were members of the Rollin’ 60s in South LA.

During last year’s trial, prosecutors revealed that Hussle was slain after a conversation with his killer, where he allegedly accused him of snitching, which led Holder to come back and kill the popular rapper.

The 33-year-old Hussle was killed in front of his Marathon Clothing store in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

A petition was started to rename the intersection of Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard near Hussle’s store, Marathon Clothing, to “Nipsey Hussle Square.” On the day of his funeral, the City Council announced it was set to be renamed Ermias “Nipsey Hussle” Asghedom Square to honor him and his contributions to the neighborhood. He is survived by his 3-year-old son Kross Ermias with his longtime girlfriend, Lauren London, and his 11-year-old daughter Emani from a previous relationship.

There was a time when audiences were concerned about celebrity news when it came to Wendy Williams. Now, for the past several years, the concerns are focused on the health of the former talk show host.

Williams was out on the town in New York City on Tuesday evening, and was seen at Fresco by Scotto, which is owned by Good Day New York‘s Rosanna Scotto and her sister, Elaina Scotto. A video of the 58-year-old leaving the restaurant was posted on Williams’ Instagram account, raising concerns.

After having dinner at the spot, she left the restaurant with her bodyguard and two other people. As the cameras started flashing, she smiled and blurted out to the paparazzi, “It’s sexy, right?” She is looking slimmer and out of the wheelchair. As she stood talking to a photographer, her bodyguard looked like he was about to let her stand on her own, but she quickly said, “No, no, no! Don’t let me fall!”

As she tightened her grip on the bodyguard, she made sure to inform the photographers that the man she was holding onto was her bodyguard and they “are not dating.” After repeating to the bodyguard to not leave her side, she mentioned her feet to him, reminding him not to let her stand alone.

She then walked toward the car and, when asked for another photo,  offered to do so. She said, “I can do it myself,” and left her bodyguard’s side to hold onto the car’s door handle for balance as she posed.

After taking the last shot, she got into the car.

 

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Daily Mail reported that as she entered the restaurant she said, “I went to the doctor and I weigh 138, pretty right?” as photographers snapped photos.

Her latest appearance is a stark difference from when she was seen out and about for New York Fashion Week. Fans were questioning her health after seeing her in public, wondering if she was really doing better.

• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

February 23, 2023

Fired Georgia Police Officer Arrested and Charged with Felony Murder and Kidnapping of 16-Year-Old

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A former police officer is being charged with the kidnapping and killing of a 16-year-old girl.

According to NBC News, former Georgia police officer, Miles Bryant, has been charged with felony murder and kidnapping in the death of 16-year-old Susana Morales. Police officials stated on Wednesday that a firearm that he had previously reported missing was discovered near her skeletal remains.

The 22-year-old former police officer was initially charged with concealing a death and falsely reporting a crime in connection with the disappearance of the 16-year-old victim. The skeletal remains of Morales were found on Feb. 6.

The Gwinnett Police Department stated via a press release that Morales met Bryant while she was walking home from a friend’s house on July 26, 2022. According to Gwinnett County Police Chief J.D. McClure, she encountered the former police officer sometime between 10:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Police detectives theorize that Morales was killed between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m.

The investigation continues as it appears that Bryant and Morales did not know one other or engage in any previous relationship. The exact cause of death has not been determined and is still under investigation.

Earlier today, Chief McClure provided an update on the Susana Morales case. Miles Bryant has been charged with kidnapping and murder in connection with her death. #GwinnettPD #Police pic.twitter.com/8oEUONGf17

— Gwinnett County Police (@GwinnettPd) February 22, 2023

Police officials stated they suspected Bryant after they found “a critical piece of evidence,” the handgun, “in close proximity” to where the body of Morales was discovered. Her body was seen close to the woods near Highway 316 between Drowning Creek and the Barrow County line.

Bryant had reported his personal gun missing on the morning of July 27, which immediately made him a person of interest.

Morales was last seen on July 26 before being reported missing the next morning by her family.

McClure stated that she could have possibly been raped.

“We don’t definitively know” how she was killed. “We’re still investigating. What we do know is she died at the hands of Miles Bryant.”

• Entrepreneurship

by Atiya Jordan

February 23, 2023

How ‘The First Lady of Wall Street’ Led a Company Into Mainstream America

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The history-making real estate magnate who established a profitable enterprise on Wall Street in 1979 was named “The First Lady of Wall Street” by BLACK ENTERPRISE. She was respected for her audacity to succeed when it was rare for Black women to climb the corporate ladder.

Ernesta Procope‘s rising influence throughout corporate America came at a time when only a handful of Black women filled seats in boardrooms of the nation’s largest companies. From  board directorships with Avon Products and Chubb Insurance, she went on to set up a storefront insurance agency, E.G. Bowman Company, in Brooklyn’s Bedford- Stuyvesant neighborhood and catapulted it into the mainstream of the American economy.

“I never operated with a complex—as a woman, as a black woman, as a black. but instead, as a person in business,” she said, as per BLACK ENTERPRISE. “We knew there were problems, but i could not let that be a deterrent to me.”

From Bed Stuy to Wall Street

Celebrated as the first female on BLACK ENTERPRISE’s “BE 100 list,” Procope is a Black history legend who holds numerous honorary doctorates from Howard University, Adelphi University, Marymount Manhattan College, and Morgan State University. The AG Gaston Lifetime Achievement Award winner’s 1953 establishment of E. G. Bowman Co. broke ground as the first minority-owned insurance brokerage firm located on Wall Street in 1979.

At the encouragement of her late husband, Albin Bowman, a successful real estate broker, Brooklyn-born Procope received her broker’s license so she could learn the business and also insure his properties.

She would eventually launch a business dedicated to homeowner and auto insurance policies for those in the Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn neighborhood she called home.

Procope saw an opportunity no one else did and expanded her focus on real estate rehabilitation and development. She would go on to renovate and sell about 500 brownstones in Brooklyn from 1955 through 1970. Featured in Ebony as “New York’s Lady Builder — the First Negro Woman to Build Homes in New York State,” Procope’s success proved to insurance companies that Bed-Stuy was full of stunning owner-occupied brownstones for financially stable middle-class families.

When the real estate market fell victim to a recession, Procope was dedicated to convincing insurance companies to insure her customers. She served as the mastermind behind the idea of renting limos and ferrying insurance executives from Manhattan to Brooklyn to put a spotlight on the valuable and insurable property in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

In 2021, Procope died at her home in Queens, NY at the age of 98.

• Sports

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

February 23, 2023

Dwight Howard Ejected After Taiwanese Basketball Teams Participate in Brawl

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There probably hasn’t been much excitement for former NBA player, Dwight Howard, since he left the NBA and started playing on a professional team in Taiwan. But that recently changed.

According to CBS News, Howard was playing in a game that was interrupted by a fight that turned into an outright brawl over the weekend. Although it appears that he was not directly involved in the fisticuffs, the former Los Angeles Laker was ejected along with a total of 11 other players from both teams.

On Sunday, the team that Howard plays on, the Taoyuan Leopards in Taiwan’s T1 League, was playing against the Taiwan Beer HeroBears. During the course of the game, while the Leopards’ Chen Hsiao-Jung was handling the basketball, the player elbowed his opponent, Chiang Yu-An of the HeroBears, which started the altercation.

After Yu-An reacted to the hit by attacking Hsiao-Jung, the other players on the basketball court went to intervene and in the process, a coach with the HeroBears went after Hsiao-Jung, setting off the brawl that involved multiple players from both teams.

The game was delayed for over 20 minutes. During this time, according to The New York Post, the referees reviewed video footage of the incident and tossed 12 players, five from the HeroBears, and the remaining seven playing for the Leopards.

The video below reveals that Howard was not directly involved in the fight, yet the officials ejected him along with players who were seen participating in the brawl. Howard’s stats for the game were a very respectable 28 points and 14 rebounds.

Although the former Orlando Magic player did not finish the game, his team won, 120-108. The victory upped the record of the Leopards to 4-11. That places them in last place in a league that has six teams.

Howard is also playing extremely well as he is averaging 24.4 points, 14.1 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game.

The New York Post reported that this a brand new league as it just started in 2021.

Black Love Inc. is honoring Black History Month by helping advance conversations and awareness on the Black dollar and building Black business enterprises.

To combat the lack of financial education and barriers that Black business owners often face in entrepreneurship, the company launched a new digital campaign called “Black History Month Now: Dynamic Duo.”

As part of the initiative, each episode will highlight a Black couple or partner duo in business together, while promoting the importance of creating a legacy and building generational wealth in Black relationships and families.

“This year for Black History Month, it was important to us to do something that’s celebrating our effort today, our effort as a community,” Codie Elaine Oliver, the Co-Founder and CEO of Black Love, Inc. told BLACK ENTERPRISE.

“We chose to highlight duos because we think it’s really important as well as great to see when people are building something together.”

New episodes air every Tuesday during Black History Month and feature powerhouse Black couples and partners in business together, like Codie Elaine Oliver and Tommy Oliver of Confluential Films, Chloe and Maud of Syncopated Ladies, Devale and Khadeen Ellis authors of “We Over Me“, Regis and Kahran of Creative Soul Photography, and Dustin Young and Lee Johnson of Our OWN.

 

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“Too often we go through life alone. We go through entrepreneurship alone, and there is beauty in that,” Oliver said. “But we wanted to celebrate folks that are building with someone that they love.”

And that doesn’t always mean going into business with a romantic partner, Oliver explained.

“Our campaign is married couples, siblings, and best friends,” she said. “It’s important to us as a brand that Black Love is about all forms of love.”

With over 1 million followers on social media and two NAACP Image Award nominations, Elaine knows a thing or two about starting a successful business with a spouse and offered her advice.

“I would say business with my spouse and, frankly, anyone that you love, it’s important to define roles,” she said. “It’s very easy to get excited about doing something together and then not clearly define who’s doing what, and then you butt heads a little bit more easily than you would have otherwise. So clearly defining roles.”

Be sure to check out Black Love Inc.’s “Dynamic Duo” campaign throughout the month of February.

There may be $360 million at stake in this family feud brewing at the moment.

According to Radar Online, 76-year-old icon Cher is having a family dispute over the boyfriend she is currently seeing. Her two sons are unhappy with the man she plans to elope with. She is contemplating cutting the two offspring out of her will, which is said to be valued at $360 million.

Sources with information about the situation have stated that Cher plans to elope with her alleged fiance, Alexander “A.E.” Edwards. He is 37 years old and a music producer. They are supposedly heading to Las Vegas to tie the knot and hopefully live happily ever after. But the wedding may not include her sons, 53-year-old Chaz Bono and 46-year-old Elijah Blue Allman.

She is reportedly upset that the two have not supported the relationship between her and Edwards. She is so upset that she is willing to cut the two out of her $360 million will.

Tatyana Ali is joining the cast of Bel-Air season 2 and was an emotional wreck of nostalgia while filming the reboot.

Ali, who played Ashley in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, is playing the role of a middle school English teacher who has a connection with the new Ashley, portrayed by Akira Akbar. The show’s star, Jabari Banks, appeared on TODAY and dished on what it was like filming with Ali and how much the Fresh Prince original loved shooting the reboot.

“It was so meta. It was almost surreal,” Banks told the TODAY hosts.

In fact, it was a full circle moment for Ali who starred in Fresh Prince throughout its entire run from 1990 to 1996.

“She was crying the whole time because, you know,” Banks explained.

“She grew up on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and, so, to see Akira Akbar take on this role of Ashley, it was a mirror of sorts and so it was super surreal for her.”

“She was such a joy, such a sweetheart. I can’t wait for people to see it,” he added.

Last month, Ali tweeted out a big thank you to Will Smith, who announced her addition to the new season.

Thanks Will- it was just awesome!” she exclaimed. “Season 2 is incredible.”

Thanks Will- it was just awesome! Season 2 is incredible. @WillSmith2real https://t.co/d3gOFO4AfO

— Tatyana Ali (@TatyanaAli) January 20, 2023

Bel-Air received a warm welcome during its 2022 premiere on Peacock. The reboot serves as a darkened reimagining of the original Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that follows Will’s life in Los Angeles after fleeing the mean streets of West Philadelphia.

Will Smith takes on an executive producer role and has also been helping mentor Banks as he carries on the legacy of Will’s character from the 90s.

“We had a lot of great talks, just about life, and I was allowed to apply that to the role for Season Two,” Banks said of Smith.

• News

by Stacy Jackson

February 22, 2023

Michigan Governor Speaks at MSU Student Arielle Anderson’s Funeral: Says She Was ‘Robbed’ of Her Future

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She was the student who was voted most likely to succeed.

Funeral services for Arielle Anderson, a Black student who was gunned down on the Michigan State University campus, was held in Detroit on Feb. 21, and was attended by grieving loved ones and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

According to ABC News, Whitmer observed how much support was present to celebrate the life of the slain 19-year-old. Anderson was in the early stages of pursuing her dream of becoming a surgeon, and it “was robbed from her by a senseless act of violence,” Whitmer said.

“While her life was cut short in the cruelest of ways, her impact is undeniable as I look around this church, as I listen to stories,” Whitmer said.

Whitmer said Anderson had a “quiet confidence,” and was known for her “loud compassion,” and had “wisdom beyond her years.”

Roy Bishop Jr., deputy superintendent of Educational Services for Grosse Pointe Public Schools, also shared words about Anderson during the service, acknowledging her inspirational drive, leadership, and advocacy for making sure everyone was included.

The Bishop shared that Anderson made the announcement that she would become a doctor when she was entering high school, where one of her teachers described her as “hard-working, dedicated, talented, driven, compassionate, thoughtful and mature” in a college recommendation letter.

“She shined so bright for everyone to see,” Bishop said, recalling how she embraced her middle name, Diamond.

“Arielle’s life, her impact, her mere presence, has changed the world for the better,” Bishop added.

As previously reported by BLACK ENTERPRISE, Anderson, the niece of Flavor of Love star, Deelishis, was one of the three victims killed by 34-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae after he opened fire at an academic building and student union on Michigan State University’s campus on Monday, Feb. 13.

The funeral service for Anderson was held at Zion Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit.

• News

by Booker Jones

February 22, 2023

Washington is the Latest State to Attempt to Ban Toxic Substances in Hair Products

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Several states have been trying to stop toxic chemicals inside of cosmetics from hitting shelves. Washington is the latest state to join this fight. 

A study, which was funded by the state, showed that toxic cosmetics could be troublesome for women of color, because women of color use cosmetics more than white women.

“Companies are adding preservatives like formaldehyde to cosmetics products,” Iris Deng, a researcher for the Washington State Department, wrote. “Lead and arsenic are different stories. They’re detected as contaminants.”

The authors of the research said, in Europe, products like CoverGirl foundation are banned. The report said that arsenic and lead exposure have been linked to damage of the brain and nervous system.

“When we find these chemicals in products applied directly to our bodies, we know people are being exposed,” Marissa Smith, Washington state’s senior toxicologist, wrote.

States such as Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont are poring over policies that would ban toxic chemicals in cosmetics and other personal care products.

The federal government has limited authority, which is why states are acting on this. “The FDA has had limited resources to pursue ingredient bans,” Melanie Benesh, president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, said.   

Lynn Bergeson added the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act can regulate chemicals, but the FDA can only regulate color additives and chemicals in sunscreen. 

The state of Minnesota tests for mercury, hydroquinone, and steroids in skin-lightening products. In 2013, the state passed a law that banned formaldehyde in children’s products, such as lotions and bubble baths.

California passed the California Safe Cosmetics Act in 2005, which banned perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. 

In 2021, Colorado also banned the chemical PFAS in makeup and other products.