Tope Awotona One of Richest Immigrants in US After Founding Calendly App Worth $3B
by Wendy Medina

April 9, 2022

Tope Awotona One of Richest Immigrants in US After Founding Calendly App Worth $3B

Forty-year-old entrepreneur Tope Awotona of Nigeria is the proud founder and chief executive of Calendly, a scheduling platform to streamline work life, appointments, and meetings. His software is now worth $3 billion after exploding in Silicon Valley, making him one of the richest immigrants in the country at a net worth of $1.4 billion, per Forbes. 

Founded in Atlanta in 2013, Awotona used up his $200,000 life savings to start Calendly, cashing out his 401(k) and maxing out credit cards, while working at tech firm Dell EMC. 

Awotona went on to pursue his dream and currently the platform has over 10 million users, including industry giants like Lyft, Ancestry.com, Indiana University, and La-Z-Boy, among others. Business is booming for the tech company after last year’s revenue doubled the previous year, at $100 million, with expectations to follow the same trend. 

While there are other competitors in the market, Calendly beats the likes of Square, Microsoft, and Doodle due to its consumer-friendly design and no ad model for its premium version. 

“Tope could be the most successful African-American tech entrepreneur of his generation,” shared founder of Atlanta Ventures, David Cummings, who invested $550,000 of seed money in 2015.

“In my life, I’ve benefited from not taking the conventional wisdom,” said Awotona. “It’s benefited me personally, and I think it has benefited the business.”

Calendly however, wasn’t his first entrepreneurial venture; Awotona founded three different companies that failed before catching his big break, consisting of a dating website, the sale of projectors, and the sale of garden equipment. 

But something about this scheduling software was different. “The obvious idea to me was that scheduling is broken,” he said. “With my previous businesses, I hedged my bets a little bit and gave myself a way out. With Calendly I flew into a war zone and put in every cent I had.”

Now, Awotona aims to introduce new features in Calendly that sets them even further apart from the game, such as increased analytics, international expansion, and attaching candidates’ résumés to recruiters’ calendars.

“If you’re going to do something, you have to go all in,” said the billionaire tech founder.

Black Virginia Teacher Sues White Student After Continuous Racist Taunts
by Wendy Medina

April 9, 2022

Black Virginia Teacher Sues White Student After Continuous Racist Taunts

A local Newport News, Virginia, teacher is suing a former student after incessant racist teasing. 

Joel Mungo, a 21 year veteran history teacher at Menchville High School, says the constant taunts were unlike anything he’s ever experienced as an educator, reports WAVY. 

“Someone left a banana at my door. The banana was perfectly placed in the doorway,” Mungo told the news outlet. It began happening in October and then continued once a month after that. The banana was always at the same spot under the teacher’s doorway.

“It was clearly a deliberate act,” Mungo said.

The banana left at Mungo’s classroom doorway. (Image: Screenshot/WAVY)

Mungo found the banana six times before taking the issue to the school’s administrators, who then pulled up surveillance footage and found the culprit – a 10th-grader from one of Mungo’s classes.

“I gave the student a chance to come clean. I asked him, ‘Hey did you do this?’ He said ‘No,’ he played dumb, ‘No idea what you’re talking about.’ So I said ‘OK, go down to the assistant principal.’ I’m the only Black teacher he has. He has six other teachers. No other teachers were involved,” Mungo revealed.

After the 10th-grader’s parents were contacted, he was suspended for two days and moved to a different class.

“Initially when the parents were contacted, the parents seemed to be truly embarrassed. Then when the student was suspended and the parents were informed, then the parents were irate. It’s 2022. Just to have some type of hate crime is absolutely ridiculous. I was sickened. I was highly upset. So upset, I took the next day off. I didn’t go to work that Friday,” Mungo said.

He is currently pursuing legal action, according to the outlet.

“I’m just fed up with the racism around, especially at our academic institutions. Coming from the HBCUs and other colleges, the bomb threats, the nooses, the bananas and now it’s streaming into public education,” the history teacher continued. “It’s time to take a stand and just let people know it will not be tolerated. I know I’m not tolerating it. You have to speak up. You can’t allow it to go on because then it will just continue to go on.” 

Per a school official, Newport News Public Schools is investigating the incident and has conferred with Mungo.



by Yolanda Baruch

April 9, 2022

Don Cheadle Is Set To Direct Apple TV’s Limited Series ‘The Big Cigar’ About Huey P. Newton

Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle is slated to direct and executive produce the first two episodes of Apple TV’s limited series The Big Cigar, based on the co-founder of Black Panther Party for Self Defense, Huey P. Newton, according to Variety.

The miniseries will include six episodes in partnership with Warner Bros. Television, and Passing actor André Holland is currently in negotiations to take on the lead role.

Newton and his college friend Bobby Seale started the Black nationalist organization in 1966. The series will follow the radical leader as he escapes to Havana, Cuba, to evade FBI charges for a 1974 assault and murder in Oakland, California. 

Newton spent three years in Cuba before returning to America to face federal prosecution for killing a California police officer.  

The courts convicted Newton of voluntary manslaughter, but his sentence was later overturned during his appeal. In 1971, after being incarcerated for two years and undergoing trial three times, the court dismissed the charges against the revolutionary, based on the archives of The New York Times.

In 1989, drug dealer Tyrone Robinson and a member of the Black Guerilla Family fatally shot Newton in the face in West Oakland.

Newton’s final words were, “You can kill my body, and you can take my life, but you can never kill my soul. My soul will live forever!” 

Robinson was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison in 1991. 

Newton’s resting place is at the Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland.

The series is based on a 2013 Playboy magazine article by Joshuah Bearman titled “The Big Cigar: How a Hollywood producer smuggled Huey Newton to Cuba,” according to The Collider. 

The feature detailed how Newton escaped to Cuba with the help of Hollywood producer Bert Schneider. Bearman will also executive produce the series, according to Deadline. 

Janine Sherman Barrois will serve as the showrunner and executive producer. Barrois worked on such shows as Criminal Minds and The Kings of Napa, according to The Collider. 

The Wonder Years narrator directed four episodes of the Showtime series House of Lies and the 2015 Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead, according to his IMDB.

 

by Wendy Medina

April 9, 2022

BLM Co-Founder Patrisse Cullors Claps Back at Claims That Donations Were Used To Buy $6M California Mansion

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation co-founder Patrisse Cullors is breaking her silence amid allegations that the hefty donations raised for the social justice movement were used to buy a $6 million California mansion in cash, dubbed the “Campus.”

Per CNN, the foundation raised $90 million in 2020, allotting a quarter of the funds – about $23 million – to local grassroots chapters and organizations of BLM. So, what happened to the other $67 million?

An April 4 article by the New York Magazine accused Cullors and the BLM Global Network of using those funds to purchase the expensive “Campus” property. This rattled some nerves, causing Cullors to take to Instagram the next day and in a lengthy post, denounce the story.

She wrote: “Yesterday’s article in New York Magazine is a despicable abuse of a platform that’s intended to provide truthful information to the public. Journalism is supposed to mitigate harm and inform our communities. That fact that a reputable publication would allow a reporter, with a proven and very public bias against me and other Black leaders, to write a piece filled with misinformation, innuendo and incendiary opinions, is disheartening and unacceptable.”

Cullors continued, “To clarify again, the property the reporter addressed was purchased in 2020 as a space where those within the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) and broader movement community could work, create content, host meetings and foster creativity. Although I cannot speak to how BLMGNF uses the property currently as I left the organization last year in May, it was purchased to be a safe space for Black people in the community. The reason it wasn’t announced prior is not nefarious as the headline infers, the property needed repairs and renovation. I do not own the property, have never lived there and made that clear to the reporter.”

However, this isn’t the first accusation of Cullors misappropriating the funds. In April 2021, the New York Post published Cullors’ $3 million real estate buying binge that included three luxury homes in Southern California and a custom Georgia ranch. While the property purchases became fodder for conservative news outlets, Cullors stepped down that next month.  

She denied all claims of money mismanagement, although deeds and titles connected to her tell a different story.

 

Cullors continued in her post, “I want to be clear: While I will always see myself as a part of the BLM community, I am no longer in leadership and I am not a part of any decision-making processes within the foundation. I have never misappropriated funds, and it pains me that so many people have accepted that narrative without the presence of tangible truth or facts.”

No Minneapolis Police Officers Charged for the Killing of Amir Locke
by Wendy Medina

April 9, 2022

No Minneapolis Police Officers Charged for the Killing of Amir Locke

Disclosure: This post involves mention of murder, police brutality.

 

Two months after the shooting death of 22-year-old Amir Locke by Minneapolis police, no criminal charges will be filed against the officers responsible, prosecutors announced Wednesday. 

According to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, prosecutors “would be unable to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of Minnesota’s use-of-deadly-force statute that authorizes the use of force,” citing, “insufficient admissible evidence to file criminal charges,” reports KSTP.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension had just passed along the case to Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for a charging decision only a week before.

Locke was fatally shot in the early hours of Feb. 2 under a no-knock search warrant executed by the Minneapolis Police Department SWAT team, signed by the same judge presiding over the Derek Chauvin trial, Peter Cahill. The no-knock search warrant did not even contain Locke’s name. The officials entered Locke’s family member’s apartment with a key while he was asleep and wrapped in blankets on the couch. 

Upon being woken up to an officer kicking the couch, blinding lights, and a whole gang of people coming at him, Locke reached for his weapon while having it aimed at the floor with his finger off the trigger.

Body cam footage reveals that within those nine seconds of entering the home, officer Mark Hanneman fires at least three lethal shots from off camera.

While the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and Minnesota Attorney General’s Office refused to file charges, they said in a joint statement that Locke “should be alive today, and his death is a tragedy.”

According to a written statement from Hanneman, he feared for his life and said Locke put the heavily armed SWAT team at risk of death. “There was no opportunity for me to reposition myself or retreat. There was no way for me to de-escalate this situation. The threat to my life and the lives of my teammates was imminent and terrifying.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey shared, “I respect the decision made by Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. The loss of Amir Locke is felt most by his friends and family who are grieving their loved one. Today, my heart is with them as they process this news.”

DJ Jazzy Jeff Defends His Friend Will Smith: “It Was A Lapse Of Judgement”
by Yolanda Baruch

April 9, 2022

DJ Jazzy Jeff Defends His Friend Will Smith: “It Was A Lapse Of Judgement”

DJ Jazzy Jeff came to his friend’s defense, Oscar winner Will Smith, Thursday, April 7, in Chicago for a conversation series with the host of WGCI Morning Show, Kyle Santillian, at Dorian’s Through The Record Shop, according to the event’s Instagram post.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by WGCI Chicago (@wgci)

In a short video clip posted on social media, Jeff said of Smith’s Oscar controversy, “it was a lapse of judgment, and I think the thing that I realized is I don’t know too many people that has had the least amount of lapse of judgment than him.”  

He added, “I can name 50 times when he should’ve smacked the sh*t outta somebody, and he didn’t. So for him to have a lapse of judgment, he’s human. I think a lot of criticism comes from the people who don’t think people like that are human.” 

Jeff is not the only one attempting to shield Smith from the ongoing criticism that spawned when the actor marched on stage at the Oscars to slap comedian Chris Rock for making a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, shaven head. Both Janet Hubert, Smith’s former co-star on the sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Denzel Washington have extended grace to the embattled actor. 

Recently, an old Instagram video initially posted by Jada Pinkett Smith was uploaded to Reddit and has since gone viral since “slapgate,” showing a tense marital moment between the two stars, according to 7 News. 

“Would you say she has been instrumental in you and I defining our relationship?” Jada asks Will about their relationship since seeing psychotherapist Esther Perel. 

Will gives her a terse response as he looks into the cell phone camera, “I would say don’t just start filming me without asking me,” as he returns to looking at this phone.

Jada then turns the camera on herself, “Oh my goodness. Esther, come help us again, please. I’m still dealing with foolishness.”

“Would you say that she helped us heal the hurts that we have caused between one another?” she carries on, ignoring her husband’s request to stop filming him. 

Will continues to ignore her question, “My social media presence is my bread and butter … So you can’t just use me for social media.”

“Don’t just start rolling,” he says.

“I’m standing in my house. Don’t start rolling.”

Jada comes into the camera, standing in front of Will, and tells her followers to watch the next episode of Red Table Talk.

“Please watch Esther at the Red Table, because she’s helped us a lot. Can’t you tell?,” she says at the end of the video.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently announced that Smith is  banned from attending the ceremony for the next ten years, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

 

Michael B. Jordan Stuns Social Media With Shaved Face, Fans Are Not Feeling It
by Wendy Medina

April 9, 2022

Michael B. Jordan Stuns Social Media With Shaved Face, Fans Are Not Feeling It

Actor Michael B. Jordan sent the internet into an uproar when a picture that girlfriend Lori Harvey posted to her Instagram began making rounds online. Stepping out for date night, the model posted the pics to show off her chic spring outfit, however it was Jordan’s look that caught everyone’s attention for sporting a clean shaved face.

The Creed actor shocked social media since he’s never not bare faced and his facial hair is part of his allure; although he did appear clean shaven in his recent holiday romance film A Journal for Jordan.

Perhaps the movie flew under Twitter’s radar because once the pictures crossed over to the bird app, Jordan was roasted mercilessly.

“Grow it back immediately Michael,” read the post that went viral. 

“I said look at me Mike, look at me, THIS IS NOT YOU, you hear me?” commented another fan with a still from Creed. “The Steve Harvey-ification of Michael B Jordan,”  joked another response. “The power of the beard is severe!” said another. “And y’all get mad when I say men without facial hair look like thumbs,” another fan tweeted begrudgingly. 

https://twitter.com/TumeloTG_/status/1512193971954622469?s=20&t=NassYRhN9lomiL24yM8ZJQ

https://twitter.com/bottleofgenesis/status/1512124878408892427?s=20&t=NassYRhN9lomiL24yM8ZJQ

Others took to clowning his outfit as well for having on a vibrant green ensemble that looked very similar to the hue of a viral image of Steve Harvey’s drip. 

Fans took to drawing a Steve Harvey mustache and aviator glasses on his bare face and posting a side-to-side.

It’s unclear whether the new look is in preparation for a new role, since Jordan recently teased an image at the beginning of March where he tagged Will Smith and fans immediately recognized the overgrown desolate streets of the New York City set of I Am Legend.  However, that didn’t stop the internet from going in.

This isn’t the first time Jordan has been dragged in the comments, but the Black Panther actor seemingly remains unfazed as he remains living his best life with Harvey.

Las Vegas Police Will Not File Charges Against Trey Songz For Sexual Assault
by Yolanda Baruch

April 9, 2022

Las Vegas Police Will Not File Charges Against Trey Songz For Sexual Assault

The Las Vegas Metro Police Department cleared R&B singer Trey Songz in their sexual assault investigation, People reports.

“The LVMPD has conducted the investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Tremaine Neverson and determined that no criminal charges will be filed,” said a rep on Friday to People. “If any new evidence comes to light, the case will be reopened for further investigation.”

The alleged incident occurred in November at Songz’s 37th birthday at the Cosmopolitan, where he reportedly invited a group of women to his hotel room, according to Complex. 

The LVMPD looked into the sexual assault report filed by Songz’s accuser and did not issue any arrests. Authorities claimed that the “Heart Attack” singer cooperated with the investigation, Complex reports. 

“We are grateful to the LVMPD for the professional police work done and their thorough investigation, which included findings of inconsistency in witness testimony and insufficient evidence,” said Songz’s attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld. “We are pleased that Trey can now return to what he does best, entertaining,” reports Complex. 

Sexual assault allegations have plagued the singer, and he was confronted with a $20 million lawsuit filed by a woman who accused Songz of raping her at a party in Los Angeles in 2016. A second accuser named Jahaura Jeffries also claimed the songwriter had sexually assaulted her during a New Year’s Eve party in Miami in 2017. Attorney Ariel Mitchell represented both alleged victims, Los Angeles Magazine reports.

In February, Songz’s legal team filed a motion to throw out Jeffries’ lawsuit declaring that Mitchell tried to bribe a primary witness for the alleged victim’s defense.

“Defendant Tremaine Neverson moves for sanctions against Plaintiff and her counsel for witness tampering,” read the court documents. “[Witness 1] is an independent witness who was with Plaintiff and Defendant during the entirety of the period relevant to Plaintiff’s claim. [Witness 1] states—by an affidavit attached to this Motion and through recorded statements that may be presented at an evidentiary hearing—that the assault described in the Complaint never happened.”

Mitchell repudiated the claims of witness tampering by the entertainer and his attorneys, “This is nothing more than bullying and an attempt to silence counsel and the many victims who have been assaulted by Defendant Songz and will be vigorously defended in court. I will further be exonerated as I was when this allegation was previously made by Defendant Songz’s prior attorney,” TMZ reports.

In 2017, Hustlers star Keke Palmer accused Songz of “sexual intimidation” when she refused to appear in his music video “Pick Up the Phone,” Huffington Post reports. 

Songz took to his Instagram to defend his character, according to E! News. 

Walt Disney World And Universal Studios Pledge To Build Affordable Housing in Florida
by Yolanda Baruch

April 9, 2022

Walt Disney World And Universal Studios Pledge To Build Affordable Housing in Florida

The increased cost of renting and home prices have surged nationwide. Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and West Palm Beach are experiencing the volatility of soaring monthly rent costs, averaging $2,871. Tampa followed, placing at No. 4, and Orlando landed in the tenth spot, according to the Miami Herald. 

Taylor Marr, the lead economist at Redfin, a real estate brokerage, said Florida is a highly sought-after location for second home sales and vacation rentals which has negatively impacted the accessibility of long-term rental property in the present housing market.   

“That being said, I can’t imagine rent growth staying at the current rate,” Marr said to Miami Herald in an email. “I expect rental prices to increase next year, but the rate of growth will decelerate in tandem with the rest of the country.”

The average rental fee in Orlando, Florida, increased 21% from 2020 to 2021. Walt Disney World and Universal Parks and Resorts are preparing to rectify the situation by providing affordable housing by purchasing 100 acres of land to develop low-cost accommodations, according to NPR. 

Disney is committed to building 1,300 inexpensive housing units throughout 80 acres of Orange County, Florida, within proximity to its theme parks. However, the plan is still in the preliminary stage and will require regulatory compliance, according to NPR.

“The development will offer residents a variety of home choices that are affordable and attainable,” said Rena Langley, Walt Disney World’s senior vice president for communications and public affairs. The new residential units will be within the vicinity of Disney’s new Flamingo Crossings retail and dining complex; she continued in her statement, NPR reports. 

Disney did not release the specific qualifications future residents must have before acquiring a unit, nor did they publicly disclose the estimated cost. But the media conglomerate said the properties would be open to the general public and their employees, Business Insider reports.

“We are invested in working together with our community to solve complex issues,” said in an official statement by Walt Disney World resort president Jeff Vahle, according to Business Insider.

“The lack of affordable housing is affecting many people across our country, including right here in Central Florida,” he affirmed. 

Universal Orlando is guaranteed “20 acres of prime land in the heart of Orlando’s tourist corridor to be used for 1,000 units of affordable/mixed-income housing,” reports NPR. 

Universal is partnering with Wendover Housing Partners to develop and be in charge of the Catchlight Crossings community. The affordable housing location will boast such amenities as tuition-free preschool, community gardens, technology cafés, a fitness center, on-site medical offices, and a transportation center, as listed in the press release, NPR reports.

Like Disney, Universal’s real estate project has to receive the seal of approval from the county government, according to NPR.

 

by Yolanda Baruch

April 9, 2022

Idris Elba Confesses To Selling Weed To Dave Chappelle In The Early Days Of His Career

Becoming a successful, booked, and busy working actor is an arduous journey, and dashingly handsome Idris Elba was not immune to this harsh reality as an up-and-coming thespian. 

Elba appeared on The Jess Cagle Show to promote his latest animation movie, Sonic The Hedgehog 2. He spoke about his early years in his acting career when he moved to the United States and the sort of odd jobs he had before landing paid gigs, Entertainment Weekly reports. 

“In that time period I did a lot of things, some things I’m not proud of, but I did a lot of things,” vaguely said Elba.  

Host Cagle pressed him to elaborate on the unsavory details of his past, which Elba caved and admitted, “I used to sell weed. Can I say that on the show?” according to Entertainment Weekly.

Cagle reassured that his admission was permitted on the show and added that if the Harder They Fall actor wanted to resume the business again, he could since selling weed is now legal in California since 2016, The Guardian reports. 

“I did that for a little bit just to, you know, help pay the way. I DJ’ed quite a bit. I was a doorman. I was a doorman at Carolines comedy club [in New York], which is fascinating now, when I meet the comedians that you kind of remember the English guy. Tall English guy with the funny accent and the little hair,” recalls Elba, according to Entertainment Weekly.

One of his clients was comedian Dave Chappelle, “He remembers me ’cause he used to buy weed from me,” said the actor. “Anyway, moving on. Yeah, I did all kinds of things to be honest, all kinds of things.”  

Elba eventually landed his breakout role as Stringer Bell, the cunning drug dealer on the sleeper hit HBO drama series The Wire that premiered in 2002, Rotten Tomatoes reports. 

However, the role that his fans are clamoring for the British actor to take on is to become the next James Bond. Elba initially expressed interest in the role and now pushes back on the idea citing that he’s too old to play the highly-esteemed spy character.

“I am 50 this year. Let’s say you sign up for three films – nobody wants to see Bond giving chase or beating up guys when he is 60,” Elba points out. “I am probably too old to take on the role now.”

However, he would consider playing an antagonist part in the well-respected film franchise, “If there was a chance to be involved and the role was right for me, why not? It would be incredible to be a Bond villain,” Elba reportedly said to the British tabloid The Sun. 

 

 

×