Anthony Anderson Hitches Ride Home With Strangers He Met at a Manhattan Best Buy
by Wendy Medina

March 27, 2022

Anthony Anderson Hitches Ride Home With Strangers He Met at a Manhattan Best Buy

“The life and times of me,” Anthony Anderson begins a recent video he posted to Instagram.

The 51-year-old comedian shared a clip where he’s driving a stranger’s car whom he met at a Best Buy in Manhattan. Anderson fills us in that he went to the electronics store to pick up some TVs for his new NYC apartment and upon purchasing the multiple plasmas, realized he had no way of getting them back home. 

“This brother Alex was ahead of me in line so I asked if he would drive me to my place and he agreed,” he captioned the post. “What he didn’t tell me was that he had someone in the car and that it was full of work equipment. But we made it work! Just another one for the books!”

In the video, Anderson filmed his new acquaintance Alex, sitting on the lap of the other passenger named Charm.  

All laughs and smiles, the Law & Order star reveals, “But not only am I driving their car, what y’all need to see is that I’m driving, but the car is in reverse!” He goes on to flip the camera to the dashboard revealing the gear selector in fact on the R. “It’s in reverse!” he exclaims and explains it’s Alex’s hoopty.

“Those are my TVs in the back as y’all can see right there,” he points to the stack of TVs in the back. “If I don’t make it back to the set of Law & Order, call the police. This is what they look like!” Anderson joked at the end of the minute-long video. 

According to People, in February the actor discussed reviving his role as Detective Kevin Bernard in the new Law & Order series with the show’s creator, Dick Wolf.

Less than a month later, Anderson would be on set to film.

“I’m back in the shoes of Detective Kevin Bernard, doing what we do best: solving crimes, ripped from the headlines,” he shared.

Catch the new season of Law & Order at 8 p.m. EST, Thursdays on NBC.

Pittsburgh Mayor Calls For Police Reform After Police Killed A Black Man
by Yolanda Baruch

March 27, 2022

Pittsburgh Mayor Calls For Police Reform After Police Killed A Black Man

In a news conference held on March 23, 2022, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey spoke about the need for police reform after the taser death of Jim Rogers, a Black man, 54, by five police officers, Target 11 reports.

Five officers were terminated from the department, however three were reinstated with the agreement they would “undergo retraining,” according to Target 11.

“Three officers will remain employed with the Bureau and five will no longer be employed by the city of Pittsburgh,” said Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt, who refused to disclose details about the investigation but confirmed the officers violated policies and procedures, according to Target 11.

 

Although the city would not publicly name the officers, sources revealed to Target 11 that terminated officers are Keith Edmonds, Greg Boss, Pat Desaro, Neyib Velazquez, and Sgt. Colby Neidig. Edmonds is the officer who used a taser on Rogers. Boss and Desaro drove the victim to the hospital, while Neidig is a supervisor who was present at the scene, Target 11 reports.

“Jim Rogers deserved to live a long life,” Mayor Ed Gainey said during a Wednesday press conference, reports KDKA-TV. “He didn’t deserve to lose his life at the hands of city police officers. What his life could have been will stay with me as long as I’m the mayor of this city,” said Gainey.

Gainey wants the reprimand of the officers to launch better police-community relations.

“Today sets us on a pathway to improve police-community relations. We need to work together to honor the memory of Jim Roger to make a fair and equitable city for us all,” he said.

Police tased Rogers several times, claiming he became “non-compliant” when authorities received a call of a suspicious person involved in a theft. Rogers died in October.

The president of the Pittsburgh Police Officers Union, Bob Swartzwelder, did not volunteer any specifics about the case but said the police union would appeal the firing of the officers.

“We will appeal every case to arbitration that will be heard before a panel of three. At the end of that case there will be a determination made whether the discipline will be modified, upheld or even eliminated. We’re going to file for arbitration on every single case as soon as we receive a letter from the public safety director,” said Swartzwelder to Target 11.

Swartzwelder also disagreed with Gainey’s comment about Rogers losing “his life at the hands of police officers” and said the autopsy report by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner ruled Roger’s death accidental, according to Target 11.

This month, a grand jury assembled to decide whether to bring charges against the Pittsburgh police officers. Rogers’ family published a statement urging the officers to be criminally charged “as soon as possible,” KDKA-TV reports.

 

by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors

March 27, 2022

IN THE SEAT OF POWER — Black Executives Reveal What It Takes to Secure a Seat on Corporate Boards

Black executives made record gains in 2021 in securing seats on corporate boards, but there is still much work to be done.

During the 2022 BLACK ENTERPRISE Women of Power Summit in Las Vegas, March 24-26, Edith Cooper, member of Board of Directors Pepsi Co, Amazon & EQT and Co-Founder, Medley, a membership-based community for personal and professional growth and Gale V. King, Corporate Director and former Executive Vice-President Chief Administrative Officer Nationwide, shared how they made it to the boardroom and how they’re changing the corporate landscape from the top.

During the session, The Seat of Power – Getting on Corporate Boards, Cooper talked candidly about how her personal North Star helped her achieve so many of her accomplishments.

The conversation opened with a burning question many women in the Bellagio conference room likely wanted to know: how do they do an assessment of when they’re ready to join board? And when they are, what value proposition should they be bringing to a board?

“You have to understand what it means to be on board,” Cooper said.

The PepsiCo board member explained, “It goes well beyond getting to put it on your LinkedIn page, or, you know, the incremental access that you have, you know, governance responsibility for the shareholders of a company,” Cooper said.

Cooper fervently offered the captive audience of 1,200 women this sage advice about their pursuit of securing a corporate board seat: “Think about what you have as your priorities right now. And what capacity do you have to commit to understanding the underlying to these efforts…and that current commitment is doing the due diligence on what points you want to be on because you get to decide, right?” King asserted.

Being on a corporate board is more than flash, fanfare and a resume filler.

“We don’t get to decide ultimately who we want to engage with at the board level,” Cooper added.

“And that’s really important… I don’t know how many meetings your boards have five, six a year. By committing to a target, you have to manage and understand material. And so when you start thinking, or do the homework, understand whether you have time to really commit to make sure that the organizations that are approaching you, or once it’s really interested in, think about the organizations, and the companies or industries that you’d like to be involved in, and get really underscoring the culture of those organizations,” Cooper said.

Check out more of the candid conversation above.

Nevada Man Banned From Southwest Airlines After Punching Gate Agent at Atlanta Airport
by Wendy Medina

March 27, 2022

Nevada Man Banned From Southwest Airlines After Punching Gate Agent at Atlanta Airport

According to the Atlanta Police Department, a man was detained last Tuesday at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta for punching a Southwest Airlines agent, per CNN. 

Forty-four-year-old Courtney Drummond of Henderson, Nevada, was caught on camera punching the airline employee after having been disembarked from a Southwest flight for refusing to comply with flight attendants. As the flight was being taxied to the tarmac, Drummond’s aggression escalated, complaining that he wouldn’t be able to go see his son now that he was kicked off. He threatened the gate agent several times, saying, “I want that fade bro, I need that fade,” before eventually walking up and punching him. 

Chaos ensued while several other employees held back their colleague from retaliating and attempted to de-escalate the situation by acting as a barrier between the men. A female agent that gets in front of Drummond yelled, “Do not hit me,” several times before he attempts to get another hit in by flanking the barrier of employees. “You gotta go,” another female employee yells at him, prompting Drummond to remove his sweater and T-shirt, as if ready for the fight.

“She called the police 10 minutes ago,” the person recording can be heard saying. “Where is the police?” others asked.

The video ends with the woman recording pleading with Drummond to not take off his shirt and that they would take him away.

https://twitter.com/OffCyndisc/status/1506704624090329093?s=20&t=86D8LIWgO0rBMa2l7Qw_Cg

The disgruntled passenger was arrested and taken to the Clayton County Jail, charged with simple battery, battery and obstruction.

“As a result of this inexcusable attack, the individual has been banned from flying with Southwest Airlines,” the company told NBC News in a statement on Friday.

Gwendolyn Foster, Drummond’s mother, confirmed he is still in Georgia under custody and apologized for her son’s actions.

“My heart goes out to everyone, the staff at Southwest – they are in my prayers. I’m sorry this happened and this was caused by him,” Foster said. “He comes from a godly family. My husband is a pastor of a church here.”

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, they have implemented a zero-tolerance policy for unruly passengers in 2021.

Former Grey’s Anatomy Star Jesse Williams Ex-Wife Fights Against His Request For Lower Child Support
by Yolanda Baruch

March 27, 2022

Former Grey’s Anatomy Star Jesse Williams Ex-Wife Fights Against His Request For Lower Child Support

Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams and his ex-wife Aryn Drake-Lee are once again duking it out in court over monthly child support payments, based on court documents according to Radar Online. 

Williams and Lee were together for more than 13 years and married from 2012 to 2017, Emily Cottontop reports. 

Williams requested the courts decrease his $40,000 monthly child support payments since he is no longer pulling million-dollar checks after leaving his lucrative acting role on ABC hit hospital drama series Grey’s Anatomy. Based on 2019 financial records, the blue-eyed actor earned $6.2 million from the show and another $183 in residuals, according to Radar Online. 

The divorced couple shares joint custody of their two kids, Sadie and Maceo. Lee argues that Williams should fulfill his financial obligations to her on the agreed-upon settlement amount, Radar Online reports. 

In December, Williams filed court documents saying his departure from Grey’s was “grow and shape my career before the looming end of the show.”

“I am 41 years old and there is a long history of actors who become defined by one long-running role, who struggled to be seen (and employed) differently beyond that role. I cannot let that happen if I want to continue to have a successful career,” he said, according to Emily Cottontop. 

Williams is currently starring in a Broadway play, Take Me Out but explains that his income from January 2021 to November 2021 was reduced to $660k. He discloses that he makes only $1,668 from the show.

“My current income is far from sufficient to maintain a $40,000 per month child support number, especially since I still pay one-half of the children’s private school tuition, the children’s extracurricular activities, medical care, and all of their expenses when they are with me including child-care and my own expenses,” the actor writes.

“I am requesting the court reduce the child support to a reasonable amount I can afford given the significant reduction in my income and the now fluctuating nature of my income.

The child support should also be reflective of our two young children’s actual lifestyle and not some exorbitant/imagined version,” he concluded.

Williams also says his ex-wife holds an Ivy League degree and brought in a six-figure salary as a real estate broker in California and New York.

Lee’s attorney hit back at her ex-husband’s request. 

 “[Jesse] left a favorable, coveted, high-paying position on a successful T.V. show, in pursuit of his “own path,” and now seeks to shed his family responsibilities,” the motion reads, according to Radar Online. 

Lee says Williams is placing his needs before his children.  

“In his Request, [Jesse] mentions [Aryn’s] education and prior earnings as a real estate agent. However, he fails to mention that [Aryn] gave up her thriving career in New York for him more than 13 years ago, to relocate to California to support and focus on building his acting career and businesses. Her “income” during the marriage as his unofficial manager, is comparable to her income now,” writes her lawyer, Radar Online reports. 

The contentious ex-couple are awaiting a judge’s decision. 

Gabrielle Union Reveals Son Zaire’s DMs Were ‘Scary,’ Urges Parents To Check Children’s DMs
by Wendy Medina

March 27, 2022

Gabrielle Union Reveals Son Zaire’s DMs Were ‘Scary,’ Urges Parents To Check Children’s DMs

Monitoring children gets understandably more and more complicated as they grow older; they become more autonomous and privacy becomes a big issue. 

Actress Gabrielle Union recently shared how she and her husband, former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, manage parenting in their household in the wake of having found some shocking messages while going through their children’s phones.

While appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show last Wednesday, the 49-year-old mom revealed just how much online monitoring she and Wade partake in after finding disturbing messages in 20-year-old Zaire’s social media, reminiscent of HBO’s Euphoria. 

For context, Euphoria follows the story of high school students in their coming-of-age journey, laced with an unimaginable amount of drugs, sex and destruction. 

“When [Zaire] turned 16, all he wanted was his own Instagram,” Union shared. “We set it up through my husband’s account so we could see his DMs. We were all up and through his DMs,” she said sternly. “And let me tell you, as much as folks were like, ‘Euphoria’s not realistic,’ let me you, that show Euphoria was all up and through my child’s comments. Pretty accurate for teens.” 

As she described the experience, Drew Berrymore is seen making exaggerated expressions of horror and biting her fist.

“Scary, yes, I know, but if you can get into those DMS, try,” the actress urged.

She continued, with 14-year-old Zaya’s supervision, “With Zaya, she can only see comments from people that she follows. So unless she follows you, you cannot leave a comment.”

Union additionally expressed how she and her former NBA hubby have set different rules for each child, that they “don’t do one size fits all parenting,” and definitely not for social media.

“For Kaavia, obviously, she can’t read. And for us with Kaav, it was important for us to show a free Black girl in all of her moods, whether her hair is done, not done, you know, whether she’s got the cutest outfit on or she’s still in pajamas on a Saturday evening. We wanted people to see what free Black girlhood looks like,” she gleamed.

“We made people such a part of our heartbreak with our fertility journey that when Kaav arrived, there was so much joy, and she represents so much positivity and hope to so many people. We wanted people to see what her freedom looked like.”

New Jersey Man Charged After 12-Year-Old Nephew Dies From Fentanyl Overdose
by Yolanda Baruch

March 27, 2022

New Jersey Man Charged After 12-Year-Old Nephew Dies From Fentanyl Overdose

A New Jersey man is facing first-degree aggravated manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child charges for the death of his 12-year-old nephew, NBC News reports.

On Thursday, prosecutors brought 28 charges against Troy Nokes, 35, who is charged for the overdose death of the young child. He instructed his nephew to clean up drug items containing fentanyl, said the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and Gloucester Township Police in a press release, according to NBC News. 

In addition to manslaughter, Nokes faces first-degree strict liability drug-induced death, first degree maintaining a controlled dangerous substance production facility, employing a juvenile in a drug distribution scheme, witness tampering, tampering with evidence, hindering apprehension and aggravated assault, among other charges, reads the release, according to NBC News. 

Police said he picked up the drugs without gloves the weekend before he died. Eight days later, witnesses found the 12-year old unresponsive on his school bus in Gloucester Township, according to police authorities, reports NBC News.

“It angers me quite frankly, this 12-year-old who is just going to school is exposed to this–these drugs that a 12-year-old should not be exposed to,” said Gloucester Township Police Chief David Hawkins to NBC News. 

An autopsy report concluded the boy died due to a fentanyl overdose.

The boy’s uncle is accused of running a “controlled dangerous substance production facility” in his Blackwood home where he lived with his nephew, The New York Post reports. 

Consuming just 0.002 grams of the deadly opioid can have fatal consequences, based on the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, The New York Posts reports. 

Nokes’ girlfriend named Joanna Johnson also faces charges for tampering with evidence and protecting Nokes from arrest, said prosecutors, NBC Philadelphia reports.

Chief Harkins told the news station that the child’s caretaker and grandmother are “devastated.”

“And she is losing a family member now who’s going into the criminal justice system to be prosecuted. But more importantly, she’s lost her 12-year-old grandson,” Harkins said to NBC News. 

 

 

WNBA Star Lisa Leslie Advised Not To Make A ‘Big Fuss’ Over Brittney Griner’s Russian Detainment
by Yolanda Baruch

March 27, 2022

WNBA Star Lisa Leslie Advised Not To Make A ‘Big Fuss’ Over Brittney Griner’s Russian Detainment

WNBA icon Lisa Leslie, 49, spoke on the I Am Athlete podcast that members of the league were advised against making a “big fuss” over Brittney Griner‘s imprisonment in Russia, according to Complex. 

In February, Russian Customs authorities arrested Griner at a Russian airport because they found vape cartridges and cannabis oil in her luggage. The charges against the basketball player can result in a ten-year sentence, The Hill reports. 

The Russian state media recently announced that a Moscow court extended her arrest until May 19, according to The Hill. 

“What we were told, and again, this is all sort of passed along through hearsay, but what we were told was to not make a big fuss about it so that they could not use her as a pawn, so to speak, in this situation in the war,” Leslie said on the podcast clip released on Friday, according to Complex.

“So, to make it like it’s not that important, or don’t make it like ‘Free Brittney’ and we start this campaign, and then it becomes they could use,” she added. “That’s what we were ‘told’ and I don’t want to say who said that, but it’s what’s been spreading throughout the women’s basketball world.”

Leslie, standing at an impressive 6’5″ who played 12 seasons in the WNBA as a center for the Los Angeles Sparks and led her team to 2001 and 2002 championships, did not divulge the person’s name that counseled the players, CNN reports. 

The WNBA has not issued an official statement addressing Leslie’s comments, according to CNN.

Tom Firestone, a former resident legal advisor at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, said to The Hill in a previous interview that Griner’s loved ones and, under the guidance of U.S. officials, are tacitly pursuing an amicable result through the Russian legal system. 

“I assume … she and her family and the lawyers have decided just to challenge through the legal system rather than try to make this into a political case. Which given the nature of the current political situation is probably a wise decision on their part,” said Firestone. 

The full Lisa Leslie episode on the podcast will be released on Monday, according to CNN. 

 

Jay-Z Oscar Party At Chateau Marmont Draws Protests From Hotel Workers
by Yolanda Baruch

March 27, 2022

Jay-Z Oscar Party At Chateau Marmont Draws Protests From Hotel Workers

Every year, entrepreneur and rap artist Jay-Z and his megastar wife Beyoncé host their highly sought-after Oscars afterparty known as the Gold Party attended by various Hollywood’s A-listers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Jay-Z will throw his luxurious soirée in the lounge area of Chateau Marmont; however, the Sunset Strip hotel is mired in racial discrimination and sexual harassment allegations. In addition, the hotel faces protests by displeased hotel workers who were terminated in March 2020 during the height of the pandemic without job security or affordable healthcare, as written by a local hotel workers’ union on their Unite Here 11’s website. 

As a result, Chateau workers are organizing a boycott of the hotel. They are pleading with the “Run This Town” artist to consider moving his Oscar party to another venue to show solidarity with the hotel workers. 

“For Jay-Z to choose the Chateau Marmont for their Gold Party is shockingly insensitive,” said in a statement, Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11. “They must move their event and choose an afterparty hot spot that treats its workers, especially Black women, with dignity and respect. Jay-Z has a responsibility to do better.” 

He continued: “We hope Jay-Z joins Gabrielle Union, Spike Lee, Issa Rae, Robin Thede, Quinta Brunson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Roxane Gay, Ashley Nicole Black and Samira Wiley in boycotting Chateau Marmont.” All notable personalities listed by Petersen have signed the boycott pledge, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Thomasina Gross, a former events server at the Chateau Marmont, who is Black, filed a lawsuit against the hotel in 2021, alleging racial discrimination. Gross claims she was consistently passed over for high-paying positions that went to white hires, who she was then tasked with training for their new roles. 

“I’m a huge fan of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, so working at their Gold Party year after year was such an honor and pleasure,” said Gross. “They made it a point to acknowledge our hard work and treated us like human beings, not just servers. They said our presence meant a lot to them in terms of helping their party be a success. As I allege in my lawsuit I faced sexual harassment as a Black woman while working other events at Chateau. I can’t help but think if Jay-Z knew how Chateau treats their workers, they wouldn’t ignore this fact and continue to throw parties there.”

In 2020, The Hollywood Reporter published an investigation that exposed Chateau’s alleged culture of racial discrimination against noteworthy Black and Latino visitors who were stopped and interrogated upon arrival at the hotel at a higher rate than their white counterparts. Actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish‘s representative can corroborate two known incidents, according to the Hollywood Reporter. 

The Chateau Marmont released a statement to the Los Angeles Times, citing the allegations are unmerited.

Beyoncé is expected to perform her Oscar-nominated track “Be Alive” from the King Richard film during the Academy Awards broadcast, likely from a tennis court in Compton, California, Variety reports. 

The hotel workers union will organize a picket line at the hotel at 8 p.m. on Sunday, March 27.  

 

Consolidate Your Favorite Productivity Apps In One Place With This Tool
by Black Enterprise Shop

March 27, 2022

Consolidate Your Favorite Productivity Apps In One Place With This Tool

Productivity is never cookie-cutter. You may listen to all the advice the world’s most successful people dole out, but what works for them won’t necessarily work for you. It’s up to you to figure out what type of workflow accommodates your work style, so you can be at your most productive. Whatever routine you end up in, what most people can perhaps agree on when it comes to productivity is that it’s confusing to have your tools all over the place. When you’re knees deep into your to-do list, it can be overwhelming to have to keep jumping from one app to another.

It would do your best to have them consolidated in one dashboard for easier navigation, which Start.Me is designed to do for you. Trusted by over 500,000 people and teams across the globe, it’s a modern homepage for your browser that manages your most-used tools and apps in one convenient place. You can grab a lifetime subscription on sale for 51% off.

With Start.Me, you can easily manage your bookmarks, notes, tasks, and news sources all from a beautiful homepage, which you can then access from any browser and any device. This productivity tool, which has earned a 4.7 out of 5 rating on Capterra, enables you to spend less time searching for links and more time getting work done. It lets you consolidate and access your bookmarks across all your devices, stay up to date with the latest news from your industry of choice via RSS, track your portfolio stocks, get the latest weather forecast, connect your calendar, add sticky notes, and manage your personal tasks with the built-in to-do list.

Since customization is key when it comes to productivity, it also lets you adjust the visual elements of the tool. You can tinker with the size of the icons, visibility of the footer, add beautiful background images, and even switch on dark mode for better readability.

Turn your start page into a productivity hub with Start.Me. A lifetime subscription normally goes for $100, but you can grab it on sale for only $49.

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