Serena Williams Exits Wimbledon Heartbroken, After a Devastating Injury in the First Round
Tennis champion Serena Williams injured herself at Wimbledon while serving in the first round, per the Associated Press.
After slipping and losing her footing, Williams opted to take a medical timeout during the game, but she was unable to continue playing in pain against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus. The slip caused Williams to unexpectedly retire from the match. Fans cheered for her as she left the court teary-eyed.
“Of course, I am so sad for Serena,” Sasnovich said in the article. “She is a great champion. It happens sometimes in tennis. But all the best for her. Best recovery.”
Williams turned to Instagram to make a statement about her mishap on center court, where she slipped.
“I was heartbroken to have to withdraw today after injuring my right leg. My love and gratitude are with the fans and the team who make being on centre court so meaningful. Feeling the extraordinary warmth and support of the crowd today when I walked on—and off—the court meant the world to me,” Williams said.
Roger Federer—who is a men’s tennis singles champion—was both shocked and concerned about Williams’ fall and the slick, grassy surface, per ABC News story. The weather had been rainy, so the Center Court roof had been closed.
“I do feel it feels a tad more slippery maybe under the roof. I don’t know if it’s just a gut feeling,” Federer said in an ABC News interview.
The effort to win an eighth title at Wimbledon ceased, when the match ended suddenly, per ESPN. Williams’ coach commented briefly about what was wrong with the tennis champion’s leg.
“Apparently the injury is at the top of her hamstring, in the glute,” Patrick Mouratoglou, said in a text to ESPN’s Chris McKendry, according to the report.
Williams who has won four medals at the Olympics announced on Sunday that she won’t be going to Tokyo representing Team USA.
“I’m actually not on the Olympic list, not that I’m aware of,” Williams told reporters at Wimbledon on Sunday. “If so, then I shouldn’t be on it.”
BET Founder Robert Johnson Pushes $14 Trillion Reparations Proposal That He Says Will Close Racial Wealth Gap
America’s first Black billionaire and Black Entertainment Television co-founder Robert Johnson doubts a reparations check will ever come, but he is still pushing his $14 billion reparations proposal.
Johnson, who appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box Monday, believes now is the right time to push Black Americans forward and close the Black/white racial wealth gap.
“Now is the time to go big,” Johnson said Monday on Squawk Box. “Wealth transfer is what’s needed. Think about this. Since 200-plus years or so of slavery, labor taken with no compensation is a wealth transfer. Denial of access to education, which is a primary driver of accumulation of income and wealth, is a wealth transfer.”
Johnson added reparations would signal to white Americans that “damages are owed to descendants of enslaved people.”
This isn’t the first time Johnson has pushed reparations for Black Americans. According to Yahoo News, Johnson met with Black conservatives in 2012 and presented a five-point reparations initiative that would encourage investment in Black businesses, alleviate tax burdens for low- and medium-income Black families and stop abusive payday loan practices.
Merck Chairman Ken Frazier, who retired Wednesday, appeared on the same Squawk Box episode and expressed doubts on whether reparations will happen at any point.
“I don’t believe we’ll be able to get anything like that through our political system,” Frazier said.
Frazier believes business leaders should step in and create programs and initiatives to close the racial wealth gap and solve other economic problems.
Johnson added reparations today mean the teaching of critical race theory, the Evanston, Illinois, housing grant program, the $5 billion debt relief program for Black farmers, and the $50 billion in corporate pledges for racial equity in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.
“That’s what’s happening to the reparations—it’s been cut up into small pieces of things that look and feel like, ‘We want to end systemic racism, we want to end police brutality and shootings and to provide financing to Black small business owners,’” Johnson told VICE News.
“And then people can say, ‘Well, we really don’t need reparations because when you put all of these things together, it’s reparations. It’s just not one big bill or asking this country to stand up and apologize, and you’re not asking people to pay out of their paychecks.”
Two of the programs Johnson named, the debt relief for Black farmers and the Illinois housing program, are already in trouble. U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard halted the loan forgiveness payments after a white farmer filed a suit complaining of discrimination.
Black residents in Evanston have demanded the housing program be paused and re-evaluated. Among the issues, the program was not developed or initiated with community input. Additionally, residents advocated for cash payments, but the city instead promised housing assistance through the Restorative Housing Program.
NCAA Division I Council Proposes Student-Athletes Be Allowed to Profit From their Name, Likeness
The ongoing debate surrounding the controversy of student-athletes in college programs unable to profit off their name and likeness has reached another pinnacle.
Well, that practice looks like it is coming to an end.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the organization’s bid to maintain limits on education-related compensation that critics have said help maintain the fiction of amateurism in college sports.
The High Court unanimously ruled the NCAA’s restrictions on non-cash payments to college athletes related to education–including benefits such as computers, science equipment, and musical instruments–are anticompetitive under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The NCAA is the major governing body for U.S. intercollegiate sports.
Earlier this week, the Division I Council voted to recommend that the Division I Board of Directors adopt an interim policy that would suspend amateurism rules related to name, image, and likeness (NIL) for student-athletes.
The proposed policy, which can be read on the NCAA.org website, states:
“While opening NIL activities to student-athletes, the policy leaves in place the commitment to avoid pay-for-play and improper inducements tied to choosing to attend a particular school. Those prohibitions would remain in effect.
“If adopted by the board, the temporary action would remain in place until federal legislation or new NCAA rules are adopted. The policy provides the following guidance to member schools, student-athletes, and their families:
College athletes can engage in NIL activities that are consistent with the law of the state where the school is located. Colleges and universities are responsible for determining whether those activities are consistent with state law.
Student-athletes who attend a school in a state without a NIL law can engage in this type of activity without violating NCAA rules related to name, image, and likeness.
College athletes can use a professional services provider for NIL activities.
Student-athletes should report NIL activities consistent with state law or school and conference requirements to their school.
“With the NIL interim policy, schools and conferences may choose to adopt their own policies.”
The board was scheduled to review the Council’s recommendation and any additional information that comes to light.
Jordan Chiles is Headed to Tokyo Olympics Thanks to Pep Talks With Simone Biles
Seeing Jordan Chiles successfully earn her spot on the USA’s Olympic gymnastic team makes it hard to believe that she almost quit the sport in the years leading up to the Tokyo Olympics.
Chiles is among the six women set to compete for the gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo games kicking off in less than one month, Insiderreports. Chiles, along with Simone Biles, Sunisa “Suni” Lee, Grace McCallum, Jade Carey, and MyKayla Skinner wowed judges at the USA Gymnastics Olympic Trials last weekend and are headed across the globe next month to represent the United States on the world’s biggest sports stage.
But it wasn’t smooth sailing for Chiles. She and Biles enjoyed a heartwarming sisterhood moments after she placed third in the 2021 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics trials Sunday night.
“When I watched the 2008 Olympics, I knew I wanted to be an Olympian,” Chiles toldNBC Sports. “But I didn’t really understand the concept of how to do that.”
It turns out, just three years ago, Biles had to talk Chiles out of quitting the sport she knew her teammate had so much potential in.
“I didn’t think the sport wanted me anymore…So I went in the opposite direction,” Chiles revealed to The New York Times.
But it took a number of motivational talks with her family and Biles to give Chiles the push she needed to get back into the game. Biles even went so far as to invite Chiles to live with her in Texas and train with her and her coaches.
“I just wanted to finish high school and go off to college. But then I had a talk with Simone,” ChileS explained before also crediting her coaches for helping to reignite her love for the sport.
“Laurent and Cecile brought back the love of the sport for me – because it was gone,” she said. “They’ve given me so much encouragement. I didn’t get that too much in the past. I just thank them all the time.”
Simone Biles is often praised for how supportive and encouraging she is to her teammates. It only further solidifies her G.O.A.T status as an athlete and decorated Olympic gold medalist.
Former Disney Actor Kyle Massey Accused of Sending Explicit Pictures to Minor
According to a report by TMZ, former Disney actor, Kyle Massey, 29, is facing a felony charge of communication with a minor for immoral purposes. He’s accused of sending pornographic material to a 13-year-old girl he knows.
According to legal docs that were obtained by the outlet, the former That’s So Raven actor has been accused of electronically sending sexually explicit content to the girl during the months of December 2018 and January 2019.
The New York Postreported that this case is connected to a civil lawsuit that had been filed against Massey back in 2019, in which the underaged girl, who was not identified due to her age, sued Massay for $1.5 million for purportedly sending her “numerous sexually explicit text messages, images, and videos” via the social media platform, Snapchat.
Back in March 2019, TMZ reported that the actor said the accusations against him were false and they were trying to extort him. He had claimed that earlier in that year the accuser’s attorneys had demanded $1.5 million and threatened to go public to destroy his career if he did not meet the demand.
According to the Post, the lawsuit filed in 2019 claimed the girl met Massey when she was 4 years old. The kept in touch and Massey became close with her family as she pursued a career in entertainment.
Massey had also pleaded with his fans and the public “not to jump to conclusions based on the allegations alone but reserve judgment until the whole story comes to light, proving these allegations baseless.”Massey is best known for playing the character Cory Baxter on the Disney Channel show, That’s So Raven which featured Raven Symone from 2003 to 2007. He then went on to star in his own spin-off series, Cory in the House until 2008. Massey had also had a role in the Disney Channel movie, Life is Ruff.
Bill Cosby Is Going Home After Court Overturns Sexual Assault Conviction
On Wednesday, Pennsylvania’s highest court, the State Supreme Coutrt, overturned Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction, citing a previous agreement that prevented him from being charged in the first place.
The 83-year-old who has served two years of his three to 10-year sentence will walk free according toThe NY Post.
The disgraced TV star has been locked away in a prison near Philadelphia. As previously reported in 2018, Cosby was sentenced to serve three to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting and drugging Andrea Constand at his home in 2004. More than 60 women had accused the actor of sexual misconduct, The Associated Press reported.
Charged in late 2015, a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence was Cosby’s downward spiral as more accusers came forward from Constand’s damaging deposition.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said the trial’s testimony tarnished the case as more accusers testified their experiences with the famed comedian in the 1980s.
While lower appeals court does allow accusers to express a pattern to identify an ongoing crime, the initial accuser to testify should have never happened, making all other accusers part of a bad act testimony, his attorneys argued.
In December, his attorneys argued before a court that Cosby has suffered “unquantifiable prejudice” in the case, and that a previous deal with a former prosecutor said that he would never be charged. His lawyers also challenged the judge’s previous to decision to let five accusers testify in the case.
On Wednesday a judge rendered a ruling that vacated Cosby’s conviction and set him free, according to reports.
Cosby has been labelled as the first celebrity to be taken down by the #Metoo, alongside convicted rapist and disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is currently serving a 23 year prison sentence in California.
But unlike Weinstein, Cosby received, according to his appellate lawyers say, unfair treatment as accusers’ prosecutors were presenting vague evidence about the uncharged conduct.
Last year, Cosby’s lawyers filed a motion requesting that he be released from prison. Cosby’s lawyer Andrew Wyatt said in a statement to Yahoo:
“The reason: Mr. Cosby is elderly and blind — and always needs to be escorted around the prison by support service inmates, known as Certified Peer Specialists (CPI),” Wyatt said at the time. “Those inmates could fall victim to the coronavirus and easily spread the disease to Mr. Cosby as they wheel him around in a wheelchair. Among their duties, the inmates bring Mr. Cosby to the infirmary for his doctor appointments and clean his cell.”
Wyatt continued, “In addition, Mr. Cosby is constantly in contact with the correction officers who could contract the disease on the outside and bring it inside the prison, potentially exposing Mr. Cosby to the virus.”
Due to a reported “previous” agreement with prosecutors that would supposedly prevent him from being charged, Cosby now will be set free, according to reports.
NYC Democratic Mayoral Primary Thrown Into Chaos As BoE Finds ‘Discrepancy’
The New York City Democratic Mayoral primary has been thrown into chaos as the state Board of Elections (BoE) announced “discrepancy” in the ranked-choice vote tallies.
The BoE released the latest tally of votes Tuesday afternoon showed Eric Adams leading Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley. However, several hours later, the BoE released a statement saying it became aware of a “discrepancy” in the vote tally report. Shortly after, the results were taken down from the website.
We are aware there is a discrepancy in the unofficial RCV round by round elimination report. We are working with our RCV technical staff to identify where the discrepancy occurred. We ask the public, elected officials and candidates to have patience.
Late Tuesday night, the BoE released another statement saying 135,000 test-run votes were not taken out of the system and were accidently counted as part of the unofficial results. The board added it will re-count the results without those results.
Eric Adams, who wants to be mayor so bad, he forgot there’s a general election, released a statement pushing back on the new results and requesting a clarification.
“The vote total just released by the Board of Elections is 100,000-plus more than the total announced on election night, raising serious questions. We have asked the Board of Elections to explain such a massive increase and other irregularities before we comment on the Ranked Choice Voting projection. We remain confident that Eric Adams will be the next mayor of New York because he put together a historic five-borough working class coalition of New Yorkers to make our city a safer, fairer, more affordable place,” Adams said according to The Hill.
Candidate Maya Wiley also slammed the BoE calling the error a symptom of longstanding institutional issues.
“This error by the Board of Elections is not just failure to count votes properly today, it is the result of generations of failures that have gone unaddressed,” Wiley said according to CNN. “Today, we have once again seen the mismanagement that has resulted in a lack of confidence in results, not because there is a flaw in our election laws, but because those who implement it have failed too many times.”
The new numbers do not include more than 120,000 absentee ballots that have yet to be counted. However, the race between Adams, Wiley and Garcia is getting closer and the final count could be filled with controversy.
The next round of ballot tabulations won’t be ready until next week and the final results may not be known until mid-July.
Ranked-choice voting, which was used for the primary, allows NYC residents to choose candidates for mayor one through five. The candidate with the fewest votes after the initial count is eliminated and all ballots for that candidate are reallocated to the next highest-ranked candidate selected. That process continues with the remaining candidates until two are left, with the winner determined by who has the most votes in that final round.
U.S. House Passes Bill Removing Statues Honoring Civil War Losers, Racists
Reuters – The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill to remove statues honoring those who upheld slavery or backed the Confederacy from the Capitol building, which displays statues selected by all 50 states.
It is the second year in a row that the House passed the bill, which the then-Republican-controlled Senate in 2020 declined to take up. Democrats now have a razor-thin Senate majority, which could allow them to force a vote on the measure, which would need the support of 10 Republicans to pass.
The bill passed the House 285-120 with all the votes against the measure coming from Republicans.
The statues and busts targeted by the “Remove Hate” bill include one honoring former U.S. Chief Justice Roger Taney, who authored a key decision supporting slavery. They also include leaders of the rebellious Confederacy — whose battle flag was seen in the Capitol on Jan. 6 when supporters of then-President Donald Trump launched a deadly attack that attempted to overturn his election defeat.
Taney’s bust would be replaced by one of former Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black man to serve on the high court.
UPDATE: The House has once again voted to remove the bust of Roger Taney—the Supreme Court Justice who supported slavery and authored the Dredd Scott opinion—along with other confederate statues from the Capitol.https://t.co/NXtdxSwgu3
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said removing the statues will not erase the stain of racist acts from U.S. history, nor will it erase racism in the United States today. But she asked, “How can we expect to end the scourge of racism … when we allow the worst perpetrators of that racism to be lauded in the halls of Congress?”
Opponents said it would be wrong to dictate to individual U.S. states whom they can honor by sending statues to the Capitol. Republican Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama said the bill was an example of “cancel culture and historical revisionism” by “elitists who claim they know more than regular citizens.”
Taney wrote the majority opinion in the 1857 “Dred Scott” case, ruling that Black Americans could not be considered citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery. It later was overturned by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was adopted in 1868.
(Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
A Black Woman Now Runs Domino Sugar’s Refinery in Baltimore
Domino Sugaris a household name when it comes to the baking product world.
But Coricka White has made history, becoming Domino Sugar’s first Black woman refinery manager , according to The Baltimore Sun. Domino Sugar has been in business since 1901.
In 99 years, the waterfront refiner, which is known for its iconic neon sign lighting up Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, has not been led by anyone like White.
White earned a chemistry degree from the University of Virginia. Additionally, she previously worked as a process engineer, and in other roles for Domino Sugar. She also holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Florida Institute of Technology.
(Image: Twitter/@ASRGroupCareers)
“I’m looking at myself as being a trailblazer and hope that I can pave the way for folks like myself to follow,” White told The Baltimore Sun. “I definitely stand on the shoulders of some very strong folks here, and I’d like to think of my success as the success of the Domino family. It speaks to how progressive our organization is.”
Domino Sugar is a trendsetting operation, despite the aging sign which represents it. Per Capital News Service’s report, “Domino is the last major manufacturer still operating in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.”
The 2012 article reported that $2 million was invested to upgrade the plant with clean air technology. Producing “flavored sugars, pharmaceutical grade sugars, and other specialty products in a variety of packagings,” which keeps the plant profitable beyond production of granulated, powdered or brown sugar products.
In her role as refinery manager, “White will oversee a $20 million installation of new refined sugar silos, which will provide 14 million more pounds of storage capacity,” according to The Baltimore Sun.
White is up for the challenge of breaking barriers
“I’m proud to say yes and happy to be the first,” White said, “and definitely don’t want to be the last.”
Three Atlanta Restauranteurs Partnered To Create The ‘Elevated Black Dining Experience,’ With ‘The Breakfast Boys’
It’s not every day that you find three Black men collectively on a mission to introduce an “elevated Black dining experience” into the ecosystem of a very competitive restaurant market in Atlanta.
But partners Gee and Juan Smalls of ‘The Breakfast Boys’ (Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen), have partnered up with veteran restauranteur Lorenzo Wyche (Gocha’s Breakfast Bar, Rock Steady, Breakfast At Barney’s) to introduce an eclectic breakfast/brunch spot in historic College Park that delivers on a niche food experience.
On Monday, the dynamic trio kicked off their grand opening celebration with reality TV personality, Cynthia Bailey hosting alongside the City of College Park, GA Mayor, Bianca Motley Broom, Gary With Da Tea from Dish Nation, Terrence C. Carson of Living Single and a number of other celebrities.
Juan Smalls, co-owner of The Breakfast Boys, talks with guests during his grand opening. Photo credit: Chris Mitchell
The all-day breakfast/brunch experience promises to be a “whimsical superb service, with awesome food and a little bit of something for everyone that fits every taste bud,” Juan said.
With rich and robust dishes like Jerk Chicken & Sweet Potato Waffles to down-home staples that give southern savoir-faire like Crispy Catfish, Shrimp & Grits, paired with peach cobbler lattes and passionfruit mimosas, the Breakfast Boys are introducing a gastronomic wonderland to their diners with their lip-smacking cuisine.
Jerk Chicken and Waffles (Photo courtesy of The Breakfast Boys)
“Our goal here is to deliver a better brunch experience,” said Wyche, a famed restauranteur who was behind Sean “Diddy” Combs’ restaurant Justin’s in Atlanta.
Lorenzo Wyche, co-owner of The Breakfast Boys. Photo credit Chris Mitchell
“Right now in Atlanta, everything African American, restaurant driven, is a little one-sided in my opinion,” Wyche said during a private media gathering this past weekend.
“It feels like it’s very owner driven, like they want what they want.”
He went on to explain that long lines outside of a restaurant with people waiting in the heat to get inside for a seat is not something he’d like to see happen anymore. “So we’re working on service to make sure that’s not there,” he said.
Gee, Juan and Wyche’s business partnership is a blueprint to Black entrepreneurship at its finest by finding a unique business opportunity and using the power of their network to open up an opportunity that has increased their net worth.
During an interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE, Juan and Gee shared how their business Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen survived through a pandemic so much so that they were able to capitalize on the moment and bounce back by opening a new venture, thus birthing The Breakfast Boys with Wyche.
The Breakfast Boys (Photo courtesy of The Breakfast Boys)
“The community really rallied behind us and just poured out the support,” said Gee about surviving the pandemic with their first restaurant Virgil’s, which specializes in cuisine native to the Gullah Geechee people, who are descendants of Central and West African people.
“We are really grateful we made it and are thriving. Virgil’s is doing better than it ever has. It’s profitable,” he said.
But it wasn’t an easy road. Gee said having to shut down and open back up in phases while offering only take-out was tough. And couple that with the difficulty of hiring a dedicated staff, proved to be even more of a challenge. But the two said the government’s PPP loan assistance helped them to pay off debts, they incurred while opening Virgil’s.
Now, “We are in a great space,” Gee said.
Wyche had been a business consultant to the couple for the past few years, so, when the opportunity presented itself to partner and open the Breakfast Boys, they seized it.
“So chef Lorenzo, the Breakfast Boys is kinda his brainchild. He was one of our mentors with opening Virgil’s,” Gee said. “We kept in touch over the years. We just had great chemistry. So the opportunity presented itself for us to partner together and this space became available,” and a business relationship was born, he said.
Sometimes even when business owners have great concepts, it doesn’t always turn into dollars. About 20% of U.S. small businesses fail within the first year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And oftentimes it is because of lack of leadership or solid connections to secure good locations or needed funding in order to elevate the brand.
And let’s face it, there’s already a hot market for food spots in Atlanta so it’s not always easy to successfully execute an idea from isolation to see its evolution and eventually its grand opening.
However, Wyche, Juan and Gee are the men – ahem – Breakfast Boys, who seemingly made magic happen.
