What?! Police Say Former Syracuse Avis Budget Employee Allegedly Stole 47 Cars and Rented Them Out
Milton W. Thompson III is accused of stealing the vehicles and renting them out.
A former Avis Budget car rental employee is wanted by police officers for allegedly stealing close to 50 vehicles and renting them to central New York residents.
According to Syracuse.com, 31-year-old Milton W. Thompson III allegedly took 47 vehicles from Avis Budget Car Rental at the Syracuse Hancock International Airport campus between June and August.
The value of the stolen vehicles was estimated to be over $1 million. Forty-two have been recovered so far.
Thompson is wanted on two felony charges: Second-degree grand larceny, a Class C felony, and first-degree scheme to defraud, a Class E felony. Several others were arrested and charged with unlawful use of a vehicle. Police officials have not publicly identified them.
Jason Terreri, executive director of the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority (SRAA), refused to answer questions about the case during a phone call with Syracuse.com.
No details have emerged on how the vehicles were stolen or how Thompson rented them to people. An SRAA spokesperson said the former employee had “inside knowledge” of the car rental’s operations that enabled him to commit the thefts.
No further information was revealed regarding how long Thompson had worked at the company, when he last worked there, or how long Avis Budget had known about the theft and the scheme to rent out the vehicles.
There were also no details about whether anyone else was involved or if Thompson had any accomplices in his scheme.
The Associated Press reported that Avis Budget released a statement saying company officials were aware of the allegations and were cooperating with airport police in the investigation.
Police are asking that anyone with information on Thompson or his whereabouts contact the airport police department at 315-455-3500 or PD_Supervisor@sraapd.org.
Olympic Gymnast Jordan Chiles To Hit The Floor Under New Representation With CAA
Chiles will be represented for all new deals across sports and entertainment with CAA.
Jordan Chiles is ready to hit the floor with her new talent agency, Creative Arts Agency.
The decorated Olympic gymnast has signed with CAA as she takes off in the next phase of her career. The current “Dancing With The Stars” contestant secured the new representation in the midst of her current gig.
The Hollywood Reporterbroke the news Oct. 27, sharing that CAA will represent the dynamic athlete and emerging media personality as she continues her strut through Hollywood.
In her professional career, Chiles has already become a household name in U.S. gymnastics. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she earned a gold medal for the women’s team all-around competition. A member of the U.S. Women’s national gymnastics team since 2013, Chiles has participated in two Olympics. At the 2022 (2020) Tokyo Games, she also won silver with the team all-around.
The UCLA athlete also garnered acclaim for her culturally uplifting floor routines. Winning the World vault and floor exercise silver medal in 2022, Chiles also received multiple Perfect 10s for her dynamic sets throughout her NCAA Career.
With multiple NCAA, World, and Olympic titles on her resume, Chiles is a trailblazer as a celebrated Black gymnast. However, the breakout athlete has other avenues outside her USA leotard.
The 24-year-old has already co-starred in a 2025 Super Bowl commercial, joining fellow Olympic medalist Sha’Carri Richardson for a Nike advertisement. She has also accrued numerous high-profile endorsements from Nike, Beats by Dre, Chase Bank, and Netflix for her personality and athletic prowess.
An advocate for young female athletes, Chiles also launched the SHERO Athlete Collective this August. The initiative works to mentor young women in sports throughout their growing careers. The New York Times best-selling author also released her debut memoir, I’m That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams, in which she reflects on her triumphant journey to Olympic gold despite racism and other adversity.
As the girl on the floor rises to the top, Chiles continues to use her platform to promote positivity and women’s empowerment in all avenues. With her own brand as a content creator, podcaster, and author, she hopes to reach new heights with CAA on her team.
Trump Administration Ordered To Give Back Grants For School Mental Health Counselors
Evanson labeled the federal agency’s decision arbitrary and touched on it being capricious as the states argued the damage done from the grants being cut.
A judge has ordered the Trump administration to administer millions of dollars in grants meant to address the shortage of mental health workers in schools, after cancelling $1 billion in funding, ABC News reports.
In a preliminary ruling by Seattle U.S. District Court Judge Kymberly K. Evanson, the White House has been ordered to restore grant funding used to hire mental health counselors and social workers to 16 states that challenged the Department of Education’s (DOE) decision to withhold funding past December 2025 in the name of diversity opposition.
The grants were part of the Congressionally -funded 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a bill passed following the school shooting that took place in Uvalde, Texas, resulting in 19 elementary school students and two adults being killed at the hands of a teenage gunman. According to NPR, the bill would pour federal dollars into schools to address concerns of a student mental health crisis.
However, once President Trump dialed back on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in schools, the DOE said the grants violated “the letter or purpose of federal civil rights law,” even though the grants had already proven their worth.
In Corbett, Oregon, the grants helped Superintendent Derek Fialkiewicz more than triple the number of school mental health professionals in his district of 1,100 students, which is largely rural. Before the funding came into play, the school official said his district had just two counselors, which he realized was “just not sustainable for our students and especially coming out of COVID.”
Evanson labeled the federal agency’s decision arbitrary and called it capricious, as the states argued about the damage caused by the grants being cut. “Congress created these programs to address the states’ need for school-based mental health services in their schools, and has repeatedly reaffirmed the need for those services over the years by reauthorizing and increasing appropriations to these programs,” Evanson wrote.
“There is no evidence the Department considered any relevant data about the Grants at issue.”
The ruling will reinstate funding to Democratic-led states and districts, including Madera County, California, restoring close to $3.8 million. Marin County in the same state will get back $8 million. Hopefully, other states like Maine will reap the benefits of the ruling, as the Trump team claims their decision was based on the thought that the funding was harmful to children since some aspects of the grant touched on race.
After the bill was passed, the grants assisted nine rural school districts in Maine in hiring 10 new school mental health workers and retaining four more.
(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for MTV/Paramount Global) NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 03: Ice-T attends the 38th Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Barclays Center on November 03, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Ice-T, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Arabian Prince Prep Release Of Animated Series, ‘Tehk City’
The series is a “high-octane animated neo-noir”
An animated action series, Tehk City, co-created by Ice-T and Tommy The Animator and executive-produced by Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Arabian Prince, is slated for release in 2026.
According to Deadline, the series is being produced with Ambitious Entertainment, which is in discussions with domestic and international distributors and streamers. Tehk City has been described as a “high-octane animated neo-noir” that “unfolds in a brutal, near-future penal colony where every choice is life or death, chaos reigns and only the ruthless survive.”
“I just wanted to bring something new to animation that’s never been seen before, coming from the mind of a Black creator out of the projects of the Upper West Side of Manhattan,” said Ice-T in a written statement.
Industry veterans Ken Corben, Kirk Shaw, and Thomas Vitale are also on board as producers and EPs, with Rusty Cundeiff as a producer and Robert Rippberger as another EP.
“Tehk City is one of those rare projects that came together through the collaboration of an exceptional team,” Ambitious Entertainment’s Shaw said. “We’re creating a world only animation could capture, where morality is a luxury and the visual style is as fierce as the story itself.”
The series was initially introduced in 2022 as DEATH FOR HIRE: The Origin of Tehk City. The animated series will showcase a group of pushers and killers who toe the line between anti-hero and arch-villain, quickly obscuring reality.
Earlier this year, Ice-T honored his longtime friend, Snoop, when he presented the veteran rapper with the Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the 2025 Webby Awards. Billboard reported that the 29th annual Webby Awards took place May 12 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Snoop was recognized for his trailblazing business ventures, including Broadus Foods and cannabis products, TV appearances, and Death Row Records, the record label that launched his career.
Aid Workers Fear Trump Administration May Be Stockpiling Contraceptives Until Expiration
Concerns are mounting that the Trump administration may be storing $9.7 million in contraceptives in Belgium until they expire.
Concerns are rising over the Trump administration’s decision to store $9.7 million worth of U.S.-purchased contraceptives in Belgian warehouses until they expire.
The undelivered contraceptives, initially intended for donation to various African countries and procured by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Biden administration, are now being stored indefinitely in Belgian warehouses, CNN reported, as many U.S. foreign aid programs have been discontinued under Trump.
With most products set to expire in 2028 or 2029, and the earliest batch expiring in April 2027, aid workers fear the U.S. government may be allowing the supplies to sit until they become unusable or ineligible for export.
Elsewhere, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) says that most of the supplies are intended for Tanzania, which enforces minimum shelf-life requirements for medical imports. Marcel Van Valen, head of Supply Chain at IPPF, said that around one million injectable vials and over 400,000 implants, together valued at $3.97 million, will no longer meet Tanzanian import standards by the end of this year or mid-next year. Under Tanzanian regulations, “any device with a shelf life of more than 24 months whose remaining shelf life is less than 60%” cannot be imported.
“It’s urgent that we receive these resources before they become ineligible for import,” said Dr. Bakari Omary, the project coordinator at the NGO Umati, which is IPPF’s member organization in Tanzania. “The contraceptives being held represent 28% of the country’s total annual need, and not having them is already impacting clients’ reproductive health and family planning freedoms.”
The U.S. State Department previously stated that it had made a “preliminary decision” to destroy the contraceptives stored in Belgium by incineration for $167,000. However, the plan was blocked by regulations in Flanders, Belgium, which prohibit the incineration of reusable medical devices.
Since the incineration plans became public knowledge, aid workers have urged the Trump administration to deliver the contraceptives to women in Tanzania, Mali, Kenya, and other countries, or to sell them to NGOs that could distribute them. They warn that the undelivered supplies, combined with cuts to family planning programs, could lead to higher maternal deaths, unsafe abortions, and economic hardship from unplanned pregnancies.
However, representatives from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and MSI Reproductive Choices all claim that the U.S. government has ignored or rejected their offers to purchase the contraceptives.
“Destination countries, including Tanzania (the main recipient), as well as others such as Malawi, Bangladesh, DR Congo, Kenya, apply importation rules that limit entry to medicines with a specific percentage of remaining shelf life,” IPPF’s head of supply chain Marcel Van Valen said.”
The contraceptives consist mainly of long-acting birth control methods, including intrauterine devices (IUDs), rod implants, injections, and tablets containing levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol. However, a U.S. State Department spokesperson previously described the supplies in Belgium as “certain abortifacient birth control commodities from terminated Biden-era USAID contracts,” a controversial remark reflecting ongoing U.S. debates over when life begins.
“Contraceptives save lives. Around the world, there are over 250 million women who want to avoid pregnancy but are not able to access family planning,” UNFPA said in a statement. “UNFPA and its partners estimate that filling this unmet need for family planning could reduce maternal deaths by approximately 25%.”
Innovative Black-Owned Products To Savor On National Chocolate Day
Chocolate is synonymous with indulgence, luxury, and sheer delight.
For generations, chocolate has been synonymous with indulgence, luxury, and sheer delight; for entrepreneurs, though, it doubles as a canvas for invention and innovation. Whether it’s hand‑crafted chocolate bars, cocoa‑infused skincare, opulent desserts or chocolate‑spiked spirits, Black‑owned companies are reshaping how chocolate is savored.
BLACK ENTERPRISE spotlights five standout products—each carving out its niche with chocolate from kitchen creations to spa products—on National Chocolate Day, Tuesday, Oct. 28.
BLAQUE Chocolate–Chocolate in a Bottle
BLAQUE–Chocolate in a Bottle is a gourmet white wine crafted from Chardonnay grapes and infused with cacao and hazelnut extracts. The highly flavorful spirit is available nationwide. The visionary behind this blend is entrepreneur Marsau Scott, who also runs the Blaque Cigar Lounge in Huntsville, Alabama. Scott set out to marry the allure of chocolate with the precision of winemaking, delivering a fresh indulgent experience from a Black‑owned lifestyle brand.
Matugga Rum, is a marriage of cocoa and coffee that hit shelves in 2024, after a surge of demand brought to life by Paul and Jacine Rutasikwa at their Black‑owned, family‑run distillery in Scotland. The spirit bears the mark of hands‑on craftsmanship and deep heritage, showing how a whisper of chocolate can lift a premium spirit while honoring Black distilling excellence.
Born from the vision of Black entrepreneur Keli Smith, Kaike introduces its Crumb Coat Chocolate Mask, a blend of clay and cocoa powder that sweeps away impurities while delivering a soothing exfoliation. Available at Kaike’s online store, the brand fuses the indulgence of chocolate with clean‑beauty principles, turning a skincare step into a wholesome ritual.
TikTok’s New ‘5 O’Clock’ Trend Shows Off Black Employees’ Post-Work Glow Up
The trend has gained traction on social media for the vast difference between one's work looks versus out-of-office aesthetic.
Black TikTok is showing off how they show out after work in a new “Five O’Clock” trend.
The trend has captivated the internet as it shows what people look like at their day job, as well as reveal how they look once they clock out. The viral clips show how Black employees keep things professional during their 9-to-5 shifts, leading some commenters to laugh about these “double lives.”
Black TikTokers posted their Monday best to compare with their Happy Hour finest. The Shade Room showed off some popular posts from the trend of the moment.
Under the premise of “work hard, play harder,” TikTokers showed how they support students in the classroom to later basking in a sunlight selfie. Others displayed their corporate headshots while then unveiling their nightlife attire.
The trend reveals even deeper shift when employees can finally step out or unwind after a long work day. Commenters particularly noted the switch up of the last video, where it showed one individual making the transition to feminine work attire to become more masculine-presenting when out and about.
“I did not expect the last lady to go from talk show host to Latifah from set it off,” joked one Instagram user.
Another wrote, “The last one took me out!!! Wasn’t expecting that switch up at all!!! Miss ma’am is cosplaying as a Fem during work hours lol.”
Others remarked how the popular trend has them wanting to show off how they look at 5:01pm.
A user shared, “I’m def jumping on the trend. My students don’t know their teacher is a true baddie.”
The trend highlights how Black people in the workforce can present differently in the office while having an entirely different aesthetic on the weekend. While still keeping things professional on the weekdays, the Five O’Clock trend lightheartedly shows how Black people keep their versatility and personality no matter the profession.
The $500 billion-valued company behind ChatGPT and the Sora AI video creation tool is preparing to enter the generative AI music space, according to The Information. To prepare for the new product launch, OpenAI has been working with students at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, who have annotated scores to create training data.
According to sources, the music generation tool could be used to add soundtracks to videos or provide instrumental accompaniment to vocal tracks. It is not yet reported to generate a complete song from scratch using only a text prompt, unlike platforms such as Suno and Udio.
OpenAI’s move into music generation comes amid a wave of lawsuits targeting AI music platforms, in which artists and record labels allege copyright infringement for using real music to train AI models. The rise of AI-generated content has also sparked broader criticism within the music industry. In September, streaming service Deezer reported that 28% of tracks uploaded to its platform were fully AI-generated, up from 18% in April.
All the while, “AI artists,” whose songs are entirely created by AI, have accumulated millions of plays on Spotify, raising concerns that AI music is capturing a growing share of streaming royalties. Most recently, Timbaland introducedhis AI artist, TaTa Taktumi, who released the debut single “Glitch x Pulse” Oct. 10.
The launch included a futuristic music video featuring dancing robots, a spaceship, and a performance by the Jabbawockeez dance crew, with Timbaland producing the beat and executive producing the video through his AI entertainment company, Stage Zero. Despite the mixed responses Timbaland receives over his adoption of AI, he continues to champion the burgeoning art form.
“While we frequently discuss AI, I believe it’s the only entity that embodies a genuine soul right now,” Timbaland said earlier this year on the Inner Court podcast. “It allows for the expression of true feelings, resulting in it coming out beautiful.”
Abby Phillip Recalls Viral Cam’ron Interview About Diddy Case: ‘It Was Ridiculous’
CNN's Abby Phillip is opening up about her "ridiculous" interview with rapper Cam'ron about the Diddy case.
Abby Phillip is recalling her awkward CNN interview with rapper Cam’ron, where her questions about the Sean “Diddy” Combs case went off track.
CNN NewsNight host Abby Phillip appeared on The Breakfast Club on Oct. 28, where she was asked about her now-viral interview with Cam’ron regarding the Diddy case. During that exchange, Cam’ron seemed offended by Phillip’s questions and hinted that he was more focused on using “pink horsepower” for plans he had after the interview. Reflecting on the moment, Phillip said it was then that she realized she needed to wrap up the conversation.
“I knew that we needed to end the interview, and obviously, we needed to end the interview,” she said in a clip shared online. “We were up against the end of the show, and we didn’t; we had to get to a certain time. You know, I had to land that plane, and I did, and it was ridiculous, but as we know, that was the point.”
Charlamagne noted a recent interview in which Cam’ron called the CNN segment his favorite viral moment. He said Cam’ron felt CNN reached out to him “for things that aren’t about what he does.” Phillip, however, countered that Cam’ron’s team had indicated he wanted to discuss the Diddy case.
“All I will say is that we were told by his team that he wanted to talk about this, not the other way around,” Phillip said. “We don’t book people about things they don’t want to talk about.”
The claim runs counter to what Cam’ron said during the May 2024 interview, when he grew visibly frustrated as Phillip questioned him about the Diddy case and his influence in the music industry.
“Who’s the talent agent for this joint? You think I be sitting around watching what Diddy do? I didn’t know this was a Diddy joint that y’all invited me to. Who booked me for this joint?” Cam’ron snapped.
In hindsight, Phillip doesn’t regret the interview and wasn’t embarrassed by how it unfolded. She remains committed to engaging with people who are “interesting and different.”
“We are not going to take this as a moment to say, ‘This happened to us. We can’t have people like that on our air again.’ I don’t believe in that,” she explained. “I think that we are out here trying to hear from people who are interesting and different, and maybe sometimes it goes left, and it was important to me to convey to them that we’re not going to go into a little ball and be like, ‘Oh my God, this went viral, and this was embarrassing.’ No, this too shall pass.”
Phillip continued. “Like he had his moment. It was fine. I don’t really care. Do I wish he didn’t do that on the air? Yeah, it was great. But I’m not using it as an excuse to say that we’re going to play it safe on television because that’s not what we’re doing here.”
Parent Groups Want Education Audits To Nix DEI Policy And Hiring Practices
Some of the participating groups worked with conservative group Pacific Legal Foundation to dump a Black-only scholarship using the KKK Act of 1871.
Parental rights advocacy groups have banded together to call for an education audit across state lines, expressing DEI, poor hiring practices, and gender discrimination is being used for K-12 school policies, Fox News reported.
In a letter signed by Defending Education with more than 20 other parental rights in education groups, the crews are pushing for state leaders in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., to repeal or modify any provisions permitting race or sex-based preferences in its hiring and programming policies. The groups accuse the policies of violating titles VI, VII, or IX of the Civil Rights Act or Equal Protection Clause in addition to limiting student safety with poor hiring vetting practices.
Defending Education’s senior director of communications, Erika Sanzi, claims diversity has been the scapegoat for states to allegedly violate federal laws, calling it a “common practice.” “With so many ideological bullies in state government and in our schools, cowardice and ignorance have ruled the day for far too long,” she said.
“State laws, regulations and practices that promote (and even require) race and sex-based discrimination must be exposed and eliminated. It’s time that every state cleans up the mess they’ve made in the name of DEI.”
Some of the participating groups include School Boards for Academic Excellence, Parents Unite, Protective Parent Coalition, Conservative Ladies of America, Awake Illinois, Power2Parent, and Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, who just worked with conservative group Pacific Legal Foundation to dump a Black-only scholarship using the KKK Act of 1871.
The sudden cause for concern came after a firestorm surrounding the resignation of Des Moines, Iowa, Superintendent Ian Roberts in September 2025. Roberts, who is Black, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents due to having “a final order of removal and no work authorization.”
Des Moines school officials are suing consulting company, JG Consulting, which assisted in selecting Roberts as a candidate for the job of overseeing the state’s largest school district, for which he was hired in 2023. As part of the process, Roberts had to undergo a background check and disclose if he was ever charged with a misdemeanor, felony, or major traffic violation — including driving under the influence.
The letter also highlighted a growing pattern of teachers being accused of sexually abusing children in recent years. The group listed data that “a public school employee who sexually abuses children is, on average, passed to three school districts and can abuse up to 73 children before they are fired or face legal consequences.”
Since the Trump 2.0 administration took over the White House in January 2025, the efforts to dial back on DEI practices have heightened after the Supreme Court’s controversial overturning of affirmative action in 2023. President Donald Trump signed an executive order against the use of the practice in the federal government, military, and schools.
Defending Education was a huge supporter in the President’s efforts, even patting themselves on the back for playing a pivotal role in allegedly exposing school administrators and districts. “I do think that we are in a better place than we were in 2021. I also think that a lot of people are waking up to the reality of what the law is,” Sanzi wrote in a Washington Examiner article, according to KATV.
“What they’ve learned is, no, you cannot discriminate on the basis of race, period, in a public school setting.”
Some of the “exposed” educators and leaders have faced charges including an Evanston, Illinois Superintendent who allegedly determined which students returned to school after the pandemic on a race and sexual orientation basis.
