‘Iron Man’ Actor Charged With Federal Fraud for Peddling Fake COVID-19 Cure
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

May 6, 2020

‘Iron Man’ Actor Charged With Federal Fraud for Peddling Fake COVID-19 Cure

We now have reportedly the first person arrested and charged for trying to peddle a miracle drug that is supposed to cure the coronavirus. Actor and bodybuilder Keith L. Middlebrook from Los Angeles is the first person in the United States to be charged with a federal crime for peddling a fake cure for COVID-19 while also promising big returns to his investors, according to AARP.

in a detailed 20-page affidavit from an FBI special agent, Middlebrook, 52, who has about 2.4 million followers on his Instagram account, concocted a deceitful web of lies and was hawking a cure for the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Authorities say the actor, who had small roles in Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, and Thor is behind bars and charged with attempted wire fraud. He is due back in court on May 22. On Instagram, he labeled himself as the “Real Iron Man” and a “Genius Entrepreneur Icon.”

Middlebrook is accused of scheming to defraud investors by promising enormous returns on investments in the firm he owns, Quantum Prevention CV Inc. He then allegedly claimed he developed a patent-pending cure for COVID-19 and was also touting a treatment that he said would prevent a person from contracting the virus. He posted on Instagram that a serum had been developed and when injected, the serum would cure a person with the disease within 24 hours and also a pill that would prevent a person from contracting the virus. He made similar claims on YouTube as well.

Recently, the FDA gave emergency approval for the antiviral drug remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19.

After Middlebrook had been charged, Nick Hanna, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, said in a written statement: “During these difficult days, scams like this are using blatant lies to prey upon our fears and weaknesses. … I again am urging everyone to be extremely wary of outlandish medical claims and false promises of immense profits. And to those who perpetrate these schemes, know that federal authorities are out in force to protect all Americans, and we will move aggressively against anyone seeking to cheat the public during this critical time.”

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

May 5, 2020

NBA Could Finish the 2020 Season at Disney World

The Last Dance documentary airing on ESPN is definitely whetting the appetite of sports enthusiasts everywhere, but the need to watch actual live games has increased since the suspension of the NBA season. According to a report on ESPN, there may be a potential plan to restart the NBA season at Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort.

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger recently joined the NBA’s remote Board of Governors meeting in which he presented how Walt Disney World is handling the current coronavirus pandemic. There have been talks about housing all the teams in one central location and thereby using multiple venues on the 25,000-acre property and that thought process has been gaining momentum throughout the discussions with the NBA.

The notion of housing all the teams in one location does not appear to be a sticking point for the league’s brass, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:

“Regardless of the location, conversation around the league has circled around the G League Showcase as a single-site template.

“For the past two years, the Showcase has been held at MGM’s Mandalay Bay and has accommodated 28 teams. Under that setup, five courts are placed in a convention center — two for games and three for practices — with all of the teams staying at connected hotels under the same roof.

“But experts recommend clustering teams into smaller groups as an extra safeguard against the spread of infection. Teams might need to stay and play in separate locations.”

The league will evaluate and look over all options, and sources said it has rejected the concept of quarantining players without family members.

“There are so many layers that would have to come into play for [a bubble] to even happen,” Chris Paul, president of the National Basketball Players Association, said last week. “We would have to know exactly what that would look like. There’s a lot of hypotheticals out there.”

Las Vegas has also been touted as a destination as well, with MGM Grand being one of the suitors to host the NBA games. The thought process relates to how the NBA G League Showcase utilizes the site as a single-site template.

For the past two years, the Showcase has been held at MGM’s Mandalay Bay and has accommodated 28 basketball teams. Using that setup, five courts are placed in a convention center — two for games and three for practices — with all of the teams staying at connected hotels under the same roof.

Black Women in Nashville are Becoming Doulas to Combat Black Maternity and Infant Mortality
by Lydia Blanco

May 5, 2020

Black Women in Nashville are Becoming Doulas to Combat Black Maternity and Infant Mortality

Black women and their children in America are dying at alarming rates. Data and research over the last year have revealed that the medical needs of black women often go overlooked by health professionals during pregnancy. To fight against the odds, black women in Nashville, Tennessee, are training with the nonprofit Homeland Heart Birth and Wellness Collective to become doulas to help save lives.

Nashville Public Radio reported that many of the women are mothers with children who are living or deceased who are passionate about helping other women. The workshop is led by Kristin Mejia-Greene, an experienced doula who has given birth to two of her own children and is an advocate for mothers.

As women in Tennessee disproportionately face maternal and infant mortality, Mejia-Greene is on a mission to educate women about their bodies and systemic oppression. According to a Tennessee Justice Center report, black women are twice as likely to lose a child as white women.

Mejia-Greene told the WPLN that black women are looked down upon in hospital rooms.

“It’s supposed to be so beautiful. ‘I’m going in with my client, we’re leaving, we’re going to have a healthy baby. Everything’s going to be fine,’” says Mejia-Greene. “We don’t get to think like that.”

 

Giving Birth During the Pandemic

Women give birth every day. And during the global pandemic, there are serious concerns about the well-being of black women unrelated to the virus. Mejia-Greene expressed to the WPLN that given the new health regulations at hospitals, doulas might not be granted admittance during births. She also expressed concern that a number of women will delay going to the hospital when it’s time to give birth because of the lack of trust in the medical system.

“One of my biggest concerns is seeing black women take the chance of birthing at home unprepared,” said Mejia-Greene.

It goes without saying that delivering babies requires expertise. Nevertheless, some women are willing to take their health into their own hands.

Mejia-Greene told the WPLN that there aren’t enough midwives in Nashville to go around and that it would also be next to impossible to find another black woman in the profession who could accept a client in a late-stage pregnancy.

Her workshops are filling that gap.

To learn more about Mejia-Greene’s work and to read the full story, click here.

 

High School Principal Finds Way To Celebrate Students Who Lost Events To Coronavirus
by Derek Major

May 5, 2020

High School Principal Finds Way To Celebrate Students Who Lost Events To Coronavirus

To acknowledge high school seniors who lost the end of their senior year due to the coronavirus pandemic, a principal decorated the driveway of their high school with oversized portraits of the graduating class.

According to Yahoo Finance, Farcia West, the principal of Poplar Springs High School in Graceville, Florida, wanted to acknowledge the students achievement.

“We have people living nearby whose children and grandchildren attended the school,” West told Yahoo. “It was important for me to do something for those unfinished chapters.”

Like many schools across the country and abroad, Poplar Springs moved to remote learning and closed its doors due to the coronavirus. West wanted to do something for the students and struggled with ideas for weeks. Then one day West came up with a plan “as clear as day.”

West blew up the senior photos of the school’s 30 graduating seniors and lined them up along the campus driveway. West received help from photographer Josh Mattox who is also a school parent. The student portraits were blown up into posters and mounted on fence posts.

The effort took two days to complete as West, her husband and their son secured each portrait to a post using zip ties,  and making precise measurements between each photo.

“I stepped back and said, ‘We’re in the middle of something special,’” says West.

After announcing the effort on Facebook, cars in the neighborhood lined up to take a look at the photos.

“Sometimes we had 8 cars at once,” West said. “People came from all over to see it, even those without children.”

West told Yahoo, people from New Zealand, Australia, and Nova Scotia have asked her for end-of-year celebration tips.

“An act of kindness has turned into this worldwide loop,” West said.

Others have also tried to help students cope with losing proms, senior trips, and the last days of school before stepping into adulthood.

DJ D-Nice is hosting a virtual prom May 7 at 8 P.M. EST on the social network platform, Houseparty. Last month a high school student asked former President Barack Obama on Twitter to give a national commencement speech to seniors in high school and college.

Although the former president has not given an answer, a spokeswoman for Obama told CNN that they were aware of the tweets and “very flattered” but declined to comment further. Today, Yahoo announced a “Dear Class of 2020,” virtual commencement celebration, for June 6 featuring inspirational leaders, celebrities, and creators to celebrate graduates, their families, and their communities. The event will feature commencement speeches from former President Obama, Lady Gaga, Condoleezza Rice, and Malala Yousafzai.

The commencement will take place on June 6 only on YouTube, via YouTube Originals.

 

 

by Dana Givens

May 5, 2020

HBCU Grads Help Independent Artist By Hosting Virtual Night Market In Richmond

Due to the COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, pandemic, many businesses have been forced to close their doors under the stay-at-home orders issued by their respective state, closing all “non-essential” businesses in the process. Since the start of the pandemic, over 700,000 jobs have been lost leaving nearly 30 million to file for unemployment benefits and causing an economic depression.

In addition to the small business community, independent artists have also suffered a heavy economic loss due to the public health crisis. A group of HBCU graduates decided to take their event series online to help artists in the community and around the world.

Co-founded by Adrienne Cole and Melody Short, the Richmond Night Market is going into its second year to highlight independent artists in the community. Instead of postponing or pivoting into another venture, the entrepreneurs decided to keep the market alive and thriving by making it virtual to allow artists from all over the world to participate.

Last month’s event brought in over $12,000 in sales with 100% of the sales going to the participating artists. The artisans’ websites will remain linked to the event’s website for 30 full days after the event takes place so attendees can purchase art.

The upcoming Night Market will once again feature independent artists and small businesses showcasing their work in an innovative virtual format on Saturday, May 9 from 5 -10 P.M through Instagram Live. It will allow attendees to learn about what inspires the creation of a piece of art and give them the chance to purchase the art whenever they want from their home.

by Lydia Blanco

May 5, 2020

‘The Central Park Five’ Opera Earns Composer Anthony Davis a Pulitzer Prize

It’s not every day that you win a Pulitzer Prize. That’s why when composer Anthony Davis found out that he won the Pulitzer Prize for his opera “The Central Park Five” during a Zoom meeting, he thought that it was a ‘Zoom bomb’! Luckily for him, it wasn’t. And it turned out to be one of the best surprises.

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Davis, who is a music professor at UC San Diego, shared that he’s still getting used to using Zoom and the news of winning the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

“I pushed the wrong button, and so the whole faculty heard the announcement,” Davis said after his win. The move prompted one of his colleagues to call the incident “the best Zoom bomb ever.”

Prior to COVID-19, Davis was preparing to begin a residency at the Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, Italy, where he was named a spring 2020 fellow. The LA Times reports that there Davis had plans to work on two operas, including “The Darkest Light in the Heart,” about the aftermath of the 2015 mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., in which a white supremacist killed nine African American members during bible study.

As an artist and musical genius, Davis’ operatic work is steeped in black history in America. Some of his previous compositions include “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and “Amistad,” based on the rebellion of Mende captives on a Spanish slave ship.

Related: 5 Black Pulitzer Prize Winners Who Made History

Davis’s “The Central Park Five” piece was inspired by an unfortunate series of events that led to teenagers being falsely charged and convicted during the infamous Central Park Jogger case. In 1989, Davis was living in New York City and followed the case closely. And in 2014, he decided to compose an opera after reading libretto by Richard Wesley. He also drew inspiration from popular artists from that era like Boyz II Men, Public Enemy, and Take 6.

Last year, his piece premiered two weeks after Ava DuVernay’s Netflix original series, When They See Us. 

The Pulitzer committee called “The Central Park Five,” with a libretto by Richard Wesley, “a courageous operatic work, marked by powerful vocal writing and sensitive orchestration, that skillfully transforms a notorious example of contemporary injustice into something empathetic and hopeful.”

 

Black Security Guard Killed After Asking Customers to Wear Masks inside Family Dollar
by Derek Major

May 5, 2020

Black Security Guard Killed After Asking Customers to Wear Masks inside Family Dollar

The sister of a Michigan security guard who was killed Friday while working at a Family Dollar store, has started a GoFundMe to pay for his funeral and provide for his family.

According to NewsOne, Calvin James Munerlyn, a 43-year-old married father of nine, was working at a Family Dollar in Flint, Michigan, on Friday. During his shift, he asked a female customer to cover her face with a mask while inside the store. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Executive Order says that “everyone must wear a mask in all enclosed public spaces to halt the spread of COVID-19.”

The request started an argument between the customer’s mother and Munerlyn, who advised a cashier not to serve the woman. The customer’s mother then spit at Munerlyn and left the store with her daughter. A short time after, the mother returned with her husband, who shot Munerlyn in the face.

He was pronounced dead on the scene. The GoFundMe goal was $10,000, but 6,000 citizens have donated more than $200,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.

The GoFundMe page describes Munerlyn, who friends called Duper, as “a hard-working, father and husband who lost his life while doing his job securing the place of business and asking all customers to wear a mask for our own safety as well as others.”

According to Michigan Live, the two women involved in the argument and the man who shot Munerlyn have all been charged with first-degree murder.

“The death of Calvin Munerlyn is senseless and tragic and those responsible will be held accountable to the fullest extent under the law,” Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said in a statement. “From all indications, Mr. Munerlyn was simply doing his job in upholding the Governor’s Executive Order related to the COVID-19 pandemic for the safety of store employees and customers.”

The issue of face coverings and African Americans has been problematic. Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker have pushed the Justice Department to issue guidance for local law enforcement to follow when dealing with African Americans and face coverings during the coronavirus.

Last week, a 25-year-old black man was shot by a white man and his father, a retired district attorney, after the father saw the man wearing a bandana on his face running through a Georgia suburb.

 

by Dana Givens

May 5, 2020

Michigan Governor Describes Stay-at-Home Protests as ‘Some of the Worst Racism’ She’s Seen

Last week, hundreds of disgruntled Americans gathered outside of Michigan’s state capitol building to protest its mandatory stay-at-home orders implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus. Many of the protesters were holding armed weapons including rifles and handguns. According to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, many of them were also holding racist, bigoted signs as well.

On Sunday, Gov. Whitmer made an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union in which she described protesters demonstrating as “some of the worst racism and awful parts of our history in this country.”

“There were swastikas and nooses and Confederate flags and people with assault rifles,” she explained. “The behavior you’ve seen in all of the clips is not representative of who we are in Michigan.”

Many Michigan residents also expressed their frustration on social media sharing video footage of the unruly crowds and their actions. Some of them pointed out that demonstrators—many of whom were armed—were demanding access to the House floor where they were not allowed.

President Trump responded to the volatile protesters as “very good people,” suggesting the governor should show some compassion toward their anger.

Candace Owens’ Twitter Account Suspended for Encouraging Michigan Residents to Defy Stay-At-Home Order
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

May 5, 2020

Candace Owens’ Twitter Account Suspended for Encouraging Michigan Residents to Defy Stay-At-Home Order

Weeks after suspending Diamond and Silk‘s Twitter account for spreading fake news about the coronavirus pandemic, the social media giant has suspended another controversial black conservative figure over the crisis. According to The Washington Examiner, Candace Owens‘ account was suspended after she instructed Michigan residents to defy the governor’s stay-at-home directive to help slow the spread of the novel virus.

Owens’ tweet, which was removed by Twitter, said, “Apparently @GovWhitmer believes she is a duly elected dictator of a socialist country. The people of Michigan need to stand up to her. Open your businesses. Go to work. The police think she’s crazy too. They are not going to arrest 10,000,000 people for going to work.”

Twitter has ruled that the tweet violated the platform’s guidelines and her account will stay frozen until she removes the tweet. But Owens has decided to appeal the ruling from Twitter.

“I unequivocally stand by every single word of my tweet,” Owens told The Washington Examiner. “If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can use Twitter’s platform to encourage workers to walk out and boycott — I should be allowed to encourage lawful citizens to resume work. The only person breaking any laws is governor-turned-dictator Gretchen Whitmer, who is impoverishing millions, ignoring the votes of her state legislature, and as a result, rolling over the constitutionally protected rights of Michigan citizens.”

She also stated, “Twitter was unable or unwilling to provide me with any specific rule that I violated, which is why I have appealed their decision. While I am not an expert on Twitter TOS, I cannot see how suggesting people ought to work would be a violation of anything other than socialist reverie.”

Twitter told The Washington Examiner that Owens’s tweet violated the specific guideline that forbids the “denial of … government body recommendations to decrease an individual’s likelihood of exposure to COVID-19 with the intent to influence users into acting contrary to recommended guidance.”

The spokeswoman for the company said that Owens will need to delete the tweet for her account to be reinstated.

Just last month, Owens complained on Twitter that she and her husband were harassed by a police officer who asked them to wear a face mask in a supermarket. The officer was asking her and her husband to comply with an order to adhere to social distancing protocols put into place throughout many places in the United States.

Claims That the Obama Administration Gave $3.7 Million To Research Institute In China Is False
by Derek Major

May 5, 2020

Claims That the Obama Administration Gave $3.7 Million To Research Institute In China Is False

A claim that the Obama administration gave almost $4 million to a Wuhan research facility has gained traction online, however, the actual story is different.

According to Yahoo News, the claim that the U.S. government helped fund research into coronaviruses, spread after a Daily Mail report said it obtained documents showing the Wuhan Institute of Virology undertook coronavirus experiments on mammals captured in Yunnan.

The report added that the Obama administration funded coronavirus research in China. However, the truth is a grant overseen by the National Institutes of Health was provided to the EcoHealth Alliance. The grant continued under the Trump administration until it was recently rescinded.

The EcoHealth Alliance is a nongovernmental research group that focuses on emerging diseases caused by human and animal interactions. The NIH has funded the alliance since 2002.

In 2014, the NIH approved a grant to the alliance designated for research into “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”

The project involved collaborating with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study coronaviruses in bats and the risk of potential transfer to humans. The project was created “to understand what factors allow coronaviruses, including close relatives to SARS, to evolve and jump into the human population.”

The original five-year grant was reapproved by the Trump administration in July 2019. The effort spent $3,378,896 and resulted in 20 scientific reports on how zoonotic diseases may transfer from bats to humans.

The Daily Mail reported April 11, the research was funded by a $3.7 million grant from the Obama administration and the claim quickly gained traction.

“For years, the US government has been funding cruel animal experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which may have contributed to the global spread of COVID-19,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., tweeted April 13.

Gaetz praised President Trump for ending the program on Fox News.

When a reporter asked Trump about the grant money, he responded, “We will end that grant very quickly,” Trump said. “It was made a number of years ago. Who was president then, I wonder?”

Other politicians also jumped on the claim. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) accused the Chinese government of covering up its involvement in the virus’ origins. “This evidence is circumstantial, to be sure, but it all points toward the Wuhan labs,” the senator wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.

Last week, President Trump also blamed Obama for the lack of coronavirus testing in the U.S.

In April, Trump also wondered why Obama hadn’t endorsed Joe Biden days after Bernie Sanders dropped out of the Democratic primary.

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