He has won basketball games, and an NBA championship, and a chance to play back home, but, he couldn’t beat a sneaker giant in a logo battle! Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard has lost the lawsuit he filed against Nike, according to The Oregon Live.

Leonard designed a “Klaw” logo several years ago that he claims Nike unlawfully copyrighted. He sued Nike in the middle of the NBA finals last year in June 2019. He said he created the logo while he was in college at San Diego State in 2011, drawing on his large hands, his jersey number and initials.

Nike then filed a countersuit against Leonard, saying that it holds the exclusive rights to a claw logo produced by its “talented team of designers.’’ US District Judge Michael W. Mosman sided with Nike and thereby dismissed Leonard’s lawsuit.

Mosman ruled that the logo that the Nike designers helped create with Leonard marked an “independent piece of intellectual property’’ that was distinct from the original sketch Leonard initially conceived and shared with Nike.

“It’s not merely a derivative work of the sketch itself,’’ the judge ruled after an hour of oral arguments held by phone as well as multiple briefs filed in the case. “I do find it to be new and significantly different from the design.”

One of Leonard’s lawyers, Mitchell C. Stein, asked the judge to view Leonard’s original initial drawing and the final logo as “one and the same.” Leonard isn’t claiming ownership of a derivative work. “We’re claiming ownership of the logo Leonard created,’’ Stein told the court.

“The KL, the No. 2 and the hand as expressed by Mr. Leonard in his sketch and as modified is the protectable element that appears in the Nike Klaw,” Stein argued.

But Tamar Duvdevani, a lawyer for Nike had stated that there are many differences between the rough sketch that Leonard presented to Nike with his ideas and the actual final logo agreed upon in his contract.

“One is not the same as the other,” she said.

“Authorship is more than mere directions and ideas,” Duvdevani said. “It’s clear here it was Nike’s designers who put pen to paper to fix the work in a tangible medium of expression.”

“Kawhi put his heart and soul into that design so we are obviously disappointed the judge ruled the logo belongs to Nike and not Kawhi,” Leonard’s attorney, Peter R. Ginsberg, told Oregon Live following the judge’s ruling. “We’re considering our options to protect Kawhi’s interests.”

• News

by Dana Givens

April 28, 2020

Black Michigan Healthcare Worker Dies After Being Denied Coronavirus Test Four Times

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COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, has overwhelmed most hospitals and treatment centers around the country. Now, one family is taking issue with a hospital’s negligence that led to the untimely death of their loved one who, they say, was denied testing.

Deborah Gatewood was a Michigan healthcare worker who recently died from coronavirus after being refused a test four different times at the Beaumont Hospital, Farmington Hills, where she worked for over 30 years.

Her daughter, Kaila Corrothers, told NBC News that the thing that bothered her the most about the entire situation was that her employer, Beaumont Hospital, had not treated her mother well.

“This did not have to happen this way,” she told the news station. The 63-year-old phlebotomist started feeling ill and experiencing COVID-19 symptoms around mid-March. She then drove herself to her Detroit hospital’s emergency room, requesting a coronavirus test but was sent home. “They said she wasn’t severe enough and that they weren’t going to test her,” Corrothers said in the interview, according to MSN. “They told her to just go home and rest.”

According to Corrothers, the next day her mother went back and started to experience a cough as well. Once again, Gatewood wasn’t given a test and was instead prescribed cough medication. As her symptoms worsened, Gatewood returned to the hospital but this time with a fever that had spiked. She was told by staff that she most likely had the coronavirus, but was still not tested.

The hospital responded to the allegations through a local Fox News station stating, “as patients come to Beaumont for care during this pandemic, we are doing everything we can to evaluate, triage and care for patients based on the information we know at the time. We grieve the loss of any patient to COVID-19 or any other illness.”

Corrothers is now using her mother’s case to encourage people to make sure they get the treatment they deserve, even if they have to go to another hospital.

“If people feel symptoms, go to the doctor. You’re the only person who knows how you feel,” she said. “If you can’t get treated at one hospital, go to another.”

For recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions if you’re experiencing symptoms, check here.

• News

by Derek Major

April 28, 2020

25-Year-Old Black Man Running Through Suburban Georgia Neighborhood Killed By Two White Men

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An African American man running through a Georgia neighborhood was pursued, shot, and killed by a white man and his father.

According to Blavity, retired district attorney investigator Greg McMichael saw Ahmaud Arbery, 25, sprinting past his home in Brunswick, Georgia. Believing he was a robbery suspect, McMichael alerted his adult son, Travis McMichael, and both men grabbed their guns and followed Arbery in a truck.

“Stop, stop. We want to talk to you,” the men said to Arbery.

After a struggle over a shotgun the son was carrying, Arbery was shot at least twice and killed.

The Glynn County Police Department released its report on the deadly incident Tuesday. McMichael thought Arbery looked like the suspect in several recent break-ins. However, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper, believes her son was judged because of the color of his skin.

The two men have not been arrested or charged. George Barnhill, a prosecutor in the case, told the police in a letter that McMichael and his son acted within the state’s citizen’s arrest law and Travis acted out of self-defense.

However, Barnhill, the district attorney for Georgia’s Waycross Judicial Circuit, was recused from the case due to a conflict of interest. Barnhill’s son works in the Brunswick district attorney’s office, which had previously employed McMichael.

Arbery was wearing a white t-shirt, khaki shorts, Nike sneakers, and a bandana at the time of the incident, according to The New York Times. The report did not indicate if Arbery was wearing the bandana on his face

However, activists believe even if Arbery was attempting to commit a crime, he should not have been chased or shot by the two.

“This incident was at the least a case of overly zealous citizens that wrongfully profiled the victim without cause,” said Rev. John Davis Perry II, the president of the Brunswick chapter of the NAACP. “These men felt justified in taking the law in their own hands.”

Friends and family of Arbery are now worried the case won’t get attention due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“We can’t do anything because of this corona stuff,” said Cooper. “We thought about walking out where the shooting occurred, just doing a little march but we can’t be out right now.”

The incident comes less than a month after Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker sent a letter to the Justice Department asking for guidance for police officers dealing with people of color wearing face coverings. African Americans are worried about interacting with police while wearing face masks.

Arbery was killed three days before the eighth anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin.

• News

by Dana Givens

April 28, 2020

Texas to Reopen Some Businesses This Friday As Stay-At-Home Order Expires

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Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous cities have gone on mandatory lockdown, effectively closing down all “non-essential” businesses in the process. The result has caused severe economic losses for local business owners. especially brick-and-mortar storefronts. With more and more small business owners protesting for local governments to reopen to save their businesses, many Southern states have started reopening their economies amid the viral outbreak.

Texas has officially become one of the latest states, in addition to Georgia and South Carolina, to start relaxing social distancing recommendations by the CDC. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Monday that he will allow the state’s stay-at-home order to expire on Thursday, with a limited reopening of some businesses by Friday.

“Now it’s time to set a new course, a course that responsibly opens up business in Texas,” Abbott said, according to CNN. “We will open in a way that uses safe standards — safe standards for businesses, for their employees as well as for their customers. Standards based upon data and on doctors.”

According to the Republican governor’s new order, retail stores, malls, restaurants, museums, libraries, and theaters will be allowed to reopen on Friday with limited occupancy (at about 25% of their capacity) for at least two weeks as the situation is monitored, Politico reports.

Other businesses, like barbershops, salons, gyms, and bars were not included in the initial opening phase, but Gov. Abbott did continue to say he wants to see them open “as soon as possible,” and expects them to be open no later than mid-May.

If there is no renewed uptick in cases, businesses would then be allowed to increase that limit to about 50% around May 18. Counties that have five or fewer cases could start with increased capacity as early as this Friday, however.

Millions of Americans have come together to show their support for essential and healthcare workers around the nation as they show up for others and work around the clock. While many are grateful for the recognition, millions of workers belonging to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation’s largest union of healthcare and service workers, are calling on President Trump to provide more support and protection as they work on the frontlines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a recent survey, nearly 90% of U.S. mayors said they lack sufficient test kits, face masks, and other PPE for their emergency responders and medical workers. As of mid-April, nearly 9,300 U.S. healthcare workers had contracted COVID-19, and 27 have died.

On Monday, the union released a new digital ad campaign in targeted battleground states lifting up the voices of workers who are on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, fighting for their lives and the lives of millions of Americans. Over half of SEIU’s members are from black, Latinx, or Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, which have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

A Call for Action

In the ad, workers are using their voices to make their requests for proper protection on the job known and condemn President Trump’s lack of leadership during the pandemic. The six-figure ad campaign will run in both Spanish and English and is expected to reach 2.6 million infrequent voters of color in the critical battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

During the pandemic, many essential workers are on the frontlines without essential protective gear like face masks, gloves, and a number of workers have reported a shortage of supplies. And, they are exhausted and over the lack of support.

In a statement released by members of SEUI, Dr. David Woolsey, a doctor at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, the largest public hospital in the country, who is featured in the ad campaign, said, “Healthcare workers are fighting for our lives. But neglect and lack of planning have left too many workers across this country without basic protective equipment. President Trump needs to use the full power of his authority and lead. Help us protect all workers and keep everyone safe.”

Lives Are on the Line

Dr. Michael Hall, a resident at Howard University Hospital and a member of SEIU’s Committee of Interns and Residents who is also featured in the ad campaign, affirmed, “Access to PPE can be a matter of life or death for those of us on the front lines.”

He added, “Healthcare workers still sorely lack the protective equipment we need to keep ourselves and our patients safe. I am proud to do this work, but it’s been challenging; it’s like being in a battle without enough armor.”

As essential and healthcare workers show up for America, they are concerned about their well-being.

“I am deeply afraid of contracting the virus and bringing it home to my family. As essential workers, we are saving lives and keeping our communities running. In return, we are simply asking for basics like PPE,” said Elizabeth Frascati, a pharmacy technician and member of 1199SEIU.

At a time when President Trump’s approval rate is at 43% and 6 in 10 American’s believe that he does not take COVID-19 seriously—SEIU’s six-figure ad buy is a timely investment in voter engagement ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

To read more about how COVID-19 is impacting communities of color, click here.

Fox News has fired Diamond & Silk after the duo publicly stated that the death rate of coronavirus victims in the U.S. was inflated to draw focus to President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis, according to The Daily Beast.

Earlier this month, Fox Nation hosts Lynette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, affectionately known as Diamond and Silk, had their Twitter account suspended for spreading misinformation on the COVID-19 outbreak in violation of the social media platform’s policy, according to Newsweek.

The original Tweet stated, “The only way we can become immune to the environment; we must be out in the environment. Quarantining people inside of their houses for extended periods will make people sick!” Diamond & Silk told their 1.4 million Twitter followers.

At the time a Twitter spokesperson stated, “The Tweet is in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. The account will be locked until the account owner removes the Tweet.” The account was restored after the pair removed the Twitter post.

Under Twitter’s policy, tweets must be removed that issue a “denial of global or local health authority recommendations to decrease someone’s likelihood of exposure to COVID-19 with the intent to influence people into acting against recommended guidance, such as: ‘social distancing is not effective,’ or actively encouraging people to not socially distance themselves in areas known to be impacted by COVID-19 where such measures have been recommended by the relevant authorities.”

The week before that occurrence, the sisters proclaimed that the number of COVID-19 cases was being inflated to make President Trump look bad. 

In a Facebook Live video earlier this month, based on media reports of the rising death total due to the novel coronavirus, the pair said that the media is lying about the numbers coming in. The numbers, they claim, are being reported to make Trump look bad.

Colleges and universities across the country were already seeing a drop in enrollment, but the coronavirus could mean bankruptcy.

According to CNBC, many colleges have pushed their decision to reopen campuses to June 1. Even if some open, they still don’t know what environment students will be coming into.

The uncertainty at colleges has forced families to weigh their options. As a result, rather than commit to online classes, many college-bound seniors have chosen to take take a gap year or enroll at a community college.

Community colleges may see a jump in enrollment as they provide a cheaper alternative.

Two-year public schools, tuition and fees are less than $4,000 for the 2019–2020 school year, according to the College Board. Tuition at in-state four-year public schools is $10,440. At four-year private universities, it averages $36,880.

Currently, enrolled students can also take a year off to work or to save money as the future of the economy is largely unknown.

For colleges, this could be a deathblow to the industry. A Brian Communications study said 40% of parents with students about to enter college will delay going due to the coronavirus.

“Parents of graduating [high school] seniors have deep concerns connected to this outbreak that could threaten the long-term viability of institutions if they don’t respond in the near term,” Brian Tierney, CEO of Brian Communications told CNBC.

Due to restrictive student visa policies and the country’s lackluster response to the virus, colleges will also see a drop in international students.

International students contributed nearly $41 billion to the national economy in the last academic year, according to the Association of International Educators.

Boston University has already announced it may not reopen until 2021. Historic black colleges and universities could be hurting more than other schools as enrollments hit a 17-year low before the virus.

Support for mail-in voting has risen amid concerns about the safety of polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Yahoo Finance,  mail-in voting has a wide partisan divide. President Trump said last week the idea will end his chances at re-election. A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, shows Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support their state conducting elections exclusively by mail, 47% to 29%.

The poll also showed a wide divide in support for no-excuse absentee voting. The system is currently in place in most states including almost all the top presidential battlegrounds.

Health officials are increasingly discussing the risk of spreading the coronavirus at polling places. The Republican majority in Wisconsin allowed in-person voting to take place for its primary in April.

Now, less than a month later, the state’s public health office is reporting at least 30 new coronavirus cases after voting or volunteering for the primary.

Wisconsin Democrats are already increasing mail voting operations for November. Milwaukee, the state’s largest city, will send every one of its 300,000 voters a request for an absentee ballot.

Republicans, who have resisted a similar step statewide, acknowledged the move would put them at a disadvantage.

“It makes winning Wisconsin harder,” Andrew Hitt, chair of the state Republican Party told Yahoo.

Hitt is now calling for intervention to “level the playing field.”

Currently, only five states automatically mail ballots to every voter, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Utah. However, since the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S. in February, states have been shifting their primaries to all mail-elections.

The Republican National Committee has started to fight these moves in court. The committee successfully petitioned a New Mexico court to block the state from holding its June primary exclusively by mail.

As a result, the state will be forced to open some polling places to allow for in-person voting. The state will send applications for absentee ballots to voters.

In Texas, Attorney General and Republican Ken Paxton, unsuccessfully argued the coronavirus should not be an automatically accepted excuse for people seeking absentee ballots in the state.

Joe Biden said Monday that he believes President Trump will try to delay the presidential election. Mail-in voting will also help African Americans as voter suppression tactics in the South are widespread.

• Sports

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

April 28, 2020

Jemele Hill Calls Out New England Patriots’ Draft Pick For Tattoo Linked to White Supremacy

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Sports commentator and contributing writer Jemele Hill has an issue with the New England Patriots’ recent draft pick who sports a white supremacist tattoo, according to BET.

This past weekend, during the National Football League‘s annual draft, The New England Patriots selected kicker Justin Rohrwasser in the fifth round. The New York native has a tattoo of the logo for Three Percenters, a far-right militia movement and paramilitary group that primarily advocates for gun ownership rights and limiting the federal government’s involvement in local affairs. He claims he received the tattoo as a teenager and didn’t know at the time what the logo stood for and has plans now to cover the tattoo.

“Obviously, it evolved into something that I do not want to represent and when I look back at it, I should have done way more research before I put any mark or symbol on my body,” Rohrwasser told USA Today. “It is not something I ever want to represent, so it will be covered.”

Rohrwasser told reporters on a conference call that he will cover the logo, which has Roman numerals III surrounded by stars. Rohrwasser claimed he believed that the organization stood for support of the U.S. military when he got the tattoo as a teenager. He said he wishes he had done some research before he got the tattoo.

• News

by Derek Major

April 28, 2020

Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz: No One in Puerto Rico Has Received a Coronavirus Relief Check

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San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said Puerto Rico’s residents have yet to receive their $1,200 relief checks.

The San Juan Mayor made the claim Monday during an at-home appearance on MSNBC.

“No one in Puerto Rico has received the $1,200 from the federal government,” Cruz said midway through the interview. Cruz added that residents have yet to receive a $500 stimulus from the local government as well.

Mayor Cruz said the island of Puerto Rico is struggling. In addition to island residents missing their payments, 130,000 unemployment filings have been made on the island.

“Money is not getting into people’s hands because of the current local government of Puerto Rico, and perhaps, guidelines that have not been distributed,” Cruz said to MSNBC. “But the problem is not getting the support that we need. The problem is that the support goes to the higher levels of government, and doesn’t reach the people that it’s supposed to reach.”

According to Cruz, residents have had to rely on the generosity of local churches and community centers for food and resources. According to a New York Times report,  the current rate of testing on the island is one-tenth of the rate in New York.

The island has just over a thousand cases and 84 deaths but the low number could be due to insufficient testing. Cruz told MSNBC that mayors on the island have had to improvise due to the lack of help from the federal government.

“Mayors have to take things in their own hands,” Cruz said. “We established in San Juan the first drive-thru testing facility and we are testing at a much rapid rate than the state government is doing,” she said.

Cruz added San Juan collaborated with a private lab and are now yielding results in 24 hours, instead of across several days.

Cruz also denounced the president saying, “The president is harmful to your health,” while urging residents to not ingest or inject disinfectants after coronavirus presser last week.

Much like African Americans, Hispanic Americans are more vulnerable to the coronavirus due to an inability to overcome economic turmoil.