Former NBA Superstar Derrick Rose To Open A Chicago Flower Shop
The former Chicago Bulls will open Rose’s Flower Shop for one day only, January 2.
If there’s one thing former NBA superstar Derrick Rose is good for, it’s giving his hometown of Chicago its flowers.
That makes his latest venture too perfect.
“Welcome to Rose’s, the number-one flower shop in Chicago. How can I help you?” Rose can be heard saying in his announcement.
The former NBA Most Valuable Player and Chicago Bulls star will open Rose’s Flower Shop for one day only on January 2, but he urged his more than 2 million Instagram followers to “stay tuned for details.”
What remains unclear is Rose’s intention for the business long-term.
It wouldn’t be a bad investment for Rose. Flowers and plants are a big business in the United States. Americans spent an estimated $6.7 billion in 2023 on floriculture products, including cut flowers. Between 2024 and 2030, experts say the market value will increase 8% annually, thanks to Millennials and Generation Z, whose members are investing in floriculture to improve indoor air quality and living spaces.
As for Rose, he would be entering an industry unchartered by NBA players and underrepresented by Black Americans. According to the Michigan Chronicle, Black florists only make up about 4% of the industry in the United States.
So far, he’s getting a ton of support for his latest venture, which appears to focus on none other than roses.
“Bro, gonna have the city standing outside in lines like they’re waiting for Mikes,” said Instagram user Louis.e.lee.
“I’m buying my first dozen from you, Big Dawg,” another person commented.
“Bout to have the whole city out,” another person replied.
What’s clear from Rose’s followers: they hope the Chicago flower shop is here to stay.
Wait, What? Convicted KillerFor Presidential Pardon After Biden Commutes Death Row Sentence
Council, who claims he's been tortured, hopes to receive a compassionate release from prison.
A man whose death row sentence was recently commuted to life in prison by President Joe Biden has asked for an official pardon.
Brandon Council, a Black man, received the death penalty after he was found guilty of killing two bank tellers, Donna Major and Katie Skeen, during a 2017 Conway bank raid in South Carolina. His trial lasted for three weeks. The jury found him guilty in September 2019 and a judge sentenced him to death a month later.
Biden, on his vast clemency initiative ahead of his term ending, commuted the sentences for Council and 36 others on federal death row. Now, Council hopes Biden will review his case again and allow him to walk free from a federal prison in Indiana through compassionate release.
Council filed the motion in the U.S. District Court in Florence. Compassionate release remains reserved for seriously ill or disabled inmates. However, Council claims he has endured “severe, unnecessary, and unjustifiable psychological harm” due to torture. He has also been in solitary confinement since 2019.
“The petitioner’s subjection to torture is the subsequent result of the petitioner’s sentence to death. However, the additional punishment of solitary confinement, which is the cause of the psychological harm, is in no manner statutorily authorized, mandated, or required by the petitioner’s sentence to death,” detailed the legal filing obtained by The Daily Mail.
Council’s experience at FCI Terre Haute “can only be accurately construed and assimilated as an act of torture.”
The families of the women killed by Council condemned his potential pardon. Furthermore, they deemed his original sentencing as “justice” and called the 38-year-old a “low life.”
Despite this, the motion emphasized how the Council’s alleged torture while incarcerated remains unconstitutional.
The document added, “Within the jurisdiction of the United States, it is both illegal and unconstitutional to inflict or subject any person to torture as a punitive consequence for a crime a party has been duly convicted of.”
Biden has yet to announce if he will issue the pardon. However, time remains sensitive. President-elect Donald Trump intends to “vigorously pursue the death penalty” in response to Biden’s initial clemency.
Michigan Has A Slate Of New Laws Set To Take Effect In 2025
Michigan, like many other states, have new laws set to go into effect in 2025 which range from minimum wage increases, tipped minimum wage increases, earned sick time adjustments, adjustments to unemployment benefits and AED and CPR training requirements
Like many other states, Michigan has new laws set to go into effect in 2025, ranging from minimum wage increases, tipped minimum wage increases, earned sick time adjustments, adjustments to unemployment benefits, and AED and CPR training requirements, among others.
According to ABC 74, a package of bills signed into law by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will take effect 91 days after the end of the 2024 legislative session.
Principal among them is a set of minimum wage increases, the first of which takes place on New Year’s Day, increasing the minimum wage from $10.33 to $10.56. On Feb. 21, 2025, the minimum wage will increase again to $12.48.
In addition to a general minimum wage increase, tipped workers will receive an increase that equals 48% of Michigan’s minimum wage.
On Feb. 21, 2025, employees will also gain additional benefits in the form of accruing one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, but they cannot use more than 40 hours of that earned sick time in a year unless their employer selects a higher limit.
Sick time must be paid at the same rate, either the normal hourly pay for the employee who takes it or the minimum wage established by the Workforce Opportunity Act.
Michigan residents will also receive an increase in their weekly unemployment benefits. The allotment will increase from $362 to $614, marking the first increase in those benefits since 2003.
Unemployment benefits are typically paid out between 20 to 26 weeks for unemployed Michigan residents who qualify.
After Gov. Whitmire signed legislation in April 2024, Michigan high school coaches are required to maintain CPR and AED equipment certification.
In addition, the high schools where they teach must maintain an emergency cardiac plan to quickly respond to any cardiac arrest event experienced by a student-athlete.
As Cindie DeWolf, a senior mission advancement advisor for the American Heart Association, told CBS Detroit, “That means they’re surrounded by adults and other children that know how to do CPR, that know that there’s an AED and where it is, and that it’s accessible. Minutes mean everything in a sudden cardiac arrest.”
House Bill 4361 established a tax credit for organ donors. The credit will go into effect on New Year’s Day and is intended to assist donors with the cost of donating, such as lost wages or medical bills.
Taxpayers may also claim a one-time credit against the tax credit equal to the unreimbursed live organ donation expenses accrued during the year or $10,000, whichever amount is the lesser.
According to Local 4, Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature tried to circumvent and amend the proposals for the Earned Sick Time Act and the Workforce Opportunity Wage Act, which, per Michigan law, should have been on the ballot in 2018. Instead, they passed the proposals and attempted to scale back the laws at the request of a business lobby.
In July 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that this was unconstitutional and that the rules must be reverted to what they were when the proposals were passed and then instituted.
According to Justice Kyra Bolden’s concurring opinion, “I join the majority opinion in full to hold that 2018 PA 368 and 2018 PA 369 are unconstitutional because they amended ballot initiatives that had been adopted into law within the same legislative session, an act that was not included in the three options provided to the Legislature under the initiative clause of the Michigan Constitution.”
Justice Bolden continued, “I agree with the majority that the plain text of the Constitution distinctly specifies that the Legislature has three options. Adopting the initiative is one avenue; however, adopting it and amending it within the same legislative session is not one of those options. Plainly, the Legislature was without constitutional authority to take such actions.”
Trump Endorses Mike Johnson For Another Term As House Speaker
But his path to another term is not a sure thing.
Less than three weeks before he takes office, President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed Mike Johnson (R-LA) for another term as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The endorsement comes as Johnson faces challenges in his own party.
“He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement,” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social, his social media platform.
“Thank you, President Trump! As always, I’m honored and humbled by your support,” Johnson said. “Together, we will quickly deliver on your America First agenda and usher in the new golden age of America. The American people demand and deserve that we waste no time. Let’s get to work!”
Johnson is facing some opposition over his leadership. Congress is set to vote on Friday, Jan. 3. Johnson can only afford to lose two votes from Republicans, who have a slim lead in the House.
Democrats are expected to vote against Johnson, and Republican Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie said earlier this month that he would not vote for Johnson, according to The Hill.
I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan. We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget. pic.twitter.com/6Y7GAkcBzJ
However, Trump’s endorsement could give Johnson the boost he needs.
“With tight margins and many unpredictable members, nothing is a lock. But Speaker Johnson is in an exceptionally strong position,” South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson told Politico.
Where Is Johnson’s Opposition Coming From?
Many House Republicans are reportedly questioning Johnson’s ability to lead after the incoming president and Musk, who Trump put in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency to advise him on government spending, stopped a deal Republicans reached with Democrats that would keep the government open and avoid a shutdown, The Guardianreports.
Trump called for an increase in the federal debt ceiling, but 38 House Republicans voted against the revised bill. A bill passed at the eleventh hour without Trump’s demands to increase the debt ceiling.
Massie isn’t the only one who is doubting Johnson. Indiana Congresswoman Victoria Spartz told The Hill she wants the next speaker to commit publicly to several demands for fiscal conservatism.
I understand why President Trump is endorsing Speaker Johnson as he did Speaker Ryan, which is definitely important. However, we still need to get assurances that @SpeakerJohnson won’t sell us out to the swamp.
Annual performance reviews are meetings where employees reflect on their successes and areas for improvement. They also prompt potential promotions or raises. However, Dan Kaplan, senior CHRO client partner for consulting firm Korn Ferry, feels they are an “uncomfortable process.”
“No one really likes to rank themselves and write about their own successes and shortcomings. You’re doing it once a year, you’re trying to remember what you did, because this is your one chance to try and to get a bonus,” Kaplan told Fortune. “It’s a very clunky, cumbersome, time-consuming, uncomfortable process.”
Reviews aren’t popular among supervisors and managers either. Some view them as an abusive tactic to eliminate employees for outside reasons rather than taking the appropriate steps to terminate them. They are also seen as opportunities for employees to carry on bad work habits if managers wait too long to tell them what isn’t working.
Race and gender bias also take part in the performance reviews, partially for Black and brown employees in the quality of feedback. Data from a report from HR Brew found less than 20% of Black and Hispanic workers receive high-quality input in comparison to white and Asian men. Only half revealed they’ve been called intelligent. More than 60% of Black workers are described as emotional. Women seem to get the short end of the stick.
Feedback for women tend to receive low-quality feedback based on their personality. Fifty-six percent of women said they’ve been labeled as unlikeable in their performance reviews, while 78% have been called emotional.
“High-performing women get exactly as much personality feedback as their lower-performing peers,” the report said.
The listed reasons support why more companies lean into continuous feedback, labeled as more important for remote or hybrid teams. Consistent check-ins allow managers to build a rapport with staffers along with the opportunity to change unattainable patterns. Susan Stehlik, professor of management communication at New York University Stern, said feedback works better when trying to obtain trust. “And you start building real team bonding,” which creates a “player-coach model,” she told Fortune.
Rocki Howard, founder and CEO of DE&I consulting firm Diversiology, encourages organizations to mitigate bias by showing managers how to give unbiased and, more importantly, actionable feedback as it impacts future performance, productivity, and engagement.
“This is problematic because lack of actionable feedback significantly creates less opportunity to learn and improve, which over time creates less opportunity for greater pay and promotional opportunities,” Howard added.
Trinidad and Tobago Declares State Of Emergency Due To Rising Gang Violence
In the state of emergency, the army and police will have the authority to perform warrantless searches and detain people without a charge.
The president of Trinidad and Tobago has officially declared a state of emergency due to rising gang violence in the Caribbean country.
President Christine Carla Kangaloo made the declaration on Dec. 30 after a significant uptick in killings over the weekend. Around six men died, five Sunday night right outside the nation’s capital, in the assumed gang-related issue.
“I am satisfied that a public emergency has risen as a result of the occurrence of action that has been taken, or is immediately threatened, by any person of such a nature and on so extensive a scale as to be likely to endanger the public safety; and a state of public emergency exists in TT,” said Kangaloo, as reported byTrinidad and Tobago Newsday.
The news outlet reports that Sunday’s shooting may stem from the Saturday killing of a reported gang leader. The man was shot as he and fellow members exited a police station. Government officials hope this presidential declaration will allow authorities to stop the gangs’ prominence and growing violence.
The declaration will not impose curfews on citizens and residents of the country. Businesses can operate normally. But the army and police can perform warrantless searches and detain people regardless of a charge.
Trinidad and Tobago has endured considerable gang violence, given its optimal position—near Venezuela—in the drug smuggling industry. And the weapons used are increasingly high-tech.
“We are seeing brazen behavior by these criminal elements in the use of illegal firearms, which necessitated the calling of this public state of emergency,” said Attorney General Stuart Young at a press conference that same day.
The number of murders in 2024 stands at 623, making the country one of the most dangerous in the region despite its 1.5 million population. The nation remains at a Level 3 advisory for U.S. travelers, a designation that encourages Americans to “reconsider travel” due to terrorism and kidnapping.
Racist Landlord Sentenced To 17 Years In Prison After Stealing Black Tenants Identities To Cash COVID Relief Benefits
Merryman owned over 60 properties and was convicted on wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and race-based interference with housing and employment
David Merryman, a 59-year-old Virginia man, has been sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for harassing Black tenants with racial slurs when they lived in his properties and stealing their identities to cash in and make requests for COVID relief funds.
Merryman has been sentenced to 17 years in prison on the charges of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and race-based interference with housing and employment for his behavior at over 60 different rental properties in the Newport and Hampton area.
According to prosecutors, Merryman “fraudulently obtained large initial payments in the form of security deposits, prepaid rent, and other fees for rental homes that were in poor repair” between 2019 and January of this year. After obtaining information about the tenants and stealing their payments, he would attempt to evict them quickly to get in new tenants to scam.
While his scheme ran during the pandemic, Merryman went as far as to forge the signatures of some of his tenants, all while threatening to evict them, when the federal and state governments systemically released relief funds for renters.
The properties Merryman targeted were intentionally located in low-income areas, focusing on poor Black tenants who were vulnerable to his schemes as they had nowhere else to live. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia reported that many of the homes were in abysmal condition and often had holes in the ceiling, leaks, and rodents or pests in the homes.
While committing fraud on several families, Merryman, who is white, also racially harassed his Black tenants and forced them to pay repeated and constructed security deposits under the pretense of making repairs that he never completed.
As reported by Law and Crime, in October 2022, Merryman rented a home that had no working stove or refrigerator to a Black man and charged an “initial deposit of $1,000 and a move-in deposit of $1,600 about two weeks later,” promising to fix it. He later ordered the tenant to pay over $1,000 at a later time, but when the tenant finally asked Merryman to come and make the promised repairs, the Virginian man said, “You people, man, it’s always the Black ones that got to have the problem moving in.”
In another recent incident, Merryman and several men walked onto a tenant’s property uninvited. When the renting tenant exited the home to confront the landlord, Merryman threatened them with a brick and potentially a firearm. During the incident, Merryman called the tenant a “Black motherf***** and a “f***ing n******” repeatedly.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Jessica Aber, stated in a press release, “David Merryman deliberately targeted families of color with limited means and housing options. Landlords have a responsibility under the law to uphold housing rights and protect the human dignity of the people to whom they rent. Mr. Merryman failed to uphold that responsibility and is paying a heavy price for his racial discrimination and fraud.”
Newborn Girl Abandoned In A Tote Bag In Front Of A Bronx Home As Police Try To Locate Mother
A neighbor found the child wrapped in blankets and placed within a tote bag outside the home.
A newborn girl was placed in a tote bag and left abandoned in front of a Bronx home as police asked the public to help find her mother.
According to the New York Daily News, a woman dropped the child off at the doorstep of a brick house in the borough on Dec. 29. A neighbor saw the bag and heard crying coming from it. Calling 911, the man discovered a newborn baby wrapped in blankets in the tote.
“I didn’t want to mess up any evidence, but it was too cold,” Mamadou Hafiz Jallow recalled toPIX11. “I picked up the baby [and] put it inside the house where it was warm.”
The child survived the New York winter despite her estimated age of five days old. Medics later took the infant to the Jacobi Medical Center. The child is now in stable condition.
However, the police continue searching for the woman who placed the tote on that Bronx doorstep. While a New York law, the Abandoned Infant Protection Act does not criminalize those who abandon babies one month old or younger. They must leave the child in certain safe places and tell someone of its location.
Instead, the woman left the baby in a tote bag at a random house, also a few doors away from a nonprofit specializing in health services.
Despite this, police have released surveillance footage that could lead to the presumed mother’s identity. The video revealed a woman in the area carrying the green tote the baby was found in.
However, the woman wore a black face mask and a black coat. Thus, making an identification remains a considerable task. Regardless, authorities have implored the public to join in the search to gain some answers on the child’s abandonment.
If you have any information about the woman or the child she left, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
Humanitarian Influencer, Dora Moono Nyambe, Who Built A School In Zambia, Dies At 32
Nyambe built four schools in Zambia to house over 500 kids and provide them with food and resources. She was working on purchasing a new bus.
Humanitarian and TikTok star Dora Moono Nyambe, founder of the nonprofit Footprints of Hope School, is dead at 32.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the sudden departure of our beloved Dora,” a Dec. 27 Instagram post read. No cause of death has been revealed. However, the message read that Nyambe will be remembered as “a loved mother, heroine, peace philanthropist and an extraordinary woman.”
The 32-year-old influencer drew over 4 million followers on TikTok, who followed her journey as she documented her work as a humanitarian and educator in Zambia. Daily Mail said Nyambe launched her nonprofit, Footprints for Hope School, in 2019. In an Oct. 10 video, the humanitarian influencer explained that she initially came to her friend’s village, Mapapa Village, while she waited for her visa to be approved.
After she observed the conditions of the kids in the village, she decided to stay and build a school in Zambia to provide them with resources. “When I came here, I saw that there were a lot of kids getting [sexually assaulted], there were a lot of kids that had babies; just a lot of bad things happening.”
Nymabe’s resources attracted many children from the village, so she built four schools to accommodate over 500 students.
In a follow-up video, Nyambe, who said she did not have biological kids, revealed that she adopted the younger kids in the village while the older kids moved on from her schools and were able to sustain themselves.
With a lack of resources and no government funding to accommodate all of the kids in the village, she used her social media platforms to raise awareness as the community continued to grow in its demand for resources.
“I can’t turn any kids away,” she said then. “I don’t operate like that.”
Before she died, she was raising funds for a new bus to replace the old one gifted to the school. The bus, which picked up kids from four different villages and transported food and supplies for teachers and staff to run the school, repeatedly broke down, making it difficult to transport the school’s supplies. According to a GoFundMe set up for the bus funds, the school has raised $47,545 of the $80,000 goal.
A fellow teacher for Nyambe’s nonprofit announced the death of her colleague in a video posted on TikTok. “I am officially announcing the loss of my beloved CEO, director, manager and founder of Footprints of Hope School, who died on Wednesday, Dec. 25 2024,” she said.
Burial services for the social media personality were scheduled for Monday, Dec. 30, at 12:00 p.m. at Footprints of Hope, Mapapa Village in Mukushi, Zambia.
Footprints of Hope provided contact info to a family representative and school administrator on Instagram for those who wished to support.
Claressa Shields Slams Female Boxing Community After Only 2 Champs Show Support For Biopic
'So let's talk about it!'
Boxing champ Claressa Shields is not holding back any punches about the lack of support for the release of her biopic, The Fire Inside.
On X, Shields revealed that only two female champions vocally supported her film’s theatrical debut.
So let’s talk about it! A whole biopic about my life & my journey in boxing but only 2 female champions have said anything about it! But y’all love to call me a hater! FOh! These girls been hating on me! That’s why I shine so bright ✨ AND Still! GOD GONNA ALWAYS DO HIS BIG ONE…
“So let’s talk about it! A whole biopic about my life & my journey in boxing but only TWO female champions have said anything about it,” wrote the 29-year-old. “But y’all love to call me a hater! FOh! These girls been hating on me! That’s why I shine so bright…AND Still! GOD GONNA ALWAYS DO HIS BIG ONE FOR ME!”
Shields did not mention names, but many noted her own past issues with female boxers. Notably, Shields had a beef with boxing legend Laila Ali, as reported by Forbes. The two had been developing a fight for years, but a harsh exchange of words led to the opportunity fading away.
One boxer did publicly support Shields and the film, welterweight champion Mikaela Mayer.
I haven’t seen it yet but I can’t wait and I’m proud of you, always. Still gonna whoop you when you’re ready…but I love you ❤️😈 https://t.co/g1IMfeJUen
“I haven’t seen it yet, but I can’t wait, and I’m proud of you, always. Still gonna whoop you when you’re ready…but I love you,” wrote Mayer.
Shields cheekily responded: “Go see it! And then you’ll understand why I’m unbeatable… love you [too].”
The movie stars Ryan Destiny as the professional boxer and Oscar nominee Brian Tyree Henry. Produced by Barry Jenkins (the director of Moonlight), the feature focuses on Shields’ upbringing in Flint, Michigan, and her rise to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The film, released on Christmas Day, is a critics’ darling, with a stamp of approval from Rotten Tomatoes and a 94% rating.
