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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, never shy with a photo opportunity, took his man-of-the-people act to the hip-hop dancefloor, where he used a rap music competition to deliver an anti-drugs message. "Graffiti is becoming a true art, fine and delicate," Mr Putin, clad in a beige turtleneck and grey sports jacket, told a young crowd at the "Respect" rap contest. "And breakdance is something peculiar," he said. "This really is propaganda for a healthy lifestyle because it is hard to imagine breakdancing having anything to do with drinking and dope," Mr Putin said. The powerful Russian president-turned-Prime Minister praised the...

Kim Clijsters Advances to Finals Over Serena Williams Williams looks a little somber as she begins her serve, then slaps a backhand into the net. Then she hits an ace. Balance returning. She’s got to keep the ball in play here and doesn’t, hitting another backhand into the net. Clijsters is two points from the match and the finals. She’s got to keep that out of her mind. Williams goes up the T but misses, then foot faults. Scolding the lineswoman may help her get back her strength, but she’s down match point. Boos may also drive her back into...

A Republican member of the House Ways and Means Committee says America can't afford to pay for the Democrats' government-run healthcare plan, just like it couldn't afford to pay for the stimulus and cap-and-trade bills. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) stated recently that the American people back Democrats' trillion-dollar healthcare plan, which will create $550 billion in new taxes over 10 years. "Over the coming days, Congress will continue working with President Obama to provide stable prices, secure coverage, and quality care for all Americans," Pelosi said. "We're very pleased we have the support not only of the doctors, but...

Slaying an afterthought to LR robbery, police say Teens’ accounts of killing differ in affidavit BY JACOB QUINN SANDERS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE All that the four teenage boys wanted to do, Little Rock police say, was rob the old man and scare him a little. Killing him, police said, was an afterthought. According to an arrest warrant affidavit unsealed Wednesday, the four boys, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, met Tuesday afternoon at the corner of Eddy Lane and Lark Place in a quiet, older neighborhood just south of Base Line Road, just to hang out. One asked if...

Three suspects appeared in a Little Rock courtroom this morning and pleaded not guilty to murder charges in a burglary-turned-shooting Tuesday afternoon that left a homeowner dead. The three juveniles are all charged as adults in the killing of Maurice Clark, 67, at his home at 4 Lark Place, just south of Baseline Road. They're identified as: Thomas Stacy Caffery, 17 Craig Deshaun Woods, 15 Mashawn Kendrick, 14 Bonds for each of the teens, who are all from Little Rock, were set at one-million-dollars. They are also charged with theft of property and fleeing. According to police reports read in...

"Hip" is how rapt reporters referred to the iPod the president and first lady gave the queen of England. Thanks to his fawning friends in the British and American media, Barack Obama got away with giving another foreign dignitary a vulgar gift. Shades of the reality show "Cribs" … The MTV series features hip-hop rappers, and other American royalty, showing off their incredibly gaudy homes, CD, DVD and iPod collections. (If there are any books in the house, these are well-hidden.) They then send the loving camera crew packing. The Obama iPod was no ordinary "small portable digital audio player...

The preliminary sales forecast for December, released by Mastercard, on Friday showed that retail sales may be down by as much as 4 percent. This early stage Christmas retail sales report was gleefully touted by the establishment media as some sort of economic catastrophe. Even Fox News, with Greg Jarrett, on Friday said sales could have dropped by as much as eight percent. Invariably, these stories are followed up with tales of how Barack Hussein Obama, when he is inaugurated, will bring rays of economic sunshine with his deficit spending plan, which promises to be several times larger than what...

YouTube interview from February with Obama talking about his respect for hip hop. Especially JayZ. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFSVG7jRp_g

Map Of Recent Shootings Wednesday afternoon's shooting comes on the heels of a particularly violent weekend in the city. Between Friday night and early Monday morning, 36 people were shot in Chicago, nine fatally, and two people were stabbed.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hip hop mogul 50 Cent, Universal Music Group and several of its record labels were sued on Wednesday for promoting a "gangsta lifestyle" by a 14-year-old boy who says friends of the rapper assaulted him. The lawsuit filed by James Rosemond and his mother, Cynthia Reed, says Universal Music Group -- owned by Vivendi SA -- and its labels Interscope Records, G-Unit Records and Shady Records, bear responsibility for the assault because they encourage artists to pursue violent, criminal lifestyles. The lawsuit also names 50 Cent -- whose real name is Curtis Jackson -- Violator Management,...

OMAHA, Neb., Dec 5 (Reuters) - A 19-year-old man killed eight people and then himself with an assault rifle at a busy mall in Omaha on Wednesday, sending terrified workers and Christmas shoppers scrambling for cover. "Now I will be famous," the gunman wrote in a suicide note, his landlady told CNN after finding a three-part document that she said included his will. Police declined to discuss the contents of the note. Five people were wounded, two of them critically, in the early afternoon rampage in the Midwestern U.S. city. Most of the victims at the upscale Westroads Mall were...

It is time to declare that inner city thuggery is domestic terrorism, and take the same actions as we have overseas. The surge worked in driving terrorists ...

GREENSBORO - Future games between bitter rivals N.C. Central University and N.C. A&T State University are in doubt after football players and coaches clashed in a benches-clearing brawl Saturday night. The latest melee to mar the NCCU-N.C. A&T rivalry started after the final seconds ticked off the clock with NCCU winning 27-22 on a game-saving interception. Players from the Durham university then ran out from their sideline and stomped on the Aggies' bulldog logo painted at the center of the field, taunting the defeated team. Fists and helmets were soon flying. The fight, which lasted about five minutes, cleared the...

NFL team's attire holds gang appeal 10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, September 1, 2007 By JOHN F. BERRY The Press-Enterprise SAN BERNARDINO - The Oakland Raiders, a dozen years after fleeing Los Angeles, finished the 2006 regular season with a 2-14 record -- the worst in the NFL. Despite the teams' embarrassing performance, silver-and-black attired Raider Nation fans significantly outnumber any other sports team appearing daily at the main San Bernardino County courthouse in downtown San Bernardino. Criminal gang prosecutors are unimpressed. "Generally speaking, those wearing Raiders gear in Southern California are associated with gangs," said Cheryl Kersey, who leads...

Taxpayers spared hit from Michael Vick's dogfighting misdeeds BY CHRISTIAN REDDAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERSaturday, September 1st 2007, 7:41 PM John Goodwin, the deputy manager for animal cruelty issues for The Humane Society of the United States, says that another negative fallout from dogfighting cases is that "the taxpayer gets hit" with the costs of housing and caring for the animals."That's one more cost of the (Michael) Vick case and these cases," says Goodwin. "These animal-control centers are municipal buildings funded by the government, so the taxpayer gets hit as a result."In the case of Vick, the disgraced Atlanta Falcons...

While the controversy surrounding Michael Vick continues to attract those who want to place blame on anyone and/or anything other than Michael Vick, a few stark realities present themselves all of which have an element of moral relativism. The sad fact of the matter is this; “thuggery” has seeped into every avenue of the American culture and our society is accepting it. That “thuggery” has been accepted in professional sports is a given. From the NBA to the NFL, the counter-culture, urban bad-boy image has been accepted as “cool.” One need only look at the offenses that professional athletes are...

Embattled NFL quarterback Michael Vick made an appearance today on the Atlanta-based Porshe Foxx radio program. Calling into the program, Vick gave his first interview since charges were filed against him July 17. During the brief spot Vick thanked his fans and all those who continue to support him, and expressed regret over the negative impact the dogfighting scandal is having on the Atlanta Falcons franchise.

Gangsta rap on death row as the US tunes out By Tim Shipman in Washington, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:48pm BST 30/06/2007 To judge by their lyrics, gangsta rappers are adept at seeing off rivals with a bullet and their women with a slap. Rappers Spliff Starr, Eminem, Papoose and Busta Rhymes on stage But America's rappers are now trapped in a corner they don't seem able to shoot their way out of, with either weapons or words. Confronted with haemorrhaging sales, the most assertive popular music movement since the Sex Pistols has lost its swagger and is suffering a...

Michael Ramirez's latest cartoon is here.

For decades, school districts have organized around a simple idea: Whatever you give to white students, give it to black students, too. Put both groups of students in the same schools. Expose them to the same teaching. If they struggle, give them the same help. In the Tampa Bay area and across the nation, this was how educators atoned for the long-ago sin of relegating black children to inferior schools. Now, in a class-action lawsuit that has Pinellas County's top educators on the defensive, the plaintiffs say the policy of equal access has failed the school district's 20,000 black students....

Time to Stop Looking Past Black KKK: Denial Only Empowers Negative Forces in Community ------------------------------------------- Could you imagine the level of denial had my column not been written? We would still be running around pretending that NBA All-Star Weekend was some sort of glorious black holiday, and anyone who dared mention the nasty elements of what transpired in Vegas would be shouted down as a racist. Denial is a problem's No. 1 enabler. We have a problem in the black community, and it didn't make its debut at All-Star Weekend Vegas. What was impossible to ignore in Vegas was on...

Updated: Jan. 25, 2007, 1:11 PM ET Athlete who fled Katrina jailed for making bomb threat Associated Press DENTON, Texas -- A high school basketball star is accused of calling in a bomb threat to the school the night of a game he was missing because of a suspension for fighting. Howard Stirgus, an 18-year-old who came to Denton in 2005 after fleeing New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, was jailed on suspicion of making a false alarm and abusing the 911 system. Authorities said he called Denton High School on Tuesday night, claiming there was a bomb in the building...

COVINGTON — Police caught up with and arrested a 16-year-old youth after his loose-fitting pants slipped down around his legs and forced him to his knees, the Police Department said Wednesday. Officers spotted the boy Monday afternoon and gave chase, Covington police said. The 16-year-old, whose name was not released, was wanted in the beating and robbery of a 35-year-old Covington man Nov. 2 and the carjacking and beating with a brick of another man Jan. 14, police said. The 16-year-old was booked on counts of armed robbery and aggravated battery in the Nov. 2 attack and aggravated battery and...

Broncos right cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed this morning. After leaving a nightclub in a limousine, Williams was shot and killed near 11th and Grant in Denver. The team confirmed the death of Williams. A female passenger also was shot, according to a source familiar with Williams. Williams was 24. "I learned from the Denver Police Deprtment that this incident has occured," Williams' agent, Jeff Griffin said early Monday morning. "No other details have been released. I sincerely offer my condolences and feelings to his family." Williams was the Broncos' starting right cornerback and played his final game...

NEW YORK (AP) — A popular hip-hop disc jockey died Saturday after being shot at least 13 times earlier this month, police said. Carl Blaze, born Carlos Rivera, was shot outside an apartment building near Manhattan's Inwood section on Dec. 7, and his $20,000 diamond chain was stolen, police said. He was taken to Harlem Hospital Center, where he died Saturday. Blaze, 30, was a DJ for hip-hop and R&B radio station Power 105.1 FM for about three years. He had gained a large fan base by spinning records at clubs and on the air on Friday and Saturday nights....

NEW YORK -- About a minute or two before the Knicks-Nuggets brawl erupted Saturday night in Madison Square Garden, New York coach Isiah Thomas mentioned to Denver star Carmelo Anthony that it wouldn't be a good idea to go anywhere near the paint, according to a member of the Denver Nuggets organization. The message was unmistakable: A hard foul was coming. And when it came, the NBA had its first full-scale fight of the 2006-07 season. As it tries to stay in the race in the Western Conference, Denver now has a huge question to ponder: How long will Anthony...

DENVER -- Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony is featured in an underground DVD that is circulating in his home town of Baltimore, Md. The DVD is called "Stop Snitching" and shows alleged drug dealers talking about what happens to people who cooperate with the police, and Anthony is standing next to one of them. He is also seen on the DVD talking about his Olympic bronze medal and saying that he threw it in a lake. The man he stands next to later goes on to tell how he would take care of snitches by "putting a hole in their...

A furor over what Concord High School administrators call an "overtly sexual" style of dancing at school dances has split the school community: There are those who defend the students'right to dance however they want and those who believe the moves are just plain inappropriate. Principal Gene Connolly is with the latter group. He said the school will cancel all remaining dances, including the upcoming homecoming dance, unless students step forward to help halt the "grinding." "This style of dancing is wrong," Connolly told parents at a Parent-Teacher-Student Organization meeting Tuesday night. "If you were to see it, you would...

Family photos line the walls of Raynard Brown's tidy Orange home. A good home, his mother calls it, with two working parents who believed in the value of education and the power of after-school activities to keep kids from hunting down trouble. But Cynthia Brown found she couldn't compete with another, more seductive influence in her son's life, not when it grabbed him up so young, molding his behavior since the age of 11. That's when Raynard Brown first came home wearing the signature colors of the Bloods street gang. Over the next eight years, Brown rose to the rank...

Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett tussled with police during a traffic stop early Wednesday before officers discovered four loaded guns in his sport utility vehicle, a police spokesman said. Officers used Mace to subdue Clarett after a stun gun was ineffective because the suspect was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, Sgt. Michael Woods said.

A 16-year-old Frisco teen in custody Tuesday told officers he simply wanted to kill someone, and the 14-year-old boy he shot Saturday night was a random target, police said. The student from Frisco High School, who was not identified because he is a juvenile, not only confessed to shooting the boy as he opened his front door, but also said that on Thursday, he shot at a man as he walked his dog, police said. He is not the same teen who was originally questioned in the shooting Saturday. That boy, 15, has been released and won't be charged, said...

Actress/singer Jada Pinkett Smith is horrified by increasing gun crime in the United States, declaring the country must look to third world countries to rediscover its values. The Wicked Wisdom frontwoman and her actor/rapper husband Will Smith have travelled to Africa on several occasions for charity work and have been humbled by citizens' appreciation of the basic things in life - like education. The Smiths will fund and appear at Charles 'Charlie Mack' Alston's annual Party 4 Peace in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this weekend, which aims to raise awareness of street crime. Pinkett Smith says: "It's pretty bad everywhere. I think...

A rap song sparked a nightclub shooting between rival gangs that had declared a truce to celebrate a birthday, leaving two men dead and four injured, police said. The song — Put Yo Hood Up by Lil' Jon & The East Side Boyz — urges listeners to flash hand signs for their neighborhood and confront rivals. It was played before Sunday's shooting, said Deputy Chief Alfredo Saldaña

    The U.S. Capitol Police asked a federal prosecutor to approve an arrest warrant for Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney yesterday as two House Republicans prepared a resolution to commend the officers involved in last week's scuffle.     Mrs. McKinney, Georgia Democrat, and her office dismissed the prosecution request as politically charged and continued to portray the incident as racially motivated.     McKinney spokesman Coz Carson said any "prosecutor who's not a politician" would decline to prosecute.     "Any prosecutor with any sense can look at this thing and understand that it's not something that should be blown out of proportion any further," Mr. Carson...

FEATURE-Sex tourism thriving in U.S. Bible Belt Tue 4 Apr 2006 8:01 AM ET By Verna Gates and Mickey Goodman ATLANTA, April 4 (Reuters) - In a sleazy hotel room, "Brittany," then aged 16 and drugged into oblivion, waited for the men to arrive. Her pimps sent as many as 17 clients an evening through the door. A "john" could even pre-book the pretty young blonde for $1,000 a night, sometimes flying in and then flying out from a nearby airport. None of this happened in Bangkok or Costa Rica, places that have become synonymous with sex tourism and underage...

The stop-snitching movement has spread across the United States, worrying police and prosecutors who often use informants to win convictions, a report said. The movement got its start two years ago in Baltimore in an underground DVD featuring armed drug dealers. Since then, the movement and T-shirts that say "Stop Snitching" have gone nationwide -- being worn by a diverse group ranging from rap artists to college professors, USA Today reported. The code of silence, David Kennedy of New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice told the newspaper, "is breaking out in a way we've never seen before."

Don't let 7-year-old Nicholas Johnstone's blond hair, green eyes and middle-class upbringing fool you. This Berkeleyite may be from the 'burbs, but shorty can bust a rhyme and knows a hot track when he hears one. Raised near the base of the Berkeley hills, Nicholas' favorite artist is rapper 50 Cent. The first-grader makes up his own lyrics, raps along with hip-hop radio and even mimics the limp walk fashioned by early rappers. His parents introduced him to classical and jazz music as a toddler. But from his first day of kindergarten, Nicholas started using slang that his parents knew...

Second Girl Shot In 9 Days In Englewood (CBS) For the second time in little more than a week, another young girl is shot to death in the same Chicago neighborhood. It's a crime that has people in the Englewood neighborhood outraged. Ten-year-old Siretha White was celebrating at her own surprise birthday party Saturday night when bullets pierced the window of a home in the South Side neighborhood killing her. Just eight days earlier and just blocks away, 14-year old Starkesia Reed was also killed by a stray bullet in her home. As CBS 2's Rafael Romo reports, the...

NEW YORK For nearly three decades, hip-hop relics such as vinyl records, turntables, microphones and boom boxes have collected dust in boxes and attics. On Tuesday, owners of such items _ including pioneering hip-hop artists such as Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Fab 5 Freddy _ will blow that dust off and carry them to a Manhattan hotel to turn them over to National Museum of American History officials. The museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is announcing its plans to embark on a collecting initiative, "Hip-Hop Won't Stop: the Beat, the Rhymes, the...

When scores of shoppers are forced to cower on the ground on Canada's busiest street because more than a dozen gun-toting punks are using it as a shooting range, it is time to stop kidding ourselves. It is time to demand action. Where is the leadership? Where is the law? An innocent 15-year-old girl is dead, gunned down in yet another gang fight. Six other innocents were also shot, all for daring to go Boxing Day shopping in downtown Toronto -- a city once so staid, Boxing Day shopping itself was illegal. Toronto's police chief calls it "infuriating." The city's...

Scandal Erupts at the L.A. Times By Jan Golab FrontPageMagazine.com | December 2, 2005 Times are bad at the L.A. Times. Competition from new media and “a lingering feeling of bias” continue to plague the paper and drive down circulation. Editors John Carroll, Michael Kinsley and leftist icon Robert Scheer have all recently been sent packing. Now, the once venerable paper faces a scandal of Jayson Blair proportions, one that may topple key players—including a Pulitzer Prize winner—and permanently sully its reputation. The Times’ questionable coverage of the Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. (AKA Biggie Smalls) murders has long been...

Alarm in US as 'gangsta bible' goes mainstream By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles (Filed: 31/10/2005) An American magazine about gangster life that was originally aimed at prisoners is selling so well that it is to go on sale in major stores. To the alarm of those working in crime prevention, Don Diva, which calls itself "the original street bible", has become required reading in many inner cities. Don Diva's controversial 'children and firearms' issue It features interviews with convicts, and includes tips on where to hide drugs and buy the best diamond-studded gold teeth and money-counting machines. Critics say...

You can't say that National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern does not enjoy a challenge. Players will have to observe a dress code beginning this season, he has announced. The idea is going over big with the players -- like flood insurance in the Sahara. The code, delivered in a short memo last week, boils down to this: No bling. "Bling," for those of you who are not fortunate enough to have a teenager in your home, is short for "bling bling," a hip-hop term for gaudy jewelry and other forms of showy, ostentatious style. In 2002, "bling bling" joined...

They seem almost as if they were randomly plucked from Madison's streets - the mother of a 9-month-old baby, the National Honor Roll graduate, the 16-year-old son of a University of Wisconsin Medical School professor. Except for their relative youthfulness, the 12 people charged in a gang-style shooting Aug. 9 in the village of Oregon, WI defy easy generalizations. They are rich and poor, high- achievers and juvenile delinquents. They are black and white and Hispanic and Asian. The crime they are charged with - three vehicles full of people opened fire on a home in a middle-class suburb, wounding...

They say that behind every great man is a great woman, mistress, and probably a gang of mobsters too. Remember that America was built on dreams, courage, passion, sweat, tears, blood, and a little bit of illegal activity. And all that also happens to be the necessary ingredients of a good gangster. That's why gangster films top America's favorite all-time movie genres. In a way, they represent the struggle between the authorities and families of organized crime, which helped define what the American Capitalist culture is today. Whether you're rooting for Tony Montana (Al Pacino) in Scarface or Tom Powers...

Rap diva Lil' Kim was convicted Thursday of lying to a federal grand jury to protect friends involved in a shootout outside a radio station. Lil' Kim and her assistant were both convicted of perjury and conspiracy but acquitted of obstruction of justice. They each face up to 20 years in prison; sentencing was set for June 24. The 29-year-old former sidekick and mistress of the late Notorious B.I.G., known for her revealing outfits and raunchy raps, testified that she did not notice two close friends at the scene of the 2001 shootout — her manager, Damion Butler, and Suif...

On December 24, 1971, the New York Times ran one of the first of many articles on a new holiday designed to foster unity among African Americans. The holiday, called Kwanzaa, was applauded by a certain sixteen-year-old minister who explained that the feast would perform the valuable service of "de-whitizing" Christmas. The minister was a nobody at the time but he would later go on to become perhaps the premier race-baiter of the twentieth century. His name was Al Sharpton .... With money also comes forgetfulness. As those warm Kwanzaa feelings are generated in a spirit of holiday cheer, those...

Lil' Kim was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice Wednesday by a grand jury in a New York federal courtroom. The charge stems from the rapper's alleged involvement in a three-year-old shootout that occurred outside the offices of New York radio station Hot 97. The 28-year-old MC, whose real name is Kimberly Jones, is charged with conspiracy to commit perjury, make false statements and obstruct justice; perjury before the grand jury; the making of false statements; and obstruction of justice, according to court documents. Indictments occur when a grand jury decides that there is sufficient evidence for a case...

SYRACUSE, NY--Can Queen Latifah help high school students understand the writings of Karl Marx? Can Sean "P. Diddy" Combs help them appreciate the work of towering historical figures like Galileo, Michelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci? The Syracuse school district thinks they can. The district has sent a 12-page packet to each teacher at its four high schools that suggests ways to incorporate hip-hop performers and their work into their teaching. The packet, put together by two teachers and the district's coordinators of fine arts and social studies, is intended to harness the energy the March 10 Hip-Hop Summit is generating and...

<p>BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson urged the University of Alabama on Monday to consider hiring a black to replace football coach Mike Price, fired over allegations of personal misconduct.</p> <p>Speaking in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Jackson said the hiring process at Tuscaloosa should focus on "the best coaches available in the market."</p>