Trailblazers in Black History: Wyclef Jean

This video was published on YouTube on October 1, 2012. 

Video from a Live Talks Los Angeles event with Wyclef Jean, on September 23, 2012 at The Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, CA. The performance followed a conversation with journalist Geoff Boucher discussing Jean's memoir, Purpose: An Immigrant's Story. To learn more about Live Talks Los Angeles, visit livetalksla.org

The Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum musician, producer and actor talks candidly about his life as an immigrant and the inside story of the Fugees. The son of a pastor and grandson of a priest, Wyclef Jean was born and raised in the slums of Haiti. His family migrated to the US when he was nine, eventually settling in Newark, where his father converted a burnt down funeral parlor into a home and church.

In his memoir, Purpose, Wyclef reveals how music--rap in particular-- helped him to cope and adjust to life in a new country. How his passion became a wedge between him and his father. About his work in his native country after the devastating earthquake there, including his exploratory bid for president.

Geoff Boucher recently joined Entertainment Weekly. He is a veteran journalist with more than 2,800 stories published in the Los Angeles Times, where he most recently covered entertainment. He also created the award-winning website, Hero Complex, and is the author of Two Badges, the biography of a gang member turned cop.

Warning: This video contains strong language. Viewer discretion is advised. 

Source: LiveTalksLA

Wyclef Jean Handcuffed by Los Angeles County Deputies in Search of Armed Robber

 

by Erik Ortiz and Andrew Blankstein

Los Angeles authorities detained Grammy winner Wyclef Jean and placed him in handcuffs during an early Tuesday search for an armed robbery suspect.

The encounter with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department prompted the hip-hop artist to share an 18-second clip of the incident on his Twitter account and complain that "I was treated like a criminal" in a case of mistaken identity. He said he had just come from the recording studio with rapper T-Baby.

"Ya'll see the police have handcuffs on me," the 47-year-old "Gone Till November" rapper says in the video with his arms placed behind his back.

"They just took off my Haitian bandana," he adds. "That's what's going on with Wyclef in L.A. right now." 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: NBC News 

Help NBC News and ProPublica Track Hate Crimes

By NBC News 

NBC News has partnered with ProPublica, the nonprofit organization dedicated to investigative journalism, as well as other news organizations and nonprofit groups for a project called Documenting Hate, in an effort to track reports of hate crimes across the United States.

NBC News has monitored these reports for years, and noted an uptick amid the 2016 presidential campaign, as bias crimes appeared to be on the rise in some cities. We were able to verify many of these claims with local law enforcement, and even debunk a few as hoaxes. The Southern Poverty Law Center said there were almost 900 reports of harassment and intimidation in the 10 days after the election. More recently, a wave of bomb threats and some desecrations at synagogues, Jewish Community Centers, and cemeteries have had communities on edge. 

Click here for the full article.

Trump Heads to Capitol Hill to Pitch Health Care Plan to House Republicans

Watch Live: Confirmation Hearing for SCOTUS Nominee Neil Gorsuch

North Korea Is Not Afraid of U.S. Threat Over Nuclear Build-Up: KCNA

 

by Alastair Jamieson

North Korea is not frightened by U.S. warnings that pre-emptive military action is on the table, its foreign ministry said Tuesday, describing its expanding nuclear program as a "treasured sword of justice."

A spokesman for the rogue regime dismissed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's comment Friday that an elevated weapons threat "would be met with an appropriate response."

Click here for the full article. 

Source: NBC News  

Rex Tillerson to Skip Key NATO Summit, Plans to Travel to Russia

 

by Abigail Williams and Alexander Smith

America's smaller European allies have expressed concern about President Donald Trump's mixed signals on whether he would protect them against Russia.

The uncertainty threatened to deepen late Monday when U.S. officials said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson planned to skip what would have been his first official meeting with NATO in April.

However, Tillerson will travel later in the month to a series of unspecified meetings in Russia, a State Department spokesman confirmed to NBC News. 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: NBC News  

Devices Banned on Some Overseas Flights Due to Threat Warning

NATO Troops Arrive in Estonia to Deter "Russian Aggression"

 

By Catherine Hardy

A plane carrying more than 50 French soldiers has arrived at the Amari Air Base in Estonia.

The arrival marks the beginning of the deployment of nearly 300 French troops to the British-led multinational NATO battalion.

France is contributing tanks, vehicles and artillery.

“First, we are expecting to train our inter-operability with the British Army and the Estonian Army to improve our level,” said Colonel Michel De Mesmay. “It is the reason why we come here with a lot of equipment such as the Maiden battle tank and infantry fighting vehicles in order to carry out a robust training.” 

Click here for summary/video.

Source: euronews.

EU Gets Set for Brexit Talks After UK Announces Trigger Date

Europe has given a collective sigh of relief to news that the UK will finally trigger Article 50 next week, beginning divorce proceedings from the European Union.

It was last June that Britain voted in a referendum to leave the EU, but its taken until now for a March 29 date to be set. Under the Article 50 process, talks on the terms of exit and future relations are not allowed until the UK formally tells the EU it is leaving.

French Finance MInister Michel Sapin said:

“A lot of time has passed. I think the British authorities needed this time to prepare but finally we are going to get into the heart of the issue and I hope we do this constructively on both sides.”

Click here for summary/video.

Source: euronews.

French Presidential TV Debate Does Little to Convince Voters

No winner on the night – that was the verdict by most viewers following a televised debate between France’s five leading presidential candidates.

That is not to say tempers didn’t flare at times – but for the 40 percent of undecided voters, there was little to help them choose.

One of the most heated exchanges involved the two front runners. Far right Marine Le Pen said France should oppose multiculturalism when the issue of the full-body “burkini” swimsuit worn by some Muslim women arose. It’s a issue which created weeks of controversy in France last summer. 

Click here for summary/video.

Source: euronews.

Ex-IRA Leader Turned Peacemaker Martin McGuinness Dies

By Alasdair Sandford

Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein leader and former Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader who turned peacemaker to help end Northern Ireland’s 30-year conflict, has died, his party has confirmed.

The 66-year-old died on Tuesday after a decade as deputy first minister of the British province.

It is understood that he had been ill with a heart condition. The politician stood down in January in protest over a domestic political row in Northern Ireland, and shortly afterwards quit politics because of his illness. 

Click here for summary/video.

Source: euronews.

Families of 9/11 Victims Sue Saudi Arabia for Complicity in Terror Attacks

 

By Victoria Bekiempis and Leonard Greene

Saudi Arabia knowingly provided material support to Al Qaeda — including funding, training and passports — in order to facilitate the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on 9/11, according to a new federal lawsuit filed Monday. 

Outraged families of Sept. 11 victims did what two presidential administrations would not — compile what they deem to be extensive evidence holding the Saudi’s responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Pennsylvania.

In the lawsuit, the families of 800 victims say the Middle Eastern kingdom was complicit in providing funding for the worst terrorist strike on American soil, saying it “actively supported al Qaeda in its final preparations for the September 11th attacks.” 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The New York Daily News (via The Empire Report)

A Breakdown of Teacher Pay Levels All Across Upstate New York

 

By G. Scott Thomas

Updated statistics on teacher pay are now available from the New York State Education Department, and Business First has collected the latest figures for 451 school districts across the 48 counties of Upstate New York.

Rundowns of median teacher pay are available for all eight Upstate sections at these links:

• Albany Area

• Binghamton-Elmira Area

• Plattsburgh Area

• Rochester Area

• Syracuse Area

• Utica-Rome Area

• Watertown Area

• Western New York (Buffalo-Niagara Falls Area)

A median is a midpoint, with half of all teachers’ salaries being higher than the median for a given district and the other half being lower.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: BizJournals.com/Buffalo News (via The Empire Report) 

Trump Drops 208 Spots on Forbes List of Billionaires

By Jonathan O'Connell

This story has been updated.

Donald Trump is $1 billion poorer since becoming president, according to Forbes’s latest list of the world’s billionaires.

The magazine’s newest ranking, released Monday, estimated that Trump’s net worth has fallen from $4.5 billion last year to $3.5 billion today, dropping him 208 spots on the magazine’s list of billionaires, from No. 336 last year to No. 544.

Although Trump resigned from his businesses when he entered office, his slide isn’t due to the sale of any of those businesses, because he still owns them.

Rather, Trump’s net worth is down because about 40 percent of his wealth comes from real estate he owns in Midtown Manhattan, including Trump Tower and eight other buildings within about a mile.

“Midtown Manhattan real estate is down; therefore, so is Donald Trump’s fortune,” the magazine said in a statement. 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The Washington Post (via The Empire Report)

NY Counties with the Highest Abortion Rates

 

By The Associated Press

The number of abortions in New York state declined from 97,502 in 2012 to 93,299 in 2014, a decrease of 4.2 percent, according to the state Health Department.
The Health Department reports abortion ratios for every county in state. The ratio shows the number of induced abortions per 1,000 live births.
This slideshow shows counties with the 25 highest abortion ratios, the five counties with the lowest abortion ratios and a breakdown of abortion ratios in Central New York.

Click here for the full article.

Source: Syracuse.com (via The Empire Report) 

Democratic Candidate Benjamin Says He’ll Join Mainline Conference

By Nick Reisman

Brian Benjamin, the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat vacated last month by Bill Perkins, pledged in a statement released Monday to join the mainline Democratic conference.

Not lost on Senate Democrats: Benjamin’s likely election would give the chamber 32 enrolled Democrats when taking into account the eight-member Independent Democratic Conference and Brooklyn Sen. Simcha Felder, a Democrat who is a member of the Republican conference in the Senate.

“I look forward to joining the Senate Democratic Conference and fighting for the working men and women of New York,” Benjamin said in the statement. 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: Time Warner Cable News/The State of Politics (via The Empire Report) 

Some of New York's Wealthiest Tell State Government to Raise Their Taxes

 

By The Associated Press

Some of the wealthiest New Yorkers are asking the state to raise their taxes.

Eighty people including George Soros, Steven Rockefeller and Abigail Disney wrote to lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying they and other top earners should pay more to support schools, roads, bridges and programs to help poor and homeless residents of the state.

"Now is the time to invest in the long-term economic viability of New York," the letter reads. "We need to invest in pathways out of poverty and up the economic ladder for all of our fellow citizens, including strong public education from pre-K to college. And, we need to invest in the fragile bridges, tunnels, waterlines, public buildings, and roads that we all depend on." 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The New York Daily News (via The Empire Report)

President Trump Leads a Bilateral Meeting with Prime Minister al-Abadi

Date of event: March 20, 2017

White House Press Briefing

Veep Meet & Greet: The House Pro-Life Caucus

Click on the photo to increase its size.

The Vice President today met with Chairman Chris Smith and members of the House Pro-Life Caucus to discuss the American Health Care Act and President Trump's commitment to repealing and replacing Obamacare with a health care system that actually works. The House legislation, which could be considered by the House of Representatives this week, includes protections against taxpayer funding being used for abortions. The National Right to Life Committee last week endorsed the American Health Care Act for 'restoring the longstanding principles of the Hyde Amendment with respect to federally funded health coverage.' At the conclusion of the meeting, Vice President Pence reaffirmed his and President Trump's ongoing commitment to protecting the lives of the unborn.

The list of participants was as follows:

Congressman Robert Aderholt  

Congressman Brian Babin

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler

Congressman Trent Franks

Congressman Pete Olson

Congressman Robert Pittenger

Congressman Keith Rothfus

Congressman Chris Smith

Congressman Randy Weber 

Source: The White House, Office of the Vice President 

Cuomo on Repeal and Replacement of the Affordable Care Act and the Collins Amendment

"The more we learn about the repeal and replacement for the Affordable Care Act, the sicker New York gets. The repeal and replacement is exactly what the Trump Administration promised that they would not do. It is the classic Republican program referred to during Reagan’s time as "passing the buck without passing the bucks." Congressman Paul Ryan and the radical conservatives are having their way. Congressman Ryan brags about “cutting entitlements by billions of dollars.” That is precisely what he is trying to do to New York’s Medicaid program. The conservatives have long lamented that New York’s Medicaid program was “too generous.” They scoffed at our health care proposal that provided dental care and one conservative even said when questioned about the denial of dental benefits, “soup is good."

 "The Repeal and Replace Act would block grant money to the state in the name of local flexibility but at the same time it would dramatically cut that funding. Over four years New York State would lose $4.6 billion and lose at least $2.4 billion a year by fiscal year 2020. If this were not bad enough Congressman Chris Collins and Congressman John Faso have offered an amendment that would stop the counties from paying a share of Medicaid. Historically, the federal government paid 50 percent, the state paid 25 percent, and local governments – counties – paid 25 percent. The state has already absorbed much of that burden, but even so the reduction to the program from the loss of the counties’ share outside of New York City is $2.3 billion. The cut is so severe that the majority of hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities located in Upstate New York and on Long Island would be devastated. How a county executive could believe their county could prosper while losing hundreds if not thousands of jobs and seeing the decimation of their health care system is beyond me.

"Congressmen Collins and Faso are calling their amendment a “tax savings plan for the county.” Really it’s a deathtrap as there is no way to make up the shortfall. The Upstate New York and Long Island economy will falter or collapse if the health sector is damaged. 

"It would be nice if Congressmen Collins and Faso actually tried to help their districts rather than hurt them. These health care cuts are on top of a dizzying array of cuts to real New Yorkers. The Republican budget cuts housing assistance, food stamps, heating projects, community development funds – all at the expense of the middle class and working families – while they cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans. They won’t get away with it. They can’t play New Yorkers as fools and New Yorkers will remember. The bill for Congressmen Collins and Faso’s rabid conservative zealotry will be paid by Upstate New York’s hard working families, and those families will know exactly who to thank. 

Source: Press Office, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

The Trump-Russia Story Has Only Just Begun (To Explode)

  

By Howard Fineman

WASHINGTON ― Let’s step back for a minute and consider again what we saw Monday in a hearing room of the U.S. House.

The director of the FBI, with the director of the National Security Agency agreeing at his side, in effect called the president of the United States a liar ― and, oh, by the way, the president’s 2016 campaign indeed is under investigation for allegedly having secretly teamed up with Russia to win the election.

After two months of Donald J. Trump’s presidency and more than a year of his campaign, our political senses are so dulled by tumult that we can barely recognize history when we see it. Make no mistake. Monday’s hearing was all but unprecedented.

Not since a White House aide named Alexander Butterfield told the Watergate committee in 1973 that President Richard Nixon had bugged his own Oval Office has an investigative hearing made it so clear that a presidency was in serious legal jeopardy.

Now we know for sure that, while no one “tapped” Trump’s phones, his campaign circle is in the gunsights of the FBI. The issue is whether Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose interference in the 2016 election is now an accepted fact, tried to rig the outcome with the knowledge or collusion of Team Trump.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The Huffington Post 

Melissa George Breaks Silence On Alleged Domestic Abuse In Harrowing Interview

By Cole Delbyck

Six months ago, Australian-American actress Melissa George was hospitalized after an alleged violent assault by her partner, Jean-David Blanc. According to George, she was the victim of emotional and physical abuse throughout their five-year relationship, and now she’s speaking out for the sake of her children. 

During an emotional interview with the Australian TV program “Sunday Night,” the “Alias” actress opened up about the incident that she said left her bleeding and vomiting with a swollen face.

George and Blanc are currently in the midst of a custody battle over their two sons, Raphaël, 3, and Solal, 16 months. The actress is publicly addressing the incident in hopes of convincing authorities to allow her to return home to Australia with her children.

“It started with him on top of me, with my arms locked above my head,” she said. “I just tried to fight for myself, which made him more angry, which made me more angry and he pushed me into the door and then struck my face and I hit the wall and fell on the floor and I was out. Just out. He stood over me and said, ‘Now you’re a real actress.’”

George says she tried to call the police, but claims Blanc continued to attack her.

Click here for the full article.

Source: The Huffington Post

'All My Children' Star Showcases Women Directors in New Project

This video was published on YouTube on March 20, 2017.

The following statement was submitted by renowned actress and Emmy award-winner Cady McClain. The video is in conjunction with her critically acclaimed project "Seeing Is Believing: Women Direct".  

"During this series, audiences will hear from women who are on the front lines of the field: from major award winners and those in the vanguard of television and feature films, to graduated students and frustrated auteurs. Considering all aspects of the directing experience for women, we will learn how they drive through obstacles creative, cultural, and professional.

"The film is also intended to serve as “peer to peer mentorship” for anyone (of any gender) looking for guidance and real world experience as they pursue their dreams of becoming a visual storyteller.

"We are a thrilled recipient of an Awesome Without Borders Grant!

"Episode One: The Vanguard of Change will be premiering at the 2017 Newport Beach International Film Festival on April 25th at 1:30PM at Island Cinema 6."

Website: http://seeingisbelievingwomendirect.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/WomenDirectors/

Twitter: @CadyMcClain

Insta: www.instagram.com/cadymcclain

Source: Cady McClain

Billionaire David Rockefeller Dies at 101

 

by Associated Press

David Rockefeller, the billionaire businessman and philanthropist who was the last in his generation of one of the country's most famously philanthropic families, died Monday. He was 101.

Rockefeller died in his sleep at his home in suburban Pocantico Hills, New York, according to his spokesman, Fraser P. Seitel.

He was the youngest of six children born to John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the grandson of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. With the passing of his siblings, he became the guardian of his family's fortune and head of a sprawling network of family interests, both business and philanthropic, that ranged from environmental conservation to the arts.

To mark his 100th birthday in 2015, Rockefeller gave 1,000 acres of land next to a national park to the state of Maine. 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: NBC News 

New York State 'Pollies' to Host Bronx Job Fair