Damon Dash "Shake The (Fee) Males Off" (Create A Legacy)

By Hip Hop Motivation
Barber Walters

Isis Publishes A Video Titled “A second message to America,” showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff.

         

The video also threatens the life of British captive, David Haines.
Sotloff speaks to the camera before he is killed, saying he is “paying the price” for U.S. intervention.
The masked ISIS figure in the video speaks to U.S. President Barack Obama, telling him, “Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.”

Last week, Sotloff’s mother Shirley Sotloff released a video pleading with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi not to kill her son.
“Steven is a journalist who traveled to the Middle East to cover the suffering of Muslims at the hands of tyrants. Steven is a loyal and generous son, brother and grandson,” she said. “He is an honorable man and has always tried to help the weak.”

Sotloff appeared last month in an ISIS video showing the decapitation of another American journalist, James Foley. The militant in the video warned that Sotloff’s fate depended on what President Barack Obama did next in Iraq.
Steven Sotloff disappeared while reporting from Syria in August 2013, but his family kept the news secret, fearing harm to him if they went public.
Out of public view, the family and a number of government agencies have been trying to gain Sotloff’s release for the past year.

Sotloff, 31, grew up in South Florida with his mother, father and younger sister. He majored in journalism at the University of Central Florida. His personal Facebook page lists musicians like the Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Miles Davis and movies like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “The Big Lebowski” as favorites. On his Twitter page, he playfully identifies himself as a “stand-up philosopher from Miami.”

In 2004, Sotloff left UCF and moved back to the Miami area.
He graduated from another college, began taking Arabic classes and subsequently picked up freelance writing work for a number of publications, including Time, Foreign Policy, World Affairs and the Christian Science Monitor. His travels took him to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey  among other countries — and eventually Syria. (CNN)
 

        Comedian Joan Rivers is "resting comfortably" in a New York hospital after apparently suffering cardiac and respiratory arrest during a procedure at a medical clinic Thursday.
Her daughter, Melissa Rivers, issued a statement on Friday.
"My mother would be so touched by the tributes and prayers that we have received from around the world," she said. "Her condition remains serious but she is receiving the best treatment and care possible. We ask that you continue to keep her in your thoughts as we pray for her recovery."
A law enforcement official told CNN that Rivers stopped breathing during throat surgery. Rivers, 81, was taken by ambulance in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

The clinic address given by a New York Fire Department spokesman is a building that houses an endoscopy clinic where doctors perform minor procedures on patients. The clinic is a mile away from the hospital.
Rivers had been scheduled to perform her comedy act at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, Friday night.
Michael Lucas, who was in the audience for Rivers' show at New York's Beechman Theater Wednesday night, told CNN that she joked about death.
"She said, 'You know I'm 81 years old, and I could drop dead at any moment and you would be so lucky because you will have a story to tell your friends for the rest of your life,'" Lucas said. "Then she mimicked people talking about what it was like to see her drop dead on stage."
Rivers was in fine form, he said. "There was no sign (Wednesday) night that she was declining. Her show was over an hour long and she never stumbled or even paused to catch her breath."
In 2013, Rivers allowed cameras to record a health scare for her and her daughter's reality show, "Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?"
Rivers said on the show that doctors found a spot on an X-ray after she had a persistent cough.
"We're just not going to be sad about this," Rivers said during the episode. "We're gonna do jokes and be up until we know. That's how I deal with things. I'm not just gonna sit around the next couple of days and go crazy."
Rivers has been open about her health issues. She was diagnosed with osteoporosis in 2002 after a fall down some stairs left her with broken bones, and she became an advocate for screenings for women.

Northern California's Biggest Earthquake In 25 Years

         Northern California's biggest earthquake in 25 years has people asking: Is the world seeing more tremors than usual? And is the long-dreaded "Big One" that could devastate California coming soon?
Actually, experts say the world might not be seeing more than usual. And as for the Big One, there's no sign that it's imminent.
The infamous San Andreas Fault is due for its epic every-150-years rumble. But the quake that struck Sunday, centered about 6 miles southwest of Napa, wasn't on that line.
"I don't think we can make any connection on that," CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said. "This is on a different fault -- still part of the same system, still the plates are still shifting from California, the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate."
The Geological Survey notes that many earthquakes go undetected "because they hit remote areas or have very small magnitudes."
There has been a greater amount of smaller temblors in the central United States, especially in Oklahoma, which experts say could be a result of fracking in the area.
In June, Oklahoma surpassed California in the number of earthquakes this year.
"When they first started happening, they were a big deal," said Althea Peterson, a reporter with the Tulsa World. "It's nothing I ever expected in Oklahoma."
When will the 'Big One' strike?
Catastrophic earthquakes seem to strike along the southern San Andreas Fault about once every 150 years, the U.S. Geological Survey said, citing studies examining the past 1,400 years. The last time an enormous temblor on the fault struck Southern California was in 1857.
"There's a real likelihood of a major, major earthquake in the next 10, 15, 20 years," California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
Newsom is former mayor of San Francisco, a city that sits near the Hayward Fault and the San Andreas Fault, "the one that fear is most instilled in us."
But the San Francisco Bay Area is less likely to see a massive earthquake soon, as only about a century has passed since the great 1906 earthquake.
Yet "moderate-sized, potentially damaging earthquakes could occur in this area at any time," the Geological Survey warmed.
In 1989, a 6.9-magnitude quake struck the Bay Area during baseball's World Series. The Loma Prieta earthquake caused 63 deaths, 3,757 injuries and an estimated $6 billion in property damage, according to the Geological Survey.
What about the 1994 Northridge quake?
That mammoth tremor wasn't on the San Andreas Fault; it actually occurred on a fault that no one knew about.
That 6.7-magnitude Southern California quake killed 57 people and caused $42 billion in total damage.
But even the Northridge quake could pale in comparison to the devastation that the "Big One" on the San Andreas could bring.
"It would be like having a Northridge here and Northridge here and Northridge here," Caltech seismologist Kate Hutton said this year, indicating swaths of a California map. "It covers such a wide area that it would be ... a major disaster for the nation."
Why is the San Andreas Fault so notorious?
The San Andreas is considered "the 'master' fault of an intricate fault network," the Geological Survey said. It's the fault responsible for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which killed about 700 people.
The 800-mile-long fault is the boundary between the Pacific Plate and North American Plate. And because the Pacific Plate shifts about 2 inches a year, the Geological Survey said, Los Angeles and San Francisco will become next-door neighbors (though not for about 15 million years).
So while it's impossible for the San Andreas to sweep California out into the ocean, the Geological Survey said, southwestern California is slowly -- very slowly -- sliding past the rest of the state toward Alaska.

Suge Knight Injured In Shooting At Pre-VMA Party

LOS ANGELES –  Death Row Records founder and rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was injured in an early morning shooting Sunday in a packed nightclub but was expected to survive, a Los Angeles County sheriff's sergeant said.
Knight was one of three club patrons struck by gunfire around 1:30 a.m. at 1OAK on West Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard, said Sgt. C. Tatar, watch commander at the Los Angeles County sheriff's West Hollywood station.

Two other victims, a man and a woman, were also being treated at local hospitals and were expected to survive.

Authorities are still seeking a suspect and declined to release additional information, citing the ongoing investigation.
The shooting came just hours before MTV's Video Music Awards, which are slated for Sunday evening in Inglewood. R&B singer Chris Brown, who was co-hosting a party at the nightclub with Pia Mia, was also inside the club but not hit by the gunfire, Tatar said.
MTV said it had no affiliation or connection to the event.
Representatives for Brown and the party did not return a call for comment. Calls to the club rang unanswered.
Laura Coverson, a spokeswoman for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said she could not confirm reports that Knight was being treated there due to strict medical privacy laws.
Knight has been shot before. In 2005, he was struck in the leg during an MTV awards pre-party in Miami Beach.
Knight's genius for poaching up-and-coming talent helped him land and make megastars out of Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre and shifted the center of the rap universe to the West Coast the 1990s.
Knight formed a separate artist management company before co-founding Death Row Records in 1991 with Dr. Dre, who had broken with popular Compton rap group N.W.A.
Dr. Dre's solo debut album, "The Chronic," became one of the most profitable and influential rap albums of the 1990s. It also made a star of Dr. Dre's underling, Snoop Dogg, whose debut album "Doggystyle" was also widely popular.
Knight, however, has been in and out of jail over the past two decades due to parole violations and physical attacks relating to a "rap war" he fueled with East Coast artists.
Financial troubles also eventually lead to Death Row Records filing for bankruptcy.


                                                                        

 

 

 

 

Illinois Team Reaches Little League World Series Final

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- Joshua Houston survived a rocky start to pitch five innings and also brought in the tying run with a line single in the fifth to lead Chicago past Las Vegas 7-5 on Saturday in the U.S. final at the Little League World Series.
The Great Lakes Region champions from Jackie Robinson West advance to meet South Korea in Sunday's championship game.
Trailing 3-0 after the first and 5-4 heading into the home half of the fifth, Chicago scored three times to win it. Houston's single tied it after two walks, with runs also scoring on a fielder's choice and an error.
Ed Howard then came on to close it out for Jackie Robinson West, a member of the Urban Initiative which supports Little League programs in needy urban areas.

 Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Mariah Carey And Nick Cannon, Is There Trouble In Paradise?

Just a day after his surprisingly candid admission that he and Mariah Carey's marriage is indeed strained comes news that he's largely been silenced by his wife.
Following reports that the couple's six-year marriage had hit a rocky patch, Nick Cannon, 33, confirmed in an interview that there was trouble in paradise.

But according to TMZ, the pair's lawyers struck up a confidentiality agreement, which bars him from sharing details of their divorce - or face 'severe financial penalties'.
Sources tell the website that while America's Got Talent host Nick has been muzzled, his estranged wife has retained rights to announce the split on their own terms.
And, as was seen in his recent interview with US TV show The Insider, Nick towed the line, only confirming that they were living separately, as he refused to discuss other details.
He told The Insider: 'There is trouble in paradise… we have been living in separate houses for a few months.'
After shooting down rumours that cheating caused the break, the star said his three-year-old twins - son Moroccan and daughter Monroe - are his 'main focus'.
On the same day his interview was released, Nick posted a video to his Twitter account, where he accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in nothing but a towel.
He had promised to enact the charitable dare naked, but compromised with the wrap around his waist.

Meanwhile, TMZ.com reported his wife was furious when Nick revealed a list of five celebrities he had slept with during a very candid interview with Power 106 radio.
Mariah was left feeling 'humiliated' following the interview, which also featured him revealing when he first had sex with his wife.

The couple are reported to have separated back in May and have been secretly working out a property settlement and custody agreement over their twins with their lawyers, according to the gossip website.

Sources close to the couple say their marriage started to unravel in March following Nick's interview, when he reflected on his short romance with Kim back in 2006.
He claimed he had too many ex-lovers to list them all, saying: 'Are you kidding me this is L.A.? That's the whole purpose of it, you have sex with actresses, singers, models.'

Kajieme Powell Shooting Video Emerges in St. Louis.. ((("Warning Graphic Video)))

                                                                            
On Tuesday, two officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police shot and killed 25-year-old Kajieme Powell, less than four miles from where police shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown not quite two weeks ago. Powell was suspected of shoplifting. On Wednesday, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department released video—cell phone footage recorded by an eyewitness—of the fatal encounter.

Powell approached them, shouting, "Shoot me! Shoot me, already!" As Powell continued to approach them, the officers shot and killed him.
Fewer than 20 seconds elapsed from the time police arrived on the scene to the time they shot Powell. The two officers fired 12 shots at Powell, according to police chief Sam Dotson.
Powell allegedly took two energy drinks and donuts from a convenience store, the owner of the store told a 911 dispatcher.

Powell's death marks the second time in less than two weeks that police in the St. Louis metropolitan area have shot and killed a young black man suspected of a minor crime.
Protestors marched for the tenth night in a row Tuesday evening in response to the shooting of Michael Brown, who was gunned down by police officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson police department. Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man, was killed following an altercation after Wilson approached him for jaywalking, police said.
Some eyewitnesses described Tuesday night as the calmest yet in Ferguson since Brown was shot on August 9.

ISIS Demanded Ransom From U.S.

Kneeling in the dirt in a desert somewhere in the Middle East, James Foley lost his life this week at the hands of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Before pulling out the knife used to decapitate him, his masked executioner explained that he was killing the 40-year-old American journalist in retaliation for the recent United States’ airstrikes against the terrorist group in Iraq.
In fact, until recently, ISIS had a very different list of demands for Mr. Foley: The group pressed the United States to provide a multimillion-dollar ransom for his release, according to a representative of his family and a former hostage held alongside him. The United States — unlike several European countries that have funneled millions to the terror group to spare the lives of their citizens — refused to pay.

The issue of how to deal with ISIS, which like many terror groups now routinely trades captives for large cash payments, is acute for the Obama administration because Mr. Foley was not the lone American in its custody. ISIS is threatening to kill at least three others it holds if its demands remain unmet, The New York Times has confirmed through interviews with recently released prisoners, family members of the victims and mediators attempting to win their freedom.
Continue reading the main story

Sensitive to growing criticism that it had not done enough, the White House on Wednesday revealed that a United States Special Operations team tried and failed to rescue Mr. Foley — a New Hampshire native who disappeared in Syria on Nov. 22, 2012 — as well as the other American hostages during a secret mission this summer. Mr. Obama said the United States would not retreat until it had eliminated the “cancer” of ISIS from the Middle East.

ISIS also appears determined to increase the pressure on Washington. It has now threatened to kill a second hostage, Steven J. Sotloff, a freelance journalist for Time magazine who is being held alongside Mr. Foley.

In a video of the execution of Mr. Foley that was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, the screen goes dark after he is decapitated. Then the ISIS fighter who killed him is seen holding Mr. Sotloff, wearing an orange jumpsuit and his with his hands cuffed behind his back, in the same landscape of barren dunes. “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.”
Along with the three Americans, ISIS is holding citizens of Britain, which like the United States has declined to pay ransoms, former hostages confirmed.

The terror group has sent a laundry list of demands for the release of the foreigners, starting with money but also prisoner swaps, including the liberation of Aafia Siddiqui, an M.I.T.-trained Pakistani neuroscientist with ties to Al Qaeda currently incarcerated in Texas. The policy of not making concessions to terrorists and not paying ransoms has put the United States and Britain at odds with other European allies, which have routinely paid significant sums to win the release of their citizens — including four French and three Spanish hostages who were released this year after money was delivered through an intermediary, according to two of the victims and their colleagues.

Kidnapping Europeans has become the main source of revenue for Al Qaeda and its affiliates, which have earned at least $125 million in ransom payments in the past five years alone, according to an investigation by The Times. Although ISIS was recently expelled from Al Qaeda and abides by different rules, recently freed prisoners said that their captors were well aware of what ransoms had been paid on behalf of European citizens held by Qaeda affiliates as far afield as Africa, indicating that they were hoping to abide by the same business plan.

While government and counterterrorism officials insist that paying ransoms only perpetuates the problem, the policy has meant that captured Americans have little chance of being released. A handful succeeded in running away, and even fewer were rescued in special operations. The rest are either held indefinitely — or else killed.
In an opinion article for Reuters, David Rohde, a columnist for the news service and a former foreign correspondent for The Times who was kidnapped by the Taliban, said that the uneven approach to ransoms may have cost Mr. Foley his life.

“The payment of ransoms and abduction of foreigners must emerge from the shadows. It must be publicly debated,” wrote Mr. Rohde, who escaped his seven-month detention by the Taliban only when he climbed out a window and freed himself. “American and European policy makers should be forced to answer for their actions.”  

 

Mr. Foley, a freelance videographer and reporter for GlobalPost and Agence France-Presse, went missing 21 months ago in a town 25 miles south of the Turkish border. According to Nicole Tung, a close friend and fellow photojournalist, who gave an account of Mr. Foley’s activities before his capture, he had spent weeks in Syria documenting the country’s spiral into civil war, narrowly avoiding a falling tank shell. The normally calm reporter — who had come under fire in Afghanistan and had been kidnapped a year earlier in Libya — was rattled.

 

As the Thanksgiving holiday approached in 2012, he contacted Ms. Tung, and they made plans to meet for a few days across the border in Turkey. When Mr. Foley did not show up at the hotel at 5 p.m. as planned, Ms. Tung began calling his cellphone, finally reaching his translator.

 

The man explained that Mr. Foley had stopped at an Internet cafe to file his last images in Binesh, Syria. Soon after, armed men sped up behind his car and forced Mr. Foley out at gunpoint.

“I was sitting on the bed, in this depressing, dark hotel; the fact that the fixer answered the phone — when Jim was not answering his — was the cue that something had gone terribly wrong,” said Ms. Tung, who immediately contacted Mr. Foley’s family and editors.

 

Across the ocean at his home in Cambridge, Mass., the chief executive of GlobalPost Mr. Balboni, reached for his Blackberry and had a terrible sense of foreboding: The email informing him of Mr. Foley’s abduction was almost an exact replay of the horror his staff had endured a year earlier, when Mr. Foley was kidnapped with three others by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces in Libya.

 

 

Allen Iverson Seen Begging for Change

By The News Nerd Staff

 

Troubled former NBA basketball player Allen Iverson was seen begging for change outside of Lenox Mall in Atlanta. Several mall patrons reported a man with a disheveled appearance harassing them for change.

When security arrived, they were shocked to see it was none other than basketball legend Allen Iverson. Iverson was asked to leave the premises by mall security.

Jason Seaworth, who works security at the mall, says it was very difficult for him to ask Iverson to leave as he was one of his childhood heroes. “One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was asking my hero to leave the mall. It was very sad to see him in such a bad place. I really hope he gets his life together and somehow returns to prominence,” Seaworth stated.

Allen Iverson fell on hard times when his basketball career abruptly ended. Though the 76ers legend is currently bankrupt, he does have a $30 million trust with Reebok, which he cannot access until he is 55-years-old.

 

 

Over his NBA career, Iverson made over $154.5 million in salary. The 39-year-old also racked up quite a bit of income in endorsements, bringing his income to over $200 million.

Iverson blew through his money at an alarming rate on gaudy jewelry, expensive cars, and other frivolous purchases. In 2012, a Georgia judge garnished his wages to satisfy a $859,896.46 debt to a jeweler.

 

During his divorce proceedings in 2012, Iverson told an Atlanta judge, “I don’t even have money for a cheeseburger,” while turning his pockets inside out.

While in the middle of a financial bind, Iverson purchased an elaborate mansion, but lost the property to foreclosure less than a year later. It is believed that he is now homeless and bounces around from home to home.

Iverson has been working hard to get his life back on track. He hopes to one day re-join the 76ers with an office position.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Belisle's Little League World Series Ending Motivational Speech

Dave Belisle’s Rhode Island Little League team had just lost in heartbreaking fashion to a team from Illinois.  The team huddled around Belisle, eyes getting red, bottom lips faltering as the coach began to talk. At 12-years-old, this was without question the biggest moment of these kids’ lives. The pinnacle achievement, on national TV, and they just lost.
So Belisle decided to give them a speech they will likely never forget, and neither will we.

Johnny Manziel Flips The Middle Finger During “Monday Night Football”

LANDOVER, Md. — After the Cleveland Browns' quarterback duel fell as flat as the numerous incompletions from Brian Hoyer and Johnny Manziel in their Monday night meltdown, coach Mike Pettine's postgame frustration was only compounded when he learned that Manziel flashed a middle finger at the Washington Redskins sideline in the third quarter.
"It does not sit well," Pettine said of the rookie's loss of composure after the Browns' 24-23 loss at FedEx Field. "I was informed right after the game. And it's disappointing to me because we talk about being poised, being focused. You have to be able to maintain your poise. ... That's a big part of all football players, especially your quarterback.
When sked if Manziel's behavior factors into his decision to tab the starter, Pettine said: "It's whoever gives us the best shot to win the opener will be the starter."
Still, the Browns' offense may have proven more obscene than Manziel's gesture. And yet Pettine can't wait much longer to choose his quarterback with opening day less than three weeks away.
He had hoped to reveal the winner of the summer-long battle Tuesday but conceded he might have to delay even if he ideally needs to have a starter working with the first-string offense by the start of Wednesday's practice. The Browns host the St. Louis Rams on Saturday night in their third preseason game.
"Someone has to be ready for the opener," Pettine said while admitting he may need to see how Manziel and Hoyer play this weekend before rendering a verdict.
"It's possible. ... All the options are on the table. We will see. We need to score touchdowns. We need to move the ball."
But that didn't happen Monday.
Both passers struggled painfully while failing to grasp an opportunity. Hoyer and Manziel combined to complete nine of 22 passes for 81 yards with Manziel's 8-yard touchdown pass to running back Dion Lewis the lone time the Browns' first- or second-team offense has reached the end zone in 16 preseason possessions.
"It probably couldn't have been any worse," said Hoyer, who threw for 16 yards and missed on seven of nine throws. "It was disappointing. It's embarrassing. We started off poorly and really never changed after that."
Hoyer said the competition has not been a distraction hanging over the team and denied he has been pressing in his bid to secure the top spot on the depth chart. But he chastised himself for missing slot receiver Andrew Hawkins, who was wide open in the end zone for what would have been an easy first-half touchdown.
"There's no excuse for it," Hoyer said.
Here's how bad things were at one point late in the first half: Browns defensive backs caught as many passes (two) as Manziel completed to receivers. Hoyer was 0-for-4 to that point.
But because Manziel couldn't keep his cool, Hoyer may win the job by default.
Manziel, who was sacked three times, conceded he is struggling to adjust to the speed of the NFL and that he hesitated throwing the ball while playing with the starters for the first time in a game situation.
"I forced some things and didn't let it fly, and I have to get better at that," Manziel said. "Things are definitely faster, quicker and things close up a lot faster if you hesitate."
Unfortunately, Pettine and the Browns can't hesitate much longer.
By Jim Corbett

“Saturday Night Live” Announcer Don Pardo Dies.

 

Don Pardo, who literally introduced television viewers to some of America’s biggest stars and soon-to-be-stars as the longtime announcer for “Saturday Night Live,” died Monday in Tucson. He was 96.

Mr. Pardo’s death was confirmed by his daughter, Dona Pardo.

Mr. Pardo, whose career began in the radio age, continued through the end of last season’s “S.N.L.” in May, when he performed the introductions on the finale, hosted by Andy Samberg.

Mr. Pardo was with “S.N.L.” from the show’s first episode in October 1975, and performed the introductions for 38 seasons, missing only Season 7. For many viewers, the names of scores of stars — from Chevy Chase to Eddie Murphy to Tina Fey — were first heard in his sonorous baritone, which announced the cast each week at the end of the opening skit.

“Every year the new cast couldn’t wait to hear their name said by him,” said Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator, who hired Mr. Pardo in 1975.  

But for an older generation, Mr. Pardo was familiar long before Mr. Michaels started “Saturday Night Live.” He was the announcer for an assortment of widely watched game shows, including two of the most popular television has ever seen, “The Price Is Right” and “Jeopardy!”

Photo

Mr. Pardo in 1945. He began his career at NBC a year earlier, first as a radio announcer. Credit NBCUNIVERSAL

While not many people knew his face, practically every American for a span of more than half a century knew his voice. And for the long line of budding stars who came out of “S.N.L.,” that voice was validation. As Maya Rudolph told Mr. Pardo in a video tribute when he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2010, “The moment you said my name was the height of my career.”

Dominick George Pardo was born on Feb. 22, 1918, in Westfield, Mass. (It was George Washington’s birthday, the source of his middle name.) His father, also named Dominick, a bakery owner, and his mother, Viola, were immigrants from Poland. Mr. Pardo’s eventual first name was the result of a several-step process to distinguish himself from his father.

 

“They used to call me Nicky, and I didn’t like that,” he said in an oral history he recorded in 2006 for the Archive of American Television. “So when I got into radio, I took up Dom.” That, though, didn’t stick. “People would always say ‘Don,’ ” Mr. Pardo continued. “I said, the heck with it; I’ll be Don.”

Mr. Pardo had become interested in oratory and theater while a student at Norwich Free Academy in Connecticut, and in 1938, while living in Providence, R.I., he began working with local theater troupes, among them the 20th Century Players, which sometimes performed on WJAR, the NBC affiliate in Providence. After about a year, the station manager there, impressed with Mr. Pardo’s voice, offered him a job as an announcer for $30 a week — a pay cut from his job at Brown & Sharpe, a machine tool manufacturer, but his new bride, Catherine Lyons, told him to take it anyway.

In 1944, he and a friend, Hal Simms, who would also become a top radio and TV announcer, made a fateful weekend trip to New York, visiting the NBC studios to watch some of their smooth-voiced heroes at work. When Mr. Pardo stopped by to thank Patrick J. Kelly, the supervisor of announcers, for arranging the tour, he ended up with a job offer. He started at NBC in New York on June 15, 1944.

 

“I was put on the night staff, naturally, 6 to signoff,” Mr. Pardo recalled. “Signoff was 2 a.m.”

As a staff announcer, he did more than introduce shows and read commercials. The announcer also played the role of engineer, getting the radio programs going and cuing up the right bits at the right time. If you could not do those chores, he said, you would not last as a radio announcer.

But Mr. Pardo had joined the network just as NBC was experimenting with programming in a new medium, television, so he quickly found himself out of his radio comfort zone. One day in 1946, the boss came in and asked if he knew anything about baseball. He and another announcer wound up calling three televised baseball games.

Mr. Pardo called the games as a radio announcer would, following the maxim never to allow any dead air, which proved a poor mix with a medium in which viewers could see the action. In his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, he recalled that one reviewer dismissed his efforts with this phrase: “He doesn’t know the game, and he wouldn’t shut his mouth.”

Photo

Mr. Pardo on "Saturday Night Live" in 2001. Credit Norman

Ng/NBCUNIVERSAL, via Getty Images

Mr. Pardo found himself shuttling between radio and television, but the newer medium increasingly took up his time; he was assigned to a variety of programs, including “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and some early game shows. An assignment he received in 1956 proved to be a keeper: the original “Price Is Right,” hosted by Bill Cullen. The show’s popularity made his voice famous, and the occasional on-air mention by Mr. Cullen began to attach a name to that voice. (He even filled in for Mr. Cullen once. “I was terrified,” he recalled in the oral history.)

Mr. Pardo said the way “The Price Is Right” was shot led him to develop his peculiar elongated delivery. “The cameras are moving so slowly, and that’s the way I had to describe it: slowly,” he said of the merchandise on the show, which he would describe before contestants tried to guess its price. “Those cameras were large then. You want to make sure you describe what the camera is on.”

The show, based in New York, switched to ABC in 1963, but Mr. Pardo chose to stay with NBC. He was still a staff announcer, which meant he had other duties besides “The Price Is Right.” He was, for instance, the first to tell viewers of WNBC, the network’s flagship station, that President John F. Kennedy had been shot, breaking into a “Bachelor Father” episode to do it.

Mr. Pardo’s decision to stay at NBC when “The Price Is Right” departed was fortuitous because that left him available to announce a new NBC show that made its debut in 1964, “Jeopardy!” A trivia show in which contestants tried to provide the questions after seeing the answers, it was hosted by Art Fleming, who made a point of thanking Mr. Pardo by name in each episode, helping to elevate him further out of the announcer anonymity of radio.

The original “Jeopardy!” ran until 1975, again a serendipitous endpoint because “Saturday Night Live” began the next year. The show’s creator, Mr. Michaels, was born the year that Mr. Pardo started at NBC. He has said he liked Mr. Pardo for the job as a sort of counterpoint to the wackiness of the show.

 

“It couldn’t have been a more different culture,” Mr. Michaels said. “But it was perfect for us.”

“That authority voice” botched the very first opening, calling the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players the “Not for Ready Prime-Time Players.” But the inauspicious beginning was quickly forgotten, and Mr. Pardo became a signature part of the show, not just announcing the cast, musical guest and host at the beginning, but also introducing “Weekend Update” and playing an integral role in many other bits. He missed only Season 7, after Mr. Michaels had stepped away temporarily from the show.

Mr. Pardo, who had a lifetime contract with NBC, retired in 2004, but he continued to do “S.N.L.” even though he had moved to Arizona after his wife died in 1995. For years he would fly to New York each week. In more recent seasons, he recorded his material in Tucson.

Over the years he had countless odd moments and memorable encounters as he became a pop-culture touchstone. In 1976, he appeared in a Frank Zappa performance on “S.N.L.” In 1984, he had a voice cameo in the Weird Al Yankovic song “I Lost on Jeopardy.” He was in the Woody Allen movie “Radio Days” in 1987 and was a guest star on a 2009 episode of “30 Rock.”

Mr. Pardo is survived by his daughters, Paula, Dona and Katherine, and his sons, David and Michael, as well as five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Mr. Michaels said the show would surely present a tribute to Mr. Pardo next season. “It was a happy accident and in some great way our lives intertwined,” he said. “It was always exciting. Whatever montage we did to open the show, whatever pictures we used it didn’t really come alive till you heard him say it.”

K. Michelle - Damn | Rebellious Soul Musical [Video]

 

K. Michelle is nothing but unique.
The singer-songwriter teamed up with Academy-Award nominee Idris Elba to create "K.Michelle: Rebellious Soul - The Musical" airing on VH1 August.19. Elba will direct the "V.S.O.P" singer who plays a stripper that falls in love with the man of her dreams only for heartbreak and drama to later ensue. VH1 describes the event as a "hip-hopera."
"The dark, cautionary tale is directed by Golden Globe Award-winning actor Idris Elba. Taking center stage in this ‘hip hopera,’ K.Michelle’s powerful ballads capture the lust, love, heartache and redemption of a fierce woman struggling to break the cycle of bad romance. What will be her fate when she catches her man in a lie and her past comes back to haunt her?"

"Seen It All" by Jeezy

 

Jeezy has announced that Seen It All is the title of his forthcoming fifth studio album. 

“My fifth album is entitled Seen It All because I feel like I’ve been through a lot and I’ve seen a lot, and I’m still standing here and I’m still standing tall,” the rapper says during an interview with Atlanta radio station V-103. “That’s what it is, man.”

Last week, Jeezy released the song “Me OK.” On the Drumma Boy-produced cut, he discusses his time at Def Jam Recordings, which released his first four major-label studio projects.

“When L.A. Reid was in office / Made some history up at Def Jam,” he raps. “If Jizzle ain’t droppin’, nigga, what the fuck is Def Jam? / I know you heard how your boy bossed up at Atlantic / Boss shit, might just drop my next album on Atlantic.”

Last year, Jeezy dropped the Young from his name. In September, he dropped the song “In My Head” and announced that he was working on his next album. In an album teaser released at the time, Jeezy was seen with numerous rappers, producers and singers talking about the new album. When speaking to the group, Jeezy says he's revealing all in the upcoming project and that "the statute of limitations is over with.”

“A lot of y’all know when I came in the game, I pretty much came in the game with my hands behind my back. 'Cause a lot of the shit I’d a like to talk about or could’ve talked about probably would have got me in a lot of trouble,” Jeezy said. “This is probably my first album where I can explain and let niggas know where I stand. In layman’s terms, the statute of limitations is over with.”

The footage features singer Usher, rappers Future and Ludacris and deejays DJ Drama and Don Cannon, among others. 

Iggy Azalea - Black Widow ft. Rita Ora

 

Iggy Azalea is gearing up to get the wheels in motion for her next single "Black Widow", off her debut album The New Classic. We'll have to see if "Black Widow" can live up to the charting power and popularity of "Fancy", but for now, the two blonde ladies release an official music video for the record.
Directed by Director X, the visual starts off with an opening skit where we see Iggy working as a waitress, but soon the two artists get their "Kill Bill" steez on, rocking one-piece leather suits, and using samurai swords. The video even features a cameo from "Kill Bill" actor Michael Madsen.

Chris Brown feat. Usher & Rick Ross - New Flame (Explicit Version)

Chris Brown released the audio to ‘New Flame’ back at the end of June and today follows up with the release of the music video. The premiere came after Chris had announced on social media that a joint tour with Trey Songz for the Fall season is in the works.
’New Flame’ features Usher and Rick Ross and both appear in the music video. The trio are seen surrounded by open water and as expected with any Chris Brown video, there’s plenty of dancing and choreography involved. Ross arrives in the video at his verse, sitting on a white throne surrounded by models. The casting director did his part well as there's plenty of beautiful girls all throughout the video.
’New Flame’ is the latest single from Chris’ forthcoming sixth studio LP ‘X’, which was recently announced to have a release date of September 16th. Along with Usher and Rick Ross, the long awaited project is rumored to feature Kendrick Lamar, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Brandy, Wiz Khalifa, B.o.B, and more. Only a matter of time till the tracklisting is revealed (barring any more delays).

Black Team Provides More Than a Little League Hope

Pierce Jones, center, after homering for the Jackie Robinson West team, which is representing the Great

Lakes region in the Little League World Series. Credit Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press        

 

When Joseph Haley founded the Chicago-based Jackie Robinson West Little League in 1971, there were no grand plans of winning state championships or reaching the Little League World Series.

There was a vision of using youth baseball to help black families moving into a previously all-white neighborhood unite and establish a sense of community. Haley died in 2005, but the league he founded has blossomed and been carried forth by his son Bill and his widow, Annie.

“I’m sure he never envisioned anything like this,” Bill Haley said.

A team of Jackie Robinson West all-stars reached the Little League World Series in 1983. This year, after a drought of 31 years, a team from the league won the Great Lakes regional championship game. On Thursday, the team played its first game in South Williamsport, Pa., beating Lynnwood, Wash., 12-2.

 

Along with a team from Philadelphia led by a phenomenal young pitcher, Mo’Ne Davis, Jackie Robinson West became an early World Series story line. A similar sentiment surrounded a team from Harlem in 2002.

 

Supporters of the Chicago-based team at its series opener Thursday in South Williamsport, Pa. The

 team beat Lynnwood, Wash., 12-2. Credit Brett Carlsen for The New York Times 

 

Bill Haley said he remembered cheering for that team.

“When you see kids from similar backgrounds and similar situations, you pull for them to be successful and beat the odds,” he said.

This year’s Jackie Robinson West team has attracted the attention of Mets right fielder Curtis Granderson, who grew up in the suburbs south of Chicago. Granderson began playing baseball in the Lynwood Little League, but he said he knew about Jackie Robinson West.

“A lot of my friends, guys my age, played in that league,” he said.

Granderson said he liked what the Jackie Robinson West team represented, as well as the idea that the team’s appearance in the World Series would prompt discussion about blacks in baseball.

“The cool thing is the way people talk about it,” Granderson said. “Like, ‘Wow, there is an all-black team out there; I didn’t know there was an all-black team playing.’

“The fact that people don’t realize that there is a black team means that people are under the assumption that black kids aren’t playing baseball. Hopefully this could be something that sheds light both in the African-American community and the non-African-American community.”

Granderson recently contributed $5 million to the development of Curtis Granderson Stadium at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he played for three seasons and where his No. 28 was retired. The stadium will be the home of the university’s baseball and softball teams and will serve more than 38 youth organizations in Chicago.

Asked about the small number of blacks in baseball, Granderson said there was simply not much buzz about the game in predominantly black communities, where basketball dominates and football is another substantial presence.

Getting his peers to see baseball as a viable sports option was difficult, Granderson said, so much so that when he accepted a baseball scholarship to U.I.C., his friends seemed surprised that he was still involved in the sport.

 

“They said, ‘You’re still doing that baseball thing?’ ” he said. “For them, baseball was a thing, a hobby.”

 

    

Ed Howard scoring for the Jackie Robinson West team from Chicago’s South Side. Credit Brett Carlsen

for The New York Times   

 

 

Even as baseball preaches diversity, the game continues to spiral economically out of the reach of an increasingly larger pool of potential players after Little League. The cost of participation, especially with travel teams becoming the norm before players reach high school, can reach thousands of dollars a year.

To reverse the decline in black participation, Granderson said, Major League Baseball could copy the Amateur Athletic Union model in basketball, in which major shoe companies provide financial support that allows talented teams to travel to tournaments. Baseball also needs to do a better job of putting black players in front of young people, he said.

“You have to make some major changes if you’re serious about really getting more African-Americans into the game and staying in the game,” Granderson said.

 

While Haley acknowledged that basketball was king in Chicago, he said the athletes on this year’s Jackie Robinson team were a different breed. Perhaps a new breed.

“These kids who are playing in Pennsylvania are baseball players,” Haley said. “They won’t switch over to anything else. They’ll play baseball a long time.”

The Jackie Robinson team is the best marketing for a sport that continues to lose ground to basketball and football. But when asked if the success of his all-stars might lead to a surge of young black players in the majors, Haley said that was not his concern.

“Our mission is absolutely not turning out major league baseball players,” he said.

He added, “Our goal is to focus on getting as many kids involved as possible and get them to love the game as early as possible.”

For now, Haley is focused on the journey to Williamsport and having his team meet players from around the world and experiencing first-class treatment.

But what he primarily wants is to see the players compete to the best of their ability on a grand stage — to be excited by the environment, not intimidated by it.

 

“When it comes game time, the kids are going to be fine,” he said. “Kids are going to make errors; kids are going to strike out — things are going to happen in a baseball game. But it won’t happen because the kids are scared or intimidated or nervous. They’re going to play their style of baseball, and they are going to compete.”

They will have some major league stars in their corner. After they advanced to the series, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Carl Crawford called Darrold Butler, the Jackie Robinson West manager, and volunteered to give the team a pep talk via speaker phone. Granderson will be watching from the Mets’ clubhouse. And thousands who played Little League baseball and never got close to South Williamsport will be pulling for a team from Chicago’s South Side, and for Davis, a hard-throwing black girl from Philadelphia, to beat the odds.

They represent a refreshing breeze in a sport in desperate need of fresh air.

Tired of the day to day struggle? Come join the team!!! 

     

Ferguson Police's Show of Force Highlights Militarization of America's Cops.

The latest images of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, evoke scenes from a battlefield: heavily-armed officers in camouflage, carrying rifles in armored vehicles, firing at civilians.
In the case of Ferguson, police were firing rubber bullets, not real ones, along with tear gas and smoke bombs in an effort to tamp down protests and disperse demonstrators who had gathered for a fourth consecutive night Wednesday to demand justice for Michael Brown.
Violence in Ferguson: Police Fire Tear Gas, Smoke Bombs at Demonstrators
Michael Brown's Parents: 'Stop the Violence'
Brown, 18, was unarmed when he was shot multiple times by a police officer in broad daylight Saturday afternoon, authorities said. The officer has not been identified to the public and he has been placed on paid administrative leave, authorities said. Protesters have demanded he be identified and brought to justice.

The response of the Ferguson and St. Louis County police to the protests has highlighted a growing trend in policing in the United States: police SWAT teams look increasingly like military forces, using military-grade equipment and justifying that use by noting that the public has increasingly-sophisticated weapons themselves.
The distribution of military equipment to local law enforcement began in the 1990s to help agencies fight the so-called war on drugs. It was expanded after 9/11, with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, to help law enforcement fight terror threats, experts said.

An official with the U.S. Department of Defense told ABC News today that last October, Ferguson police received "non-tactical" equipment under the so-called "1033 program" that included two unarmored Humvees, a trailer and a generator.
The armored vehicle used by Ferguson, and seen in many of the images from Wednesday night, was not given to the town by the DoD, the official said. It was not a military vehicle.

There’s no information yet about what other tactical equipment the Ferguson Police Department may have received, the official said, but a complete list of the equipment provided to St. Louis County by the DoD shows the types of weapons being distributed: six .45-caliber pistols, 12 rifles, two sight reflexes, one explosive ordnance disposal robot, one helicopter, seven utility trucks, three trailers, one motorized cart, one pair of elbow pads, one pair of knee pads, one industrial strength face shield, two night-vision viewers, and computers.
The weapons that Ferguson police are using appear to be non-military issue, the DoD official said, and their camouflage uniforms were likely commercially purchased.
But experts said police equipment and training around the nation have been getting military upgrades. And critics say this can be a problem.

"When you arm police like soldiers and outfit them with military weapons and train them on military tactics and tell them they’re fighting a war, whether it's a war on crime or drugs or looters and rioters, they’re going to start seeing themselves as soldiers, and seeing the people they serve less as citizens with rights and more as potential threats, and that’s what we’re seeing," said Radley Balko, author of the book "Rise of the Warrior Cop" and a reporter for the Washington Post.
Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson was asked at a press conference on Wednesday why his department was using military-grade equipment to tamp down unarmed protesters angry over the death of Michael Brown.
"None of that was military equipment, all of the SWAT teams have big vans and that was the city SWAT team and [St. Louis] County SWAT Team," he said. When pressed why his department was using armored vehicles and rifles, he countered, "People are using bombs now, pipe bombs and so forth."

Since 1990, the federal government has distributed surplus military weapons to town and county police forces under a program known as 1033, through the Law Enforcement Support Office. In 2013, LESO distributed $450 million worth of supplies, including automatic weapons to towns such as Ferguson and counties such as St. Louis, according to a report from the ACLU released this summer.
Other law enforcement personnel, including former Los Angeles Police Chief and current New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton, have defended the equipment as necessary for defending themselves from a more dangerous citizenry.
“I don’t see us as militarizing police,” Bratton told the Center for Investigative Reporting in 2011. “I see us as keeping abreast with society. And we are a gun-crazy society.”
Balko said that isn't necessarily true.
"There are more guns out there but there’s not much evidence that there’s a problem. The crime rate’s been dropping since 1994, and the Justice Department's done a couple of studies that show the type of gun typically used in a homicide, overwhelmingly, is low caliber handgun," Balko said. "The job of police officer has been getting safer as crime rate has been dropping."
"What’s happening in Ferguson is a reflection of militarization of policing happening across America," said Kara Dansky, senior counsel at the ACLU and the author of the report. "It's the routine use of paramilitary tactics, using weapons directly from the U.S. military, in towns across America."
"As we’re seeing in Ferguson, it tends to escalate the risk of violence, makes people less safe, and undermines the public's trust in law enforcement," Dansky said.

Beanie Sigel Released From Prison

The rapper was released from the Federal Correctional Institution of Fairton, New Jersey, Tuesday morning (August 9) at approximately 10 a.m. He was escorted out by his fiancee and his mother.
The three drove about half a mile before meeting Kareem “Biggs” Burke, Damon Dash and a host of family, friends and supporters, who were waiting in a caravan of six cars. Sigel was showered with cheers when he stepped out of his vehicle.
The MC was welcomed in true Dame Dash style. Dash presented Sigel with a DVD copy of “State Property 2″ (Sig never saw the film in which he starred), some State Property clothes and a pair of sneakers from Sigel’s State Property shoe line, which operates under the Pro Keds umbrella. He had a sleek black tour bus ready to take Beans from Jersey to his home in Philly. And a plethora of Beanie Sigel posters were taped to telephone poles and walls for at least two miles on the road leading out of the prison.
Dash has already announced plans for Sigel’s next career moves. A Beanie tour has been planned, with his first performance slated to take place on August 18. An August 23 release date has been set for his upcoming DVD, “The B.Coming of Beanie Sigel,” which features uncut versions of the BET Beanie reality shows “The Truth,” “The Trial” and “House Arrest.”
As for when Beanie will get back into the studio, that is still up in the air. Sigel said that he wasn’t motivated to write rhymes in jail (out of the 10 months he was incarcerated, six of them were spent in solitary confinement because of fighting) and no MC in hip-hop inspires him, with the exception of Young Jeezy.
Sigel also said that despite getting into a scuffle in prison, he was shown love for the most part and is elated to be out.

Find Out Why Over 9,000,000 People Left AAA And Started Earning Over 5K Or Better Weekly While Getting The Same Benefits And More.

                                                       Benefits Plan

 

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About The Company

 

Motor Club of America was founded by Mr. William W. Green, who was born in 1900 in Atlantic City, NJ. In 1926, Mr. Green became the Chief Executive Officer of Motor Club of America (and its former subsidiary Motor Club of America Insurance Company) up until 1986. During his tenure with Motor Club of America (MCA), William Green along with his family continued to grow Motor Club of America within the United States of America.

Virgil Coffee, a Texas native, began his career in the Motor Club business as well as marketing in the 1960′s. Virgil Coffee was the marketing arm for Pre-Paid Legal and wrote the marketing plan that propelled the company to a success. Virgil Coffee also had a background in the sporting good industry, and co-owned 5 retail stores throughout Texas.

Virgil Coffee sold his share of the company and moved to Oklahoma to sell memberships for another Motor Club company. During his seventeen year tenure with that company, Virgil worked his way up to the Presidency of that company, but eventually in 1987, Virgil Coffee started his own company known today as TVC Marketing Associates, Inc. The company continued to grow over the next 25 + years. TVC stands for “Truckers Voice in Court, which did just what the name implies. TVC provided court representation for truckers in motor related incidents.

1970 – Mr. David Kircher became President of Motor Club of America and continues to hold the title as president.
1989 – TVC Marketing Associates, Inc. owner Virgil Coffee (father of Oklahoma Senator Glenn Coffee) began his joint ownership of Motor Club of America.
1996 – David Kircher became MIS Director and Chief Operations Officer for TVC Marketing Associates, Inc. . TVC is the parent company of MCA.

Virgil Coffee also worked for Pre-Paid Legal Services (currently known as Legal Shield) through his company TVC Marketing. Through his tenure (7 years), his marketing techniques created a 4 digit percentage gain in earnings for his company. His years of experience with marketing and providing products for automotive customers led him to continue the legacy of Motor Club of America.

The TVC Pro-Driver packages have been available for decades for truckers, and over time the focus was developed for the common motorist. This continued to grow to provide services not jut related to the typical roadside assistance, but more benefits were added including travel assistance, discounts, emergency room cost assistance, credit card protection, legal services, and much more.

2011 – A specific set of packages were developed in 3 levels known as Security Memberships. These memberships (MCA Security, MCA Security Plus, and the flagship membership, MCA Total Security) had an increasing number of benefits available for all residents of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. These packages provide services as well as an affiliate referral program which give Sales Associates of the company an opportunity to earn referral bonus income for bringing business to the company.

In September of 2012, more benefit plans were released. Our Total Security Gold and Total Security Platinum plans we’re finally released to the public, and are the newest edition to Motor Club of America. These plans provide even more benefits to our original Total Security plan such as additional legal benefits and auto related service discounts at over 6,000 auto repair and service centers nationwide. These discounts range from 10% to 50% off. The Total Security Platinum Plan also offers additional medical discounts.

 To conclude, the origin and summary of the organization, Motor Club of America and TVC Marketing are cooperative joint ventures. David Kircher is the President of Motor Club of America, and Virgil Coffee is the President and owner of TVC Marketing Associates, Inc. The combination of both organizations, along with our Independent Contractor position, which has thousands of people working from home, has taken MCA and TVC to new heights in the Motor Club industry.

 Need more information contact: 

Isaiah Carter (Independent Rep.)

with any questions.

Cartercorp4@gmail.com