An 88-year-old North Carolina man is facing a first-degree murder charge after he shot and killed an 80-year-old woman (who was his roommate) on Mother’s Day, of all days.

According to Gaston, N.C. police, the shooting took place as the woman, Vivian Schronce, returned home from Sunday morning service.

The man, Charles Edwin Venn, had drunk a couple of beers that morning, and the two were fighting over it when Venn, who had a handgun, “fired several rounds,” one of which struck Schronce. She was taken to Gaston Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

“Any time you add alcohol and firearms, it’s just a deadly mixture,” Gaston County Police Capt. Jay Human said.

Vivian’s daughter Leanne Catoe spoke with The Gaston Gazette and told them she had just cut her mother’s hair on Saturday so that she could look good for church on Mother’s Day, which fell on a Sunday this year.

“I sat in church beside her, and I had this weird feeling and I scooted closer to her,” Catoe said.

After church Catoe’s 80-year-old mother kissed her and told her to come by for pot pie.

Catoe drove to the grocery store and saw an ambulance go by as she headed back to her mother’s home. A sick feeling settled in her stomach. Catoe hurried to her mother’s home to find paramedics doing CPR on her mother.

“And all I could say was, ‘God, no. God, no.’ And then we get to the hospital and they said that she’d been shot,” Catoe said. “Why would anybody shoot a grandmother, a great-grandmother?”

Schronce was a kidney cancer survivor and a caretaker, Catoe said.

“My mom cared for everybody — everybody. That’s all I’ve ever known her to do,” Catoe said. “We called her Florence Nightingale.”

People in Pine Grove Trailer Park off Hickory Grove Road called Schronce “Grandma.”

A Gaston County Jail cell holds Venn. He’s being held without bond because of the murder charge. Catoe’s still in shock that her mother is gone and says her death just doesn’t make sense.

“She’s all I had,” Catoe said. “I’m not ready to be the matriarch of this family.”

[Gaston Gazette]

There’s a reason why some people only vacation as south of the border as Houston, Texas. No shade to our Mexican readers, but y’all know some of your folks love to target tourists. Sadly, the most recent victim was the grandson of the great Malcolm X.  Representatives close to the family confirmed that Malcolm Shabazz, who was 28, was killed Thursday morning in Mexico City.

Labor activist Miguel Suarez told the AP that “he was with Shabazz when his friend was beaten up during a dispute over a bill at a Mexico City bar.”

According to Suarez, the owner demanded they pay a $1200 bill. A fight ensued and Suarez claims he found Shabazz injured outside of the bar. He was taken to the hospital where he died.

Shabazz was the son of Qubilah Shabazz, one of six daughters of Malcolm X and wife Betty Shabazz. In 1997, Malcolm, then 12, reportedly set fire to the home of his grandmother Betty Shabazz, who ultimately died of severe burns.

Malcolm served four years in juvenile detention and later expressed regret for his actions, telling the New York Times, ”I just wanted her to know I was sorry and I wanted to know she accepted my apology, that I didn’t mean it. But I would get no response, and I really wanted that response.”

Malcolm would go on to face other legal trouble, though more recently revealed plans of writing a memoir and attending John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

His family released the following statement:

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved El Hajj Malcolm El Shabazz. To all who knew him, he offered kindness, encouragement and hope for a better tomorrow. Although his bright light and boundless potential are gone from this life, we are grateful that he now rests in peace in the arms of his grandparents and the safety of God. We will miss him.”

According to police in Cumberland County, Kentucky, a 5-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister Tuesday afternoon (Apr 30) with a gun that was given to the boy as a gift last summer.

“It’s a Crickett,” Cumberland County Coroner Gary White said, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. “It’s a little rifle for a kid … The little boy’s used to shooting the little gun. Just one of those crazy accidents.”

The children’s mother was reportedly home at the time of the shooting, but had stepped out on the front porch for a few minutes. That’s when “she heard the gun go off,” White said.

The gun, a .22-caliber youth-model rifle called a “Crickett,” or “My First Rifle,” (a pink version for girls is pictured above) was kept in a corner and the family didn’t realize a bullet was left inside, White said. Police said the shooting happened when the boy was “playing” with the rifle, but didn’t elaborate further in their report.

The little girl, identified as Caroline Starks, was rushed to Cumberland County Hospital where she was later pronounced dead. Her death will be ruled accidental.

Amid the national debate on gun control laws, White had this to say:

“Down in Kentucky where we’re from, you know, guns are passed down from generation to generation. You start at a young age with guns for hunting and everything,” White said Wednesday. What is more unusual than a child having a gun, he said, is “that a kid would get shot with it.”

“Accidents happen with guns. They thought the gun was actually unloaded, and it wasn’t,” the coroner said.

Sadly, this marks at least the third incident in the past month in which a young child has accidentally shot someone, Gawker notes.

In Early April, a four-year-old mistakenly fired upon a deputy’s wife, killing her instantly.

The next day, a young mother was hospitalized after her two-year-old son shot her in the stomach with a Glock 9 mm he apparently found hidden underneath a pillow.

Then, a couple of days later, a six-year-old boy was shot in the head by a four-year-old. He was rushed to the hospital where he died the next day.

A fertilizer plant explosion in the small town of Waco, Texas last night (Wed, Apr 17) killed about 15 people and injured more than 160. Early Thursday morning rescue workers searched the rubble for any possible survivors after the explosion left many homes and business ruined as many of them caught on fire.

According to the Associated Press, the explosion erupted like an earthquake, shaking the ground, and could be heard/felt from 45 miles away.

“They are still getting injured folks out and they are evacuating people from their homes,” Waco police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said early Thursday morning. He continued, “At some point this will turn into a recovery operation, but at this point, we are still in search and rescue.”

With the recent Boston Marathon bombing, which is being viewed as a terrorist attack, the explosion in Texas had many wondering whether this was this strike two on the United States in such a short period of time, but according to Swanton there isn’t any indication that the blast was anything other than an industrial accident.

Among those that died were three to five volunteer firefighters and a law enforcement officer. It’s still to early to determine just how many lives were lost as the rescue workers are still searching.

The AP reported that the explosion that struck around 8 p.m. leveled a four-block area around the plant that a member of the city council, Al Vanek, said was “totally decimated.” The toll included 50 to 75 houses, an apartment complex with about 50 units that one state police officer said was reduced to “a skeleton,” a middle school and the West Rest Haven Nursing Home, from which first-responders evacuated 133 patients, some in wheelchairs.

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara told the Chicago Tribune: “I’ve never seen anything like this … It looks like a war zone with all the debris.”

Julie Zahirniako, who survived the explosion said she and her son Anthony were playing at a school playground near the fertilizer plant when the explosion hit. She said as she was walking and her son was kicking a football, the explosion threw her son four feet in the air, breaking his ribs.

“Hit the ground, hit the ground!” Zahirniako said she heard a neighbor yell. “The fire was so high,” she said. “It was just as loud as it could be. The ground and everything was shaking.”

In a statement released Thursday morning, President Obama thanked first responders in the “tight-knit” Texas community.

“I want to thank the first responders who worked tirelessly through the night to contain the situation and treat the wounded,” the statement read. “My Administration, through FEMA and other agencies, is in close contact with our state and local partners on the ground to make sure there are no unmet needs as search and rescue and response operations continue. West is a town that many Texans hold near and dear to their hearts, and as residents continue to respond to this tragedy, they will have the support of the American people.”

PHOTOS OF THE BLAST AND ITS AFTERMATH:

In a truly unsettling story, a hospital in St Paul, Minnesota accidentally tossed a stillborn baby in with its dirty laundry.

According to a report from Associated Press, the stillborn baby boy was delivered at 22 weeks at Regions Hospital on April 4.

The body was wrapped in linen and sent to the hospital’s morgue but tragically, it was mistaken for laundry, and sent offsite to Crothall Laundry in Red Wing — about 45 miles away — for cleaning.

Frighteningly, the baby’s body was discovered by staff members after it reportedly fell out of a bed sheet.

It is still unclear how such a mix up occurred, and hospital officials were still trying to reach the deceased child’s family. The hospital’s chief nursing officer Chris Boese expressed his apologies in a statement.

“This was a terrible mistake, and we are deeply sorry,” said Boese. “We have processes in place that should have prevented this but did not. We are working to identify the gap in our system, and to make sure this does not happen again.”

“We are really sorry and saddened that this event happened,” Boese added. “This has never happened before that I am aware of, this unfortunate event.”

NOTE: Image of sleeping newborn baby above (via Shutterstock) used for illustrative purposes only

Meryl Streep played Margaret Thatcher in the critically acclaimed and commercially successful 2011 film ‘The Iron Lady’ and won an Oscar for her portrayal. And with yesterday’s passing of the UK’s first female Prime Minister, Streep has released a statement remembering the “Iron Lady.”

“Margaret Thatcher was a pioneer, willingly or unwillingly, for the role of women in politics,” she said in a release obtained by Huffington Post.  “It is hard to imagine a part of our current history that has not been affected by measures she put forward in the UK at the end of the 20th century. Her hard-nosed fiscal measures took a toll on the poor, and her hands-off approach to financial regulation led to great wealth for others. There is an argument that her steadfast, almost emotional loyalty to the pound sterling has helped the UK weather the storms of European monetary uncertainty.

“But to me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit. To have come up, legitimately, through the ranks of the British political system, class bound and gender phobic as it was, in the time that she did and the way that she did, was a formidable achievement,” she added. “To have won it, not because she inherited the position as the daughter of a great man, or the widow of an important man, but by dint of her own striving. To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, leveled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas — wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now — without corruption.

“I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle. To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable. I was honored to try to imagine her late life journey [in 2011's The Iron Lady], after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side. I wish to convey my respectful condolences to her family and many friends.”

Margaret Thatcher passed away on Monday, April 8th at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke. Thatcher rose from a working-class childhood to serve as the United Kingdom’s first female Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.

Annette Funicello, best known as one of the members of the original 1950′s “Mickey Mouse Club,” died Monday at a hospital in California. A statement from the Walt Disney Co. said that Funicello, who was 70 years old, “died peacefully from complications due to multiple sclerosis, a disease she battled for over 25 years.”

According to Extra, Annette had been in an MS coma for years, and her family was by her side Monday as she was taken off life support. Funicello’s only daughter, Gina Gillardi, said in a statement, “She’s on her toes dancing in heaven… no more MS. My brothers and I were there, holding her sweet hands when she left us.”

Annette Funicello first revealed that she suffered from multiple sclerosis in 1992. She lost the ability to walk in 2004, and by 2009, she could no longer speak and required 24-hour care.

More from CNN:

Funicello was just 13 when she was selected by Walt Disney himself to be one of the original Mouseketeers of the “Mickey Mouse Club,” the 1950s television variety show aimed at children.

Funicello, who had a background in dance, quickly became one of the most popular Mouseketeers.

She “was and always will be a cherished member of the Disney family, synonymous with the word Mouseketeer, and a true Disney Legend,” Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said.

She remained with Disney after leaving the “Mickey Mouse Club,” appearing in TV shows including “Zorro” (1957), “The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca” (1958) and starring in the Disney feature films “The Shaggy Dog” (1959), “Babes in Toyland” (1961), “The Misadventures of Merlin Jones” (1964) and “The Monkey’s Uncle” (1965).

The most enduring images of Funicello, though, may be of her in a swimsuit, her primary wardrobe when she co-starred with teen idol Frankie Avalon in beach party movies in the early 1960s. These included “Beach Party” (1963), “Muscle Beach Party” (1964), “Bikini Beach” (1964), “Beach Blanket Bingo” (1965), and “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini” (1965).

Although she started out in a more modest version, each movie revealed a bit more, leading eventually to Funicello in a bikini.

The movies helped sell her music. Funicello had Top-40 hits including “Tall Paul,” “First Name Initial,” “How Will I Know My Love,” and “Pineapple Princess.” Along with the singles, she recorded several successful albums, including “Hawaiiannette” (1960), “Italiannette” (1960) and “Dance Annette” (1961).

Funicello reunited with Avalon in 1987 to star in “Back to the Beach,” in which the two former teen idols played as parents of a pair of troublesome teenagers. Avalon and Funicello followed the movie with a nostalgic concert tour in 1989 and 1990, singing their hits from the 1960s.

“We have lost one of America’s sweethearts for generations upon generations,” Avalon said of her death. “I am fortunate enough to have been friends with Annette as well as appear in many films, TV and appearances with her. She will live on forever, I will miss her and the world will miss her.”

Funicello moved with her family from her birthplace of Utica, New York, to Los Angeles when she was 4.

Walt Disney saw her dancing the lead in “Swan Lake” at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank when she was 13. Disney asked her to audition for a new children’s TV series he was developing called “The Mickey Mouse Club.” She was hired on the spot to become a Mouseketeer, Disney’s statement said.

She became the viewers’ favorite soon after the show debuted in October 1955. Although only three original seasons were produced, the show continued to be see in reruns for another four decades.

Doctors diagnosed Funicello with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disease, in 1987. She kept the illness a secret until 1992, the year she established The Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases. The charity, which is still active, supports research into the cause, treatment and cure of multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

Funicello made few public appearances by the late 1990s as she became more debilitated by the disease. She lived under the care of her second husband Glen Holt, a rancher she married in 1986.

She had three children — Gina, Jack Jr. and Jason — from her first marriage to Jack Gilardi, which ended in 1981.

“It hurts me deeply in the passing of Annette,” Jack Gilardi said. “She was such an important love in my life and blessed me with three beautiful children. I will remember her always and she will live in my heart forever.”

“It is so sad to lose a wonderful lady like Annette Funicello,” said comedian Don Rickles. “I had so much fun working with her in those beach party pictures. She was a great trooper. My wife Barbara and I send our thoughts and prayers to her family.”

“Annette’s sweet, unassuming spirit, her love of people, and her capacity to exude kindness and good feelings to everyone she met was part of her beautiful charisma, said Richard Sherman, the Oscar-winning composer who wrote many of her hits. “Because the songs we wrote for her brought us to the attention of Walt, Bob and I always referred to Annette as our ‘lucky star.’”

A budding filmmaker who planned on spending a week experiencing life on the streets as a homeless person was found dead inside a boarded up hostel in Newcastle (UK) last Wednesday morning (Apr 3). This was just three days after he posted a video to YouTube explaining his experiment, which he planned on turning into a documentary.

26-year-old Lee Halpin’s friends were shocked to learn that their comrade had died all of a sudden. No official cause of death has been revealed yet, but Halpin’s friends believe that he froze to death, as temperatures in the city have been dropping as low as -4 degrees Celsius (about 25 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight recently.

“I am about to go and spend a week being homeless in the West End of Newcastle,” 26-year-old Lee Halpin said in a video dated April 4th 2013. “I will sleep rough, scrounge for my food, access all the services that other homeless individuals in the West End use. I will interact with as many homeless people as possible and immerse myself in that lifestyle as deeply as I can.”

In the 2-and-a-half minute clip, Halpin — who studied creative writing, regularly appeared on local radio, and founded a magazine that covered arts and culture in the city called “Novel” — said he was doing the documentary so that he could use it to apply for a spot on a the highly competitive investigative journalism program for the UK’s Channel 4 news team.

His friend Daniel Lake told the Newcastle Chronicle that he had last spoken to him on Saturday. On Sunday, Lee posted a message on Twitter asking his followers if anyone had a sleeping bag he could borrow.

“Lee was a great guy, a character and was well known,” said Lake. “His big things were creative writing and poetry. He was making a documentary about homeless people living in Newcastle’s West End … No one knows how he passed away, but we think it could have been hypothermia. He made the ultimate sacrifice trying to raise awareness about what was happening to other people.”

[Telegraph]

The Roger Ebert film festival known as Eberfest will kick off in Chicago, Illinois as scheduled despite the famed critic’s death on Thursday (Apr 4) following his battle with cancer.

The event, which first began 15 years ago, will run from April 17-21 and will be attended by such celebs as Jack Black, Shailene Woodley and Tilda Swinton.

Ebertfest organizers have released a statement on what is to become the annual festival:

“All of us at Ebertfest are very saddened by the news of our dear friend Roger’s passing. He was a remarkable man who influenced journalists and film lovers the world over. The 15th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival will take place as scheduled April 17–21.”

As a legendary film commentator and critic, the Chicago Sun Times reporter was indisputably one of the most well-known film reviewers of all time.

The day before his death, Ebert announced via his blog that he was undergoing radiation treatment. His last written words were: “So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.”

Ebert had been battling cancer since 2006 and had portions of his jaw removed, which took away his ability to eat, drink or speak.

The Chicago Tribune called the Pulitzer Prize winner “a film critic with the soul of a poet.”

Ebert was 70 years old.

According to authorities in West Virginia, Shain Gandee — star of MTV’s newest reality show “Buckwild” — died of carbon monoxide poisoning Monday (Apr 1), along with two other men, after the truck they were riding in became submerged in a muddy ditch.

Gandee, 21, and his uncle David Gandee, 48, and another passenger, identified as 27-year-old Donald Robert Myers, were found dead early Monday after Gandee’s 1984 Ford Bronco had become stuck in a mud tole, with its tail pipe completely submerged, which apparently caused large amounts of carbon monoxide to fill the inside of vehicle.

Following an autopsy, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that the deaths of the three men had been ruled accidental, and no foul play was suspected, as all of the men died from the gas.

The statement from the Sheriff’s Dept. read:

“The vehicle and bodies were found by one of Shain Gandee’s friends who was searching the trails and ridges in the area for him and the others. The vehicle sat unevenly, but upright, and was partially submerged in deep mud. Mud was covering the lower part of the passenger side door of the vehicle, but the driver’s side of the vehicle was above the mud. The muffler of the vehicle was completely below the surface of the mud.

“The Bronco was found next to a ridge-top trail. That section of the trail itself was passable for four-wheel drive vehicles. However, the Bronco was in a mud pit next to the trail. That area is accessed by following the wooded trails for approximately one mile from Shain Gandee’s residence, near Thaxton Hollow in Sissonville.”

The night before Shain, David and Donald’s bodies were found, they had been reported missing. The men were last heard from at around 3 AM early Sunday morning, when they told people they planned on going “mudding” after leaving a bar.

A spokesman for MTV told the Associated Press that shooting for the second season of “Buckwild” had been suspended.

The network said Monday that it was “shocked and saddened” by Gandee’s death, adding, “Shain had a magnetic personality, with a passion for life that touched everyone he met and we will miss him dearly.”

The show, which was filmed last year around Sissonville and Charleston, West Virginia, followed the wild antics of a group of young friends enjoying their wild country lifestyle.

Last month, MTV said “Buckwild” was being watched by about 3 million viewers an episode, and was the most popular original cable series among 12-to-34-year-olds on Thursday nights.

The two production companies behind the show have offered to pay for all of Shain’s funeral expenses.

A public service for Gandee will be held Sunday, according to TMZ, and the money donated through the websites setup before the producers offered to cover the funeral costs will go towards Shain’s uncle David and his friend Donald.

According to Mississippi police, state lawmaker Jessica Upshaw was found dead on Sunday with a single gunshot wound to the head in the home of former legislator Clint Rotenberry.

It’s unclear as to why Upshaw was at Rotenberry’s home in Mendenhall, Miss. — which is about 110 miles away from her home district in Diamondhead — but he hasn’t been charged with anything, as police believe her death to be a suicide.

According to Simpson County sheriff Kenneth Lewis, Upshaw appeared to have shot herself in the head  “It appeared she had a gunshot wound to her head; it appeared to be self-inflicted,” he said.

Jessica Upshaw, a conservative Republican, practiced as a lawyer before she became a state lawmaker in 2004. In that same year she chaired the Legislature’s Conservation and Natural Resources Committee.

Upshaw wasn’t married, but she had a daughter and son in law working in South Korea as engineers, and she was also a grandmother who was spoken very highly of by her friends and fellow politicians.

“She was very close with her daughter and with her mother — just loved her family,” Mississippi Rep. John Read told the Clarion-Ledger. “Her heart was just so big. She’d do anything for you. She was just a sweet person.”

“I have known Jessica for many years as an unselfish and dedicated public servant,” Miss. Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement. “This is a tragic loss for her family and all Mississippians, and our thoughts and prayers go out to her family during this difficult time.”

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating Upshaw’s death, spokesman Warren Strain said.

T.J. Lane doesn’t seem to feel any sorrow or remorse for murdering three students and wounding three others in a school shooting last year.

Lane appeared in court Tuesday morning wearing a T-shirt with the word “KILLER” scribbled across the front of it in black marker, and he had a visible smirk on his face as an Ohio judge told him that he would spend the rest of his life in prison for his crime.

Against the recommendation of his counsel, the 18-year-old addressed the courtroom before learning of his fate, telling his victims’ families directly: “This hand that pulled the trigger that killed your sons now masturbates to the memory. Fuck all of you,” which was met with gasps and cries, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

WATCH THE DISTURBING CLIP HERE:

On February 27th 2012, Lane, who was 17 years old at the time, entered Chardon High School, located about 30 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio, and opened fire, killing Daniel Parmertor and Demetrius Hewlin, both 16, and 17-year-old Russell King Jr, and wounding three others, including one student — Nick Walczak — who remains paralyzed in a wheelchair.

Chardon High School Shooting: Several Students Shot, 3 Dead Following Violent Shooting Rampage

Nearly one year later, Lane, now 18, plead guilty to three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious assault. Because he was a juvenile at the time of the shooting, Lane was ineligible for the death penalty, but Geauga County Common Pleas Judge David Fuhry did give Lane three life sentences without the possibility of parole.

In court, Dina Parmertor, mother of victim Daniel, told Lane:

“You murdered my son Danny. You are a killer! You are a pathetic excuse for a human being. In fact you’re not a even human being. You don’t deserve to be called human. You’re a monster, and will forever to be titled a triple murderer.

“I have many more words that I wish I could say that would express my pure disgust and hatred for you, but unlike you, as we’ve seen today, I obey the law, and that’s why I am standing here a free person — something you will NEVER be.

“I hope you have a cold, rough, unkind, harsh prison life with monsters like yourself. I want you to be ensured years and years of pain, and abuse, which is, in my opinion, not harsh enough.

“If I had my choice, you would die an extremely slow and torturous death. You don’t deserve to take another breath while my 16-year-old son Danny lies in the ground because of your disgusting, selfish and cowardly actions. You are a weak, pathetic, vile coward.”

While no one on the outside still really knows what’s going on with Lil Wayne right now, those closest to him have been spotted going in and out of Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles to visit the ailing rapper.

Late Friday night (Mar 15), shortly after the news broke that Lil Wayne was in critical condition in the ICU after suffering from multiple seizures, his protege Drake was spotted outside the hospital walking with his head down and looking very somber.

Other celebs who have visited Lil Wayne in the hospital include his female protege Nicki Minaj, L.A. Clippers star Chris Paul and his wife Jada, and Wayne’s own rap mentor Birdman, who he affectionately calls his “daddy.”

As usual, TMZ had the ‘honor’ of being the very first media outlet to report on Lil Wayne being in “critical condition” in the ICU, but the way they reported on the situation had everyone in the world fearing the worst — that Wayne was about to die.

In their initial report, TMZ sensationalized the entire situation, saying that Wayne was “being prepared for his last rites” with his family near his bedside saying their last goodbyes and Twitter/Facebook immediately lit up with responses to the story. Within moments, Lil Wayne and TMZ were both the top trending topics worldwide, respectively.

After a short time, TMZ deleted the portion of their story about the last rites and his family saying goodbye, amid responses from Wayne’s camp on Twitter, including tweets from Mack Maine that denounced the site, and let everyone know that his boss was going to be OK, and was not dying as TMZ initially suggested.

@tmz and definitely don’t try to kill a man before his time….so from the bottom of my soul and on behalf of my fam……FUCK YOU

— Mack Maine (@mackmaine) March 16, 2013

About a half hour or so later, a tweet came from Lil Wayne’s own Twitter page to further confirm Mack Maine’s account of the situation — that Lil Wayne was alive and well and everything was going to be OK.

I’m good everybody. Thx for the prayers and love.

— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) March 16, 2013

Literally 2 minutes after Wayne’s tweet, TMZ updated their story again, saying that Weezy was still in critical condition in the ICU, but was “stabilizing,” though his “prognosis was uncertain.”

“Wayne is sleeping right now … which is odd, because he just tweeted saying he’s OK and thanking people for the prayers and love,” TMZ wrote, suggesting that Wayne wasn’t the one who tweeted that he was OK.

One Twitter user even went as far as to retrieve the coordinates from the tweet, and revealed that it most certainly did not come from Cedars-Sinai Hospital:

@tmz FYI @liltunechi tweet did NOT originate from 34.0766385, -118.37954589999998 (the lat/long for Cedars Sinai)

— Startup Tech Guy (@startuptechguy) March 16, 2013

Further adding to the conflicting reports was a statement from someone in Lil Wayne’s entourage who was quoted by L.A. Weekly as saying that TMZ’s coma/last rites story was comprised of “lies.” Speaking anonymously, the woman said, “He’s sitting up, drinking water.”

And the next morning, Cash Money co-founder Ron “Slim” Williams (Birdman’s brother) said in a radio interview that Wayne was doing fine and was looking to be released sometime during the weekend.

Still, TMZ seems to be going with their story  that Lil Wayne is damn near on his death bed, and it’s now going into the sixth day that he has been in the intensive care unit:

Lil Wayne is still in rough shape … and remains in the intensive care unit at an L.A. hospital 6 days after being admitted for seizures stemming from a suspected drug overdose … TMZ has learned.

Sources tell us … Wayne’s condition has not improved enough to be moved out of the ICU … and he continues to be monitored very closely by staff at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai hospital.

We know Wayne has been surrounded by friends and family since he was admitted to the ICU this past Wednesday … and we’re told the mood around Wayne’s bedside has been very serious.

We’ll update you as the story develops. For now, it’s best to just continue to keep Weezy in your prayers…

UPDATE: Good news! Lil Wayne is finally out of the hospital!

A six-month-old baby from Chicago died this week after succumbing to injuries she sustained after she was shot alongside her father.

According to reports, little Jonylah Watkins was shot at least five times while her father — apparently the target of the shooting — changed her diaper in his minivan. He too was shot several times, and was transported to a nearby hospital, where he remains in critical condition.

The shooting happened on Monday (Mar 11) in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, located on the city’s South Side, and Baby Jonylah died the following Tuesday at the Comer Children’s Hospital at Chicago University, where she was treated for injuries to the liver, lung, shoulder, leg and intestine.

Jonylah’s father, Jonathan Watkins, was notified of her death, and police are said to be on the hunt for the shooter, who jumped into a blue van after the shooting and drove away.

Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said that no one has come forward to help police with the investigation.

“We don’t have one individual who’s stepping up to help us,” McCarthy said. “We don’t have cooperating witnesses.”

Watkins, who is said to be a member of the notorious gang “The Gangster Disciples,” briefly talked about the tragic incident in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times from hospital bed.

“I was trying to help. I was trying to help. I was trying to help her,” he told Chicago’s FOX 32 after learning that his infant daughter had died. “They told me she didn’t make it.”

Witnesses said that a gunman approached Jonathan around 1 p.m. Monday afternoon and opened fire on him as he was standing beside his minivan and changing his daughter’s diaper in the front seat. Watkins was hit in the buttocks, on his side and a bullet also grazed his face.

In a sad and ironic twist to Jonylah Watkins’ story, her mother was shot in the knee while she was pregnant with her, the baby’s grandmother Mary Young told reporters in Chicago.

“There’s too much shooting over there,” Young said. Speaking of her granddaughter, she added, “She’s nothing but 6 months old. How could anybody — what kind of heart?”

Jonylah Watkins’ death is perhaps the saddest in troubled city of Chicago, which has been in the press a lot lately for its rampant gang violence and shooting deaths. The Windy City closed out the year 2012 with over 500 homicides, and the year before, in 2011, there were 435.

The year 2013 doesn’t seem to be starting off good either, as there were at least 40 gun-related deaths in the month of January alone — including the shooting death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who was killed when a gunman opened fire on a group of young people at a park in the city’s infamous South Side.

Just days before she was killed, Pendleton had performed in an event related to President Obama’s inauguration in Washington, D.C.

A high school football coach from California died in a freak accident Monday night (Mar 4). The Sacramento Bee reports that Marion Adams — who coached football and track at Rio Linda High School — was riding his bike home from track practice Monday night night when he accidentally ran into a parking garage gate, which impaled him.

According to the Bee, as Adams was riding his bike, he temporarily looked over his shoulder to say goodbye to a student, and didn’t notice the partially open metal swing gate in the school’s parking lot. “At his rate of speed, Adams was impaled by the gate arm,” the paper reported.

Adams was rushed to the hospital, where he initially survived two surgeries to treat internal injuries, but the doctors couldn’t stop him from bleeding, and he was pronounced dead Tuesday.

Mike Morris, the athletic director at the school said, “Marion was the most popular and nicest man on campus; just a great guy … It’s a huge loss, devastating to our community. He’s an example of how great Rio Linda is as a school and community. He couldn’t wait to come back here. This place meant everything to him.”

Marion Adams graduated from Rio Linda High School in 1972 and his brother says he recently left a high-paying job to return to his Alma Mater to take up a coaching job there.

“Marion loved kids, loved seeing them do well,” said David Adams. “He absolutely loved Rio Linda. He gave up a job that paid really well to teach and coach at his favorite school.”

David Adams said he was “impressed” at the outpour of support he saw from the school’s faculty, staff, students and parents, who all filled the hospital’s waiting room and even stayed there with the coach until he passed away.

“I was so impressed, so touched by the outpouring of support,” he said. “So many people hung out for the night in the hospital. I knew what kind of man he was – he’s my brother – but to see all that love and support really moved us. We’re all feeling this.”

Marion Adams is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, two grandchildren, his mother and seven siblings.

“Still in shock,” said Adams’ longtime friend Terry Ray, who coaches boys basketball at the school. “I know people say this a lot about people, that they’re great when we lose them, but Marion Adams was a wonderful man and teacher.”

WATCH A VIDEO REPORT ABOUT THE INCIDENT HERE:

The family of slain black gay Mississippi mayoral candidate Marco McMillian has issued a statement saying that the political hopeful was savagely beaten and left for dead near a river.

Family friend Carter Womack said that McMillian’s family received the information on their loved one’s brutal death from the Coahoma County coroner, Scotty Meredith, who declined to comment on the situation as of Monday, March 4th.

However, a person with direct knowledge of the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the Associated Press that McMillian had some bruises and there were burns on at least one area of his body.

Coroners still have yet to determine a cause of death, but Womack said that McMillian’s family was told that he was beaten and burned, and his body was drug under a fence and left near a Mississippi River levee when he was killed last week.

The full statement from Marco McMillian’s family reads:

This is a very difficult time for us, the family of Marco Watson McMillian of Clarksdale, Mississippi, as we have lost our beloved son, family member, and friend. In this time of our great loss, we want to thank everyone for their words of comfort and support.

We know that Marco was brutally murdered. His body was found on Wednesday, February 26, 2013, beaten, dragged and burned (set afire). This was reported in our meeting with the local coroner on two occasions. We were informed that the official autopsy report could take two to four weeks to complete. We feel that this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found. Marco, nor anyone, should have their lives end in this manner.

Last Thursday (Feb 28), a 22-year-old man from Jackson, Mississippi named Lawrence Reed was arrested for and charged with the death of Marco McMillian.

Reed was targeted in the crime after he crashed McMillian’s SUV in a head-on collision earlier in the week, and during questioning, Reed told police where they could find McMillian’s body. It isn’t known whether or not Reed and McMillian knew each other, and Reed is currently being held in jail without bond.

Marco McMillian meets President Obama in this undated photo on his Facebook page

After years as a dedicated community activist, McMillian — who was recognized in 2004 in Ebony Magazine as one of the nation’s “30 up-and-coming African Americans under 30″ — was running for Mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi before he was brutally murdered. His slaying has received a ton of media attention, mainly due to his race and sexual orientation, which many believe to be the reason why he was killed.

Funeral services for Marco McMillian will be held at the Coahoma Community College in their Pinnacle building on Saturday, March 9th at 10 a.m.

On Thursday in Jackson, Mississippi, a 22-year-old man by the name of Lawrence Reed was charged with the death of openly gay mayoral candidate Marco McMillian.

The investigation for this case began Tuesday when a man crashed McMillan’s SUV into another car on U.S Highway 49 near the Coahoma and Tallahatchie county lines.

Interestingly enough, McMillian wasn’t in the vehicle during the crash, but on Wednesday morning, McMillian’s body was found near the Mississippi River levee.

McMillian may have been the first openly gay candidate running the conservative state of Mississippi.

He served four years as an international executive director of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. He was also the CEO of MWM & Associates — a consulting firm for nonprofit organizations.

According to his fraternity, he secured the first federal contract to raise awareness about the heavy impact of HIV and AIDS, and in 2004 McMillian was recognized as one the nation’s “30 up and coming African Americans” under the age of 30.

Considering the fact that a rather conservative state like Mississippi doesn’t support gay rights, and is also known for its racism, it wouldn’t be surprising if McMillan’s death turned out to be the result of a hate crime.

A young African American man with such gratitude, and willingness to change lives was taken from us most likely because he was gay, and the color of his skin most certainly didn’t help. What other motive could one have to kill this man?

According to Warren Strain, a spokesman with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the autopsy has been completed but toxicology and other test results are pending, and the cause of death will not be released until the report is completed.

[AP]

A man in Florida was killed after his entire bedroom was swallowed by a massive sinkhole under his house while he slept. Comparable to something straight out of a science fiction movie, 37-year-old Jeff Bush’s entire bedroom collapsed into the ground, swallowing everything inside, including Bush.

“About the only thing left was the TV cable running down into the hole,” a report from the Associated Press read, painting a gruesome picture of the tragic incident in which Bush was presumed dead.

According to AP:

The sinkhole, estimated at 20 feet across and 20 feet deep, caused the home’s concrete floor to cave in around 11 p.m. Thursday as everyone in the Tampa-area house was turning in for the night. It gave way with a loud crash that sounded like a car hitting the house and brought Bush’s brother running.

Jeremy Bush said he jumped into the hole but couldn’t see his brother and had to be rescued himself by a sheriff’s deputy who reached out and pulled him to safety as the ground crumbled around him.

“The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn’t care. I wanted to save my brother,” Jeremy Bush said through tears Friday in a neighbor’s yard. “But I just couldn’t do nothing.”

He added: “I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him.”

Officials lowered equipment into the sinkhole and saw no signs of life, said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico.

A dresser and the TV set had vanished down the hole, along with most of Bush’s bed.

“All I could see was the cable wire running from the TV going down into the hole. I saw a corner of the bed and a corner of the box spring and the frame of the bed,” Jeremy Bush said.

Six people were reportedly at the home at the time, including the victim’s brother Jeremy Bush’s wife and their 2-year-old daughter. Bush said someone checked for sinkholes a few months back, but they said nothing was wrong.

“He said there was nothing wrong with the house. Nothing. And a couple of months later, my brother dies. In a sinkhole,” Bush said.

WATCH A VIDEO REPORT FROM CNN HERE:

A hot air balloon flying over the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor exploded in the air early Tuesday morning after it collided with an electrical cable, and crashed about 1,000 feet to the ground, leaving 19 tourists dead.

The balloon was said to be carrying an Egyptian pilot and 20 tourists from France, Britain, Belgium, Japan and Hong Kong on a flight over Luxor, Egypt, which is about 300 miles south of Cairo. “The flights provide spectacular views of the ancient Karnak and Luxor temples and the Valley of the Kings, the burial ground of Tutankhamun and other pharaohs,” a report from the Associated Press read.

As the balloon tried to land, a cable got wrapped around a helium tube, causing a fire to erupt, investigators said.

The balloon then started to rise rapidly, after a fire set off a gas canister, the balloon immediately plunged towards the ground, crashing into a sugar cane field in a village just west of Luxor.

According to one report from AP, “the terror lasted less than two minutes,” and people were seen — on fire — leaping from the balloon to their deaths, including a woman who was visibly pregnant.

“I saw tourists catching fire and they were jumping from the balloon,” said farmer Hassan Abdel-Rasoul. “They were trying to flee the fire but it was on their bodies.”

A photo (via the Associated Press) showing the harrowing scene following the hot air balloon crash.

Eighteen people were killed instantly as a result of the fiery crash, and three were transported to a hospital, where the 19th person died.

The pilot and the British tourist taken to the hospital were the sole survivors, and are being treated for severe burns, but are expected to make full recoveries. The Briton’s wife was traveling with him in the balloon, and was sadly among the nineteen dead.

Officials have called this tragic hot air balloon accident the deadliest on record.

Actor Lou Myers, best known for his role as restaurant owner Mr. Gaines on the popular 80′s/90′s TV series “A Different World” is dead, according to reports.

Myers died away Tuesday night (Feb 19) at Charleston Medical Center in West Virginia following complications from pneumonia, TMZ reported.

Lou was reportedly hospitalized back in December for pneumonia but he was released after New Year’s. A few weeks later, he collapsed at home and was put back in the hospital.

Tuesday night, Lou’s heart stopped, and though doctors were able to revive him, he fell into a coma and passed away just a few hours later. He was 77 years old. An autopsy will be performed to determine the official cause of death.

According to the Associated Press, Lou Myers’ TV credits include “NYPD Blue,” “E.R.,” “The Cosby Show,” “Touched by an Angel,” and more. He also made appearances in a number of films, including “Tin Cup,” “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” “Wedding Planner” and more.

“A Different World” — a spin-off from the “Cosby” show — ran from 1987-93 and originally starred Lisa Bonet from “Cosby” fame. Myers has credited Bill Cosby for his introduction into Hollywood.

Lou — who served in the U.S Army and will receive a military burial in West Virginia — is survived by his son and his 95-year-old mother.

Former “American’s Next Top Model” contestant Lisa D’Amato is speaking out about her fellow “Celebrity Rehab” castmate Mindy McCready‘s suicide.

McCready reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday (Feb 17). The country singer battled with depression and drug addiction but D’AMato doesn’t believe she really wanted to end her life.

“The thing about Mindy was you’d think she’s fine and cool and everything was great — she had an incredible sense of humor and was the funniest person — but then she would have a seizure or do crazy things like call me from another state to come and hang out,” D’Amato told Us Weekly. “She’d make odd choices that didn’t make sense.

“[But] this time I truly believe she didn’t want to commit suicide,” she added. “She would drink and take pills when she got depressed and then attempt suicide or act irrationally. This time David’s death made her turn to the pills and alcohol again, but I don’t think she wanted to commit suicide. She just got so depressed.”

McCready is the fifth “Celebrity Rehab” cast member to die within the past two years and the third person from just her season alone to meet an untimely end.

Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr was the first season three cast member to go. Starr died of a drug overdose in March 2011, at the age of 44. And Joey Kovar, of “Real World: Hollywood,” died last August of opiate intoxication. He was 29.

These loses are particularly unsettling for D’Amato, who feels as though she’s losing the friends she made while on the show.

“I’m numb from this,” she told US. “All my friends from the show are dying. I’m so shaken up right now. I’m mad at her and the world and everything. She tried to be better and to get better.”

Country singer Mindy McCready died Sunday (Feb 17) at her home in Heber Springs, Arkansas from a single self inflicted gunshot in an apparent suicide. According to sources, McCready shot herself and her dog. She was 37 years old.

According to E! News sources, McCready’s father had been staying with her up until this morning when he went back home to Florida. One source said that when her father left, “[Mindy] was in good spirits and seemed to be fine.”

Later in the day, neighbors heard two gunshots and called the police. “She shot herself and the dog,” the E! News source said.

A statement from the Cleburne County Sheriff’s Office read:

“At 3:31 PM, Sunday, February 17th Deputies from the Cleburne County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a report of gun shots fired in the area of 1132 Fox Chase Drive in Heber Springs. Officers arrived on the scene at 3:58 PM and discovered the body of 37-year-old Melinda Gayle McCready on the front porch of the residence at 1132 Fox Chase. Ms. McCready was pronounced dead at the scene from what appears to be a single self-inflicted gunshot wound. Ms. Mcready will be transported to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for an autopsy and the matter will be fully investigated.”

McCready’s life has been marred with troubles and tragedy over the past several years. The country singer, who was once engaged to Dean Cain, has been in and out of rehab and had lost custody of her two children.

She was also convicted of prescription medication fraud in 2004, a DUI in 2005, and was charged with battery and resisting arrest in 2007.

McCready had attempted suicide at least four times before her death, once back in 2005 and most recently in 2010. She was also featured on Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab in 2010.

Just last month, the father of McCready’s youngest child, David Wilson, was found dead from a suicide. Her children were removed from her custody on February 6, and she was committed to a to a treatment facility for a mental health and alcohol abuse evaluation. She was released two days later.

McCready is survived by her two young sons, Zander, 6, and 10-month-old Zayne.

17-year-old Emily Bauer from Cypress, TX nearly died last year after smoking what is known “synthetic marijuana,” which caused her to suffer from a series of strokes that left her brain damaged, paralyzed and unable to see.

According to reports, Bauer smoked the legal substance — often labeled as “potpourri,” “Spice” or “K2 (an herbal mixture soaked with chemicals that trigger a high similar to smoking marijuana) — with her friends last December, and within 15 minutes, she told her boyfriend that she had a migraine headache and needed to lay down for a second.

She then reportedly suffered several strokes that put her in a “psychotic like state,” which made her run into walls, urinate on herself, hallucinate and act violently towards everyone, her sister told CNN’s iReport.

The police were called to help restrain her into an ambulance, and she was taken to Northwest Cypress Hospital, where she bit guardrails and tried to bite medical staff. After she was in this state for over 24 hours, her doctors, and especially her family, knew something wasn’t right.

“We thought once she comes down off the drug, we’d take her home and show her the dangers of this drug,” her 22-year-old sister Blake told CNN. “We didn’t think it was as big of a deal until 24 hours later she was still violent and hurting herself. We realized you’re not supposed to stay high this long.”

Doctors put Emily in the ICU and placed her into an induced coma for the next 4 days while they did multiple tests on her brain.

The doctors soon found out that Emily had suffered multiple strokes, which caused vasculitis — meaning that parts of her brain were permanently shut down after being damaged from the blood vessels contracting and cutting off oxygen to her brain.

“In four days’ time, we went from thinking everything is going to be OK and we’ll put her in drug rehabilitation to now you don’t know if she’s going to make it,” her stepfather Tommy Bryant said.

After doctors at Northwest Cypress Hospital did all they could do, she was transported via helicopter across town to Memorial Herman Hospital Children’s ICU.

Doctors there soon found out the blood vessels in Emily’s brain were expanding again, which the family saw as a sign of improvement.

But unfortunately it wasn’t, as the pressure on the teenager’s brain grew rapidly and dangerously, forcing doctors to drill a hole in her skull to relieve the pressure, which by then, had damaged at least 70 percent of her brain.

“We met with Neurology team who showed us Emily’s brain images,” her mother Tonya Bauer said. “They told us that all white areas on images were dead. It looked to us at least 70 percent of the images were white.”

Emily made it through the surgery, but doctors said she wouldn’t be able to recognize her family, and would never be able to see, eat on her own, or move her arms or legs ever again.

With that information about Emily’s grave condition, her family made the difficult decision to take her off life support on December 16th, just a few days shy of her 17th birthday.

Doctors told them that Emily would pass within 30 minutes of being removed from life support, but miraculously, the next morning, her mother went to her bed to tell her “Good Morning, I love you,” and was stunned to hear a hoarse voice speaking back to her saying, “I love you too.”

Emily’s sister Blake wrote in her CNN iReport:

Since then, she has miraculously started breathing on her own. On her 17th birthday, even though she couldn’t move, is blind, and could hardly be aware of what was going on around her, she laughed with us as we made jokes and listened to her soft whisper replies. It is my little sister shining through, in every way she can manage, with every ounce of strength.

She fights every day to move a finger. She fights every day to whisper out a reply to let us know she is aware, and ready to get out of that bed. She is in so much pain and confusion, but the family is thankful every single day to still have her alive.

Soon we should be moving her to TIRR Rehab where she will learn how to see, walk and talk again hopefully within a few years.

Our mother, has started a charity for Emily called S.A.F.E. (Synthetic Awareness For Emily). It will go towards spreading the word about this awful drug and hopefully open up ears and eyes to the dangers.

Emily’s family said they had no idea how dangerous “K2″ or “synthetic marijuana” could be, and are now spreading awareness to educate others about the dangers of the substance.

Her stepfather said he knew she used real marijuana occasionally, and told her she would be grounded if he ever caught her smoking weed.

“Had I thought that there was any chance that she could have been hurt by this stuff, I would have been a lot more vigilant. I had no idea it was so bad,” he told CNN. “I’d never have thought we’d be in this situation. If she had bought it off the street or from a corner, that’s one thing, but she bought it from convenience store.”

While “K2″ has been outlawed by many states in the U.S., manufacturers go around the laws by lightly changing the compound used to the make stuff so that it can return to gas stations and “head shops,” where anyone over the age of 18 can purchase it. And it’s 100% legal, unlike marijuana, which is only fully legalized in 2 out of the 50 states — Washington and Colorado.

It goes without saying that what happened to Emily would not have happened if marijuana was legalized nationwide. Because of the legal ramifications of marijuana possession, she turned to a purported “legal alternative,” which basically ruined her life. Something that would never have happened with 100% natural, earthborn marijuana.

A nine-year-old girl from an impoverished town near Guadalajara, Mexico gave birth by Caesarean section to a healthy baby girl weighing nearly 6 pounds last month.

According to USA Today, the 5-pound, 15-ounce baby girl was born on January 27th. “Due to her age, her body is not able (or) in the best shape to have a baby,” Enrique Rabago, director of the Hospital General de Occidente, said in a news conference Wednesday.

The extremely young mother, identified only as “Dafne,” was impregnated by a 17-year-old whom she was said to be “dating” when she was just eight years old.

Dafne and her newborn were released from the hospital this past weekend, and are both doing well, according to Jalisco state police spokesman Lino Ginzalez Corona said.

The girl’s family reportedly alerted authorities after she gave birth, and the teen has since left town, Corono said. The teen’s whereabouts currently remain unknown.

If the currently unidentified teenager is indeed the father of nine-year-old Dafne’s baby, he could face child sex abuse charges.

The girl is reportedly one of 11 children who live with their parents in a poor neighborhood about 25 miles south of Guadalajara. “Her parents work all day and were not watching after her, and therefore didn’t realize what was about to happen,” Corona said.

According to a translation of an article from the Spanish news agency EFE, the girl told her mother she and the teen believed to be the baby’s father were “dating,” and he fled after the girl’s mother rejected his idea of the girl moving in with him after she told him

“We are looking for the young man to get his story because the girl does not understand what has happened,” said Jorge Villasenor, another Jaliso state police department rep. “This is either rape or child sex abuse.”

To prevent the girl from getting pregnant again anytime soon, in addition to psychological counseling and now being closely monitored, her mother approved of doctors implanting a subcutaneous birth control implant under her skin.

And if you think having a baby at 9 years old is young, get this. According to a list on Wikipedia of mothers under 12, the youngest mother on record is a Peruvian girl who was 5-years, 7 months old when she delivered a boy by C-section in 1939.

Dafne is among the youngest in the world to give birth within the past decade or so.

A three-year-old boy from Greenville, South Carolina was killed last Friday night (Feb 1) after he was shot in the head while playing with a pink gun he thought was a toy.

According to Greenville police, Tmorej Smith and his 7-year-old sister Taliyah were at their home at the Plantations at Haywood apartments when they came across a pink handgun, which they believed to be a toy.

Their parents weren’t home at the time, but police say their grandparents were in the living room.

As the two siblings were playing around with the gun, it went off and Temorej was fatally shot in the head. He was pronounced dead on the scene by the time police arrived.

While police haven’t revealed who fired the weapon, they ruled the shooting an accidental homicide, and are urging gun owners to keep their weapons locked away and hidden from young children.

“If you have guns, if you own guns mostly we would prefer you have them in a lock box,” said Johnathan Bragg, a spokesman for the Greenville Police Department. “At least have them out of the reach of children.”

Bragg told Greenville’s WYFF4 that no one was in custody, and that the investigation was ongoing.

Funeral services for Tmorej were held Wednesday afternoon (Feb 6) at Golden View Baptist Church in nearby Fountain Inn.

Local activist Jack Logan, founder of the group “Put the Guns Down Young People,” passed out nearly 60 gun locks at a Burger King just down the street from where the shooting happened.

“I didn’t want to see parents having guns laying around when a child could maybe get his or her hands on a gun,” Logan said.

Amid the national debate over gun control laws, a 15-year-old girl who performed with her high school band for President Obama’s Inauguration celebration last week was shot and killed in Chicago Tuesday (Jan 29).

Hadiya Pendleton, who was an honor student at King College Prep High School in Chicago, reportedly died after a gunman opened fire on a group of teenagers while they were hanging out a park just a few blocks away from the school.

According to reports, Pendleton — a majorette for the King College Prep Marching Band and Drill Team, had been released from school early after completing an exam, and was among a group of about a dozen teenagers seeking shelter from the rain under a covering at the park.

Witnesses tell Chicago’s CBS 2 that around 2:30 pm, out of nowhere, the gunman hopped a fence, ran up to the teens and started shooting. Pendleton was shot once in the back, and she was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Corner Children’s Hospital.

Another boy was also taken to Comer Children’s Hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg, and was listed in serious condition, though he is expected to recover from his injuries.

A witness said the teens who were with Hadiya at the time of the shooting scattered in different directions and ran out of the park as the shots rang out. Hadiya and the boy who was shot in the leg collapsed about a block away.

A neighbor who lives near the park said he heard six shots, and saw a man who he believes to be the killer wearing a blue hoodie and blue jeans, and he drove off in a white Nissan. Police are still working on a description of the killer.

“There has to be an end to it. It’s just too much. The children cannot go to school. They’re in fear,” another neighbor said.

Police say neither Hadiya wasn’t a part of any gangs, but they do believe the shooter confused someone in the crowd she was with for another rival gang member, and shot at them. Apparently, some of the young people gathered at the park had ties to area gangs.

“By all indications, it appears the female victim was an unintended target in this incident,” Chicago Police officer Jose Estrada said, according to The Washington Post.

Coincidentally, Hadiya appeared in an anti-gang violence PSA in late 2008.

And just days before she was gunned down, Hadiya had performed with her high school band during the parade for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in Washington, D.C.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with Hadiya’s family and some of her classmates at her home Wednesday night. Earlier that day, in response to questions about murders and violent crime, he said “we’re gonna make changes.”

“She is what is best in our city. A child going to school, who takes a final exam, who had just been to the inaugural,” Emanuel said. “You look at her, you look at how she talked about her future. She took her final exams. She had dreams. And this gang-banger, this punk took that away from Cleopatra. They took it away from Hadiya. And in my view, they took it away from the city of Chicago.”

Hadiya, who dreamed of becoming a lawyer one day, was part of her school’s Crystal Elegance marching band’s majorette team. In addition to being an honor student and a majorette, Hidiya was also a volleyball player.

Nathaniel Pendleton described his daughter as a “shining light.”

“She would brighten up a room when she walked in,” Mr. Pendleton said. “They took someone that had a real shining light.”

Members of the Chicago community where Hadiya Pendleton was killed marched in the slain teenager’s memory Friday (Feb 1).

Early Friday, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and other police officials announced that the reward for any information leading to the arrest of Hadiya’s killer had been raised from $14,000 to $40,000.

A horrible, horrible decision made on behalf of the band that was playing the night a fire ripped through a Brazilian nightclub earlier this week and killed over 200 people was apparently the cause of the massive blaze.

After conducting a thorough investigation into the fire, police believe that flares designed for outdoor use only were inappropriately used that fateful night, which when lit, caused the entire ceiling to catch on fire.

Police inspector Marcelo Arigony said in a news conference on Tuesday (Jan 29) that “the flare was for outdoor use only and the people who lit them know that.”

According to Brazilian fire officials, when the fire broke out Sunday night, around 2,000 people — double the maximum occupancy of 1,000 — were packed like sardines inside the Kiss nightclub, which reportedly had no sprinklers and no emergency exits.

Arigony said “Any child could have seen that this establishment should not have been open.”

The blaze began at around 2:30 am local time, during a performance by Gurizada Fandangueira, a country music band that had made the use of pyrotechnics a trademark of their shows.

Police have said the club’s ceiling was covered with an insulating foam made from a combustible material that appeared to have ignited after it came in contact with a spark from a flare lit during the performance.

After the fire extinguisher malfunctioned, the blaze spread throughout the packed club at lightning speed, emitting a thick, toxic smoke. Because Kiss apparently had neither an alarm nor a sprinkler system and only one working exit, the crowd was left to search desperately for a way out.

About 50 of the victims were found in the club’s two bathrooms, where the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.

Police investigator Arigony said people headed to the bathrooms because the only lights in the dark club were coming from there, and the patrons mistook them for exits.

Regarding the outdoor flares that were stupidly used indoors, Arigony said that the Gurizada Fandangueira country music band — known for its flashy stage shows and pyrotechnics — “chose to buy those because they were cheaper than those that can be used indoors.”

The outdoor flares — meant for OUTDOORS only — cost only $1.25 a piece, compared with the $35 price tag for an indoor flare. So basically, the whole thing could have been prevented had the band not decided to cut corners with something as serious as FIRE.

But because of their penny-pinching, 234 people lost their lives, and authorities say more than 120 people remain hospitalized for smoke inhalation and burns, with dozens of them in critical condition.

[HuffPo/AP]

Any news out of North Korea should be taken with the biggest grain of salt on the planet, but multiple reports from the region claim that food shortages in North Korea are so bad that people are resorting to cannibalism. Even worse, parents are reportedly murdering their own children for food.

The shocking reports come from independent news reporters commissioned by Asia Press, an independent press agency focusing on Asia, and were published by U.K. newspaper the Sunday Times.

“A father in North Korea is reported to have been executed by firing squad after murdering his two children to eat them during a ‘hidden famine’ that may have killed more than 10,000 people last year,” the Sunday Times wrote of one known incident of cannibalism in North Korea.

The British newspaper reports that hunger in the country may be widespread as a “litany of horrors [have been] documented by undercover reporters,” with one man even reportedly digging up his own grandchild’s corpse for food, and another who “went mad with hunger” and boiled his own child and ate the flesh for dinner.

Another startling report from the Sunday Times states:

While his wife was away on business he killed his eldest daughter and, because his son saw what he had done, he killed his son as well. When the wife came home, he offered her food, saying: ‘We have meat.’

But his wife, suspicious, notified the Ministry of Public Security, which led to the discovery of part of their children’s bodies under the eaves.

The big question here is whether or not all of these reports of cannibalism are actually true, considering North Korea, who favors propaganda over the facts, would never confirm such issues.

However, the Asia Press’ use of citizen reports in famine-stricken regions of the country adds serious veracity to their claims of cannibalism. And The Sunday Times, as well as The Independent — both credible news sources — have been reporting on this issue as well.

An image taken of North Korean children during the food shortage of the 1990′s

Sadly, these aren’t the first reports of North Koreans eating other people to combat a national food shortage. Ten years ago, during another food shortage, there were refugee accounts that North Korean citizens were not only killing and eating their own children, but also selling their children’s corpses.

Meanwhile, amid his country’s national food shortage, leader Kim Jong Un has spent vast sums of money on two rocket launches, and a third is reportedly underway.

North Korea is definitely a country with its priorities in order.

Sad news Skettie Nation: Honey Boo Boo’s beloved gay, redneck uncle is now an HIV-positive man.

This unfortunate turn of events has hit Uncle Poodle, whose real name is Lee Thompson, quite hard, since he was infected just last year. He trusted his then-boyfriend, who he was exclusive with.

But Uncle Poodle later learned that his boyfriend, who he was having unprotected sex with, was HIV positive and failed to tell him. He eventually had his ex locked up for infecting him without informing him of his HIV-positive status.

Uncle Poodle revealed the details in an exclusive interview with Fenuxe.

Dino: Lee, when did you find out about your HIV status?

Lee: I was adamant about getting my HIV status checked on a regular basis. On March 16, 2012, I tested negative. Then, in May of 2012 my test results came back positive. I knew it had been my boyfriend who infected me. I later learned he had been HIV positive and was not taking medication and had not bothered to tell me about it. I was advised that I should press charges and, hesitantly, I did. It was the right thing to do.

Dino: What happened to your ex?
Lee: He is serving a 5-year sentence. I would have been cool with his HIV status if he had been honest. I don’t have an issue with the disease. I would have known how to protect myself.

This is horrible, horrible news. Our best wishes to Uncle Poodle.

Some very sad news out of the state of Oklahoma. Police have confirmed that the body of a missing 30-year-old woman from Oklahoma City was found in the trunk of her car Tuesday in a St. Louis, Missouri neighborhood.

Ebony Jackson‘s family says that she was visiting some friends the St. Louis area last week, but no one had heard from her since last Thursday.

Days earlier, her 3-month old son was found abandoned in a car seat in the hallway of an apartment building in Breckenridge Hills, MO. The child was clean, warm and in good health, and reportedly a full bottle nestled next to him.

While Jackson had a troubled relationship with her baby’s father, police have no immediate suspects, and have no idea how she went missing and ended up dead in the trunk of her car, and how her baby ended up inside the apartment complex. Foul play is suspected, and police are checking her phone records for any clues.

“It’s just totally out of character for her to be in a neighborhood like this, or just the car being in a neighborhood like this,” one family member told Channel 9 News in Oklahoma City.

Not much is really known about Jackson, other than her arrest history in Oklahoma City — three since 2005 (one for assaulting an OKC police officer, another for stealing from Dillard’s, and the most recent for using her son’s stroller to hide stolen merchandise at a local Walmart). Her family tells police that she suffered a brain injury in the past that causes her to have severe memory loss and mood swings.

Jackson’s boyfriend is in St. Louis at this time trying to bring their son back to Oklahoma where he lives.

[News 9]

Further adding to Chicago’s infamous reputation for shooting deaths, it is being reported that Chief Keef‘s 19-year-old stepbrother, Ulysses “Chris” Gissendanner III was murdered on the city’s infamous South Side.

As the website DNA Info notes, Ulysses, who modeled his Hip Hop persona “YPN Boomtown” after Chief Keef’s, is the fourth aspiring teen rapper to get shot and killed in Chicago since last September.

According to police, Gissendanner was gunned down in a car after visiting his uncle, and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Authorities say they have no reason to believe that Gissendanner’s murder had anything to do with his connection to Chief Keef, who was related to the slain teen by marriage.

Gissendanner’s stepfather Alfonso Cozart is the father of Chief Keef, whose real name is Keith Cozart. But Keef’s grandmother and his lawyer let it be known that the Hip Hop star has no relationship what-so-ever with either his father or his stepbrother, and they don’t consider neither of them to be family.

Keef’s attorney Dennis Berkson said bluntly that the controversial rapper “wasn’t friendly” with Gissendanner and “had nothing to do with the kid.”

Though Chief Keef had been estranged from his father and stepbrother in recent years, it hadn’t always been that way. In fact, Gissendanner’s mother Aridecy Tate said Keef and her son were pretty close when they were younger.

“They were brothers,” she said. “They used to play together, coming over to our house, getting haircuts together. A lot of brotherly stuff.”

But the two drifted apart when they grew up. Gissendanner visited Keef while he was on house arrest last year, but they didn’t hang out in the same circles nor did they have the same friends.

Chief Keef’s father told reporters that he doesn’t want any connection his step-son has with the rapper to take away from the tragedy of his slaying.

“He just graduated high school, and was in college and had a job. He was a positive person,” Mr. Cozart said. “I’m not trying to get publicity of Chief Keef being my son. I want you to focus on Ulysses. He’s the one that’s gone.”

[DNA Info]

In an extremely sad story out of the underground Hip Hop community, Seattle rapper Freddy E was found dead Saturday (Jan 5) from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, according to confirmed reports.

Freddy’s father confirmed the sad news with a statement on Facebook, posted shortly after the story originally exploded on Twitter.

“Our family is saddened beyond words; our loss is great; this tragedy is enormous and unforeseen,” the message read. “Not only our family, but the world has lost a talented, sensitive, brilliant young man who lit up our existence with his.”

Though he wasn’t a household name, Freddy E, born Frederick Eugene Buhl, was best known for his highly successsful YouTube channel “Jerk TV,” which boasted over 7 million video views and more than 70,000 subscribers, and mostly featured comedy segments and original rap music.

Before pulling the trigger on himself, the 22-year-old, who recently celebrated his birthday, took to Twitter to cryptically vent about a situation that was apparently troubling him:

Annnd, my day is ruined. Fuck… my… life. I’m about to delete my twitter in a second…

This day couldn’t get any worse…

I’m sorry………..

Smoked my first pack of cigarettes today… been a long time since I’ve gone through heart break. It’s a cold unforgiving world if I do say. It’s all bad y’all…

Cruising in the 300 Chrysler. Wishing the world could be a little brighter. But all I can seem to find is this lighter. It’s all bad y’all.

If there’s a God then He’s calling me back home. This barrel never felt so good next to my dome. It’s cold & I’d rather die than live alone.

It’s… all… bad… y’all. *puts finger around trigger*

I love you Mom. I love you Dad. I love you Katherine. God… please forgive me.

I’m sorry.

Nothing about his death has been confirmed, however, many believe Freddy’s last tweets, and subsequent suicide, were related to a recent breakup with his (rumored?) girlfriend Honey Cocaine — a female artist signed to Young Money rapper Tyga‘s music label Last Kings Entertainment.

And some of Freddy’s fans are blaming his death on his failed relationship with Honey Cocaine, claiming that he basically took his own life because she broke his heart by dumping him.

But Cocaine — who experienced drama of her own last year after she was shot when her crew, including Tyga, ran into some trouble with a few rowdy concertgoers at a concert in Omaha, Nebraska — responded to the backlash on Twitter, slamming the idea that she had something to do with Freddy’s death:

To say I caused what happened is ignorance.. You know nothing about our friendship or the story, hate me if you feel.. We loved eachother..

— Honey Cocaine(@QueenHoneyC) January 6, 2013

We were homies. We had a bond and a connection. For people to attack me acting like I made him do it is a shame.

— Honey Cocaine(@QueenHoneyC) January 6, 2013

Say it’s my fault, threaten me, whatever.. I knew him well enough to know he had other things happening.. I was there for him all the time.

— Honey Cocaine(@QueenHoneyC) January 6, 2013

Honey Cocaine also tweeted a screenshot of a text message exchange with Freddy E she says took place the morning of the day Freddy took his life.

In the excerpted message, Freddy explained that he felt as though everyone was out to get him, and asked her whether or not she felt as though that were true. Her response was: “The devil is always out to get you in different forms… Anything revolving around money is intertwined with evil. Play your cards right and keep your soul pure cuz you can be a victim in a second.”

Though the exact nature of the relationship between Honey Cocaine and Freddy E isn’t known, Freddy spoke very highly of Honey recently in a series of messages on his Facebook page and described how they remained in constant contact.

“I talk to Honey damn near every day,” he wrote. “I text her. She calls me. We talk on the phone for hours. I’ve met some of her family and she’s met some of mine. We call each other by our birth names. I’d take a bullet for her, as would she take one for me. I actually know her.”

And in a 20-minute video posted on January 1st, Freddy continued to express his admiration for his friend, saying “Honey, you’re one amazing individual. Someone doesn’t have to be in your life very long for them to leave a huge impact, and she definitely did that. She’s beautiful, ambitious, passionate about her craft. Seriously… I love that girl.”

After tweeting a link to the video on Sunday (Jan 6), Honey Cocaine wrote: “I love you too @Freddy_E… The end of the video is beautiful.”

A paparazzo who was trying to take pictures of Justin Bieber inside his Ferrari was killed after he was run over near a Los Angeles highway, TMZ reported Tuesday night (Jan 1). But what the photog didn’t know … is that Justin Bieber wasn’t even in the car!

The California Highway Patrol reportedly pulled over Bieber’s white Ferrari for speeding on California Highway 405 in Los Angeles. The photographer — later identified as Chris Guerra — was following the Ferrari at the time it was pulled over, and was trying to take some photos while officers conducted the traffic stop.

Guerra then crossed Sepulveda Blvd. to get a closer look at the Ferrari and its occupants, but was told by police to go back to his car, which was parked across the street. As he crossed the street to make his way back to his vehicle, he was struck and killed by an oncoming SUV.

The motorist who crashed into Guerra was identified as a 69-year-old woman, and her children were reportedly sitting in the backseat of the car. She was said to be distraught over the entire ordeal, but won’t be charged.

“There were no sidewalks on the street there, there was no crossing place for a pedestrian, there was no reason to expect a pedestrian… It would have been very difficult for her to see him,” Los Angeles police Detective Charles Walton said.

Justin Bieber performed at the Dick Clark New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest TV special in Los Angeles on December 31st

“While I was not present nor directly involved with this tragic accident, my thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim,” Justin Bieber said in a statement released the next morning.

He continued, “Hopefully this tragedy will finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent public bystanders, and the photographers themselves.”

Prolific Twitterer Miley Cyrus also had this to say about the tragic incident:

It is unfair for anyone to put this on to Justin’s conscious as well! This was bound to happen! Your mom teaches u when your a child not

— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) January 2, 2013

to play in the street! The chaos that comes with the paparazzi acting like fools makes it impossible for anyone to make safe choices.

— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) January 2, 2013

Dear Miley, the word you’re looking for is “conscience.”

Love, The English Language

Meanwhile, a source connected with the photo agency that Guerra did freelance work with tells TMZ that Guerra thought he saw Bieber smoking marijuana in his Ferrari earlier that day, and might have been a bit “overzealous” at the traffic stop because he believed he had a huge story on his hands.

When asked by a reporter why he created a dummy of President Barack Obama holding a watermelon in his hand, Kentucky man Danny Hafley said, “I thought he might get hungry standing down here.”

Well, how considerate of him. Nothing racist here. He’s just a nice guy, offering to feed a dummy with the sweetest, delicious fruit he can find.

Of course that’s about as believable as Lindsay Lohan saying she was hospitalized not for drug abuse but for “exhaustion,” but hey, why let something like the truth get in the way of a good time, right?

While many might be quick to paint all of Kentucky with a racist, hick brush, it’s worth pointing out that one of Hafley’s neighbors gets it.

She believes the sign is in poor taste and that many blacks could potentially find it racist. Score one for this neighbor lady’s common sense.

Watch the video of Hafley defending his watermelon-eating Obama dummy below.

Post-racial America, indeed.

The tragedy that has befallen the sleepy town of Newtown, Conn. has gripped the nation as people try to make sense of the massacre that abruptly ended the lives of 20 young children. As the days go on, we’re beginning to hear more and more of the survivors’ stories.

Gene Rosen, a 69-year-old retired psychologist and grandfather, is one of the good, brave souls who stepped in to help the children in their time of need. Rosen said that he saw the children sitting in a semi-circle on his driveway, so he invited them in while they waited for their parents to retrieve them.

Rosen listened to the horror stories as the children bemoaned the loss of their teacher, Victoria Soto, according to a report from the AP:

Rosen said he had heard the staccato sound of gunfire about 15 minutes earlier but dismissed it as an obnoxious hunter in the nearby woods.

“I had no idea what had happened,” Rosen said. “I couldn’t take that in.”

He walked the children past his small goldfish pond with its running waterfall, and the garden he made with his two grandchildren, into the small yellow house he shares with his wife.

He ran upstairs and grabbed an armful of stuffed animals. He gave those to the children, along with some fruit juice, and sat with them as the two boys described seeing their teacher being shot.

Victoria Soto, 27, was a first-grade teacher killed when 20-year-old Adam Lanza burst into her classroom. It wasn’t clear how the children escaped harm, but there have been reports that Soto hid some of her students from the approaching gunman. The six who turned up at Rosen’s home did apparently have to run past her body to safety.

“They said he had a big gun and a little gun,” said Rosen, who didn’t want to discuss other details the children shared.

The most jarring and alarming part of Rosen’s story is the unhappy ending, once all of the children who showed up at his doorstep were returned to their parents.

Some parents, those of the deceased, came knocking looking for their children. And in that moment, Rosen lost it:

A couple of hours after the last child left, a knock came on his door. It was a frantic mother who had heard that some children had taken refuge there. She was looking for her little boy.

“Her face looked frozen in terror,” Rosen said, breaking down in tears.

“She thought maybe a miracle from God would have the child at my house,” he said. Later, “I looked at the casualty list … and his name was on it.”

There is nothing that can prepare you for this sort of thing. And Rosen, a sweet man by all appearances, couldn’t keep it together very much while he sat for an interview with CBS News:

The first photo of Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooter Adam Lanza (circa: 2005)

The United States was hit with one of the worst tragedies it has seen all year Friday (Dec 14) when 26 people, including 20 children, were murdered after a crazed gunman opened fire inside an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Eighteen children, and nine teachers and faculty members — including the school’s principal and a psychologist — were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, while other students and school staffers, including the vice principal, were treated for injuries (after being shot in the foot) at a nearby hospital.

Two students were pronounced dead at the hospital, and police say the body of a 28th shooting victim was discovered at another location

The shooter was identified as Adam Lanza (after being mistaken for his older brother Ryan in previous reports), the 20-year-old son of kindergarten teacher Nancy Lanza, who taught at the school.

Some media outlets are reporting that the kindergarten teacher that was shot and killed at the school was Nancy Lanza, while others are reporting that Mrs. Lanza was murdered at her home before the massacre at the school … which actually makes sense, as Adam drove his mother’s car to the school, according to police.

The details surrounding the story are still sketchy, which is why there are so many variations floating around, but sources are now saying that Nancy and Adam had some sort of a “dispute” at their family home before he killed her, took her car, drove to the school and shot up the school where she taught, targeting her kindergarten class specifically.

It was also reported that Lanza’s father was killed in New Jersey, though NBC News and other sources have backed off from that statement, as police have yet to confirm anything.

Police have also yet to neither confirm nor deny the reports that a third brother in the family was also killed at the home.

Police are, however, confirming that SOMEONE was found dead in a house in Newtown owned by Lanza’s mother, but they’re not revealing who exactly it is.

Story developing…

Korean rapper Psy‘s “Gangnam Style” dance has gone from viral to deadly. According to reports, a 46-year-old IT worker from the UK collapsed with chest pains and died over the weekend after doing the world-famous dance at an office party.

Eamon Kilbride‘s wife Julie, who was celebrating her birthday at the time, said he had been doing the energetic dance moves (that include galloping like a horse and looking like a damn fool) with his co-workers, and dropped to the floor seconds later after complaining of chest pains.

Mrs. Kilbride told the UK’s Sun:

“We were having a fantastic time at the Christmas party and Eamonn had just finished dancing to Gangnam Style. He was up on stage and entertaining everybody. He said he had a bit of a pain and just collapsed.”

Kilbride was transported to a nearby hospital where he was officially pronounced dead. The coroner told the family that he had suffered from acute heart failure, or what is commonly known as a heart attack.

His wife added, “Eamonn was such an intelligent man, he inspired our children and made sure they had a good education. He loved me dearly and would tell people all the time. I know he thought the world of us.”

In addition to his wife, Mr. Kilbride leaves behind three children, who are all away at college.

With an impressive view count approaching 1 billion views (nearly 950 million exactly at the time this post was published), Psy’s “Gangnam Style” and its accompanying ridiculous dance has quickly become the official YouTube sensation for 2012.

But experts warn older men to stay within their own “comfort zone” when it comes to dancing.

As one cardiologist told The Daily Telegraph, “The chance that you’ll come to grief is very small. But as with any form of untypical exercise … be somewhat measured. Let the lady dance around you.”

That’s right fellas, just let the lady dance around you.

Ladies, when it comes to the love below, LEAVE IT ALONE!

All of this talk about vaginal rejuvenation should scare the bejeezus out of you. If you think you need a surgeon to make your lady bits function better, then it’s a wonder how the human race has managed to procreate and prosper all these thousands of years.

The sad thing is that vaginal alteration by surgery apparently isn’t anything new.

Back in 1984, Cheryl Dillon of Ohio, then 36, went to see Dr. James Burt, a well-known ob/gyn at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. She went to Dr. Burt for minor bladder surgery, but he recommended a hysterectomy, according to an account of her story in the Daily Mail.

Whoa there. That’s pretty extreme for a 30-something-year-old woman.

But Dr. Burt did a whole lot more than just remove Ms. Dillon’s uterus. He literally “rearranged” her vagina, moving the hole to a different location and removed her clitoral hood, effectively ‘circumcising’ her.

This left Dillon in severe pain, and she even had trouble wearing pants and sitting. And it also wrecked her then 12-year marriage since her sex life was pretty much ruined, she told the Daily Mail.

“The way I was deformed, I couldn’t have sex. I ended up going through three different corrective surgeries but by that time, my marriage was shot and I lost the best thing that had happened in my life.”

Here’s the important lesson to learn from this: If a doctor offers to rearrange your vagina, return the favor and offer to rearrange his face.

[Daily Mail]

It has been an emotional and hectic week for Jenni Rivera‘s family following the 43-year-old singer’s death this past Sunday (Dec 9).

The entire Rivera clan, especially her children and mother, initially held out hope that the Diva de la Banda would be found alive and return home safely. They refused to accept reality — at least not until DNA results came back positive and confirmed Jenni’s demise.

The shaken Latin community joined their positive thoughts for Jenni and prayed incessantly for a miracle. However, Mexican authorities have now confirmed that the DNA results coincide with the identity of Jenni Rivera, killing the dreams of thousands of seeing their beloved idol alive ever again.

Although Jenni Rivera’s death was completely unexpected and shocking, a lot of eerie things happened before the tragic accident.

Was her early passing written in her destiny? Did she have a feeling she wouldn’t be here much longer? Let’s take a look.

The Cross-Shaped Stage

This overhead view of the Monterrey Arena where Jenni Rivera’s last concert took place just a few hours before dying is chilling, to the say the least.

She had never before in her career performed on a cross-shaped stage and apparently it was her and her team’s idea. The picture shows Jenni singing in a black dress while standing in the center of the cross. Does this give you goosebumps or what?

Excessive Crying During Last Concert

The Diva of Banda was known for wearing her heart on her sleeve and giving emotional performances almost every time she put on a show.

However, various sources have testified through televised interviews that she cried and sang with more passion than ever before during the last concert on Saturday, December 8th.

Witnesses also say that the song she wept the hardest over was “Paloma Negra,” a song she dedicated to daughter Chiquis Marin whom she had recently became distant from over a supposed affair with her husband Esteban Loaiza.

Jenni Joins Brother Lupillo On Stage One Last Time

Lupillo Rivera, older brother of Jenni Rivera, is a star in his own light. Part of a musical family, the two are the most popular members of the Rivera dynasty.

Through time, the siblings had various fall outs and had not shared a stage in years. Perhaps saying goodbye on Saturday, December 1st, a week and some days shy of her death, Jenni surprised Lupillo on stage to sing a tear-filled duet with her brother.

Little did they both know, it would be the last time they would ever sing together. Jenni told the audience that no matter how distanced they were from one another, her brother was always there for her when she needed him.

And indeed, he still is. Lupillo Rivera is the one in charge travelling to Monterrey to identify and bring Jenni’s physical remains back home to their awaiting family members and fans in Lakewood, CA.

Jenni Leaves a (Goodbye?) Letter Behind

Sources have also revealed that Jenni Rivera wrote a special secret letter to her family members just about a month ago. She carefully instructed her sister Rosie Rivera to keep the letter a secret until “her day” came.

The contents of the letter have not yet been exposed, however, we speculate it must be an emotive message for her loved ones. Perhaps a personalized goodbye?

The Jet Was Made The Same Year Jenni Was Born

Another incredibly weird coincidence is that the Learjet 25 in which Jenni Rivera and the six other people were traveling in was allegedly made in 1969 — the same year the Banda singer was born. Interesting.

Jenni Left NOTHING for Husband in Will

Jenni Rivera might have had a feeling that her marriage to baseball player Esteban Loaiza would not last. The singer filed for divorce from her husband just two months before her death but never revealed the specifics of her decision.

The indirect hints she gave in recent interviews implicating Loaiza and daughter Chiquis in a “wrong doing that she simply cannot tolerate” left everyone thinking that the two had an affair.

Rivera made Loaiza sign a pre-nuptual agreement stating that he wasn’t to get a single dime from her fortune should they divorce or after her demise.

Undoubtedly, Jenni Rivera was at the prime of her career at the time of her untimely death. Although she was involved in yet another scandal in her personal life, Jenni’s attitude was that of a warrior and her recent words of empowerment prove she had reached a newfound level of peace and emotional maturity.

Her last words when asked how she felt as of late at her last press conference just hours before her death confirm The Diva de la Banda was in a better place emotionally:

“I feel blessed. Very fortunate, very loved. Sometimes I can’t believe the things that happen in my career, and well, in my personal life also. But truthfully, I’m very happy and very blessed. I never think too far ahead because I feel so blessed in this moment, but God always has good things ahead of me.”

Our sincerest condolences go out to the families of everyone who died in this unfortunate accident.

May they all rest in peace.

It is a very sad day for the Latin community. The death of 43-year-old Jenni Rivera, better known as “La Diva de la Banda” (The Diva of Banda Music), has been confirmed by her family.

On Sunday (Dec. 9) Jenni, her publicist and former entertainment reporter Arturo Rivera, stylist Jorge Sanchez, make-up artist Jacobo Llenares, attorney Mario Macias and two pilots boarded a private plane from Monterey to Mexico City. The fatal flight took off at 3:30 am.

Just 60 miles into the flight, the plane disappeared from the radar and lost touch with control towers. Fearing, but not yet declaring, the worst outcome, it was announced that the flight was missing and a search would take place later on in the day when then sun was up.

The Rivera family, celebrities and fans immediately began a chain of prayers for Jenni and the other passengers, wishing and hoping that they were all safe. The optimism endured as the day went on and evidence of a crash hadn’t been yet found.

However, the dreaded news broke in the afternoon that the crash site was found, leaving the Latin community in complete shock. The Diva de la Banda was said to be dead amongst the 7 passengers aboard the Learjet in an announcement to the press made by her father Don Pedro Rivera outside of her home in Encino, CA.

Jenni Rivera is pictured singing at what would be her last concert ever in Monterey, MX on Saturday December 8th, 2012. (Right) A photo taken at the site of the crash showing the remains of her belongings.

Search crews found scattered pieces of the plane as well as belongings of the singer. Her California driver’s license was found somewhat melted and even the pink dress and yellow scarf she had worn the night before at her last concert was seen lying on the ground.

Transportation Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza told the press that “there is nothing recognizable, neither material nor human. [The remains] are scattered over an area of 250 to 300 meters. It is almost unrecognizable.”

This is most likely the last photo ever of Jenni Rivera and her team aboard the Learjet before take-off, taken by her make-up artist Jacobo Llenares. The caption on his Instagram reads "We getting Back To Mexico City.....jenni Rivera, Arturo, Gigi and Me.. Los Amooo!"

Jenni Rivera in Recent Years

The Mexican-American singer was frequently surrounded by controversy but showed strength through her struggles and always voiced exactly what was on her mind — traits which made her very popular amongst her fans, especially women.

Rivera was probably the most successful female in “banda grupera,” a mainly male-dominated genre. Her songs about heartbreak and rising-above-it-all were her signature sound.

Her recent divorce to two-year husband Esteban Loaiza had been highly publicized and was later rumored to being the fault of Jenni’s oldest daughter Chiquis Marin, who was accused of having an affair with the man and even helping him steal money from her mother.

Chiquis appeared on a television program denying the rumors and crying and pleading that her mother give her a chance to speak to her as they had became estranged since the scandal arose. Such chance would never take place.

Jenni was starring in her own reality TV show on Mun2 called “I Love Jenni” alongside her 5 kids and grandchildren. She recently made comments that she wanted to spend less time on stage and dedicate more of it to having quality time with her family.

Her last concert ever took place in Monterey on Saturday, December 8th where she also held a press conference and received a double gold and platinum disc for her latest record “Joyas Prestadas” (Borrowed Jewels).

She is remembered by her father as someone who “never gave up.”

Rest in peace, Jenni Rivera.

NFL star Jovan Belcher — a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs — shot and killed his girlfriend, then took his own life early Saturday morning (Dec 1), according to various confirmed reports.

Officials from the Kansas City Police Department say that Belcher and his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins — who had just given birth to their daughter less than three months ago — had been arguing earlier in the morning at their home, at around 7:00 a.m. local time, when Belcher fatally shot her multiple times.

Perkins was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Her mother was at the home and reportedly witnessed the shooting; and tipped police off about the incident.

According to police, 25-year-old Belcher left the scene, then drove about 5 miles to the team practice facility at Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in front of two team officials — Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and head coach Romeo Crennel — who both spoke briefly with the NFL star before he turned the gun on himself.

Police say before he shot himself in the head, Belcher — who had been with the Chiefs for the past four seasons thanked Pioli and Crennel for everything they had done for him. The coaches told police they never felt as though they were in danger.

As of right now, authorities have no idea of a possible motive for the murder-suicide, which has obviously stunned his teammates, and came one day before the Chiefs are scheduled to play against the Carolina Panthers at home. The NFL has said that the game will go on as scheduled.

Despite being downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm late Monday (Oct 29), when Sandy hit … she hit HARD, leaving a devastating path of destruction behind her.

As of 5 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, October 30th, the Associated Press reports that the nationwide death toll from Sandy is at 39 people, and with heavy search and rescue still underway, that number still has the potential to rise as the days go on.

Additionally, nearly 10 million people from Maine, to the Carolinas, to Ohio woke up Tuesday morning without power, including New York City and parts of New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Massachusetts, which were among the places where the storm hit the hardest.

The wrath of Sandy caused torrents of water to fill the streets of Atlantic City, while also ripping up parts of the popular vacation spot’s boardwalk.

The late-season storm also set records on Manhattan island, which was hit by an unprecedented 13-foot surge of seawater — at least 3 feet above the previous record — that gushed into the city, flooding its tunnels, subway stations and the underground electrical systems that power the megalopolis.

The massive storm caused skyscrapers to sway, and a crane sitting above a 75-story building currently under construction collapsed, and could still be seen dangling beside the tower the next day.

Airlines canceled more than 15,000 flights, and New York City’s three major airports were shut down. Most major tunnels and bridges in New York were closed, as were schools and Broadway theaters.

And thanks to the high tides boosted by a full moon, a giant 700-ton tanker ship was displaced, and washed ashore on Staten Island. Also, the facade of one building literally collapsed as a result of the dangerous, 80-90 mile per hour winds.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the “devastating storm” was “maybe the worst that we have ever experienced.” He said that there was an “extraordinary” amount of water in Lower Manhattan, as well as downed trees throughout the city and widespread power outages.

“We knew that this was going to be a very dangerous storm, and the storm has met our expectations,” he said. “The worst of the weather has come, and the city certainly is feeling the impacts.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said Sandy was “beyond anything I thought I’d ever see … It’s a devastating sight right now.”

Sandy’s death toll in the U.S. included several people who were killed by falling trees, and at least three of the victims were reported to be children, one just 8 years old.

Off the coast of North Carolina, a replica of the 18th-century sailing ship HMS Bounty that was built for the 1962 Marlon Brando movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” sank, and Coast Guard helicopters rescued 14 crew members from rubber lifeboats bobbing up and down in 18-foot seas.

After a search on the boat, a 15th crew member was found unresponsive and was later pronounced dead. The ship’s captain was still missing.

Sandy also claimed the lives of 69 people in the Caribbean before making its way up the Eastern Seaboard, bringing Sandy’s total worldwide death toll to over 100.

Flood watches, wind warnings, storm warnings, blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings and winter advisories are all in effect for much of the Eastern part of North America, including parts of Canada and the Northeastern United States, but the worst of Sandy is now behind us.

Natina Reed, best known as one third of the late 90′s R&B/Hip Hop group Blaque, was reportedly killed in Georgia over the weekend after she was struck by a car.

According to Georgia police, Reed was hit while crossing the street in Lawrenceville (near Atlanta) late Friday night (Oct 26).

The driver of the vehicle that accidentally hit Reed called 911, and the passenger performed CPR on Reed, contrary to initial reports that stated that the tragic accident was a “hit-and-run.”

Reed was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital about 30 minutes later. News about the tragedy quickly spread on Twitter, as Reed’s former group member Brandi Williams confirmed the reports.

The driver was later determined to not be at fault, multiple reports confirmed, and police are trying to figure out why Reed was in the roadway.

“It’s kind of a dark lit area,” Gwinnett County police spokesman Sgt. Rich Long said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There is not really anything in that area that’s open at that time of night, that would be any kind of a draw to a person up there.”

As a member of Blaque, Reed achieved success in the late 1990′s with hit singles like “808″ and “Bring It All to Me,” the latter of which was an international success.

In addition to her singing career, Reed also had somewhat of an acting career, appearing in the popular 2000 film “Bring It On” and 2003′s “Honey” as herself.

Reed was also a protege of the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, who also died in a tragic car accident in Honduras over 10 years ago.

Reed is survived by her 10-year-old son Tren Brown, whose father is rapper Kurupt. She died two days shy of her 33rd birthday, which was Sunday, October 28th.

Kurupt said in a statement released to MTV News:

“Myself and Tren, Natina’s son, would like to thank everyone for their love and support during this tragic time,” he said. “This is a tremendous loss to our family. Natina was a great person and I wish everyone had the opportunity to meet her and know her as I did.”

Blaque’s Brandi Williams and Shamari Fears-DeVoe also released a joint statement to E! News:

We are devastated by the loss of our group member, sister and friend Natina Reed. Because of the enormous support of Blaque fans and our love for each another, Blaque officially reunited this fall and we were in the process of working on a new album and a reality show.

Natina continuously embodied the pioneering spirit of Blaque and her undeniable creativity touched the hearts of fans everywhere. Natina was a mother, sister, accomplished songwriter, artist and friend.

We ask for your prayers at this time for Natina’s family. She will forever be missed and her global influence eternally felt. We thank God for the experiences we shared.

A public wake and funeral for Reed is scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

A Miami rapper known as “Bizzle” was reportedly shot and killed Monday night (Oct 15) outside a car washing business with his two young children nearby.

According to reports out of Miami, 37-year-old Robert Labranche apparently became involved in an argument with someone at the Magic City car wash before he was shot and killed.

Miami police officers on patrol near the area say they heard gunshots at around 8 p.m. and after searching the area found Labranche’s body on the ground behind the car wash.

The man had two children — a son and a daughter, both younger than 10 years old — inside an SUV parked out front, but fortunately, they were not hurt and did not see the incident first-hand, Miami police said.

In the hours that followed the tragic shooting incident, word began to spread on Twitter and Facebook that Lebranche was a Miami rapper known as “Bizzle,” as noted by his MySpace profile and several video performances posted on YouTube.

The morning after the shooting, Bizzle’s friends, family and supporters all gathered outside the car wash, which was owned by the local rapper.

Among the mourners was Bizzle’s former manager Alex Pierre-Louis, who said Bizzle was a well-liked businessman who employed young men to work at his car wash.

“He didn’t grow up with a lot of money. If he saw a little kid buying food at Wendy’s he paid for the food. He was always looking out for people,” Pierre-Louis told reporters.

Police are still looking for the shooter, but they believe a man in his 20′s (wearing all black) who they saw running from the scene after the shooting might have had something to do with it.

[Miami Herald, NBC6 Miami]

An employee of tuna maker Bumble Bee Foods was reportedly cooked to death last Thursday morning (Oct 11) at a seafood plant in Southern California. The company identified the man as 62-year-old Jose Melena, a 6-year employee of the business.

According to California Division of Occupational Safety and Health spokeswoman Erika Monterroza, the man became trapped inside an industrial pressure cooker described in coroner’s documents as a “steamer machine,” and was “fatally injured” after being cooked inside the oven.

Paramedics rushed to the plant and pronounced Melena dead as soon as they arrived, KABC-TV in Los Angeles reported.

Melena’s job was to push baskets of sealed cans into the pressure cooker, though it wasn’t immediately clear how the man ended up inside the so-called “steamer machine,” but Monterroza says Cal/OSHA has launched an investigation into the freak accident.

According to Cal/OSHA statistics, more than 300 people died in fatal occupational injuries in 2010.

“The entire Bumble Bee Foods family is saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Melena family,” the tuna company said in a statement. “It remains our first priority to support and assist the Melena family during this very difficult time.”

Jose’s grieving children spoke to reporters in the days following the incident.

His daughter Sara Melena told KABC, “He left happy. I’m grateful with God that even though it’s tough for us, but I know that he is with him.”

The family has yet to receive an official explanation of what exactly happened, but Sara says she cherishes the fond memories of her father.

“He didn’t have a lot of money or any of that, but he would always say, ‘I would do anything to give you guys what you need,’ so that gives me peace,” she said.

Melena’s son Antonio (aka “Tony”) echoed his sister’s sentiments to CBS L.A. “He was just grateful he had a job, that he could pay his bills and provide food for his family.”

“It’s hard to believe what’s going on,” Tony added. “And what’s happening. It’s just been really tough.”

In addition to his daughter Sarah and his son Antonio, Jose Melena leaves behind three other children and seven grandchildren.

[KABC-TV, CBS L.A., AP]

Heard any shocking news lately? Well, the news 60-year-old Valerie Spruill found out 6 years after her husband died probably tops anything you’ve ever heard in your life.

Valerie Spruill, from Doylestown, Ohio, recently discovered that her husband Percy was also her father, according to a report from the Akron Beacon Journal.

Valerie says she was raised in Ohio by her grandparents because her mother was a “night lady,” who was a family friend.

It wasn’t until she turned nine that Valerie found out that the man she thought was her father, was really her grandfather, and the “family friend,” was her real birth mother.

After her mother died in 1984, Valerie later met a man she would later marry. 20 years later, in 2004, with the help of a DNA test, she found out her late husband, Percy Spruill, who had died 6 years ago in 1998, was actually her biological father.

For years, Valerie says she overheard odd whispers she couldn’t figure out, and one day, her uncle finally told her the truth about her “husband,” who was really her father.

Valerie’s father/husband met her mother when he was just 15 years old, and no one is sure how many kids they had, but at one point, he somehow fell in love with his daughter and married her, and also had three children with her.

Valerie says she isn’t sure if her husband knew he was really her father because he never talked about it, but admits there is a possibility that he knew, and was just afraid to tell her the truth.

Asked why she’s decided to let the world in on her family secret, Valerie Spruill explained that she “wants to set an example” and inspire those who are going through a rough time.

She said she also wants to show other people who were born into miserable situations that they can still lead, good, productive and fulfilling lives, as she is a living, breathing example.

“I want this to be more of an inspirational story,” she says. “If I’ve come through this, anyone can come through anything through the help of the Lord.”

Now retired, after working for over 30 years in the accounting department at Goodyear, Valerie has three children and eight grandchildren.

Valerie said her story “needs to be told, because children need to know where they come from,” she said. “And I know it hurts, because I have been devastated by this.”

She says to this day, she is still seeing a therapist to come to terms with the difficult revelation that she was married to her father, and had children with him. (So does that make her own children her brothers and sisters too?)

Valerie also says that she hopes her decision to go public with her story will help her find the rest of her siblings.

“My biggest goal is to find [my siblings] and let ‘em know that [their mother] loved them, no matter what,” she said. “And [to say], ‘Thank God she gave you away like she did me, so you could have a beautiful life.’”

One of the six brothers she is aware of advised her not to go public, saying, “Val, that might bring up a whole lot of skeletons in the closet.” She says she told him, “Well, I’m not a skeleton, and I’m hurt.”

But Valerie believes the hurt can be outshined by the truth.

“It’s a miracle how God reveals and heals at the same time, and he gives you that blessing to keep on going … If this old lady done come through all this, and God’s still got her here and still with a good heart — because you find so many mean, vicious people in the world, and you don’t have to be — you can love no matter what you’ve come through or where you’ve been in this world.”

A teenage rapper named Joseph Coleman, better known by his stage “Lil JoJo,” was shot and killed in Chicago Tuesday night (Sep 4), and Chicago rapper Chief Keef thought that the incident and death of his rival was so funny that he laughed about it all over Twitter … then blamed his hateful tweets on “hackers.”

If you know Chief Keef, the 17-year-old rapper from Chicago who is famous for his viral song “I Don’t Like” — which was remixed and made even MORE popular by Kanye West — then you may, or may not, know that he was allegedly involved in a shoot-out with police late last year, and was arrested and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, which resulted him in spending a few months on house arrest at his grandmother’s house. (No joke!)

So he’s definitely no stranger to teenage gun violence. That, coupled with claims that he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome — which apparently gives him a license to carry not one fuck to give — and you’ve got a young rapper does crazy things, like ungratefully say “Kanye West ain’t do shit for me” or laugh at someone’s death.

Before he was gunned down, Lil JoJo had been entangled in a beef with Chief Keef associate and fellow rapper Lil Reese … and just a few days ago, JoJo and Reese were seen having an angry exchange with each other in a video clip posted on YouTube (see below), in which someone can be heard yelling “I’mma kill you.”

According to police, Coleman was riding his bike Tuesday when a gunman opened fire from inside the car, striking him at least once. Coleman was immediately rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

And just a few hours later, Chief Keef seemed to be laughing at the tragedy that fell on his teenaged rival:

hahahahahhahahahahahahahaahhAAHAHAHAHA #RichNiggaShit

— CampaignSosa300 (@ChiefKeef) September 5, 2012

Its Sad Cuz Dat Nigga Jojo Wanted To Be Jus Like Us #LMAO

— CampaignSosa300 (@ChiefKeef) September 5, 2012

Later, Chief Keef (real name: Keith Cozart) claimed that his Twitter account had been hacked:

my twitter has been hacked I think I’m making a new one dumb hating ass people #DontWannaSeeAYougNiggaShine

— CampaignSosa300 (@ChiefKeef) September 5, 2012

Police believe that Lil JoJo’s shooting death was the result of a long-standing beef between two Chicago area street gangs, and the young rapper — a member of the Gangster Disciples — had been going back and forth online with members of rival gang the Black Disciples shortly before the shooting.

See some of his last tweets (some dated just HOURS before he was murdered) below:

Just Caught @lilreese300N Traffic His Daddy tryna talk It Out #NoTalkin #Bricksquad

— #OsoarrogantENT (@OsoArrogantJoJo) September 4, 2012

I am out here on my 2 feets wya bitch @lilreese300

— #OsoarrogantENT (@OsoArrogantJoJo) September 4, 2012

@bcity79 @lilreese300 lmao im on 069 Stop The Fuckin flexin

— #OsoarrogantENT (@OsoArrogantJoJo) September 4, 2012

Before he passed away, Michael Clarke Duncan was secretly engaged to his girlfriend Omarosa Manigault, and they were planning for a January 2013 wedding, according to sources close to the couple.

TMZ reports:

Sources connected with the couple tell us, Michael and Omarosa kept the engagement a secret from the media … only telling very close friends and family about the pending nuptials.

We’re told the couple had just started planning for the wedding when Michael went into full cardiac arrest July 13 and was hospitalized until his death.

We’re told Omarosa is just destroyed after waging a valiant fight to save Michael. She had doctors flown in from all over the world but constantly worried if she was doing enough.

Michael died while still in the hospital Monday morning. He was 54.

Omarosa, who had just left town for an engagement before Michael’s death, returned to L.A. last night … and was sobbing uncontrollably at LAX.

Actor Michael Clarke Duncan — best known for his starring roles in “The Green Mile” and “The Whole Nine Yards” — has died, his fiancee Omarosa Manigault Stallworth (of “The Apprentice” fame) confirmed Monday (Sep 3).

According to TMZ, Michael’s death was sudden and unexpected.

We’re told his fiancee, Omarosa Manigault, was with him in his hospital room in Los Angeles and left for a short period of time. When she returned … he had died. Our sources say Omarosa’s mother was with him when he passed.

Duncan’s rep says the actor never fully recovered from the heart attack he suffered back in July, when Omarosa was credited for saving his life at the time, and she apparently never left his side while he remained hospitalized in the ICU in L.A.

“[Omarosa] Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time. Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a later date,” Duncan’s rep said in a statement.

Though Michael Clark Duncan will be most remembered for his performance in “The Green Mile,” in which he starred alongside Tom Hanks, the 6-foot-5, 300 pound actor has also appeared in several other films, including “Planet of the Apes,” “Armageddon,” “Sin City,” “Talladega Nights,” “Kung Fu Panda” and “The Green Lantern,” just to name a few.

Duncan earned a “Best Supporting Actor” Academy Awards nomination, among several other nominations, for his portrayal of John Coffey in “The Green Mile.”

He has also worked as a bodyguard for a number of celebrities, including the Notorious B.I.G., Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, LL Cool J and Jamie Foxx before he got his big break in Hollywood in the late 90′s.

Hip-Hop mogul Chris Lighty was found dead behind his home in New York City Thursday morning (Aug 30) after he reportedly shot himself in the head an apparent suicide.

New York City police sources said that the 44-year-old Hip-Hop industry veteran — who was a longtime manager of rappers 50 Cent, Diddy, Ja Rule and even R&B singer Mariah Carey — stepped outside of his apartment in the Bronx after at around 11:30 am an argument with his wife.

A gunshot was heard, and Lighty was found lying faceup with a .9 mm pistol next to his body, and a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Officers were unable to locate a suicide note.

Lighty and his wife Veronica were estranged, following her filing for divorce last year. They married in 2003, and have a 6-year-old son named Jaden.

In addition to a broken marriage, law enforcement sources believe that Lighty was also dealing with financial struggles, including a $5 million debt he had with the IRS.

Having been a part of the music industry for decades, working with pioneers like LL Cool J … Chris went on to start his won management company Violator Management, whose roster includes 50 Cent, Diddy, Missy Elliott, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes, Fantasia Barrino and many other top recording artists.

Lighty was known to not only help his clients attain hit records, but also lucrative careers outside of the music business.

Showing his impact on Hip-Hop culture and the music industry as a whole, a number of celebrities have taken to Twitter to pay their respects to the Hip-Hop vet.

Diggy Simmons: “Still in shock.. More than just my manager but my family. Love you and gonna miss you Chris. R.I.P”

Rev Run: “R I P to the kindest guy Chris Lighty. Thank you for being a manager to Diggy & a part of our family.. You are loved & will be missed”

Diddy: “R.I.P. Chris Lighty. He Was A Dear Friend Of Mine And I Still Can’t Believe It.”

Rihanna: “Rest peacefully Chris Lighty, my prayers go out to family and loved ones! Dear God please have mercy”

Nicki Minaj: “Another tragic & inconceivable loss for the culture. #RIPChrisLighty”

Soulja Boy: “R.I.P my manager Chris Lighty, I know you’re in a better place. this shit got me so fucked up big bro we just talked on the phone 2 days ago”

Ludacris: “R.I.P. Chris Lightly who always had the best energy every time I had an encounter with him. He will be missed”

Game: “R.I.P. to my old friend “Chris Lighty”. Tragedy has once again struck the music industry & this time it hit close to home. Chris was a good dude, honestly…. A father, husband, mogul & a great business man. May his soul rest & many condolensces to his immediate family & children. Love”

Fat Joe: “I Would Be Nothing Without YOU!!! My Kids Appreciate YOU God Bless Chris Lighty”

Nick Cannon: “I’m devastated right now. I can’t believe my big brother Chris Lighty is gone… He was a pioneer, a mentor, and a great friend RIP”