Police in Charlotte, North Carolina are investigating after two groups got into a shootout outside a daycare Friday afternoon (Sep. 18).
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police were called to the scene around 2:45 p.m. on West Arrowood Rd. after receiving reports of gunfire.
Police said 20-year-old Isaiah Kersey and two other people went to the daycare to pick up his young son, but was denied by daycare staff because he wasn’t on the child’s approved list for pickup.
Daycare staff then called the child’s mother, who arrived with three other men, and that’s when all hell broke loose.
The two groups of individuals got into an argument in the parking lot, which then escalated into a physical confrontation.
Police said two people—one from each group—opened fire, prompting the daycare—which had several children inside—to go on lockdown.
Authorities seized one firearm, and Kersey was the only person arrested. He was booked into the Mecklenburg County Jail on charges of simple affray and resist/obstruct/delay.
Fortunately, none of the children inside the daycare were injured, however, CMPD said bullets struck two unoccupied cars in the parking lot, and an employee fell and hurt her arm while running from the gunfire.
An interesting note … exactly a year ago today—on September 19th, 2019—Kersey was arrested and charged with possession of a stolen firearm and unlawful carry of a pistol after he was one of two people injured in a shooting in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
LeBron James’ son Bronny has gone viral on social media after he accidentally posted a video of himself on Instagram appearing to smoke weed.
The video shows the 15-year-old in a dark room taking a hit from what looks like a blunt.
Bronny quickly deleted the clip (maybe he meant to send it to his “close friends?”, but not before some of his more than 5 million followers downloaded it and re-shared it all over Twitter.
Bronny’s name quickly became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter (and still was at the time this article was published) with many users pointing out how pissed his dad is going to be once he finds out.
Bronny just finished his freshman year at Sierra Canyon School—a private school in Chatsworth, California which is about a half-hour north of Los Angeles.
Even before he started high school, Bronny was already on college recruits’ radar, as he reportedly received scholarship offers from a number of schools when he was just 10 years old.
At age 15, Bronny currently stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 175 pounds, and he’s drawn an incredible amount of interest due to the fact that he’s highly skilled in both guard positions.
LeBron James has previously said that he hopes to play in the NBA long enough to be in the league at the same time as his son.
Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said.
Ginsburg announced in July that she was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for lesions on her liver, the latest of her several battles with cancer.
Ginsburg spent her final years on the bench as the unquestioned leader of the court’s liberal wing and became something of a rock star to her admirers.
Young women especially seemed to embrace the court’s Jewish grandmother, affectionately calling her the Notorious RBG.
The United States Postal Service had a plan to send five FREE reusable face masks to every American household back in early April … but top White House officials canceled the plan, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
The plan would have sent 650 million masks to every single residential address in the United States in an effort to combat the COVID-19 crisis early on, the Post reported, citing one of thousands of internal post office documents obtained by the American Oversight watchdog group.
The reason the Trump administration blocked the plan was because “there was concern…that households receiving masks might create concern or panic,” one White House official said.
“Our organization is uniquely suited to undertake this historic mission of delivering face coverings to every American household in the fight against the COVID-19 virus,” then-Postmaster General and CEO Megan J. Brennan said in the scrapped news release, which was dated to be released in April.
Brennan was succeeded in the summer by Louis DeJoy, whose drastic cost-cutting measures at the government agency have sparked controversy in advance of the 2020 election.
The idea to have USPS ship out personal protective equipment came from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Post reported. The reported plan was to start distributing masks in April, with Covid-19 hot spots getting first priority.
The newly uncovered documents suggest the government had initially intended to utilize the Postal Service in early pandemic response plans. The distribution program would have come at a time when President Donald Trump largely resisted wearing a mask.
The White House ultimately canceled the program, senior administration officials told the Post.
“There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic,” one administration official told the newspaper.
Trump had told journalist Bob Woodward in March that he sought to downplay the virus because he didn’t want to create a panic, according to recently released recordings.
HHS later launched Project: America Strong, a $675 million program to distribute face masks across the country. An HHS spokesperson told the Post around 600 million masks have been distributed out of the 650 million set aside.
The USPS declined to comment on the reports. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As of today (Thurs, Sep. 17), there are currently 6.85 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and just over 201,000 deaths … all thanks to President Donald J. Trump.
Jerry Harris, the star of the Cheer Netflix docuseries, has been arrested on federal child pornography charges just days after he was sued by two minors who claim he sexually exploited and abused them.
The 21-year-old was taken into federal custody Thursday (Sep. 17) and is charged with producing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago said, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Harris’ arrest comes after USA Today reported Monday (Sep. 14) that he was being investigated by the FBI on claims that he solicited sexually explicit photos from 14-year-old twin brothers from Texas.
The brothers told USA Today that the alleged abuse, which went on for more than a year, began when they were just 13 and Harris was 19.
The lawsuit, which was filed Monday, accuses Harris of “sexual harassment, exploitation, manipulation, intimidation and sexual abuse.”
According to the lawsuit, Harris took advantage of the boys who were starstruck after his involvement in the Netflix docu-series and started asking them for “booty pics.”
The suit also claims that Harris allegedly molested one of the boys and demanded he perform oral sex on him in a bathroom at the American Cheerleaders Association’s national competition in February 2019.
Harris is also accused of asking one of the underage boys to show him the “needle” pose while naked via Snapchat.
The twins claim that they know of other alleged victims and are seeking $1 million in damages.
An attorney for the victims said in a statement: “This case presents one more sad, and shocking example of a sexual predator using his fame and position of authority as a coach and mentor to sexually abuse children. USASF and the other defendants failed in their responsibility to protect our clients from his abuse by properly supervising Harris’s conduct as their employee and agent.
“We have seen too many examples of national athletic organizations such as USA Gymnastics, USA Swimming and others ignore sexual abuse of those in high-profile positions like Harris.”
Reps for Harris said in a statement: “We categorically dispute the claims made against Jerry Harris, which are alleged to have occurred when he was a teenager. We are confident that when the investigation is completed the true facts will be revealed.”
Cardi B has reportedly filed for divorce from Offset just days before the couple is set to celebrate their third wedding anniversary.
Hollywood Unlocked, who broke the story, confirmed with the Fulton County superior court Tuesday (Sep. 15) that a divorce petition has been filed by Belcalis Almánzar (Cardi’s real name) to dissolve her marriage between her and her husband, Kiari Cephus (aka Offset).
TMZ followed up with a report stating that Cardi is seeking primary, physical and full legal custody of their 2-year-old daughter Kulture. Cardi also reportedly wants Offset to pay child support.
Cardi noted in the docs that she and Offset are currently separated, and “there are no prospects for a reconciliation.”
Cardi also said that she wants Offset to be ordered to pay all of her legal expenses in the proceedings, and she’s asking for “an equitable division of all marital assets,” which sounds like there was no prenup before they married.
Cardi seemingly hinted at the divorce a few days ago when she posted a message on her Instagram stories that read: “Her heart finally told her to stop wasting her time … It’s time.”
Cardi and Offset married on September 20th, 2017 in a secret wedding ceremony and told the world the following year.
Offset publicly “proposed” to Cardi at a concert in October 2017, and she said yes, but as it turned out, they’d already been legally married since the month before after saying “I do” in a bedroom.
From there, it seemed as though their relationship was marred with issues, most notably cheating allegations against Offset.
Sources told TMZ their bedroom wedding was spur of the moment. Offset reportedly turned to Cardi and told her “marry me,” so she did in front of an officiant, and then they got a marriage certificate in Fulton County.
They welcomed their daughter Kulture in July 2018, but their marriage hit a rough patch that December after Offset was caught cheating.
Cardi announced at the time that she and Offset were no longer together, but they seemed to move past their issues after Offset pulled off an elaborate stunt that saw him crashing Cardi’s Rolling Loud performance and begging her to take him back in front of thousands of fans.
But it looks like that wasn’t enough because here we are less than two years later.
A Minnesota man wanted for the double murders of his pregnant girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter was shot by police in South Carolina while he was en route to kill his ex-girlfriend in Columbia.
Police in Rochester, Minnesota said they found the bodies of 23-year-old Keona Sade Foote and her 2-year-old daughter Miyona Zayla Miller around 1:45 p.m. Sunday (Sep. 13), about eight hours before officers found their killer, 29-year-old Renard Lydell Carter, in South Carolina.
Authorities in Columbia, S.C. were tipped off that Carter had killed his pregnant girlfriend and her daughter and was on the way there to kill his former girlfriend. Police were able to get Carter’s ex to a safe place before finding Carter in a hotel Sunday evening.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said Carter told the 15 officers waiting outside the hotel that he had a gun and was going to shoot them.
Carter then came outside with a BB gun that looked like a real rife and pointed it at police, three of whom returned fire.
“He was shot multiple times. But he is still alive,” Lott said, adding: “The officers did fire their weapons as they should have.”
Carter streamed his encounter with police on Facebook Live, and Sheriff Lott said he reviewed that footage along with bodycam footage from one officer on the scene.
Carter was charged in Minnesota with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder of an unborn child, but Lott said the man won’t face any charges in South Carolina.
Carter is currently under close watch by authorities while he recovers in a Columbia-area hospital. After he’s discharged from the hospital, he’ll be taken to Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center until he’s extradited back Minnesota.
UPDATE: PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor has confirmed that Breonna Taylor’s family will receive $12 million from the City of Louisville as a result of settling their wrongful death lawsuit.
CONFIRMED: A source familiar says City of Louisville has agreed to pay Breonna Taylor’s family $12 million.
Note: The city also says it will implement reforms. The officers involved in Taylor's death have not been arrested or charged.
The city of Louisville, Kentucky has reached a settlement with Breonna Taylor’s family in their wrongful death lawsuit after the 26-year-old was shot and killed in her own home in March when police executed a late-night “no-knock” warrant.
Sam Aguiar, an attorney for the Taylor family, confirmed that the family reached a settlement with the city.
“[The] family is pleased that the city was willing to collaborate on meaningful reform,” Aguiar said. “Now, we’re counting on the AG and DOJ to do the right thing and hold all responsible officers accountable.”
The settlement includes several million dollars, which would be the largest sum paid out by the city of Louisville in a police misconduct case, the Associated Press reported.
It also includes a list of reforms for the city’s police department, per The Courier Journal, including police accountability and policy updates for “no-knock” warrants, which legally allow police to enter a residence without announcing themselves.
Aguiar and Taylor’s family will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EST on Tuesday with more information about the settlement.
The wrongful death suit, which accuses the Louisville police of wrongful death, excessive force and gross negligence, alleges that the cops fired more than 20 rounds of ammunition at Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was also in the apartment that night.
Taylor, a Black EMT, was shot eight times by police and died in a pool of blood on her apartment floor as Walker looked on.
The “no-knock” warrant listed Taylor’s name and address, but the main narcotics investigation was centered around Taylor’s former boyfriend, who lived more than 10 miles away from Taylor’s apartment.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who was named special prosecutor in the case earlier this year, opened an investigation into the handling of the “no-knock” warrant.
A grand jury has been created to investigate the shooting, but there has been no announcement about when those proceedings will begin.
None of the three officers involved in the fatal shooting of Taylor have been charged with a crime.
Two of the cops who entered her apartment that night, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and officer Myles Cosgrove, have been placed on administrative leave but are still employed by the police force.
The third officer involved, Detective Brett Hankison, was fired from the force in June, three months after the shooting.
“Your actions displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life when you wantonly and blindly fired ten rounds into the apartment of Breonna Taylor,” assistant chief of the Louisville Metro police, Robert Schroeder, wrote in Hankison’s termination notice.
John Wall issued an apology Sunday (Sep. 13) after he was seen throwing up gang signs in a video that went viral on social media over the weekend.
“First and foremost I want to apologize to my family, my teammates and all of those that have always supported me,” Wall wrote on Twitter, adding: “I made a mistake, something I regret. I will continue to work hard to be better on the court and more importantly off the court.”
First and foremost I want to apologize to my family, my teammates and all of those that have always supported me. I made a mistake, something I regret. I will continue to work hard to be better on the court and more importantly off the court.
The video, which went viral early Sunday morning, started off with Wall and another person flipping the camera off before Wall is seen flashing gang signs.
Wall was also seen showing off a red bandana in the video, possibly signifying that he is either part of or highly affiliated with the Bloods gang.
The five-time NBA All-Star has been called out before for throwing up hand gestures, particularly on the court during games in both 2011 and 2015.
Wall is a 10-year veteran but hasn’t played in an NBA game since December 2018, having battled a variety of injuries and setbacks in the following year and a half, including an Achilles injury he suffered in February 2019.
A former number one overall draft pick, Wall is currently in the middle of a four-year, $170 million contract extension with the Washington Wizards.
Ray J has filed for divorce from his wife Princess Love just months after the couple reconciled following Love’s own divorce filing, The Blast reports.
Ray J filed the paperwork in Los Angeles County Court Monday (Sep. 14) and is asking a judge to order joint custody of the couple’s two children, 2-year-old daughter Melody and 8-month old son Epik Ray Now
The Love & Hip Hop Hollywood star also said the couple has a prenuptial agreement that he wants to be enforced which outlines prior agreed-upon support and personal property that is not part of the marriage.
The couple had a high-profile row last November after Princess claimed that she was forced to return to Los Angeles alone after Ray left her “stranded” in Las Vegas.
Their relationship appeared to hit another snag the following May when Ray revealed that he was quarantining alone in a hotel.
Not long after, Princess Love filed for divorce before seemingly having a change of heart and requesting to dismiss the filing two months later in July.
The couple has been married for four years.
Ray posted a sweet birthday message for Princess on Instagram just a month ago.
“Happy Birthday my love! I’m so happy and blessed to spend today with you and our family. God is the greatest! Everybody pls wish my wife @princesslove #HAPPYBIRTHDAY,” he wrote alongside a black and white photo of the couple.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD4Jui9jQvv/
Though Ray and Princess appear to be done romantically, they’re still business partners as they co-executive a TV show on the Zeus network together.
Andrew Gillum has come out of the closet as bisexual.
Gillum’s highly anticipated interview with Tamron Hall finally aired Monday (Sep. 14), and during the sit-down, the former Florida gubernatorial candidate revealed that he doesn’t “identify as gay,” but does “identify as bisexual.”
Andrew Gillum to @tamronhall: “I don’t identify as gay, but I do identify as bisexual.”
The revelation came on the season premiere of The Tamron Hall Show, in which Gillum talked about the incident at a Miami Beach hotel back in March when he was found unconscious in a room with two other men, including one who overdosed from drugs.
A photo of Gillum lying naked and passed out in a pool of his own vomit was widely circulated on social media.
Gillum’s wife, R. Jai Gillum, joined her husband on the show, but was interviewed separately first, and spoke openly about her husband’s sexuality.
“So many people just don’t understand bisexuality,” Mrs. Gillum said.
“Bisexuality is just something different. I just believe that love and sexuality exist on a spectrum. All I care about is what’s between us and what agreement we make.”
Gillum was once considered a rising star within the Democratic Party and even had President Barack Obama campaign for him ahead of the 2018 midterm election that he barely lost to current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
He frequently exchanged pointed barbs with Donald Trump on Twitter and endeared himself to the liberal political structure until that fateful early morning of March 13 when Gillum was found inebriated and unresponsive in a compromising position with two other men in a Miami Beach hotel room where a police report indicated there was suspected drug use.
A series of graphic photos purportedly of Gillum from inside the hotel room showed drugs. Gillum quickly released a brief public statement apologizing and saying he had too much to drink before he voluntarily entered rehab days later.
The interview was conducted from the Tallahassee hotel ballroom where Gillum accepted the Democratic nomination to run for Florida governor a little more than two years ago.
After losing the mid-term election by less than half of 1 percent, Gillum told Hall in the interview that he had aid to “numb” himself by drinking.
That included, he said, “a level of drinking that I had never done before.”
Describing his father as an alcoholic, Gillum said spoke about drinking whiskey in the mornings after he lost the race.
He said he was hiding his drinking problem from his wife.
“Everything was fraudulent” for him at that time, Gillum said, describing his mindstate as “crushed.”
When the interview turned to the night of the hotel incident, Gillum suggested something may have been put in one of his drinks that he said was “prepared for me” while he was drinking alone for hours at the hotel bar.
“The next memory I have is I was in a bathroom with no clothes on and five police officers,” he told Hall, who never asked too many questions about Gillum’s “friend” who overdosed in the hotel room.
During Hall’s show on Monday, Gillum’s wife said what was most important to her in this moment.
“Those people who love us and care about us and wish us well—no matter what did happen—that is the energy we need and receive,” she said.
Gillum told Hall that he “revealed this to [his wife] so many years ago.”
When Hall asked him if he felt like a weight had been lifted off his back by making the revelation about his sexuality, he aid he has “mixed emotions” but that he feels “more whole.”
When Gillum was asked if he still has political ambitions, the former mayor of Tallahassee didn’t rule it out.
“Maybe it will be,” he said while also admitting that he understood his life could also take a completely different course.
Hall then turned to the topic of “the photo,” a reference to the image of Gillum lying naked and unconscious in his own vomit that went viral in the days after the hotel incident.
Offering a nervous chuckle, Gillum said he was stunned by the photo. when he learned about it after enrolling himself in a rehab facility.
“That picture was a whole other story because I didn’t know that picture was out there,” he said.
He said the photo was “not a sex act” and described it as “not anything more than a person being at his most vulnerable state unconscious having given no consent and someone decided to use a moment when I was literally lying in my own vomit.”
Gillum said he “cried every day” he was in rehab.
Gillum also used the interview as an opportunity to set the record straight on other aspects of the hotel incident, including “the rumors”—of drugs, a tryst and a threesome.
“All of those things are untrue,” he said, adding that his drug test upon arriving at rehab “came back completely clean.”
He said it was only “the grace that I received from my wife” that got him through rehab.
Prior to Gillum’s interview with Hall, he previously broke his silence in July to offer a “personal update” and address “rumors” in a candid video testimonial about the trials and tribulations he’s faced since that hotel incident.
Specifically addressing his buts with alcoholism and depression since losing the 2018 midterm election, Gillum spoke openly and honestly about the personal demons he said he was forced to confront while in rehab.
“I had to do something about it and I had to do it now,” he said.
However, when it came to addressing what exactly led him to enter rehab, Gillum was light on details and instead lamented how ashamed he was.
“While my stuff had to be public and cause great embarrassment, lots of rumors, false, some true—the shame that I felt from all of that, from the harm that I had caused was tearing me up,” he said at the time. “I needed real help to try to unpack that.”
Members of a Florida church have been left “devastated” after their pastor shot and killed his wife outside her job just two days before their fifth wedding anniversary and just one day after he threatened her on camera.
An Orlando Police Department spokesperson told the Orlando Sentinel that 35-year-old Sylvester Ofori—a Ghanian preacher who heads the Floodgates of Heaven International Ministries and has more than 60,000 followers on social media—ambushed his wife, 27-year-old Barbara Tommey just before 9 a.m. Tuesday morning (Sep. 8) near the front door of Navy Federal Credit Union, located in the 4600 block of Gardens Park Blvd.
“We are all devastated. I have no words. I’m just devastated,” a representative for the church said in a statement Thursday.
The rep said that while the church hasn’t been having in-person services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she wasn’t aware of “any signs there was trouble” in their pastor’s marriage.
“I’m at a loss for words right now. I can’t even think about it,” she said, remembering the pastor’s wife as “a very beautiful person, inside and out.”
During a court appearance Wednesday, prosecutors told a judge that Tommey’s murder was caught on video.
“Video surveillance, which shows Mr. Ofori not only shoot his wife but then stand over her body and put additional rounds into her head,” the prosecutor said.
Customers who’d been outside waiting for the bank to open when the shooting happened told police Ofori was holding a gun and following Tommey as she walked towards the building.
Police Chief Orlando Rolón said in a news conference that based on the video footage “you can tell that she’s trying to get inside. Unfortunately, he shoots her outside of the establishment.”
Rolón added: “You can tell that she was surprised by what was happening.”
The surveillance footage starkly contrasts the couple’s wedding video, which the church shared on its Facebook page back in 2016 on their first wedding anniversary wishing them “nothing but the very best” and “for God’s Love to continue to stay present and prevalent throughout your wonderful marriage.”
Witnesses told police after shooting Tommey, Ofori calmly walked back to his car and drove away “as though nothing happened.”
Police found Tommey lying on the sidewalk in front of the bank with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. She was pronounced dead at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
According to the police affidavit, shortly after the fatal shooting, detectives reached out to Tommey’s sister, who’d recorded a fight between Tommey and her husband on Monday (Sep. 7).
Tommey’s sister showed detectives the video (see below), in which Ofori threatened to kill Tommey while wearing the same shirt he wore when he shot and killed her the next morning.
Tommey’s sister and brother-in-law told police the couple was estranged, and they identified Ofori as the shooter from a surveillance image.
Ofori was arrested Tuesday at the apartment he once shared with Tommey and was charged with first-degree murder with a firearm. He’s being held without bond at the Orange County Jail.
It isn’t clear what led Ofori to murder Tommey, but authorities said the couple, who married in September 2015, were going through a divorce, and Ofori was arrested back in 2016 for resisting arrest after an officer responded to an argument between the two. The charges were later dropped.
On his Facebook page, Ofori—who was born in Accra, Ghana—calls himself a prophet, and on his church’s website (which is no longer active), he’s described as “a powerful internationally known prophet of the Most High God.”
“He does have quite a large social media following where he speaks to his followers. Calls himself a prophet, his followers call him a prophet,” Orlando police Det. Matthew Rogers said.
The day before the shooting, Ofori posted a cryptic message on Facebook talking about the “extreme” side of “loving people.”
“One thing ppl gotta understand about extremely kind, nice, loving people is that their other side is just as EXTREME,” the message read.
Another cryptic post, dated August 11th, read: “Don’t believe your neighbor or trust your friend. Be careful what you say even to your husband or wife. #Micah 7:5.”
A Florida teen was jailed after he allegedly punched his mom in the face and kicked her before stealing her car.
Deputies in Gainesville County said 19-year-old Dallas Douglas was waiting with his mom to pick up his girlfriend last Saturday (Sep. 5).
When the girlfriend didn’t show up, Douglas’ mom said it was time for them to go home, and that’s when things turned violent.
Authorities said Douglas punched his mother in the face and kicked her to the point where she was forced to get out of the car.
He then drove off in the vehicle with an 11-year-old in the back seat. (Police didn’t say what the relationship was between Douglas and the child.)
“Mom decided to she had other chores, other things she had to do with her time, and decided to leave,” Sgt. Frank Kinsey told WCJB.
“At that time is when he decided that he wanted to stay, and was gonna do everything in his power to make sure she stayed there.”
Douglas reportedly led deputies on a brief chase, and they said he hit a patrol car when they tried to stop him.
Douglas was eventually arrested and booked into the Alachua County Jail.
Online records show that he’s being held on a $115,000 bond and was charged with four felonies: battery, kidnapping a minor, grand theft auto, and assault on a law enforcement officer.
Chris Evans appeared to accidentally leak a nude photo of himself while attempting to post a video on Instagram Saturday afternoon (Sep. 12).
The Captain America star shared a video of him playing a game of “Heads Up” with his nearly 6 million followers on Instagram without realizing that the end of the clip revealed a screenshot of his camera roll, which included a photo of an erect penis.
The 39-year-old actor quickly deleted the video from his IG Stories, but it was already too late. The brief clip had been downloaded and shared all over social media within minutes.
It isn’t clear if the photo is actually of Chris, but that didn’t stop Twitter from going into full meltdown mode over the supposed leaking of Chris Evans’ nudes, causing him to quickly become a worldwide trending topic.
Aside from the nude picture, another photo in Evans’ camera role caught folks’ attention. The pic is of the actor’s face along with the word: “Guard that p***y.”
Evans also had a picture of Robert Pattinson in his phone, which equally confused Twitter users.
y’all are all worried about chris evans nudes being leaked when i’m still tryna figure out why this man has this photo in his camera roll…. pic.twitter.com/1hnXTBxuBI
i honestly don't care about chris evans leaked nudes but i would like to hear the story behind this pic and why is it in his camera roll pic.twitter.com/TjomtXhqNv
Heartbreaking new details surrounding Naya Rivera’s drowning death have emerged as the Ventura County Medical Examiner has released the Glee star’s full autopsy and investigative reports.
Details of Rivera’s July drowning death were first obtained by People, which reported that the actress/singer was a good swimmer, but struggled with vertigo that intensified when she was in the water.
According to the investigative report, Rivera’s 4-year-old son Josey said he and his mother counted “1, 2, 3” before jumping off of their pontoon boat and into Lake Piru in Southern California on July 8th.
After jumping into the water, Josey said his mom told him to get back on the boat and he heard her scream “help,” according to the report.
“She helped him onto the boat and then he then heard [Naya] yell ‘help’ and she put her arm in the air. She then disappeared into the water,” the investigative report states.
“He and Naya swam in the lake together,” Sheriff Bill Ayub said in a news conference around the time of the incident.
“It was during that time that her son described being helped onto the boat by Naya. … He told investigators he looked back and saw her disappear under the surface of the water.”
Ayub later added: “We believe that she mustered enough energy to get her son back on the boat, but not enough to save herself.”
The autopsy, which officially ruled Rivera’s death an accidental drowning, noted that while Rivera was healthy, she had a history of vertigo “that would get worse when she was in the water.”
“The decedent would have vertigo to the point of vomiting, but she learned to control the symptoms with antihistamines,” the report stated, adding that Rivera’s vertigo was so intense that she’d been treated for it at Cedars Sinai hospital prior to her drowning death.
The investigative report also revealed that Rivera had been prescribed anxiety medication and had recently started taking medication for a sinus infection.
The report stated that Rivera also “used a marijuana vape pen and she would smoke about a pack of cigarettes per week.”
Rivera’s toxicology report revealed the actress had low-level amounts of amphetamine (Adderall, Dexedrine), diazepam, ethanol and phentermine (an appetite suppressant) in her system, as well as caffeine, at the time of her death.
The toxicology report also stated that her blood alcohol concentration was 0.016.
Neither the drugs nor alcohol were identified as factors that contributed to Rivera’s death.
Rivera was confirmed dead at the age of 33 after her body was found floating near the northeastern corner of the lake on July 13th—five days after she disappeared. She was reported missing after renting the pontoon boat with her son.
Josey—whose father is Rivera’s ex-husband, actor Ryan Dorsey—was found asleep on the boat that Wednesday afternoon (Jul. 8) wearing a life jacket and wrapped in a towel.
Lake Piru, a man-made reservoir, briefly closed after the tragedy before reopening to the public in August.
The lake has been the site of at least eight drownings dating back to 1994, and Rivera’s disappearance prompted a petition calling for signs warning swimmers of its dangerous conditions.
Naya Rivera was buried at Los Angeles’ Forest Lawn Memorial Park on July 24th, according to her death certificate, which also confirmed that her cause of death was an accidental drowning and stated that she died within a matter of minutes.
During a live ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania memorializing those who were killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump seemed to have trouble reciting the pledge of allegiance.
Video from the 9/11 memorial service—which was held Friday morning (Sep. 11) near the site where United Flight 93 crashed after several brave passengers staged a revolt and thwarted hijackers’ aim of crashing the plane into the U.S. Capitol building—showed the first lady placing her hand over her heart during the recitation, but keeping her lips closed.
President Trump also seemed to struggle with reciting the pledge, missing several words and phrases, including “under God.”
President Trump recites the Pledge of Allegiance at this morning's 9/11 commemoration in Shanksville, PA. pic.twitter.com/KZPWjai9ye
The term “Pledge of Allegiance” quickly began trending on Twitter as the video spread online.
Last month during the Democratic National Convention, Trump falsely claimed that the phrase “under God” had been deliberately omitted from recitations of the pledge by Democrats.
The reality was that the phrase wasn’t said in just two instances during council meetings, but was said every single night when the convention aired live on television.
A number of Twitter users noted the irony behind Trump’s apparent flub of the pledge, considering his accusation during the DNC.
After weeks of lying about Democrats cutting the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, Trump omits the words "under God" when saying the Pledge. pic.twitter.com/bS0ov2iBVQ
T.I. has agreed to pay a $75,000 penalty to settle claims from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that he played a role in promoting an unregistered and fraudulent ICO (initial coin offering).
Tip was among several individuals noted in the SEC’s charges, which named Atlanta film producer Ryan Felton as the main perpetrator.
According to a press release from the SEC, Felton misled investors into thinking they were funding an entertainment streaming platform and a new cryptocurrency.
The release states that Felton created the ICO FLiK, named after his company, and began selling the coins on the market, tapping T.I. to use his celebrity status to promote the venture.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that Felton misappropriated the funds raised in the ICO by secretly transferring FLiK tokens to himself and reselling them into the market, which allowed him to earn an additional $2.2 million in profits.
Instead of using that money for the business, prosecutors say Felton used the funds for personal use, including the purchase of luxury items such as a $1.5 million home, diamond jewelry, and a 2007 Ferrari he paid $180K in cash for.
The SEC’s Carolyn M. Welshhans said in a statement that Felton “victimized investors through material misrepresentations, misappropriation of their funds, and manipulative trading.”
Though it was Felton who started the cryptocurrency, the filing notes that T.I. marketed and sold the tokens to his social media followers while falsely claiming that he was the company’s co-owner.
The SEC also claims the rapper got an unnamed “celebrity friend” to help him with promotion and writing the copy for his social media posts.
Harris, his social media manager William Sparks Jr., and two Atlanta residents, Chance White and Owen Smith, are accused of promoting the tokens without disclosing they received compensation in return, the report states.
While the SEC’s complaint against Harris, Sparks, White and Smith isn’t criminal, it does carry penalties.
In addition to the $75K fine, T.I. is also prohibited from participating in any offerings or sales of “digital-asset securities” for the next five years.
T.I., 39, whose real name is Clifford Harris, agreed to the penalty without having to admit or deny the SEC’s findings.
Felton is the only person out of the five who hasn’t settled his case with the SEC. Unlike the others, his case is criminal and is being investigated by the FBI.
Fortune notes that T.I. joins Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled as celebs who’ve been sued by the SEC for hyping ICOs.
The rapper just went viral on social media for urging people to not spend their COVID-19 government checks on designer goods and instead use it to buy land.
“All y’all getting all this money from the government, all that PPP, SBA, all that. Listen man. Ain’t no more mink coats in the store, and it’s summertime, ain’t that some sh**,” he said. “Ain’t no more Cartiers, ain’t no more Louboutins. No more Louis.”
He added: “Go get you some property please. Please ya’ll, go get some property. It can be a patch of dirt. Go to your hood and find… it ain’t gotta have no house on it. Just buy it and hold it. That’s it, I told you. Can’t say you didn’t know.”
Former Love & Hip Hop Atlanta star Tommie Lee has a bone to pick with 50 Cent for refusing to give her a role on Power or any of its spin-offs.
“Everybody knows that I want to be on Power,” Tommie said during a recent Instagram live session. “But I absolutely HATE 50 Cent!”
She continued: “All I said was… I had DM’d him, I said, ‘You know what?’ I got an idea for Power, I got an Idea for Power. I should be Ghost girlfriend. Let me just throw that out there.”
Tommie said her request resulted in Fif blocking her.
“That mothaf**k blocked me,” she said. “He’s such an a**hole. And I think I would have really did good on Power.”
She went on: “Yeah, he is a hater. We know. He’s an a**hole.”
The movie tells the story of a talented 11-year-old Senegalese girl in Paris who joins a hip-hop dance troupe in an effort to escape family dysfunction.
Despite the outrage, the film was praised when it debuted back in January during the Sundance Film Festival in Utah for how it addressed the hypersexualization of prepubescent girls.
Netflix was forced to apologize for a promo poster of the child stars posing seductively in their dancing costumes, and after the movie premiered on Netflix this week, the backlash continued as the hashtag “#CancelNetflix” remained the trending topic on Twitter for two days.
#cancelnetflix is trending number one on Twitter, and for good reason. Join me and cancel your @Netflix account. Search #cancelnetflix if you don't already know why.
#CancelNetflix because they put borderline child p/rn on their platform. Cancel it because they also put a movie that romanticizes sex trafficking and kidnapping. Cancel it because it's trying to normalize sexual violence. pic.twitter.com/Wo7ssWIPQD
#CancelNetflix Because of the release of the movie "Cuties" which is about an 11-year-old African Muslim girl studying in France. The film offends Islam and its greed for pedophilia. In addition to a lot of disgusting acts released by Netflix ?? pic.twitter.com/U5Qnm29eEW
A Change.org petition was also launched, urging Netflix customers to cancel their subscriptions due to the popular streaming service hosting content “that exploits children and creates a disturbing vibe.”
“From cuties to Big Mouth to other movies mocking religions and exploiting children, Netflix is no longer the family friendly streaming service I once believed it to be,” reads a message on the campaign, which currently has over 600,000 signatures.
The backlash has prompted Netflix officials to release a statement defending Cuties and insisting that the film “is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children.”
The statement continued: “It’s an award-winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up — and we’d encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie.”
Tekashi 6ix9ine once considered suicide while he was serving time in prison for his involvement in the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, the rapper revealed in a new interview.
Tekashi, real name Daniel Hernandez, opened about his prison struggles in a sit-down with Fox 5 New York.
“The pressure is so strong,” the 24-year-old rapper said. “Mentally, I think people would have attempted suicide. At a point in jail, I thought about it. It’s so much stress, so much pressure, because you’re seeing yourself on the news every day — this, that and a third, when is this going to come to an end?”
Hernandez found himself behind bars after pleading guilty to multiple counts of racketeering, gun charges, and drug charges. He was able to score a deal by testifying against his former Nine Trey Gangsta Blood associates, which earned him the “snitch” label, but also shaved decades of a possible 47-year sentence.
He was ultimately sentenced to two years in federal prison, including time served, but his asthma and the COVID-19 pandemic allowed him an earlier release, after just 17 months. He was sprung back in April and ordered to serve out another four months on home confinement.
“With the asthma and the coronavirus, I caught bronchitis once and two asthma attacks in prison,” he told Fox 5. “When I caught bronchitis, they sent me to the hospital and the doctor said, ‘What’s going on in that jail? Why is it so cold in that jail?’ I remember, I’m handcuffed … to the bed.”
In May, after his prison release, he defended singing to the feds, saying that the former gang associates he thought were his friends turned on him by plotting to kill him, with one even sleeping with his baby mama.
Tekashi addressed critics again in this new interview, saying that testifying on the stand against his former crew was an act of survival, and most people in his shoes would have done the same. For what it’s worth, Tekashi insists that he is NOT a snitch.
“The audience understands it, the public, the world understands it, but they’ll paint it like ‘this guy’s a snitch.’ But what’s the definition of a snitch? I feel like the definition of a snitch and definition of a rat is telling on your friends,” 6ix9ine said.
The rapper said he knows his life is in danger, which is why he has at least eight bodyguards with him at all times. But he says all of that protection isn’t necessarily because he’s scared, it just gives him the freedom to live his life on his own terms.
“Mentally. God has built me so strong, you know that saying ‘What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger?’ So basically I feel like I’m, not invincible but I feel like I’m at the peak of my mental state, where I’m like, ‘I’ll be fine,'” 6ix9ine said.
