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

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

Michael Ramirez's latest cartoon is here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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