Free Republic

Police: Pa. Boy Stabs Brother Over Game Jul 17 01:16 PM US/Eastern LANSDOWNE, Pa. (AP) - A 13-year-old boy fatally stabbed his brother with a steak knife after the 16-year-old refused to turn over a video game controller, authorities said. Jahmir Ricks was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Antwan Ricks at their home outside Philadelphia. The older boy died of a single stab wound to the chest, police said, and a bent and bloody knife was recovered from the home. Lansdowne police said the younger boy told them, "I just stabbed my brother," when they arrived at...

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...

Just a quick taste of this "quality" citizen of the NFL community ... 10/2003: Jones was sentenced to one year in jail following a bar fight while he was a student at West Virginia University, but the sentence was suspended and he was placed on two years probation. His probation was scheduled to end on Thursday. 4/27/05: Adam "Pacman" Jones was at Club Blaze in Conley, Ga., around 3 a.m. ET on April 27 when officers responded to a fight involving two women. Andrea Akins, a supervisor at the club, told police she was punched in the mouth by a...

Ngoc Le heard his wife’s screams and ran from the back of the wireless store he owns in Camden, New Jersey. His wife was behind the counter, as was a masked man wielding a knife. The man brandished the blade, herding the couple into a back room. Once there, he tied the 28-year old businessman to a chair, then proceeded to rape 22-year old Kelly Le. Once the brutal rape had finished, he slit the couple’s throats, then ran away. There was no 2nd Amendment, no right to own a gun, and Antonio Diaz Reyes got away with murder. That...

I wrote last week that our InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion survey showed that controversial Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney would likely lose her primary runoff election against former county commissioner Hank Johnson in Georgia's 4th District. McKinney lost handily. Beyond that, her final hours before eventually conceding defeat made for the most underreported and bizarre story of a political exit I've ever seen in my years of participating in or analyzing political races around the country. I had agreed to join the anchor desk at Atlanta's NBC-TV affiliate to provide analysis for that day's elections. As the night wore on, it became clear...

Last week, MTV celebrated its 25th anniversary, marking a quarter of a century after having conceived of the first actually new thing in popular television entertainment since "American Bandstand" and "Soul Train." The music video became a big deal through MTV and not only updated the old "soundies" once shown in movie theaters to feature singers and instrumentalists. It also revolutionized the making of films by acclimating its audience to the extremely fast crosscutting that had been pioneered in television commercials, where the faster the message arrived, the better. In the process, the MTV audience learned to see much more...

Playing By Our Own Rules My Two Cents on Overdoing It By David J. Aland 7 April 2006 Homeowners Associations are a mixed blessing. On the face, they are governmental microcosms – Jeffersonian democracies in miniature; but they can also be a pain, albeit a necessary one. Essentially, all governments are a mutual agreement to limitations for the common good, but that only works when the governed agree to play by the very rules they have agreed upon. Recently, I watched a gentleman rant at a homeowners meeting, because his property had been cited for stained siding. As he spluttered...

    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...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Capitol Hill police plan to issue an arrest warrant today for Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.). The warrant is related to the incident Wednesday when McKinney allegedly slapped a Capitol Hill police officer. Charges could range from assault on a police officer, which is a felony carrying a possible five year prison term, to simple assault, which is a misdeamenor. McKinney has canceled a news conference that she had scheduled for this morning to discuss the incident. McKinney issued a statement yesterday saying she "deeply regrets" the confrontation with the police officer. The six-term congresswoman apparently struck a...

ATLANTA -- Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick believes Virginia Tech overreacted when the school dismissed his brother, Marcus, from the football team after he stomped on an opposing player during the Gator Bowl. Marcus Vick later claimed the incident was accidental and that he apologized to Louisville's Elvis Dumervil, but the All-American defensive end denied receiving an apology. Michael Vick, who led Virginia Tech to the 1999 national title game as a redshirt freshman, was at the Gator Bowl and saw his brother step on Dumervil. "Sometimes your emotions just take over," Michael Vick said during halftime Wednesday night of...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sunday, December 18, 2005 PRESS CONTACT: Jasmyne Cannick (Local Media) (323) 839-0216 jasmynecannick@hotmail.com LaNiece Jones (Int’l and Nat’l Media) (510) 568-5899 lajpr@aol.com Viewing to Take Place on Monday, Memorial Service Slated for Tuesday LOS ANGELES - There will be a public viewing of Stanley Tookie Williams on Monday, December 19, 2005 from 3 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the House of Winston Mortuary located at 9501 South Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. The memorial service for peacemaker Stanley Tookie Williams will take place Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 12 noon. The service will take place at Bethel...

A North York church group is fighting to curb the alarming rate of unplanned pregnancies among high school girls living in west-end housing complexes. Members of the Abundant Life Pentecostal Church on Dixon Rd. said they're concerned for the girls and their fatherless babies. They are aware of one youth who has impregnated more than a dozen schoolgirls. "Some of these studs have made 10 or more girls pregnant," said Pastor Al Bowen. "Many others have made two or three pregnant." Bowen and volunteers of the Kuriou Foundation have been conducting outreach for 15 years in housing complexes in Jane-Finch,...

A suspended Minnesota Vikings player is the defendant in a civil suit filed today in Hennepin County District Court. A 21 year old Richfield woman is accusing Onterrio Smith of sexual assault in another Viking’s apartment on June 12, 2004. In an exclusive interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the woman’s attorney spoke about the case and the victim. “I think she’s a credible person. I’ve talked to her family members who saw her the night that it happened. I’ve seen the medical records. I think she’s believable,” said attorney Lori Peterson. The victim alleges that she was drinking with Smith...

rap mogul shug knight has been shot at a party hosted by kanye west. he was apparently shot in the leg by an unknown assailant...more to come...

Hollywood star Forest Whitaker who is playing Idi Amin in the screen version of the acclaimed novel The Last King of Scotland, says the late Ugandan dictator was no saint, but was not the monster that has been portrayed in the West. In a weekend interview, Whitaker said his research for the role in the film had changed his perception of Amin, whose brutal rule over Uganda between 1971 and 1979 was punctuated by bizarre and often psychopathic behaviour, and the deaths of up to half a million people. "I'm not trying to defend Amin, the Amin I found was...

It was as plain as black and white. It was a hate crime. When 30 black teenagers from Marine Park Middle School, most of them girls, chased five white girls from St. Edmund's off a Marine Park basketball court and across a Brooklyn street - punching, kicking, slapping, pulling hair and screaming, "honky bitches," "black power" and "white crackers" - it was a racial attack. It was about hate. Police officers who responded to the scene on March 30, at approximately 4 p.m., arrested five blacks. They were charged with simple assault. Two of the white girls were treated at...

As a group of residents cheered, a Glen Park man tackled Gary Patrolman Carl Cochran, choking the officer and threatening to kill him in an unprovoked attack Wednesday night, Lt. Roger Smith said. Cochran, a five-year veteran and member of the department’s elite S.W.A.T. team, suffered cuts to his face and injuries to his arm and back as a result of the protracted struggle with Kelvin D. Banks, 40. Cmdr. Jerome Krebes said Thursday he ordered additional patrols in the area in response to the incident. A small group of people — ten or less — surrounded the officer during...

NEW YORK - Labor talks between the NBA and the players' union broke off Wednesday, increasing the chance of a lockout starting in the offseason. In a statement, the NBA accused the union of backtracking on several items that the sides had agreed upon. The collective bargaining agreement expires June 30. "Since we are at a loss as to how we can possibly reach a new deal that is in any way consistent with the principal terms that we have been discussing for many months, there are no further meetings scheduled at this time," deputy commissioner Russ Granik said. The...