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George Zimmerman’s Attorney Attempts To Smear Image Of Trayvon Martin

D.L. Chandler — Sat, 25 May 2013 16:58:27 +0000

The 2012 slaying of Florida teen Trayvon Martin has been one of the most-explosive cases in recent history. With respective evidence mounting from both prosecutors and the lead attorney for former night watchman George Zimmerman, the defense is making a bold attempt to alter the image of Martin by linking him to a series of controversial images and texts.

Lawyer Mark O’Mara appeared on Fox News Thursday afternoon to present new evidence depicting a more violent side of the teenager. Photos allegedly lifted from Martin’s cell phone show a Black person’s hand holding a firearm (pictured below), images of marijuana plants, and texts that suggest the teen was in a fight.

“If Trayvon Martin’s propensity for violence becomes relevant, then I think the jury can consider the fact that he has several pictures of a gun,” said O’Mara who wants the courts to consider the photograph as evidence.

Eric L. Welch Guster, managing attorney of the Guster Law Firm, spoke with NewsOne regarding the unfolding scenario. Guster says O’Mara’s tactic is an expected salvo in a high-profile case such as this.

It is very common for defense attorneys to strike back via media before and during a trial. The prosecution has released its version of evidence in their case and the defense is doing the same. Unless the judge issues a gag order, the defense will continue to “put their case out there” for the public to view and I am sure it is their hope for potential jurors to see the information. They are aware that potential jurors have heard evidence via news reports in this case and they are working to offset the damage done by those reports.

They want to show that Trayvon has a propensity for violence. That is admissible in court because it can show how Trayvon typically would act in certain situations and show that Zimmerman may have acted in self-defense against someone who was typically known for violence. In self-defense cases this is a common theme “He/she was typically violent and was violent in this situation too, therefore I have to shoot/hurt/kill that person”

Unfortunately, Guster believes this move from O’Mara certainly helps the defense’s case, because it may sway potential jurors and shatter the idea that Martin was an innocent high school student.

Watch the O’Mara interview here:

While Trayvon Martin allegedly wasn’t perfect, much like any other 18-year-old, attempts have been made to slander him before. That doesn’t discount the murky circumstances that led to his death, nor does it take Zimmerman off the hook for ignoring authorities and taking justice in to his own hands.

As this case continues to unveil itself further, it will be interesting to witness what evidence jurors will be presented with ahead of their deliberation.

Sound off!

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Life Coach Helps Entrepreneurs Take Their Businesses To Next Level

Paul Shepard — Sat, 25 May 2013 14:52:24 +0000

Whether it’s caused by a fleeting crisis in confidence or a brief lack of focus, even the most-prosperous entrepreneurs can find themselves taking a stutter-step on the way up the ladder of success. That’s where Alena Edmondson, founder of the Atlanta-based Abundant Life Coaching, comes to the rescue for the struggling business owner.

In addition to helping the novice business owner plan, launch, run, and expand their businesses, Edmondson, a certified life coach, sees much of her clients coming from established business owners who have for one reason or another find themselves struggling to find success.

“I help business people identify anything they feel is missing and that may be holding them back,” Edmondson, 51, said. “Sometimes it’s working with very successful people who just want to get to next level.

“The process of thinking that I develop for clients starts with the question of are you where you want your life and business to be,” she said.

Though she worked as an entrepreneur trainer for more than a decade with her husband, Jerome Edmondson, in their company, the Entrepreneur Development Network (EDN), Alena took her life/business coaching enterprise separate in July 2011.

Edmondson said Abundant Life Coaching was developed as an outgrowth of a 12-week business planning course taught at EDN. She discovered that even though many of the course participants would have the tools to launch their own business, they often needed a boost to help them actually start.

“Many would put their business plans on the shelf allowing fear of the unknown to paralyze them from moving forward,” she said. I help clients out of the proverbial tree, to remove the obstruction of doubt, fear, etc., so the business owner can work strategically on their business goals of starting or growing their businesses.”

With the many minority-owned businesses in Atlanta, Edmondson said she finds common grown with many of the entrepreneurs she counsels.

In fact, it was Atlanta’s well-earned reputation as a home to Black commerce that attracted the Edmondsons to leave Detroit and establish their business in Atlanta 10 years ago.

“This city has the reputation as the Black mecca, and we found that to be true, especially when it came to people looking to start their own businesses,” Edmondson said. “So this was the perfect place for us to settle. In Detroit, we found that many people worked for the auto companies and then would retire. Here you have many people who strike out and start their own businesses.”

Aside from the business-building essence of the city, Edmondson said its pivotal role in the 1960′s civil rights struggles is an inspiration for her efforts.

“The whole Civil Rights Movement helped to awaken the African-American spirit for business ownership,” Edmondson said. “We know other nationalities come to this country and do it. We just needed to raise the awareness we could do it as well and the 1960s helped spark that.”

Edmondson said that even with the supportive surroundings Atlanta provides, challenges quickly presented themselves when she found she wasn’t getting as many clients as she hoped for back in 2011.

“I wondered what I was doing wrong, was it my message or my marketing that wasn’t working,” Edmondson said. “I wondered if the people I had worked with really got it. Did I really reach the person.”

At times, it seemed the life/business coach needed a life/business coach of her own, she said.

But as clients began coming though the door and revenues began to grow, Edmondson said she began to find herself on more solid footing financially and emotionally.

Attracting business primarily on a referral basis, Edmondson said she now has about 15 clients per month and nets between $5,000 to $6,000 monthly. Edmondson claims a 75 percent success rate among her clients.

By next year, Edmondson hopes to bring on a small staff of life/business coaches under her to expand her services that she describes as “almost at capacity” now.

“When thoughts of not making it would come to mind, I would immediately focus on why I wanted to become a life coach and that would remove the doubt and fear of not being successful,” she said. “Do those thoughts still come, absolutely? But when I see success with a person it tells me these processes really work and it makes me push even harder for success.”

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Forbes Names Michelle Obama 4th “Most Powerful” Woman In The World

1230am WDBZ — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:55:11 +0000

Michelle Obama is officially the fourth most powerful woman in the world, according Forbes. The first lady landed on the publication’s annual “World’s Most Powerful Women” list, but fell short of first place which went to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Grio reports:

The Forbes list contains political leaders, philanthropists, celebrities and CEOs. The top 100 women are ranked based on money, their media presence, and impact over the last 12 months.

Source

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Medical Marijuana Law Coming to Ohio?

Chad Ashmore — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:37:20 +0000

Signatures will soon be collected state-wide to place a medical marijuana law on the books.

The Ohio Ballot Board approved the “Cannibus Rights Act”, on Thursday, allowing supporters to begin circulating petitions.

The proposed constitutional amendment will likely go before voters in November of 2014.

Click here to read more.

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Taste of Cincinnati This Weekend

Chad Ashmore — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:20:24 +0000

The Taste of Cincinnati is again the launch party for summer in the Tri-State.

Dozens of the region’s best restaurants will line fifth street tomorrow. Offering samples of their best dishes to an estimated half-million visitors.

The taste runs through monday.

For more on the event, click here.

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UGANDA PRESIDENT OUSTS ARMY BOSS AMID DISPUTE

1230am WDBZ — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:53:05 +0000

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni fired his top military commander Friday, the ouster apparently linked to turmoil over Museveni’s alleged plan to have his son succeed him as head of state.

Sacked army chief Gen. Aronda Nyakairima was appointed minister of internal affairs, effectively cutting his links to the army’s chain of command. Some other government officials were also moved around in a sudden shuffle of civilian and military officials.

Police, meanwhile, occupied for the fifth straight day the premises of a Kampala newspaper that had published details of a letter by another army general who asked for an investigation into reports that high-ranking officials opposed to the rise of Museveni’s son could be assassinated. In letter late last month to the chief of the internal security service, Gen. David Sejusa Sejusa cited himself, Nyakairima and Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi as among those officials who are at risk of being murdered in the alleged plot.

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No Surprise: Some GOP Foaming At Mouth For Obama Impeachment Amid ‘Scandals’

Michael Arceneaux — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:07:46 +0000

The “Get-That-N*gger” sect of the GOP is not bending on their talk of impeaching President Barack Obama. Yes, despite many Republican leaders urging their sillier members to slow down, lunatics, such as Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah, pictured) can’t stop, won’t stop. In an interview with the National Journal, Chaffetz claims, ”This is an administration embroiled in a scandal that they created. It’s a cover-up. I’m not saying impeachment is the end game, but it’s a possibility, especially if they keep doing little to help us learn more.”

If only “Grey’s Anatomy” writer and producer Shonda Rhimes were able to write the end result of this spectacle.

In her world, Chaffetz would either be transported to the afterlife or either some hole in the ground meant for suckers who don’t do as they’re told. And before you ask, no, I don’t really want Chaffetz to meet Jesus, Buddha, and Xenu. I just want him to shut the hell up.

Case in point, Chaffetz went on to declare: ”Now, the speaker has more patience than I do. He has told me to be patient, that the truth will eventually surface, but I’m not a patient person, and if this administration makes us do this the hard way, that’s what we’ll do.”

So because Chaffetz, whose current job is a career in patience, doesn’t feel up to the task, everything must stop and President Obama must go — despite growing evidence that there is no “cover-up” to speak of. In spite of more pressing matters, like say, unemployment. Nope, because Chaffetz heard something about a scandal, he’d like to shoo everyone’s thoughts and feelings away in favor of his own.

Even Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, no fan of facts or reasonable thinking by any means, suggested that Republicans not “call for impeachment until you have evidence.”

Here’s the gotcha-gotcha part of this entire ordeal courtesy of The Huffington Post:

Chaffetz suggested that the administration, which last week released 100 pages of internal emails regarding Benghazi, was still withholding a trove of information on the lead-up to and handling of the attack. He also said that his fact-finding visit to the U.S. compound in Benghazi this past October, after the attack, had shown him that the facility was poorly prepared for such an attack.

House Republicans have taken their share of criticism for repeatedly voting to reduce State Department funds allocated for embassy security since winning control of the chamber in 2010. In an interview last October, Chaffetz spoke about his caucus’s moves.

“Look, we have to make priorities and choices in this country,” he said. “We have … 15,000 contractors in Iraq. We have more than 6,000 contractors, a private army there for President Obama, in Baghdad. And we’re talking about, can we get two dozen or so people into Libya to help protect our forces. When you’re in tough economic times, you have to make difficult choices. You have to prioritize things.”

In other words, part of the reason why the Benghazi embassy didn’t have enough funds to properly secure itself in the wake of mounting threats is due to the likes of Chaffetz not handing over the money. Yet, this is Obama’s fault. And not only is it Obama’s fault, but because he hasn’t “released enough information,” he’s got to go. If you’re head is beginning to hurt trying to grasp this logic, congratulations, you’re not an idiot.

Meanwhile, might I share that I loathe every single person responsible for giving Chaffetz a congressional seat. Boo, hiss. Boo, hiss and boo.

Sound off!

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Michael Adebolajo Named As Suspect In London Terrorist Attack

Associated Press — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:46:25 +0000

LONDON — The two suspects videotaped butchering a soldier to death on a London street before spouting extremist slogans to bystanders were part of a early security services investigations for possible terror links, according to a government British official.

The official, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation, said he could not provide other details because the suspects may face trial, the Associated Press reported.

Investigations by Britain’s domestic security service, MI5, can include undercover surveillance, phone tapping and communications intercepts.

Scotland Yard meanwhile confirmed that the victim was a soldier, but did not release his name. The government also lifted its temporary order for members of the military not to wear their uniform in public.

The assailants, who struck the soldier, apparently at random, with their car on Wednesday then attacked him with knives and meat cleavers, are under arrest. Both were hospitalized after being shot by police.

During the night, police raided two homes, one in Greenwich and one in Lincolnshire, in connection with their investigation into the brutal attack.

The Associated Press, quoting an unidentified British official, said both men had been part of an earlier security services probe.

The BBC, quoting unidentified sources, reported that one of the suspects is 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo (pictured) who comes from a devout Christian family but converted to Islam after leaving college in 2001. The BBC said he was described as “bright and witty” when he was at college.

One of the men sought to justify his actions in chilling remarks to a bystander who recorded the attack near the Royal Artillery Barracks in South London on video.

“We swear by Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you,” he said, clutching knives in his bloodied hands. “The only reasons we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth. We apologize that women had to see this today but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don’t care about you.”

He gave no indication what that land was as he urged people to tell the government to “bring our troops back.” British troops are deployed in Afghanistan and recently supported the French-led intervention in Mali.

Muslim religious groups and charities were quick to condemn the attack and urged police to calm tensions. The Muslim Council of Britain called it a “barbaric act that has no basis in Islam,” adding that “no cause justifies this murder.”

Prime Minister David Cameron, who chaired a meeting Thursday of the government’s emergency response committee Cobra, said the images of the attack were “deeply shocking” but would not deter the British people from standing up to terrorism.

“One of the best ways of defeating terrorism is to go about our normal lives,” he said. “That is what we shall do today.”

The prime minister said confronting extremism is a “job for us all” and praised a 48-year-old Cub Scout leader, Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, who got off a bus to confront one of the suspects and tried to calm him.

In an interview with the the Daily Telegraph, Loyau-Kennett was asked if she was scared, and replied: “No — better me than a child.”

“I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else. I thought these people usually have a message so I said ‘what do you want?’ said Loyau-Kennett, who lives in Cornwall in southwest England.

It did not seem like he was about to attack her and “the policeman was the next target,” she said.

Loyau-Kennett said she was not scared and that the armed men did not seem to be drunk or on drugs. She said she was trying to keep them occupied so they didn’t get more agitated.

She reboarded her bus shortly before police arrived, watching as police shot the two suspects, the BBC reported.

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Detroit Sex Judge Fights For His Job During Disciplinary Hearing

NewsOne Staff — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:01:16 +0000

A Detroit judge who famously said “ain’t no shame in my game” after sexting a half-naked photo of himself to a city employee is in court fighting to hold on to his job, Fox 2 News Detroit reports.

Judge Wade McCree is currently in misconduct proceedings where prosecutors are questioning the once-rising star over his numerous sexual transgressions they suspect amount to abuse of power. As NewsOne previously reported, his sordid behavior became so outrageous that the Michigan Supreme Court censured him last summer.

Chief among McCree’s transgressions is the sexual relationship he had with a plaintiff who brought a case before his court last year. Geniene Mott, 30, was suing the father of her child for back child support.

“I met him as a litigant, a complaining witness in his courtroom, and he stayed around after the case was over and that’s when the second half of the flirting started and we went from there and our relationship picked up,” she told Fox 2 News in an interview. “It went from being a summer fling and just something to do to falling in love, promises of marriage, me getting pregnant, us buying a house together, name it.”

Watch Judge McCree’s strange testimony below:

On the witness stand this week, Mott revealed more details on their relationship:

Between May and November of 2012, did you engage in sexual conduct with Judge McCree?” Geniene Mott was asked.

“Yes, I did,” she answered.

“Numerous times?” she was asked.

“Yes,” Mott said.

“At least twice at the Westin hotel?” she was asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

“How about Judge McCree’s marital home?” she was asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“How about your house?” she was asked.

“Yes,” she said.

Watch Geniene Mott’s testimony below:

Mott also said the two had sex in his chambers. The allegation lead to Judge McCree’s suspension in February. Robert King, Mott’s ex-boyfriend, is suing Judge McCree in federal court in connection to the allegation.

In court Tuesday, McCree did not deny his relationship with Mott. In a rather strange testimony, he actually blamed her for his misconduct.

“Miss Mott is passionate. She would be at the apex of euphoria. She’d be at the abyss of near homicidal anger,” McCree said. “I had to do a lot of things just to pacify her. I had to tell her things she needed to hear.”

“So why not end it?” the judge was asked.

“I tried. I tried a couple, three, four times,” McCree said. “We’d break up, and then the next day, she would contact me, and she would sweet talk me back into it.”

One of the “things” he said he told Mott was that he would leave his wife to be with her. But, as Laverne McCree , the judge’s wife of 25 years testified in court, she and her husband never seriously planned on divorcing. They believed Mott would get an abortion if McCree provided a proof that he was getting divorced, she testified.

Indeed the case is a huge mess. McCree could be removed from the bench, if he is found guilty of misconduct. The hearing is set to resume May 28.

Watch video of the case above for more details on this remarkably ratchet story.

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Black Conspiracy Theory 101: Did The White Author Of ‘Black Like Me’ Die From Skin-Darkening?

Ruth Manuel-Logan — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:35 +0000

John Howard Griffin (pictured) was born in 1920 in the “good ol’ boy” state of Texas. During his childhood, Griffin, who was Caucasian, was quickly schooled in the White supremacist ideologies of his surrounding community. When Griffin reached adulthood, he felt compelled to contribute toward ending racism, so he embarked on a journey. Disheartened by America’s racial climate, Griffin wanted to see what life would be like as a Black man, so he concocted a daring experiment, where he would pose as one in order to understand the plight of “Negroes.” Griffin drastically darkened his skin and inconspicuously traveled throughout the rabidly racist South for nearly two months during the height of the civil rights era in 1959. He chronicled his emotionally charged discoveries in his book published two years later entitled “Black Like Me.” Even though Griffin’s skin-darkening methods were perilous by today’s standards, did he in fact die of the deadliest form of skin cancer, melanoma, as a result of his experiment?

Griffin’s memoir recounts the medical treatments he endured in order to darken his skin pigment. After the journalist found a dermatologist who agreed to take part in his outlandish experiment, Griffin began the skin-darkening process by ingesting a pill daily then subjecting himself to 15 hours a day of an ultra-violet sunlamp treatment for seven days straight. Once the week was up, Griffin shaved his head, and when he looked in the mirror, a Black man stared back at him (pictured).

In his controversial book, Griffin explains how segregation and racism reigned supreme in the South and how he was also privy to acts of Black solidarity that forever remained ingrained in his soul. Griffin also exposed the ugly and dehumanizing treatment he received as a Black man, such as not being able to use public restrooms, being denied housing, having to work as a laborer for the leisure or pleasure of serving Whites, and becoming the target of brazen insults and indignities.

After Griffin’s book was published, it ignited a firestorm, both good and bad. Many praised the book for his raw and unique look at how Blacks were treated in this country at the time, while others trashed it. In fact, when Griffin returned to his birthplace of Dallas, he was burned in effigy on the main street of his hometown. The “Black Like Me” author was also forced to flee from his home for fear of possible persecution from White hate groups.

Griffin had become a target, branded an “N-word lover,” and there were racist Whites, who felt he needed to be taught a lesson, so he and his family relocated to Mexico, where they lived for years before returning to the United States.

After fighting all his adult life for the fair treatment of Blacks, Griffin, a humanitarian who received the National Council of Negro Women Award and the Pope John XIII Pacen in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, passed away in 1980, but not as a result of the deadliest form of skin cancer as it had been rumored.

While undergoing the skin-darkening process, Griffin had been carefully monitored by his physician and only suffered temporary and minor side effects from the treatments. He had also received blood tests to make sure his liver would not be damaged by the oral medication, oxsoralen, he had taken to help accelerate the skin-darkening process.

Griffin suffered a serious heart attack in 1976 while on a lecture tour. During subsequent years, he suffered additional coronary attacks followed by surgeries that left him in a debilitated state.

On September 9, 1980, at age 60, Griffin passed away from complications due to diabetes.

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