Folks Who Get It: White Rocker David Cook Tears Up Jackson's Billie Jean On American Idol

Though Chris Cornell was acknowledged to be the source of David Cook's "Billie Jean" rearrangement on last week's American Idol, another band has come out demanding Cook (pictured) credit their cover of "Eleanor Rigby."

Doxology, a rock-soul group out of Seattle (who happen to be pals with last season's runner-up Blake Lewis), claim that on March 11 Cook performed their version of the Beatles' classic — which has been available on the band's myspace page and iTunes since January 2007 — without crediting them.

In a statement issued to the press on Saturday, lead vocalist Luke McPherson contends, "When given the opportunity to speak up and reveal where the arrangement came from, David Cook did not. His silence on the issue implies that the arrangement is his own. It is not." The band is careful to note that they are fans of the show and they are not seeking royalties (which they would have earned off of iTunes sales had their name been mentioned on air). Their impetus: "We just want David Cook and American Idol to do the right thing and acknowledge these facts. It's that simple." Whether Cook was actually aware of their version is still unclear as representatives for Fox could not be reached for comment over the weekend.

We Thinks She Rocks: MEGAN GOODE

TELL US, WHO DO YOU THINK ROCKS?


Our Rock'n Couple Megan Goode and Bow Wow from ROLL BOUNCE

It's Back To Black For British R&B Singer Amy Winhouse

This Skanky White Girl Can Sing Her Butt Off

Obama's Penn State Rally Draws 20,000
Clinton Faces Tough Odds as Obama's Lead Widens
Obama Gains More Ground in Texas Conventions
Zimbabwe Announces First Results as Riot Police Deploy
Barbados' Financial Services Set for Upturn

Singer Estelle Holds On to Number One Spot

Spike Lee Honored for Movie Career
Mos Def Picks Chuck Berry Role for Music Biopic
High-Profile Blacks Lend Support to Kwame Kilpatrick
Haitian Rebel Sought by US Says He Will Run for Senate
Book Deal Worth $1.35M for Gov. Deval Patrick

SHOCKING TRAGIC NEWS!!! FIRST GERALD, NOW SEAN LEVERT IS DEAD!

Sean Levert, 39, of the 80's and 90's R&B group Levert was found dead in his jail cell over the weekend.

“Sean Levert, son of O’Jays lead singer Eddie Levert, was found dead in a Cleveland, Ohio, jail over the weekend. He was being held for allegedly failing to pay about $80,000 in child support. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Sean's brother, the late Gerald Levert who died Nov. 10, 2006 at the age of 40, formed the popular group with Marc Gordon. Condolences and prayers go out to the family. [Source]

REST IN PEACE SEAN!

Brothers Man-Up During National Black Marriage Day

Why Did I Get Married???

After learning about Black Marriage Day, created in 2003 by Nisa Muhammad of the Wedded Bliss Foundation in Washington, D.C., in hopes of counteracting the plummeting black marriage rate, Dasi and her husband, Tariq Ziyad , decided to get on board by adding Cleveland to the list of cities sponsoring local celebrations.

So yesterday in Shaker Heights, Ohio's first-ever Black Marriage Day celebration opened. Appropriately enough, it began with a romantic serenade.

"I meant every word when I said, I do' . . . I still love you," crooned the Hue People vocal quartet as 20 couples made their way down the aisle at Eastview United Church of Christ in Shaker Heights.

Then the three-hour ceremony, one of more than 200 taking place across the country Sunday, unfolded with a mix of entertainment, marriage advice and testimonials. It ended with close to 40 married couples standing up to renew their vows.

Several of the husband-and-wife teams shook their clasped hands over their heads like boxing champions as their names were announced. Then they all gazed into each other's eyes to recite a pledge to stay committed and "get better together."

The goal of the event, said co-organizer Krsnanandini Dasi, is to strengthen black families by showcasing "black couples who are having successful marriages, despite the challenges and despite the statistics."

To all her guests, Dasi handed out a 20-page Black Marriage Day souvenir guide that, next to ads for wedding planners, party centers and marital counseling, spotlighted many of the grim statistics related to black families. According to 2000 census figures, 70 percent of all black babies born in Cleveland are born to unmarried parents. The story continues...

HOLLYWOOD ACTORS GETTING TWISTED, TOOK AND TRASHED BY THEIR OWN UNIONS

As if it wan't enough that the Democrats are loosing valuable resources and energy as they infight over Barack and Hillary. Confusion and frustration has now hit the two major acting unions on the dawn of their negotiations with producers for a new actors contract. And yes there could be another striike. This weekend a blow-up occurred after leaders of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which represents about 70,000 actors and others, learned that Screen Actors Guild leaders, who represent about 120,000 actors, had met with cast members of the CBS soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
Earlier in the day, The Los Angeles Times reported that the federation officials had accused the guild of encouraging actors who were trying to end the federation’s representation of the show’s cast. Guild leaders disputed the claim. On Saturday evening, however, federation leaders scrapped the planned talks, which have been conducted jointly for nearly 30 years, citing the soap opera incident as the latest in a series of attempts by the guild to undercut them.

“This was simply the culmination of what really has been a year-long campaign by SAG to discredit Aftra,” Ms. Reardon said on Sunday.

Mr. Rosenberg — who called the soap opera issue a “sham” designed to let the federation exit joint talks. — said his guild had pledged not to take up representation of the “Bold and the Beautiful” actors, even if the federation were decertified. Relations between the unions, often rocky, had become especially difficult after the actors guild earlier floated a plan to tilt its customary 50-50 position on a joint bargaining committee in its own favor, because the guild is larger and its members have more earnings. Read more By MICHAEL CIEPLY at THE NEW YORK TIMES

(erase after the remaining post)

FALLEN SOLDIERS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN: STARTING THE WEEK WITH THE PROPER PERSPECTIVE: 3-31-2008

THIS WEEK, THE PENTAGON RELEASED THE NAMES OF 14 SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN:

Air Force TSgt William H Jefferson Jr, 34, of Norfolk, VA
Army PFC Tyler J Smith, 22, of Bethel, ME
Army PFC Antione V Robinson, 20, of Detroit, MI
Army SGT Thomas C Ray II, 40, of Weaverville, NC
Army SGT David S Stelmat, 27, of Littleton, NH
Army SGT David B Williams, 26, of Tarboro, NC
Army SSG William R Neil Jr, 38, of Holmdel, NJ
Army PVT George Delgado, 21, of Palmdale, CA
Army SSG Christopher M Hake, 26, of Enid, OK
Army PFC Andrew J Habsieger, 22, of Festus, MO
Army SPC Jose A Rubio Hernandez, 24, of Mission, TX
Army SSG Joseph D Gamboa, 34, of Yigo, GU
Army SPC Gregory B Rundell, 21, of Ramsey, MN
Army SPC Joshua A Molina, 20, of Houston, TX

Kappa Brother Alphonso Jackson To Resign As HUD Secretary After A Black Man Criticizing Bush Fails To Get A Contract

Alphonso Jackson, the African American U.S. housing secretary under pressure after accusations of improper allocation of federal contracts, is resigning.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the 63-year-old Housing and Urban Development Secretary is set to make the announcement today after facing calls to step down for behaving improperly in cherry-picking who would and would not be awarded government ontracts. The Texas Republican and member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity had been extremely active the past few months traveling the country in an effort to stem the disastrous foreclousure debable Americans are facing due to the ongoing subprime mortgage crisis.

Overseen by HUD, the brother was HNIC of The Federal Housing Administration, which runs the largest government program to aid home buyers. One of 12 children, Jackson rose to prominence in Dallas where he successfully ran the Dallas Housing Authority before our deal ole' Presdent tapped him to come to Washington.

His troubles started on April 28, 2006 when Jackson spoke at a meeting in Texas on the issues of government contracting. He recounted that a prospective African-American HUD contractor had made a "heck of a proposal" and was selected upon the basis of that proposal, but upon thanking Secretary Jackson for being selected the bidder, mentioned that he did not like President Bush.

As a result, Jackson said, the bidder who had criticized Bush did not receive the gig: "Brother, you have a disconnect..." Jackson asked the crowd, "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe." That led to a series of inquiries that have now resulted in numerous FBI investigations and calls for Jackson's head.

And sadly, this may not be the... rest of the story.

Nickelodean Kid's Choice Awards Brings Out Black Hollywood & Their Little Crumb Snatchers

WILL SMITH, WILLOW & JADEN
HERE'S THE JIMMY JEAN-LOUIS CLAN
NIA LONG BRINGS HER LITTLE ESCORT
NOT TO BE OUTDONE, SO DOES TRACEY EDMONDS
RODNEY, HOLLY AND ALL THE PEETE'S

Sunday Morning Sexy, Starring Baller Will Demps And Banger Naomi Campbell

NICE!!!

Brad & Angelina Officially Jump The Broom? NOT!

Save Your Congrats For Mr & Mrs. Smith... Ummm, Pitt!

Rumors that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got hitched earlier Saturday, March 29, in New Orleans have turned out to be false. All that wondering over whether Jennifer Anniston sent a gift or not was a complete waste of time!

Jolie, who is pregnant with twins, has been dating Pitt since 2005. The couple share four children together: Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 1. If Zahara's parents ever do decide to wed, it will be Angelina's third marriage and Brad's second. [Fox]

African American Films & Filmmakers Stop Whining And Get It Down!

The New Black Cinema? Direct-To-Video
Obama Gets Boost; Clinton Urged to Quit
Dean: Obama, Clinton Camps Told to Cool Rhetoric
Paper: Campus Skit Had 'Obama' in Blackface
50 Cent Flip-Flops: From Hillary to Obama
Zimbabwean Voters Elect President

Black Filmmakers Seek A New Star
A Different Kind of Slavery
MTV to Celebrate 'Yo! MTV Raps' Anniversary
Young Shooting Victim, Mother Honored
Turkey 'Hot Spot' for African American Students
Suicide Rate Among Blacks is Cause for Alarm

Here And Now With The Content Black Woman OBAMA ON THE VIEW WATCHING THE BODY LANGAUAGE

Thursday Barack Obama was on televison's THE VIEW and I made some surprising observations. First let me say, as a voter, listen to the tape below. Obama lays out how he would begin his presidency,and the things he goes on to list are the things most important to me in my decision for president. On top of that, I love it that he doesn't shy away from controversy. However, if you get a chance, check out the body language, particularly of Whoopi and Elizabeth. Whoopi's faced is frowned almost the entire time as others ask questions especially during the Jeremiah Wright controversy.



However, if you get a chance, check out the body language, particularly of Whoopi and Elizabeth. Whoopi's faced is frowned almost the entire time as others ask questions especially during the Jeremiah Wright controversy questions (not posted here, but is on YouTube). I believe she is just being introspective.
More at CONTENT BLACK WOMAN

Folks Who Get It Writer Alice Walker Breaks This Whole Obama Versus Hillary BS Down

PREACH SISTAH!!!

I HAVE COME home from a long stay in Mexico to find – because of the presidential campaign, and especially because of the Obama/Clinton race for the Democratic nomination - a new country existing alongside the old. On any given day we, collectively, become the Goddess of the Three Directions and can look back into the past, look at ourselves just where we are, and take a glance, as well, into the future. It is a space with which I am familiar.

When I was born in 1944 my parents lived on a middle Georgia plantation that was owned by a white distant relative, Miss May Montgomery. (During my childhood it was necessary to address all white girls as "Miss" when they reached the age of twelve.) She would never admit to this relationship, of course, except to mock it. Told by my parents that several of their children would not eat chicken skin she responded that of course they would not. No Montgomerys would.

My parents and older siblings did everything imaginable for Miss May. They planted and raised her cotton and corn, fed and killed and processed her cattle and hogs, painted her house, patched her roof, ran her dairy, and, among countless other duties and responsibilities my father was her chauffeur, taking her anywhere she wanted to go at any hour of the day or night. She lived in a large white house with green shutters and a green, luxuriant lawn: not quite as large as Tara of Gone With the Wind fame, but in the same style.

We lived in a shack without electricity or running water, under a rusty tin roof that let in wind and rain. Miss May went to school as a girl. The school my parents and their neighbors built for us was burned to the ground by local racists who wanted to keep ignorant their competitors in tenant farming. During the Depression, desperate to feed his hardworking family, my father asked for a raise from ten dollars a month to twelve. Miss May responded that she would not pay that amount to a white man and she certainly wouldn't pay it to a nigger. That before she'd pay a nigger that much money she'd milk the dairy cows herself.

When I look back, this is part of what I see. I see the school bus carrying white children, boys and girls, right past me, and my brothers, as we trudge on foot five miles to school. Later, I see my parents struggling to build a school out of discarded army barracks while white students, girls and boys, enjoy a building made of brick. We had no books; we inherited the cast off books that "Jane" and "Dick" had previously used in the all-white school that we were not, as black children, permitted to enter.

The year I turned fifty, one of my relatives told me she had started reading my books for children in the library in my home town. I had had no idea – so kept from black people it had been – that such a place existed. To this day knowing my presence was not wanted in the public library when I was a child I am highly uncomfortable in libraries and will rarely, unless I am there to help build, repair, refurbish or raise money to keep them open, enter their doors.

When I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early twenties it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents, who had been thrown off the land they'd always known, the plantations, because they attempted to exercise their "democratic" right to vote. I wish I could say white women treated me and other black people a lot better than the men did, but I cannot. It seemed to me then and it seems to me now that white women have copied, all too often, the behavior of their fathers and their brothers, and in the South, especially in Mississippi, and before that, when I worked to register voters in Georgia, the broken bottles thrown at my head were gender free.

I made my first white women friends in college; they were women who loved me and were loyal to our friendship, but I understood, as they did, that they were white women and that whiteness mattered. That, for instance, at Sarah Lawrence, where I was speedily inducted into the Board of Trustees practically as soon as I graduated, I made my way to the campus for meetings by train, subway and foot, while the other trustees, women and men, all white, made their way by limo. Because, in our country, with its painful history of unspeakable inequality, this is part of what whiteness means. I loved my school for trying to make me feel I mattered to it, but because of my relative poverty I knew I could not.

I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that millions of Americans –black, white, yellow, red and brown - choose Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic to me.

When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job required. Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves.

True to my inner Goddess of the Three Directions however, this does not mean I agree with everything Obama stands for. We differ on important points probably because I am older than he is, I am a woman and person of three colors, (African, Native American, European), I was born and raised in the American South, and when I look at the earth's people, after sixty-four years of life, there is not one person I wish to see suffer, no matter what they have done to me or to anyone else; though I understand quite well the place of suffering, often, in human growth.

I want a grown-up attitude toward Cuba, for instance, a country and a people I love; I want an end to the embargo that has harmed my friends and their children, children who, when I visit Cuba, trustingly turn their faces up for me to kiss. I agree with a teacher of mine, Howard Zinn, that war is as objectionable as cannibalism and slavery; it is beyond obsolete as a means of improving life. I want an end to the on-going war immediately and I want the soldiers to be encouraged to destroy their weapons and to drive themselves out of Iraq.

I want the Israeli government to be made accountable for its behavior towards the Palestinians, and I want the people of the United States to cease acting like they don't understand what is going on. All colonization, all occupation, all repression basically looks the same, whoever is doing it. Here our heads cannot remain stuck in the sand; our future depends of our ability to study, to learn, to understand what is in the records and what is before our eyes. But most of all I want someone with the self-confidence to talk to anyone, "enemy" or "friend," and this Obama has shown he can do. It is difficult to understand how one could vote for a person who is afraid to sit and talk to another human being. When you vote you are making someone a proxy for yourself; they are to speak when, and in places, you cannot. But if they find talking to someone else, who looks just like them, human, impossible, then what good is your vote?

It is hard to relate what it feels like to see Mrs. Clinton (I wish she felt self-assured enough to use her own name) referred to as "a woman" while Barack Obama is always referred to as "a black man." One would think she is just any woman, colorless, race-less, past-less, but she is not. She carries all the history of white womanhood in America in her person; it would be a miracle if we, and the world, did not react to this fact. How dishonest it is, to attempt to make her innocent of her racial inheritance. [The Root]

What's A Chinkie Brown?

Click The Pic and Check Your Girl Out!

She's got a funky sound!

You Say Wendy Williams, I Say Drama, Drama, Drama!!!

Wendy, How YOU Doin'????

Much love to SOHH for spilling the tea over reports that Wendy Williams will be suspended indefinitely pending the results of her investigation. Earlier this week her talent producer Nicole Spence accused Wendy’s husband of sexual harrassment and phyically abusing Wendy on the premises of WBLS, thereby creating a hostile work environment.

… there will be a big meeting at WBLS with all their radio employees to discuss the company’s take on the scandal. Could this be Miss Williams last stand? Continue Reading »

Even Black Folks Who Belong To The GOP Understand That Race Is A "Big Deal"

Condi Has A Moment of Clarity!

The first Black woman to hold the position of Secretary of State said yesterday that the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national "birth defect" that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country's very founding.

"Black Americans were a founding population," Condoleezza Rice said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding."

As a result, the Repuublican politico destined to be remembered in the history books told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that."

"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today," she said.

Story and Video

Here and Now With The Content Black Woman: YOU'VE GOT EVERYTHING TO WIN!

If you are an avid news and information junkie like me, it might be a bit tough to not get discouraged by some of the images we see and the things we hear concerning the world's condition.

There are those who refuse to watch the news prior to going to bed at night and in the morning before beginning their day because they do not want to be weighted down by the onslaught of bad news. Such an action only demonstrates we have the power to create the type of day, night and life we want.


Sometimes we come to a point in life where everything may appear to be beyond our control. Therefore, we find ourselves faced with unique opportunities that would enable us to fulfill our individual purpose and destiny leaving us with the motivation and thought of, "Why not? I've got nothing to loose." In my four years or so of deep introspective thinking, prayer and meditation, I've come to the revelation that if we just shift our energy and focus on what is good in our lives, we'll soon discover that:
We have Everything to Win!

One of my favorite movies is the Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. Costner plays a family man who is on the verge of losing his home while being led to build and maintain a huge expensive regulation size baseball field in the midst of his crops intended to serve as a major source of income. He embarks upon a journey to follow his dream so much so that people are calling him crazy. Yet, his faith is unwavering, he possesses a clear vision and remains steadfast in his gratitude for what he does in spite of his set of daunting challenges.

The value of the message of this masterpiece of cinematic history is undeniable.


You have the power to win - win at prosperity, win at health, win at spirituality, and win at life. To succeed, you must possess unwavering faith steeped in gratitude with an assuredness that your steps will be ordered accordingly due to your faith in a God who desires you to be prosperous, in good physical and mental health and at peace.

Can you love your life in the midst of what seems to be a continuous loop of perpetual problems and challenges?

See CONTENT BLACK WOMAN for the answer.

Hey Magic, You Work Out?

Time For Jared's Subway Routine, Hey MJ!!!

Former NBA superstar Earvin "Magic" Johnson was in Hawaii the other day vacationing with the fam. Looks like he's been spending more time at his TGI Friday Restuarants than his 24 Hour Fitness Clubs. Hey, at least the brother's healthy!

Quickie: The State Of Business In The Good Ole' USA!

Prosecutors Make Rapper TI Say Ugh, Na-Na Na-Na!!!

Black rap superstar T.I. has pled guilty to federal weapons charges, as part of a plea deal that could send the rapper to prison for a year.

The 28-year-old entertainer, whose real name is Clifford Harris, was arrested in a federal sting last October just hours befre the BET Hip Hop Awards Show after his bodyguard-turned-informant delivered three machine guns and two silencers to the brother's Atlanta home.

Authorities said that Harris, 27, provided the bodyguard $12,000 to buy the weapons, which Harris is not allowed to own because he is a convicted felon. Court documents said Harris was convicted on felony drug charges in 1998, and a federal affidavit said he has been arrested on gun charges in the past.

U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell Jr. will first need to sign off on the plea bargain. When sentenced a year from now, the 27-year-old rapper (born Clifford Harris) could be ordered to perform 1,500 hours of community service, which he would serve by talking to youth groups across the U.S., and about 12 months behind bars.
In addition, T.I. could be sentenced to three years' supervised release, including a year of home detention. He could also be ordered to pay a $100,000 fine.

According to the terms of the plea deal, T.I.'s prison term could be increased or reduced, depending on his fulfillment of its terms. The deal says T.I.'s message to the youth groups he'll speak to should focus on the pitfalls of guns, gangs and drugs.

Without a plea bargain, he would have faced a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count. T.I. initially pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been under house arrest since his release on $3 million bond October 26. He was allowed to leave his house to attend church services on Easter Sunday. [CNN]

LAILA'S KNOCKED UP, LA TIMES GET SLAPPED DOWN

Laila Ali Pregnant with Her First Child
Florida Passes Resolution, Apologizes for Slavery
Judge Approves $24M Walgreen Racism Settlement
Obama Warns of 'You're on Your Own' Society
CNN Denied Permission to Cover Elections in Zimbabwe
Sean Levert Jailed for Failure to Pay Child Support

Black on Black Violence At Funeral Parlors? C'mon!

LA Times Apologizes for Tupac Shakur Story
Women Rally in Support of Mayor Kilpatrick
The Hidden History of Slave Resistance
Chris Webber Officially Announces Retirement
Ex-Panthers Leave Solitary Confinement After Decades
Kimora Lee Simmons Files for Divorce
FAMU Employees Asked to Return Money

Courtesy of Black Report

Blacks Not Voting For American Idol, As Black Contestants Land At the Bottom

There were only two Black contestants in the American Idol competition and last night they were both at the bottom of the voting, along with a White guy who thinks he's Black by the dreaded hair he wears. I don't know if these three are the worst talents or if Black folks in America just aren't voting. But last night Chikezie was kicked off. Granted that Luther Vandross version of 'Only For One Night" was a snoozer... But check my man Chikezie out above, two weeks ago, when he blew them away with his bluegrass funk/rock version of the Beatles, "She's a Woman".
In the mean time has contestant Syesha Mercado got too much attitude for Black and White audiences alike? Others are saying...


Interestingly enough, Syesha's near disaster this week also seemed more attributable to her chilly personality than actual singing ability. To me, her renditions the last two weeks of ''If I Was Your Woman'' and ''Yesterday'' were more powerfully sung than any of her female competitors' performances, and yet, for some reason, I still haven't found myself getting excited by Ms. Mercado. There's something off-putting about her interview clips, the way she's constantly flashing that stage smile whenever the cameras zoom in on her. And I'm not alone in my ambivalence.
Read what others are saying at IDOL'S ROCKY BOTTOM.

Los Angeles Loses ANOTHER Black Owned Radio Station As Radio One Unloads Unprofitable V-100

So long Cliff Winston. Adios John Monds. Want to hear Michael Baisden do his thing? Well, you soon may just be out of luck.

Financially strapped Radio One has just announced that it is selling its Los Angeles station KRBV (100.3 FM) to Bonneville International for about $137.5 million, a decision that means the Lanham urban radio giant will no longer have a presence in the nation's largest radio market by revenue.


The sale of what was once the popular 92.3 The Beat will close in the second quarter of this year.

Alfred C. Liggns III, Radio One's chief executive and president, announced in a statement that the sale will enable the firm to reduce its debt, focus on its Internet strategy and initiate a $150 million stock buyback program.

"This is an attractive transaction for Radio One, as it frees up capital and management resources which can be re-deployed to execute our long-term strategy," he said.

In 2000, not long after Liggins took the helm of the company founded by his mother, the legendary Catherine Hughes, he brokered a $1.3 billion deal with Clear Channel to buy 12 stations in such major markets as Houston, Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles. At the time, Radio One's strategy had been to buy struggling stations and turn them around, programming them with music and talk shows aimed at African American and urban listeners.

In metropolitan Los Angeles, where the Hispanic population is nearing 50 percent, the Radio One station, former home to such radio personalities as Tom Joyner, Steve Harvey and the outrageous Wendy Williams, struggled to maintain and expand its audience share. Like many other media companies, Radio One has faced stiff competition from new media such as MP3 players, and satellite and Internet radio.

Last year, the company announced that it would sell 10 underperforming stations to improve its cash flow and reduce its debt. Over the past year, Radio One stock lost about 80 percent of its value as revenue declined when advertisers shifted to other media, including the Internet.

J.P. Morgan analyst John Blackledge said the $137.5 million sale price reflects the value of a station that has no audience or revenue. Last year, according to his analysis, the station lost about $5 million.

At one time, Los Angeles was home to powerhouse R&B black stations such as 1580 AM KDAY and 103.9 FM KACE. With this new development, Stevie Wonder's 102.3FM KJLH will be the only remaining station in Southern California that is owned by African Americans.

"The sale of the troubled L.A. station makes sense for [Radio One] at this point, in our view, as reformatting and focused efforts could not turn around the station's fortunes over the past few years," Blackledge said in a statement.

Yesterday, Bonneville president and chief executive Bruce Reese said he expected federal regulators to take up to 90 days to approve the Los Angeles sale. In the meantime, Bonneville plans to enter an agreement that would allow it to take over the station's airwaves sooner.

But here's the kicker:

"We're not acquiring the personnel or the format from [Radio One]," Reese said. "We basically bought the operating equipment . . . the antenna, the transmitter and the studio to operate out of. When they move out, we'll move in."

With the recent merger news surrounding XM and Sirius Satellite, where does this leave the black community in terms of getting it's news and information?

In a word, it's all about the Internet family, and creating our own outlets. Which is what we'll be tonight, on BlogTalkRadio for a new edition on The Content Black Woman Show.

Meanwhile, Bonneville is moving right along. "We know we'll get the right people, we think we'll get the right ideas and we think we can do well in L.A.," he said. "It's obviously a huge radio market, and we're excited about the opportunity."

Radio One's stock price rose sharply on the news, adding 65 cents, or about 59 percent, to $1.76. The company's stock has ranged from 99 cents to $7.73 over the past year.

Kimberley Locke Returns to Idol Tonight 30lbs Lighter

Kimberley Locke finished third behind Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken in season Two of American Idol. Since then she has proven to be her own shining star. First with her Curb Record contract (Warner Music Group), then her Ford Modeling contract, then with her delicious "bu dunk ka' dunk" featured in the national Layne Bryant clothing campaign and opening her own restaurant.

Well tonight she returns to American Idol with a new R&B sound, shedding her country roots. She also brings a new look having shed 30lbs of weight. Personally the bigger Kimberley was the better Kimberley, but catch Idol tonight and you decide. Her new sound album, titled 'Based on a True Story,' drops on May 1.

THIS IS CHANGE THE FIRST SINGLE OFF THE ALBUM:

Turns Out Diddy's Involvement In Tupac's Murder Was A Big Phat Lie!

White Prison Inmate James Sabatino
Dupes L.A. Times

News reports last week claiming that the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio was carried out by associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs and that the rap impresario knew of the plot beforehand was based largely on fabricated FBI reports.

Per The Smoking Gun, it appears the Los Angeles Times has been hoaxed by an imprisoned White con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries, conducted business with Combs, Shakur, Busta Rhymes, and The Notorious B.I.G., and even served as Combs's trusted emissary to Death Row Records boss Marion "Suge" Knight during the outset of hostilities in the bloody East Coast-West Coast rap feud.

James Sabatino, 31, has long sought to insinuate himself, after the fact, in a series of important hip-hop events, from Shakur's shooting to the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.. In fact, however, this cat was little more than a rap devotee, a wildly impulsive, overweight kid from Florida.

The Times relied on "FBI records recently obtained by The Times" and interviews with several unnamed sources in its reexamination of the November 30, 1994 shooting of Shakur at Quad Studios near Times Square. Included in the paper's online package was a PDF of two key FBI interview reports cited in the 2800-word story, which was six months in the making and written by veteran reporter Chuck Philips, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for his coverage of corruption in the entertainment industry.

In addition to the documents posted on the Times site, a third purported FBI interview report was included by Sabatino in court papers he filed four months ago in U.S. District Court in Miami. In that civil case, Sabatino is suing Combs for $16 million over an alleged soured business deal from nearly a decade ago. According to Sabatino's complaint, which he prepared and filed himself from the Allenwood federal penitentiary in White Deer, Pennsylvania, Combs stiffed him on a $175,000 payment for audio and video recordings Sabatino made in 1994 of The Notorious B.I.G. (real name: Christopher Wallace).

But those FBI reports, dubbed "302s" due to the numbered government form on which they are prepared, are nowhere to be found in the bureau's computerized Automated Case Support database, TSG has learned. The ACS system allows investigators to search various bureau indices to determine whether particular individuals, groups, or topics have been referred to in FBI "302" reports or various other bureau documents.

The suspect documents contain information supposedly provided to agents in the FBI's New York office by an unnamed "confidential source." The records, which Sabatino himself has distributed, conveniently contain black redaction marks covering up the name of the agent (or agents) who prepared the "302s" as well as the corresponding FBI case number. However, since the documents are filled with the names of individuals and corporations, they can be tracked within the FBI system by working backwards (by subjects as opposed to case number or agent name).

And while Sabatino claims to have been provided the FBI reports during the discovery phase of a 2002 criminal case, a federal law enforcement official involved in that successful prosecution told TSG that the probe was headed by Secret Service representatives and that the FBI had no role whatsoever in the case. The official added that, at the time, investigators "had no inkling" of Sabatino's supposed role in the rap music world and never saw investigative reports detailing his purported involvement with hip-hop's leading figures or its assorted bloody disputes.

Additionally, an examination of the three documents revealed that the bodies of the respective "302s" were actually created on a typewriter (the "frame" of the reports is consistent with an authentic "302" template). In some instances, you can see where one letter was typed on top of an existing character, a so-called overstrike. In an interview, Bruce Mouw, a former FBI supervisor who headed the bureau's pursuit of John Gotti, estimated that agents ceased using typewriters about 30 years ago.

Most telling, though, are the obvious similarities (type size, font, line spacing, individual character renderings) between the purported "302s" and certain court filings created by Sabatino while he has been incarcerated at Allenwood (he was transferred last May from a Florida prison to the high-security penitentiary in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains). As with all other Bureau of Prisons (BoP) facilities, Allenwood provides inmates with access to photocopying machines, office supplies, and typewriters, according to the BoP's 2008 Legal Resource Guide. Inmates, the guide states, are "permitted a reasonable amount of time...to conduct their own legal research and to prepare legal documents."

A comparison of the "302s" and Sabatino's own court filings shows that the authors of each set of documents share remarkably similar spelling deficiencies. For instance, the word "making" appears as "makeing" in both the "302s" and Sabatino's pro se court pleadings. Similarly, the authors also have difficulty with the word "during." It appears as "durring" in both sets of documents.

After a reporter provided Philips and Marc Duvoisin, the deputy managing editor who edited the Times story, an account of TSG's findings, Duvoisin said that the newspaper would launch its own investigation to determine if the FBI documents cited in its story are real.

The first mention of the existence of the purported "302s" came in filings Sabatino made late last year in a civil lawsuit against Combs. According to the convict, he received the explosive "302s" during "discovery, trial, and other proceedings" in a federal fraud prosecution brought against him in New York in August 2002. That case, though, never went to trial. Sabatino pleaded guilty to two felonies in August 2003 and was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.

While he described the contents of four separate "302s" in his court papers, Sabatino attached only two of those reports to a November court motion. One of those documents was posted on the Times web site, along with another report that was referred to in Sabatino's filings, but not included as an exhibit. So, between Sabatino and the Times, three of the four purported FBI reports have been made public (those documents can be found here, here, and here). Details from the fourth supposed "302," dated July 1, 2002, are included in recent Sabatino court filings.

Notably, the convicted felon publicly filed the two "confidential" FBI records as exhibits to a motion seeking a court order barring Combs from distributing the documents to journalists. The bizarre motion surfaced six weeks after Sabatino filed his original October 4 complaint, which made no mention of "302s," Shakur, or any confidential FBI source. But that document does contain some of Sabatino's traditional flights from reality.

Along with claiming that he had been promised a "creative consultant" credit on Wallace's posthumous album "Born Again," Sabatino charged that Combs had delayed paying off his outstanding $175,000 debt because, in late-1998, "it was reported that the Los Angeles police had named [Sabatino] a 'person of interest' in the murder of Christopher Wallace," according to a December 6 court filing.

Of course, no news reports back this claim.

And then there's the small matter of Sabatino's whereabouts on March 9, 1997, when Wallace was gunned down while seated in a GMC Suburban outside the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. While he enjoys repeating the "theory" that he mysteriously bailed on a planned meeting with the rapper that fateful night, Sabatino was actually 2400 miles away from the crime scene. He was imprisoned in Miami's Federal Detention Center, where he still had six months to serve on a two-year sentence for separate felony convictions.

It is not Bureau of Prisons policy to allow cross-country furloughs. Even to attend the Soul Train Music Awards.

In his lawsuit against Combs, Sabatino denied prior knowledge of the plot to ambush Shakur, but added that he "does not contest that he was present at Quad Studios" on the night of the shooting. However, in the reams of copy about the 1994 attack, Sabatino's name has never appeared anywhere. The first time a publication linked him to the Shakur ambush came last week in the Times, thanks to one of the FBI "302s" obtained by the country's fourth-largest newspaper.

The New York Police Department probe of the Quad Studios incident was headed by Detective Joseph Babnik, who worked robbery cases out of the Midtown North precinct. In an interview, Babnik, now retired, told TSG that Sabatino's name "does not ring a bell" and that he could not recall anyone with that surname being connected to the Shakur case. Asked if he would have recalled a rotund white teenager being present at Quad Studios that night, Babnik said yes, adding that the only white witnesses he recalled interviewing were employed in technical capacities at the recording studio.

Shakur, who never hesitated to point fingers at those he suspected of setting up the Quad Studios shooting, never once mentioned Sabatino's supposed role in the attack.

In a three-page "302" dated December 30, 2002, the FBI's supposed confidential source reported first meeting Shakur through Sabatino in late-1993. Sabatino, born October 24, 1976, would have been 16 or 17 at the time of the Shakur introduction. The source went on to report that in February 1994, the 17-year-old Sabatino was rebuffed by Shakur when the teenager spoke to the performer about a "business offer." In short order, Sabatino and an associate devised a plan to "set up" the disrespectful Shakur, whom they decided needed to be "dealt with."

The "302" purportedly describing the behind-the-scenes machinations leading up to Shakur's assault also includes a narrative flourish that somehow escaped prior investigative or journalistic excavation. As has been widely reported, after Shakur was shot in the lobby of the Seventh Avenue building, he stumbled into an elevator and headed upstairs. When the elevator doors opened on a floor where members of the Combs entourage were milling about, a bleeding Shakur exited. Sabatino, the FBI source claimed, responded by yelling, "Get that piece of shit out of here!" Though the agent who authored the report (you know, the one whose name was conveniently redacted) actually spelled the third word in that sentence "peice."

Coincidentally, an examination of Sabatino's court filings shows that he, too, has a pronounced difficulty spelling words with the i-e and e-i couplings. He and the unnamed FBI agent apparently never memorized the old "i before e except after c" mnemonic device.

Court records show that the teenage Sabatino was living with his father in Boynton Beach, Florida around the time of the November 1994 Shakur shooting. In fact, a 1999 profile ("Con Kid") of Sabatino in Miami New Times opens with a scene from early-November 1994 in Florida. Sabatino, then 18, is masquerading as a Sony Music executive and palling around backstage with Julio Iglesias at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Another "302," which Sabatino included as a motion exhibit in his Combs lawsuit, quotes the FBI's confidential source as saying that they met Combs through Sabatino in late-1991. At the time, Sabatino would have been only 14 or 15. Amazingly, such precociousness on his part went unremarked upon (or unnoticed) by the entertainment press. And to think, just years earlier, music journalists were falling all over themselves to chronicle how Rick Rubin, a relative graybeard at 21, was co-founding Def Jam from his room at NYU's Weinstein dormitory.

In fact, according to a suspect December 30, 2002 FBI report, the confidential source said that Combs even enlisted Sabatino, 18 at the time, to serve as his envoy to "broker a 'peace agreement'" between Combs's firm, Bad Boy Entertainment, and Suge Knight's Death Row Records. Sabatino, apparently the James Baker of b-boys, was sent West because, the FBI source noted, Combs felt he "would hold a little influence over Knight due to Sabatino's father, Peter Sabatino, a/k/a Fat Pete, a member of the Colombo crime family and his relationship with a individual in Las Vegas (NFI)."

After meeting with Knight in California, Sabatino reportedly told the source that the "situation" was resolved, apparently due to the teenager's efforts. But when problems resurfaced later, "the source stated that Sabatino told him that it was all Combs fault and that Combs did not do what he said he would." Here, the negligent FBI agent authoring the report made the mistake of identifying the confidential source's gender through the careless use of the pronoun "him," thus narrowing the field of informant possibilities by half.

While hip-hop chroniclers have never recorded Sabatino's 1995 shuttle diplomacy on Combs's behalf, The New York Times Magazine did report in January 1996 that Combs sent Mustafa Farrakhan to speak with Knight (who refused to meet with the Bad Boy agent). Perhaps Death Row's boss just preferred negotiating with a 5' 5", 220-pound Italian-American kid rather than Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan's son.

The Times reported that Sabatino told Combs and Wallace beforehand about the plot to ambush Shakur at Quad Studios, and that talent manager Jimmy Rosemond, working with Sabatino, was an architect of the assault. Shakur was shot several times during the 1994 attack and was robbed of his jewelry, which reportedly included a $40,000 gold medallion. After the Times story was published, Combs and Rosemond issued statements attacking the paper's reporting and vehemently denied orchestrating the attack on Shakur or knowing about it ahead of time.

It appears that the real purpose of the suspect "302s" is to portray Sabatino as a feared hip-hop figure who muscled and conned rappers into deals. The entertainers were drawn to him "because he is a member of La Cosa Nostra" and such Mafia ties were "glamorized in the Hip Hop world," reported the confidential source. The documents Sabatino supposedly did not want disseminated--but which he himself filed publicly--conferred upon him the kind of rap world status that he has long coveted.

Sabatino has frequently claimed to have managed a number of leading hip-hop acts, including Notorious B.I.G., Lords of the Underground, and Heavy D and the Boyz. Du Kelly, a member of Lords of the Underground, described Sabatino as a "scam artist" who briefly tried to befriend the group's manager. Kelly said that he recalled Sabatino as a "short, Caucasian, little chubby fat guy" whose "father was supposed to be Mafia or something." Sabatino was "just a con artist who tried to get close to artists, but he was a nobody," said Kelly. He added that Sabatino also tried to get near the Wu-Tang Clan, "but I heard they beat him up."

Sabatino's convoluted and bizarre motion to gag Combs, of course, was immediately denied. Judge Stephen T. Brown ruled that the federal inmate's request was moot since the "allegedly confidential documents...are attached to this motion as exhibits." While the prodigious jailhouse litigant surely expected this defeat, he succeeded in drawing attention to the Combs lawsuit, the "302s," and, of course, himself.

But unlike Sabatino's own prior outlandish and unsupported claims about his entertainment industry resume (he once said he regularly consulted with music industry legend Clive Davis and even co-produced Combs's 1997 album "No Way Out"), the information about him in the "302s" came with the shiny imprimatur of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its valuable confidential source, who, the documents noted, "is in a position to testify."

And now The Los Angeles Times has added to the myth, describing "promoter James Sabatino" as a Tupac Shakur antagonist who toured with The Notorious B.I.G. and "became a fixture in Combs's circle...helping him stage lavish parties and land corporate sponsorships."

While Sabatino's "302" gambit might seem inexplicable, especially for someone already in prison (he has a November 2012 release date), it appears fairly typical for a man who has spent most of his adult life behind bars and appears to have little impulse control.

The bizarre story continues...

TEEN DEPRESSION IN COLORADO OVER THE TOP, WHAT'S GOING ON?

You say Colorado. I say Columbine. But with these new reports about teen mental health it now all makes sense. As reported in a recent Colorado Daily Camera article ("Study: Colorado Leader in Teen Depression" March 8, 2008), Colorado has a higher percentage of youth age 12 to 17 reporting symptoms of major depression than any other state in the nation. Similarly, while suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth age 15 to 19 nationally, it is the second leading cause of death for this age group in Colorado.

While the disturbing state trends are difficult to explain, the reasons behind the general increase in teen depression may not be as elusive. Local mental health professionals working with adolescents are seeing large numbers of teens suffering from depression as a function of stress from academic, social and family challenges. It is disturbing that for achievement-oriented youth a 4.0 grade point average is no longer enough. Social acceptance, always of key importance in adolescence, is even more difficult, with documented increases in bullying. Families are under more collective strain, which only intensifies anticipated parent-child conflict normally seen in adolescence.

The good news is that depression is very treatable...

Here is the rest of this story by Jan Hittelman at the DAILY CAMERA.

FLYING AMERICAN AIRLINES TODAY??? 200 FLIGHTS CANCELED

If you are flying American Airlines today Wednesday March 26, you need to confirm your flight right now. American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, canceled 200flights today to re-inspect wiring in Boeing Co. MD-80s after federal regulators raised questions during a maintenance audit.

Christine Beatty, Detroit Mayor's Former Girlfriend Also Arraigned

Being arraigned in court is a serious thing, but I'm sorry... This Lady is Fine.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Arraigned In Court

DETROIT -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick began his journey through the legal process on Tuesday, offering a not guilty plea during a brief arraignment hearing in a downtown courtroom.

Not guilty pleas were entered on charges of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office in a scandal that is threatening to prematurely end Kilpatrick's second term. What is startling about the proceedings are the counts he is being charged with and penalties if he is found guilty.

Daughter Chelsea Clinton Jammed Up about Monica Lewinsky

Yesterday at Butler University, former first daughter Chelsea Clinton was campaigning for her mom Hillary. As she fielded one last questions she got hit with a collateral damage as one student asked, "Do you think your mother's credibility was damaged during the Monica Lewinsky scandal?"
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Hillary Busted!

Remember When All You Ever Wanted To Be Was A Member Of The Jackson 5?

The New York Post has a distressing article about The Jackson Clan's climb up Brokedown Mountain. The road to riches is paved with folks who were at one time living high off the hog. Exhibit A:

Marlon Jackson, 51, an original Jackson Five member who stocks shelves at a Vons supermarket in San Diego, had to temporarily move into an extended-stay hotel. It's gets worse family.

Randy, 46, does odd jobs, including fixing cars in a Los Angeles garage owned by a family friend. He recently claimed Michael was going to give him $1.7 million - “a pipe dream,” said another brother last week.

Jackie, 56, the oldest and most debonair of the brothers, is struggling to manage his son Siggy’s aspiring rap career after an Internet clothing business startup and attempts to produce music failed.

Jermaine, 54, shuttles back and forth from his girlfriend’s home in Ventura County, Calif., to his parents’ mansion in Encino, where Jackie and Randy still bunk.

Tito, 55, is the only brother still making music, but it’s a meager living. The guitarist fronts a blues and jazz band that plays small venues and nets him $500 and $1,500 per occasional gig - a far cry from the days when the Jacksons could pull in 50,000 people at $30 a ticket.

While the verdict is still out on Rebbie and LaToya, we all know Mike’s financial status. And apparently Janet’s trying to suport everybody at this point. It doesn't take Ben Bernake to give us the sum total of the family's net worth. Then again, they could still be on some corner turning tricks and slinging rocks in Gary, Indiana.

At least it was one helluva ride!

The Motown Showdown: Detroit Has Become The Land of Playa Mayors And Jump-Offs Gone Wild!

Okay Family, This Mess is Just Embarassing

It's time to go Mayor Kwame, before sistagirl Kym Worthy puts a whuppin on you Black man! Newsweek has the da bomb coverage, under the hood.

It took Eliot Spitzer all of two days to resign after he was caught cavorting with a call girl. In Detroit, that feels like a New York minute. Two months into his own sex scandal, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is preparing for a Motown Showdown as he fights new charges.

In one corner is Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who on Monday unsealed a 12-count indictment against the mayor and Christine Beatty, his former chief of staff whose sexy text messages appear to reveal an adulterous affair the two denied under oath. In the other corner is Kilpatrick, 37, who is the first Detroit mayor ever to be charged with a crime while in office.

Sure, he faces 80 years in jail if convicted on all eight counts he faces, which include perjury, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and misconduct in office. But Kilpatrick vowed to keep swinging in what is shaping up to be a bruising battle that could last into 2009 - when he'll be up for re-election. "There will be a full airing of all the facts in this case," Kilpatrick promised at a press conference Monday, before turning himself in for finger printing and booking, "that will result in my full and complete vindication of all that has been laid before you."

First to enter the ring Monday was Worthy, a blunt talking prosecutor who has had a testy relationship with the mayor. In a 40-minute press conference that sounded like an opening argument, she invoked Teddy Roosevelt and Lady Justice to damn the mayor's actions as a betrayal of the public trust. "This was not an investigation focused on lying about sex," she said. "The public trust was violated."

Worthy has also discovered that documents were destroyed and indicated she is considering charges against other city officials, including city attorneys. The city's top lawyer and a human resources official (who is also the mayor's cousin) will be in court later this week to answer contempt charges for not responding to investigative subpoenas from Worthy. "This is beginning to sound more and more like Watergate," said city Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, who voted with the 7-1 majority on the council last week in a non-binding resolution calling for Kilpatrick to resign.... [Newsweek]

Should Olympic Athletes Be Concerned With China Lockdown?

Beijing's Looking Kinda Iffy This Summer!

The Olympics start in a few months and most athletes are consumed with making the U.S. team.

Some fortunate athletes are working on getting time off of their jobs and figuring out how to keep bills paid while they continue to train and are gone to the games.

Then you have the athletes who really want their families together with them, so getting up the money for four airline tickets to China is another challenge. So with all this going on, I ask, who's job is it to be worried about China putting Tibet on military lock down? Who should be concerned that bullets being fired at protestors in Bejing, don't hit U.S. athletes.

There are some scary things at work in China. Let's not be fooled, human rights are not a piroity in China. Humkan rights don't even make it in the "top ten" Chinese governmment concerns. But alarmingly human rights is a priority to the people of China and come the first Olympic day they know the world will be watching. Take a look at yesterdays lockdown in Tibet where a soldier was killed and China has imposed a lockdown across an ethnic-Tibet area a day after anti-Chinese protesters killed a policeman and the paramilitary responded with gunfire.

Police and paramilitary were patrolling the streets of Luhuo, in southwestern Sichuan province, and had placed checkpoints on all roads in the mountainous district to prevent anyone from leaving or entering, according to local officials and residents.

The renewal of unrest last week among China's Tibetan population underscores the difficulty Beijing faces in calming down a people who yearn for the return of the Dalai Lama and chafe at some of the restrictions of Chinese rule. China had said that the turmoil, which it blamed on a small number of extremists loyal to the Dalai Lama, had now faded.

However, state media said a mob hurling stones and carrying knives killed Wang Guochuan. a paramilitary officer, yesterday afternoon. Several were wounded in the clash before police opened fire to end the disturbance. The Xinhua news agency said: “The police were forced to fire warning shots and dispersed the lawless mobsters.”

Paramilitary police shoot monks and nuns, ethnic repression masterminded by faceless trio,
as well as reports from residents saying that one farmer had been killed, and possibly a monk, with a dozen more people wounded.

Check out Jane Macartney's article in The Times, reporting from Beijing