CBC Reports
Former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti, who was raised in Montreal, has been found dead in northeastern Brazil.
On a second honeymoon with his wife and 10-month-old baby, Gatti's blood-stained body was found in an apartment in Porto de Galinhas, Brazilian police say.
A police investigation is underway, but few details are being released. Foul play is suspected in the death.
Gatti's body was found at around 6 a.m. Saturday morning. He was found in his underwear, with blood stains on his neck and the back of his head.
Nicknamed "Thunder," Gatti was one of the most successful Canadian boxers in history. Beginning his professional career in 1991 at age 19, he scored a third-round knockout in his first bout.
Three years later he captured the United States Boxing Association junior lightweight title and successfully defended it twice. He earned the International Boxing Federation's world junior lightweight title the following year.
Born in Italy but raised in Montreal, the 37-year-old Gatti retired two years ago.
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Damn this is an unexpected collabo. Pastor Mase and Killa Cam bringing back the "Children Of The Corn Days". Eh, well not really but this joint is pretty dope. Word to Mase though, nigga either preach or rap, make up your mind.
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Karrine Steffans
XXL Reports
Former XXL Eye Candy of the Year, Angel Lola Luv recently shared her thoughts about ex-rap video vixen Karrine Steffans on her blog for globalgrind.com.
Angela Lola Luv
In the post Luv accuses Steffans, whom she refers to by “Superhead,” of giving video girls a bad name. “There are a lot of different reasons why I could never ride with the choices that ‘Superhead” made,” Luv wrote. “I feel as though she played a major part in people really believing that all video vixens are just like her. Which is TOTALLY wrong! There is a difference between a ‘Video Vixen/Model’ and a ‘Video Hoe/Groupie.’ From the way they conduct themselves, their mentality and of course their agenda! The perceptions that people have of me and most video models are the total opposite of reality.”
Luv goes on to say that because of Steffans’s books - The New York Times best sellers Confessions of a Video Vixen and The Vixen Diaries – many models in the hop-hop industry get stereotyped as promiscuous. “I never went down the same path Superhead did,” she said. “I hold my head up high when I walk because I never had to sleep with anyone to get this far. So when people claim I slept with this person and that person all I can say is check my record. I get my respect in the industry because no one can say they dealt with me beyond a friendship or associate level except one person. Period! There are a lot of video vixens that haven’t either but because of Superhead people think other wise.”
XXLMag.com recently caught up with Steffans to get her response to Luv’s charges. “I don’t respond to that,” she said. “I don’t even know who she is, but she knows who I am. That means I’m famous and she’s not. So automatically, we don’t have to discuss her. We just go back to talking about me because I’m the only famous person in this sentence. That’s that.”
Steffans will be releasing her new book The Vixen Manual: How To Find, Seduce, & Keep The Man You Want this Monday (July 13)
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XXL Reports
After placing fourth on Forbes magazine’s Hip-Hop Cash Kings list, G-Unit leader 50 Cent predicts a return to number one spot next year.
In an interview with XXLMag.com, the Queens rapper says he’s not sweating the drop from the top slot this go-round.
“I’m on deck,” Fif told XXL. “I’m loaded. Call me ‘four’ this year, and then you call me ‘one’ next year, because I’m really preparing for my cycle.”
While 50 attributes his place on the list to his fourth solo album, Before I Self Destruct, getting pushed back, the rapper shrugs off his ranking.
“They’re fine,” he says of Jay-Z, Diddy, and Kanye West, who held the top three spots, respectively. “What kind of person would be upset at what position they fall when they’re on the Forbes list. That person would be a complete idiot.
“Ask me to show you a person who’s happy, and I’ll show you someone who’s content,” 50 continues. “And if you ask me to show you a guy who’s piss-poor with really nice things around him, I’ll show you the guy that’s on that list that’s worried about being number one. And [the person] won’t stay there, trust me.”
50 Cent raked in an estimated $150 million between June 2007 and June 2008, to top the 2008 Forbes charts, besting Jay-Z’s $82 million earnings. This year, Jay stacked $35 million, $15 million more than Fif’.
Before I Self Destruct is slated for a late 2009 release. –John Kennedy
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MTV Reports
Joe Jackson famously launched his sons, the Jackson 5, into superstardom, laying the groundwork for Michael Jackson's legendary career. And, in a "Good Morning America" interview on Friday (July 10), the family patriarch seemed to think Michael's children have bright futures in entertainment.
"I don't know — I keep watching Paris," he said, referring to Jackson's middle child, who spoke memorably at her father's memorial on Tuesday. "She ... wants to do something. And as far as I can see, well, they say Blanket [Michael's youngest child, Prince Michael II], he can really dance."
In the interview, when asked who should get custody of Blanket, Paris and Prince, he said he felt they should stay with the Jacksons, and specifically with Joe and his reportedly estranged wife, Katherine. "Their grandmother — Katherine — and I" should raise them, he said. "Yes, there's no one else to do what we can do for them. We should keep them all together and then make them happy, feed 'em like they're supposed to be fed, and let them get rest, plenty of sleep and grow up to be strong Jacksons."
He noted that Katherine, who currently has custody of the kids and may face a custody battle, hasn't had an easy time since Jackson's death last month. "She's taking it real hard," Joe said. "When you start talking about Michael, she starts crying."
Joe said he is awaiting toxicology reports to return about Michael's cause of death. "I just couldn't believe what was happening to Michael," he said. "I do believe it was foul play. I do believe that. Yes."
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On the night of Nov. 18, 2006, in a hotel room in Sacramento, Calif., just hours removed from a humiliating knockout at the hands of one Brandon Vera, Frank Mir announced his retirement.
"Never going to fight again," he said. "Whatever I had, I don't have anymore."
Two years had passed since Mir found himself on the receiving end of a motorcycle wreck. His femur had been broken in two places, and his knee all but ruined. The first doctor told him his career as professional fighter was over. A second orthopedist concurred.
Actually, Mir was able to make a comeback of sorts. But the knee was still gimpy when somebody named Marcio Cruz knocked him out in the first round, opening a gruesome, half-moon shaped laceration below his eye. Then he got fat for a lackluster decision over another world-beater, Dan Christison. Next, Vera — "a guy that shouldn't even have been a heavyweight," Mir would recall — put him away in 69 seconds. He had been in good shape for Vera, though. The knee was fine. Now he was out of excuses.
"It is what it is," he said, waiting for his wife to agree.
Jennifer Mir understood, of course, having lived for the better part of two years with her husband's depression and doubt. "So many people," she recalled, "were telling him he didn't have it anymore."
But she refused to count herself among them. And she refused to give him what he wanted, which is to say, an easy way out.
Frank and Jennifer had met some years before at their place of employment, the Spearmint Rhino, one of those euphemistically labeled "gentlemen's clubs" where he worked as the head bouncer. Now they had three kids of their own, including a son Frank adopted from Jennifer's previous relationship. They had built something good. But a fighter who cannot fight does not make for domestic tranquility. With Frank talking retirement, Jennifer knew the marriage was at a crossroads. Worse than that, they were looking at a lifetime of regret.
You can quit, no problem, she told him. It's not like he owed her an explanation. "You only have to answer to your children," she said. "Look how they would see you right now. ... Could you explain it to them?"
Just like that, Jennifer Mir became Standup Wife of the Year.
And Frank embarked on another kind of comeback.
"An ultimate breakdown," he says, referring to that night. "I always thought I was mentally strong. Then I found out I wasn't."
Mir recalls watching the early UFC events with his father — a Kenpo karate instructor in Vegas — and being mesmerized. But Frank was more than a fan, he was a talent. Karate and jiujitsu, striking and grappling, they all came easy to him. He was a state wrestling champ and later a UFC phenom, famously snapping Tim Sylvia's arm to win the heavyweight championship in his ninth pro fight in 2004.
"My first couple of fights in the UFC came too easy," he said. "I was a front-runner, very much of a bully."
In other words, he had no aptitude for adversity. But the accident, combined with his wife's wise words — "she pretty much came to my rescue," he says — taught him a new way.
"Humility," he says, the remnants of a black eye still visible just days before UFC 100, and his much-anticipated main event with Brock Lesnar.
Problem was, humility had never been Mir's strong suit: "You start knocking guys out in 30 seconds once a month, and then somebody stands up to you. How do you deal with that? Especially in the gym, where everybody's deathly afraid of you?"
He was just beginning to understand: The aura of invincibility had been holding him back. In order to learn, he had to get his ass kicked. Now he walks around with black eyes. His wife and kids see him getting choked out regularly. His weakest skills are those he practices most relentlessly. He anticipates and trains for the worst sort of adversity.
Certainly, it paid off in his first fight with Lesnar, 17 months ago. Lesnar was bigger and stronger and a harder hitter, but Mir was the more resilient and resourceful martial artist, submitting the former pro wrestler with a knee lock. "No matter how bad the beating became, I never thought about anything but trying to finish him," says Mir. "No matter how many punches he landed, I kept going for submissions. I wasn't looking for an out."
Lesnar, he says, reminds him of the fighter he used to be: the front-runner, the bully, the aggressor.
I think this rematch goes pretty much the same way, just longer. I say Mir by submission in the second round. But maybe that's only because I like his story.
Frank and Jennifer had a baby boy last month. But then so did Lesnar and his wife.
So here's my real hope for Saturday night: that each man can one day explain it to his son.
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LiveSteez Reports
LiveSteez research shows that Black churches, in aggregate, have collected more than $420 billion in tithes and donations since 1980. With a Senate investigation into the finances of several mega churches underway, the “Prosperity Movement” has been the target of mounting criticism from inside and outside the Black Church. Specifically, the affluent ministries of The Reverend Creflo Dollar, Bishop Eddie Long and others have drawn the attention – and ire – of some clergy and laypeople alike.
Researcher Henry E. Felder’s study of Blacks’ donation habits demonstrated per capita spending of $508 per year in 2009 dollars. Another source, Tyler Media Services, estimated that Black Church revenue approached $17 billion in 2006.
One church, the Reverend Dollar’s World Changers, reported $69 million in 2006 income, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Mainstream politicians and Black community leaders are demanding a better accounting of the “return on investment” offered by churches to the communities that fund them. Meanwhile, legions of faithful churchgoers defend their pastors and accuse their detractors of applying a double standard that ignores the largesse of wealthy, white televangelists, while underplaying the economic development and social service functions provided by the Black Church.
“The church has gotten caught up in materialism and greed, a lifestyle. Many ministers today want to live like celebrities and they want to be treated like celebrities. In other words, instead of the church standing with the community, the church has become self-serving. It has strayed away from its mission” according to Dr.Love Henry Whelchel, professor of church history at The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.
Few people – not even the ongoing Congressional investigation by Senator Chuck Grassley accuse the mega church pastors of outright larceny, and congregants generally approve of their pastors’ luxurious lifestyles. However, in a blatant recent example, a father-son pastor team, 76-year-old Richard Cunningham of Moreno Valley and his son, 52-year-old Philip Cunningham of Laurinburg, N.C., pleaded guilty to felony grand theft and fraud charges. The younger Cunningham also pleaded guilty to forgery. Over five years, prosecutors say, the Cunninghams stole from Calvary Baptist Yorba Linda Church and School bank accounts and used the money to buy time shares in Hawaii and Palm Springs, golf club memberships and a Cadillac. Prosecutors say the men have paid $3.1 million in restitution to the church.
LiveSteez’s investigative series will take a forensic editorial approach to quantifying the return to Black America for the $350 billion in tax-favored donations it has given to the Black Church, examining the arguments on both sides of the pulpit. In this series we will seek answers and advisory to the following questions:
How often and how much do church leaders take advantage of the faith of poor black people?
We will investigate and indentify the churches they are showing a strong return on investment that goes beyond inspiration.
What does the black community have to show for the $350 billion in tax free dollars?
Expert analysis on what could potentially be done with such a huge amount of money and how it could improve the state of our communities.
Why do some church leaders refuse to participate in the Grassley congressional Investigation, which requested the financial records of several mega-churches.
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At the G8 Summit in Italy, President Obama got caught checking out the backside of a young lady. I know Michelle won't be happy about this, but the man is only human.
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MTV Reports
The investigation into the death of Michael Jackson could turn into a criminal matter depending on the results of pending toxicology tests. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton told CNN on Thursday that his department is awaiting the coroner's final report to decide whether to proceed with the investigation as either a homicide case or an accidental drug overdose.
A source also told the news channel that the late singer's family has been informed that the probe into the sudden death of the pop icon at age 50 on June 25 could turn into a criminal case. "The family is aware of a potential criminal prosecution," the anonymous source said.
After an initial autopsy on the singer was inconclusive, toxicology tests were ordered. With results expected in several weeks, Bratton said police have continued their investigation by speaking to a number of doctors who have treated Jackson over the years as they probe the singer's prescription-drug history.
"We are still awaiting corroboration from the coroner's office as to cause of death," Bratton said. "That is going to be very dependent on the toxicology reports that are due to come back. ... And based on those, we will have an idea of what it is we are dealing [with]: Are we dealing with a homicide, or are we dealing with accidental overdose?"
A source told CNN that doctors who refused to cooperate with investigators were issued subpoenas, and, if necessary, authorities will issue more as their probe widens. While Bratton would not elaborate on what investigators found at Beverly Hills-area home Jackson was renting, he confirmed that "a number of items" that will assist in the investigation were seized. CNN has reported that numerous bottles of prescription drugs were taken into evidence following Jackson's death, and other media outlets have claimed that among the drugs found was the powerful anesthetic Diprivan, which is not intended for private use outside a doctor's office.
Just days after the world paid tribute to Jackson in an emotional ceremony at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, more sordid details about Jackson's alleged prescription drug use continue to emerge. According to CNN, based on a confidential document from the Santa Barbara Country Sheriff's Department that was part of the probe into allegations of child-molestation against the singer — of which he was acquitted in 2005 — former employees of the singer said Jackson took more than 10 anti-anxiety Xanax pills a night to get to sleep. The document also said he often obtained the medication under his employees' names.
The 2004 document contains comments from one of Jackson's security guards, who told sheriff's deputies that he expressed concern about the amount of medicine Jackson was taking to get to sleep to another staffer, who reportedly replied that this was an improvement "because he was down from 30 to 40 Xanax pills a night."
The document from the sheriff's office investigation also reportedly relates a story from a security guard who said he quit working for the singer after Jackson "fell on his face" in a hotel room and hurt himself. The employee allegedly told Jackson around that time that he was not comfortable getting prescriptions for him and left his employ.
In 2006, when Jackson was first considering a plan to re-launch his career with a string of shows in Las Vegas, a promoter named Jack Wishna described simply as "deal-maker Jack Wishna" by CNN was trying to help the singer reemerge from a self-imposed silence following the 2005 acquittal. Wishna told CNN that while he was trying to land Jackson a regular engagement at one of the Las Vegas casinos, the singer would appear "drugged up" and "incoherent" during meetings and was often so weak and emaciated, he had to use a wheelchair to get around. Wishna said the attempted comeback shows were then allegedly canceled because of the star's weak condition.
It was around that same time that two anonymous sources told CNN that sister Janet Jackson attempted to stage an intervention on Jackson with the rest of his family, but was rebuffed.
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The Examiner Reports
Tatiata Kozhevnikova has been training her private parts for some 15 years. The confident Kozhevnikova has even lifted about 14 kilograms worth of weights (just under 31 pounds) to prove it. The video validates her claim.
Kozhevnikova has been exercising her intimate muscles on a daily basis, and she has been recognized by Guinness Book of Records where she holds the record as the woman with the world’s strongest vagina.
Here's what she says is her secret for training,
“After I had a child, my intimate muscles got unbelievably weak. I read books on Dao and learned that ancient women used to deal with this problem using wooden balls. I looked around, saw a Murano glass ball and inserted it in my vagina.”
"You insert one of the balls in your vagina, and it has a string attached to it with a little hook at the very end. You fix a second ball onto this hook.
Kozhevnikova also provides sex-enhancing tips for women
"It’s enough to exercise your vagina five minutes a day, ladies, and in just one week you’ll be able to give yourself and your man unforgettable pleasure in bed.”
Perhaps it's time to add a new Olympic sport. No doubt the male viewing audience would increase.
May we all find and share our true gifts, and may we truly enjoy the talents of others.
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}