Aug 5 (Reuters) - U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre $45.2 million in punitive damages - on top of $4.1 million in compensatory damages already awarded - for falsely claiming the shooting was a hoax, a Texas jury decided on Friday.
Neil Heslin & Scarlett Lewis, separated parents of slain 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, testified that followers of Jones harassed them & sent them death threats for years in the false belief that they were lying about their son's death in the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting that killed 20 children & 6 staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
The 12-person jury on Thursday decided on the compensatory damages following a 2-week trial in the defamation lawsuit.
The parents had sought $145.9 million in punitive damages and $150 million in compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are awarded to cover a plaintiff's suffering & losses. Punitive damages are awarded to punish a defendant's actions.
The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approaching sound of police sirens.
Jones, who has been a prominent figure in American right-wing circles & a supporter of Donald Trump, had called the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax by the U.S. government staged using crisis actors to serve as a pretext for taking away Americans' guns.
"We ask that you send a very, very simple message & that is: stop Alex Jones. Stop the monetization of misinformation and lies," Wesley Todd Ball, a lawyer for the parents, told jurors earlier on Friday before they began deliberations on punitive damages.
New York (CNN Business) Right-wing talk show host Alex Jones will have to pay the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim a little more than $4 million in compensatory damages, a jury decided Thursday, capping a stunning & dramatic case that showcased for the public the real-world harm inflicted by viral conspiracy theories.
The award from the jury was far less than what the plaintiffs, Scarlett Lewis & Neil Heslin, had asked for. At the start of the trial, attorneys for Lewis & Heslin asked the jury to award their clients $150 million in compensatory damages.
A separate, shorter trial during which punitive damages will be discussed is now expected. Punitive damages are awarded when the court finds the defendant's behavior to be especially offensive.
The decision from the jury is a partial ending to a years-long process that began in 2018 when Lewis & Heslin sued Jones & his company, Free Speech Systems, which is the parent of the right-wing media organization Infowars.
Jones baselessly said in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, in which 26 people were killed, that the incident was staged. Facing multiple lawsuits, Jones later acknowledged the shooting occurred. He testified in court this week that he now believed it to be "100% real."
But Jones failed to comply with court orders during the discovery process of the lawsuit. His failure to do so led to Heslin & Lewis winning default judgments judgements against Jones.
PANAMA CITY, FL -- A Florida teenager applied to and was accepted into 27 colleges and universities.
"It's so crazy to think about that I applied to all these colleges and I got in," Jonathan Walker said.
Walker is as well rounded as they come. In addition to being extremely smart and dedicated to his studies, he's also a staple on the school's football team.
In his free time, he invented a device that helps people who are blind and/or deaf.
"I've always loved creating devices to help people, so I definitely want to further that."
Walker's 27 schools include Ivy League institutions like Yale, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.
All told, his scholarship offers total more than $4 million.
Walker said all of his success is directly attributable to his family.
"I really do look up to them because like they showed me what it's like to be passionate about something," Walker said.
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on February 18, 2022 at 12:55pm
Nearly a dozen men associated with the Brooklyn-based Woo gang were charged Thursday with allegedly stealing more than $4 million in COVID-19 relief cash & boasting about the scam in a music video, the feds said.
The 11 suspects – 9 of whom live in Brooklyn – used personal information, including driver’s license numbers, from 800 people to submit unemployment claims worth about $20 million.
The gang members were able to fleece some $4.3 million from the unemployment program between March 2020 and October 2021 as part of the scam.
A number of the suspects allegedly flashed stacks of the cash on social media & made reference to the scam in a rap video for the song “Trappin.”
The song includes the lyrics: “Unemployment got us working a lot,” a reference to the scheme.
One of the suspects, Christopher Jean Pierre, bought identifying information of his victims, including driver’s license numbers, for $150 apiece.
The feds recovered messages sent by Jean Pierre on an encrypted messaging app to a person identified as “Skyscraper,” who sold him the information.
“Yoo bro I need NY pros with the DL ASAP,” Jean Pierre wrote, referring to “driver’s licenses.”
“Is 150,” Skyscraper wrote back.
In a statement announcing the charges, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said he would continue to go after gang members who attempt to rip off the US government.
Eight of the suspects were arrested Thursday in New York and are scheduled to be presented in Brooklyn federal court.
New York: A group of NFT collectors has paid $4 million to purchase the only copy of a one-of-a-kind album by the rap group Wu-Tang Clan.
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital object—a drawing, animation, piece of music, photo, or video—with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology.
The album was previously owned by Martin Shkreli, a disgraced executive sentenced to prison for fraud, and sold at auction in July as part of a deal to settle his debt to the US government.
The buyer was kept secret until this week, when PleasrDAO, a group of New York NFT collectors, announced it had purchased the only copy of "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin."
According to US media reports earlier this week, retweeted by PleasrDAO's Twitter account, the group paid $4 million for the two-disc, 31-track album.
They are known among NFT collectors for having acquired digital works by US whistleblower Edward Snowden and the Russian dissident feminist punk band Pussy Riot.
They now hope to share "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" with the public.
"Although we are bound by the legal agreement underpinning this work of art and may not be able to duplicate and share the music digitally," PleasrDAO said on its website, "we firmly believe there are ways to share this musical masterpiece with the world."
Hasan Minhaj has an infinite amount of fake money to spend shopping online. GQ curated a personalized shopping list for Hasan filled with sneakers, records, fragrances, Cameo appearances, homes, furniture and more. What pair of sneakers is he buying again after he sold the ones Megan Rapinoe gifted him? Would he purchase a $1.4M rose quartz crystal hand-carved bathtub?
Eighteen former NBA players were arrested & charged Thursday with defrauding the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of $4 million, officials said.
The defendants include Terrence Williams, Alan Anderson, Anthony Allen, Desiree Allen, Shannon Brown, William Bynum, Ronald Glen "Big Baby" Davis, Christopher Douglas-Roberts, Melvin Ely, Jamario Moon, Darius Miles, Milton Palacio, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Gregory Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Charles Watson Jr., Antoine Wright & Anthony Wroten.
Those charged face a count of conspiracy to commit health care & wire fraud.
Williams, a 34-year-old Seattle native who spent four seasons in he NBA, was described as the leader of the plan to submit false claims to the league's health care plan, federal prosecutors out of New York City said.
He would allegedly supply false invoices to support the fraudulent claims in exchange for kickback payments that totaled at least $230,000, authorities said.
The phony medical procedures, some set on dates when the players were out of the country, were allegedly marked to have come from a chiropractic office, two dental offices & a wellness office.
Several of the fake invoices & medical necessity forms stood out because “they are not on letterhead, they contain unusual formatting, they have grammatical errors,” according to the indictment.
Davis was among the most well known of the defendants.
At 6 feet, 9 inches & 289 pounds, he was a fan favorite & member of the last Boston Celtics world title team in 2008.
Telfair, the cousin of longtime NBA player & Chinese basketball icon Stephon Marbury, was famous before he even set foot on the pro hardwood. He was one of his era's most well-known high school players and the 13th overall pick of the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2004 NBA Draft.
NEW YORK (Fox5) - A pair of robbers are targetting people wearing expensive jewelry as they leave Manhattan hotspots, including one where a man was robbed of approximately $4 million in jewelry.
The NYPD says the first incident took place on Thursday, August 14, just before 4:30 a.m. A 47-year-old man and a 27-year-old man had just left TAO Downtown. When they walked to the corner of West 30 St. & Broadway, two men got out of a black Mercedes Benz.
They walked up to the victims. One of them pulled a gun & they took multiple pieces of jewelry from the two victims, including multiple chains, necklaces, rings, and a Richard Mille watch from the 47-year-old with a total value of approximately $4 million, and a medallion necklace from the 27-year-old worth approximately $10,000.
The robbers then jumped back in their car and took off southbound on Broadway toward West 28 Street and turned left toward 5 Avenue.
The victims were not hurt.
The second robbery took place just after 1 a.m. on Saturday. A 34-year-old man had just left Pergola restaurant was walking toward Broadway in Chelsea when a black Mercedes Benz approached & parked at the corner.
Two men got out of the car & pointed a gun at the victim. They took a Cuban necklace, a tennis bracelet & an Audemar watch from the victim, with a total value of approximately $100,000.
Julianna Zobrist, the wife of former Chicago Cubs star Ben Zobrist, is seeking $4 million as she claimed her husband allegedly failed to “preserve marital assets” when he took a leave of absence from the Major League Baseball team in 2019.
In court documents obtained by the Chicago Tribune on Monday, Julianna Zobrist claimed the 2016 World Series MVP “intentionally and voluntarily stopped working” & went from “the top of his game” to “giving up” which affected the household income.
She is reportedly seeking an even split of marital assets & the large sums claiming the figure is the “amount of money he failed to preserve by abruptly & intentionally failing to satisfy his baseball contract.”
Zobrist is estimated to have made about $78.3 million during his 13-year baseball career.
The former MLB player’s attorney, Helen S. Rogers, called the claim “utterly absurd” in a filing to the judge who is set to handle the divorce proceedings. Rogers said that Julianna Zobrist’s alleged affair with former Tennessee pastor Byron Yawn caused the outfielder “extreme mental distress” & added that the singer “coaxed” her husband into returning to the Cubs.
“Rather than accepting blame for having torn her husband’s heart out by having an affair with their pastor, she expected him to be able to totally focus in an elite athletic job that required (100%) of his physical & mental energy,” Rogers wrote in the filing. “It is Mrs. Zobrist, by having the extramarital affair & confessing same to her husband & not disclosing the true extent of her affair, that caused him such extreme mental distress & difficulty that resulted in an inability to finish his long & very successful career in the way that he had hoped for & planned for.”
Divorce proceedings are set to take place on Aug. 9.
STOCKTON (CBS13) — A woman is accused of kidnapping and torturing her ex-girlfriend for weeks in her Stockton home.
Dorothy Bell was charged with 39 counts Wednesday afternoon including kidnapping, torture, false imprisonment and assault with a deadly weapon. According to the complaint, Bell is accused of using a knife, hammer, golf club and firearm to assault her victim. The complaint explains that she tortured her ex-girlfriend, “with the intent to cause cruel and extreme pain and suffering for the purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion and for a sadistic purpose.”
The victim was found naked with her arms bound behind her back last Friday on a front porch in Stockton.
A crisis negotiation team was called to the house in an effort to get Bell out, officials said, but she escaped to a neighboring home with three people inside in the area of River Ridge Avenue and Henry Long Boulevard.
The homeowner who did not want to be identified said at first he thought his grandmother let the woman in.
“’Grandma, why you let this lady come in?’ and my grandma was quiet, tried to give me a signal like somebody is behind you. ‘Why you let this lady in here?’ and I see her (Bell) with the knife,” he explained.
The man tells CBS13 that Bell threatened his family and held a knife to his son’s neck.
“She said help me, help me, she asked for help,” he explained. “If I don’t help her she is going to come after my family, kill me.”
The homeowner said Bell made a phone call to a friend and told them to come after the man’s family if he did not comply. Bell eventually let the man’s daughter, son, and grandmother go. The homeowner said he spent an hour with Bell and had to fight to get away from her.
“I tried to protect myself because she grabbed the knife, right. And then I try to grab the knife from her and pull her out,” he explained. “She tried to get away from me and then she tried to bite me, bite my hand and start fighting.”
The man said she eventually ran back inside the house. She remained in the neighbor’s home during a standoff with police until around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, police said.
Bell’s bail is set at $4 million and she is due back in court on December 30.
According to the district attorney’s office, Bell was arrested in September on similar charges after police say she abused and held her ex-wife against her will.
PARIS (AP) — The trial of a Russian man alleged to have used ransomware in a 135 million euros ($157 million) bitcoin fraud will begin Monday.
Alexander Vinnik, who is also wanted in the United States and in Russia, faces up to ten years in prison at his Paris trial over charges of extortion, money laundering and criminal association.
French prosecutors say Vinnik was one of the creators of malware called “Locky” which was delivered through email. If downloaded, the recipient’s data was encrypted and they were asked to pay a ransom in bitcoin to free it.
In France, companies, legal offices and local councils were targeted between 2016 and 2018. Twenty victims paid the ransom through BTC-e, one of the world’s largest digital currency exchanges.
Vinnik, 41, says he was a only technical consultant at BTC-e and had no knowledge of illegal activity. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The United States also wants to prosecute Vinnik, accusing him of laundering billions of dollars through BTC-e. He was arrested at the request of U.S. authorities in the summer of 2017 while on vacation in northern Greece,
After a two-year legal tug-of-war, Greek authorities ruled Vinnik would be extradited first to France, then to the U.S., and finally to Russia.
In January after he was extradited to France, Vinnik began a 35-day hunger strike saying he wanted to be extradited first to Russia, where he faces lesser charges.
(CNN) A man in Miami, Florida, has been charged with bank fraud for allegedly lying on PPP loan applications and spending the money on luxury items such as a Lamborghini Huracán EVO, federal authorities say.
Funds from the $521 billion Paycheck Protection Program are destined for small businesses so that they're able to keep workers on payroll throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
David Tyler Hines, 29, not only filed fraudulent PPP applications, but also spent the money on a $318,497.53 Lamborghini Huracán EVO and other "luxury and personal items," including nearly $5,000 at Saks Fifth Ave, more than $11,000 at two Miami-area hotels and a $8,530 purchase at Graff Diamonds, investigators say.
"There does not appear to be any business purpose for most, if not all, of these expenses," the criminal complaint reads.
CNN obtained a photo of a blue Lamborghini through a law enforcement source, which they say is the one Hines' purchased.
Bank records obtained by US Postal investigators show Hines got almost $4 million in taxpayer dollars through three low-interest, forgivable PPP loans. He had initially requested $13.5 million in seven PPP loan applications, claiming his four companies needed the funds to continue paying employees.
"Those purported employees either did not exist or earned a fraction of what Hines claimed," US Postal Inspector Bryan Masmela wrote in the complaint.
The charging document went on to note that customers have claimed on the Better Business Bureau website that two of Hines' companies used, "bait-and-switch practices and other deceitful activities." Also, one of those companies had not filed its mandatory annual report with Florida's Department of State in two years.
"David is a legitimate business owner who, like millions of Americans, suffered financially during the pandemic," Hines attorney Chad Piotrowski told CNN in a statement. "While the allegations appear very serious, especially in light of the pandemic, David is anxious to tell his side of the story when the time comes."
If found guilty, Hines faces up to a $1,000,000 fine and up to 30 years prison for bank fraud; up to a $1,000,000 fine and up to 30 years prison for false statement to a lending institution; and a prison sentence of up to ten years for engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers have repaid a loan of roughly $4.6 million from coronavirus business relief funds after learning the program had been depleted.
The Lakers applied for the loan under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, a part of the federal government’s $2.2 trillion stimulus package. The Lakers’ request was granted in the first round of distribution, but after the fund ran out of money in less than two weeks, the team returned its loan, as did several wealthier business including Shake Shack and AutoNation.
The Lakers issued a statement Monday confirming what happened.
“The Lakers qualified for and received a loan under the Payroll Protection Program,” the statement read. “However, once we found out the funds from the program had been depleted, we repaid the loan so that financial support would be directed to those most in need. The Lakers remain completely committed to supporting both our employees and our community.”
ESPN first reported the Lakers’ decision.
The Treasury Department issued further guidance for the loan program last week, asking companies not to apply for the funds if they don’t need the cash to survive.
The Lakers qualified for the program because they have only about 300 employees. But the team is thought to be the NBA’s second-most valuable franchise, with Forbes estimating a value of roughly $4 billion.
The 16-time NBA champions play in the nation’s second-largest media market, and their current roster led by superstars LeBron James and Antony Davis was on top of the Western Conference when the NBA suspended play last month.
The Lakers haven’t furloughed or fired any employees during the coronavirus pandemic, and the franchise doesn’t plan to make any cutbacks. The team’s top executives agreed to defer 20% of their salaries until later this year or early next year.
Lil Kim is dealing with some financial issues that have prompted her to file for bankruptcy. TMZ reports that the Queen Bee, born Kimberly Denise Jones, is $4 million in debt.
In legal documents the "Crush on You" hit maker says she owes $2 million on a loan for her New Jersey home, $1,845,451.74 in unpaid taxes, and $186,000 for legal bills.
A hearing is scheduled for July. Kim has offered to pay $5,500 a month to a creditor.
Donald Trump'steam has been having a difficult time finding artists willing to perform at his presidential inauguration on January 20.
No need to worry though because Compton rapper and 4Hunnid Records boss, YG, has hilariously offered to perform his song "Fuck Donald Trump" for a hefty fee.
"I'll perform Fuck Donald Trump at his inauguration for $4,000,000," YG tweeted Saturday, January 14.
The song, which featuresNipsey Hussle, appears on YG's 2016 album titled "Still Brazy." The track accuses Trump of being a racist and calls on people of all colors to stop his presidential bid by getting out to vote.
"I like white folks, but I don't like you/ All the niggas in the hood wanna fight you/ Surprised El Chapo ain't tried to snipe you/ Surprised the Nation of Islam ain't tried to find you/ Have a rally out in L.A., we gon' fuck it up/ Home of the Rodney King riot, we don't give a fuck/ Black students, ejected from your rally, what?/ I'm ready to go right now, your racist ass did too much/ I'm 'bout to turn Black Panther/ Don't let Donald Trump win, that nigga cancer/ He too rich, he ain't got the answers/ He can't make decisions for this country, he gon' crash us/ No, we can't be a slave for him/ He got me appreciatin' Obama way more," YG raps.
Trump will be our next president, but YG is still proudly protesting.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The UFC has been sold for approximately $4 billion to a group led by Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG.
UFC President Dana White confirmed the sale of the mixed martial arts promotional company in text messages to The Associated Press on Sunday night.
Dana White will remain UFC President following it's $4 billion sale
WME co-CEO Ari Emanuel also announced the sale early Monday in an internal company email that included SNTV — a joint venture between The Associated Press and IMG.
Ari Emanuel
"We've been honored to have UFC and a number of its athletes as clients and couldn't be happier to take our relationship to this next level as the organization's owner and operating partner," Emanuel said.
White will stay on to run the UFC, which has grown from a money-losing promotion in a minor sport into a global entertainment brand. UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta have tapped out of the company after nearly 16 years, although they'll retain a minority interest. The Abu Dhabi government still owns 10 percent of the UFC as well.
The New York Times first reported the completion of the long-rumored deal. It has financial backing from private equity firms Silver Lake Partners, which owns WME-IMG, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, along with the investment firm of billionaire Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers.
"UFC has experienced tremendous growth over the last decade and we are looking forward to helping the organization and its athletes identify new opportunities to develop and further establish their global footprint," Emanuel said.
The UFC was founded in 1993 as the Ultimate Fighting Championship, staging violent fights that were banned or unregulated in many areas. The Fertitta brothers and White, their high school friend, purchased the promotion for $2 million in 2001.
Lorenzo Fertitta (left) and Frank Fertitta
With White as the promotional face and Lorenzo Fertitta as its chairman, the Las Vegas-based UFC was kept afloat by the Fertittas' casino fortune while the sport once labeled by John McCain as "human cockfighting" gradually gained widespread acceptance and popularity.
The UFC used cable television and the internet to get its intriguing product in front of young fans, and they also sought legitimacy by welcoming regulation by athletic commissions. New York finally lifted its ban on MMA earlier this year, putting the sport in all 50 states.
After helping Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz become stars who straddled the line between sports and entertainment, the promotion now boasts a stable of elite athletes with mainstream fame, including Conor McGregor, Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey, who is represented by WME.
Conor McGregor (left) Ronda Rousey (right) have become 2 of the biggest stars in the UFC
Although the UFC has received occasional criticism from fighters for its pay scale, its ability to control talent costs is a major factor in its profitability. Its position atop MMA also allows it to match the sport's top fighters against each other consistently, setting it apart from the hopelessly fractured world of boxing.
The UFC's price tag has drawn gasps since it was first rumored earlier this year, but the consortium is getting a sports property with a unique niche and ample growth potential.
WME purchased IMG, the sports and event management group, in 2013, and the talent agency has evolved into a multifaceted entertainment company. The organization already made moves into niche sports properties last year by buying Professional Bull Riders and forming an e-sports gaming league with Turner Broadcasting.
With more than 500 athletes under contract, the UFC stages roughly 40 events per year and is broadcast in more than 150 countries, reaching 1.1 billion television households. The promotion has built a large roster of endorsement deals and sponsorships, and its subsidiary ventures include everything from a digital streaming service to more than 100 branded fitness centers.
The UFC also recently began construction in Las Vegas on a 180,000-square-foot, campus-style corporate headquarters that also will house training and rehabilitation facilities for its fighters.
The UFC appears regularly on Fox under its seven-year broadcast deal, which ends in 2018. The next contract is expected to be extraordinarily lucrative.
On Saturday night, the promotion staged the landmark UFC 200 show in its hometown. The event drew 18,202 fans to T-Mobile Arena and took in $10.8 million in ticket sales, both Nevada records for the company.
Katt Williams better be saving his tour money because Uncle Sam is on his case. The comedian was just hit with a huge bill by the Internal Revenue Service.
Katt, real name Micah Sierra Williams, is accused of stiffing the government out of more than $4 million.
According to TMZ, Katt failed to pay $3.2 million in taxes in 2008 ... and another $829,352 in 2009. This is just the latest in a long string of bad news for the 39-year old in 2012.
This year he was sued for $5 million by a former assistant who claims he punched her, slapped a Target employee in the face in Sacramento, had numerous meltdowns at shows where he tried to fight audience members, led Sacramento police on a high speed chase and was arrested in California as a result of the chase.
Katt was also arrested in Seattle following a bar fight, pulled a gun on fellow comedian Faizon Love and retired from stand up comedy, only to unretire a few days later.
Disney chairman Robert Iger announced Tuesday that his company is buying Lucasfilm, home of the Star Wars franchise, for $4.05 billion. Half will be paid in cash. The other half will be paid in the form of 40 million Disney shares.
"Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas," said Iger in a press release. "This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney's unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value."
George Lucas
By acquiring Lucasfilm, Disney will now oversee one of the most popular movie franchises in history. Star Wars has flourished for 35 years. The franchise has grossed $4.49 billion at the box office. It has also led to comic books, computer and video games and books.
The Star Wars universe has more than 17,000 charactersliving on thousands of planets and, according to the press release, spans 20,000 years
The plan is for Star Wars: Episode 7 to hit the big screen in 2015.
"For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next," said George Lucas in a press release. "It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I'm confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney's reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products."
Disney CEO Robert Iger
In a video announcing the acquisition, which also includes Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, Iger said fans can look forward to more movies as well as consumer products, television projects, games and theme park attractions.
"George Lucas is a true visionary and an innovative, epic storyteller who has defined modern filmmaking with unforgettable characters and amazing stories," said Iger.
Lucas believes the franchise can last another 100 years.
"We have a large group of ideas and characters and books and all kinds of things," Lucas said. "We could go on making 'Star Wars' for the next 100 years."
Are you looking forward to the next Star Wars?
Disney CEO Robert Iger announces acquisition of Lucasfilm
George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy discuss the future of Star Wars movies.
Christina Milian has millions of reasons to smile today.
The L.A. Times is reporting the singer got nice chunk of change in her divorce settlement from The-Dream.
Dream has to cough up a limp sum of $4 million plus $5,000 a month in child support.
Not a bad payday for a marriage that didn't even last a year.
The pair were married in September 2009, but by July 2010, The-Dream was photographed all boo-boo up with his assistant.
In exchange for the settlement and continued support, Milian has reportedly signed a strict non disclosure agreement. So there won't be any books or talks dishing dirt on her ex.
Read more…
Video After The JumpHouston rapper Tow Down was doing it really big until a snitch helped poilce bring him down.
Tow Down, real name Bryan Theriot and his brother/manager Bernard were arrested yesterday (October 1), by police at their Missouri City crib.
The raid yielded 850 Hydro plants, weighing 5000 pounds, worth an estimated $4.2 million dollars.
"Water pumps, timers, artificial lighting equipment. The entire second story of the house had been professionally constructed by plumbers and electricians," said Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force Capt. Rodney Glendening.
Cops were alerted to the brother's weed growing operation by dealers they busted several months earlier.
"We started at the street level and worked our way up," Glendening said. "We consider this a professional grow. This is a 5,000-square-foot home. There were six rooms full of marijuana."
In addition to the high grade pot, po po's found cocaine and hydrocodone.
Tow Down is probably best known for his song "Country Rap Tune", recorded with late rapper H.A.W.K.
This is the second time the rapper has been busted for growing weed. In 2008, the brothers were arrested for a much smaller growing operation.
They were out on bond at the time of this latest arrest.
Read more…
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