Stacey Jordan in her Crown Heights apartment. Her landlord received federal bail-out funds but has not fixed violations in apartments.
NY Daily News Reports
Some of New York city's worst landlords are sharing in $81 million in federal stimulus money - even though their buildings are riddled with housing code violations.
Since March, millions of dollars have been doled out to buildings where tenants have repeatedly complained of rats, roaches, faulty elevators, lack of heat and flaking lead paint.
Including such glaring problems as a broken front door lock.
Millions more will follow.
The problem is that the Recovery Act distribution makes no distinction between good landlords and bad ones.
As a result, landlords - regardless of the number of serious housing code violations they've racked up - are allowed to pocket stimulus money without being forced to make repairs.
Seven properties that have received - or been promised - taxpayer dollars would qualify for a Slumlord Watch List proposed by City Councilman Bill de Blasio, a Daily News review found.
"There's something really wrong with landlords that make it on this list. ... They certainly shouldn't be getting stimulus money," said de Blasio, who is running for public advocate.
"The stimulus is supposed to create jobs. I'm concerned that we're going to have to watch [this] very closely."
The seven properties that would make his list are slated to get more than $1.5 million in federal stimulus money this year.
To make de Blasio's list, properties with 35 units or more must average at least two "hazardous" or "immediately hazardous" housing code violations per unit.
One property that qualified was 234 Herkimer St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn.
The 138-unit building had 374violations, including mold, water leaks, missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, broken floors, mice and lead-based paint. The building's owner, Restore Housing Development, is to get $270,602 in stimulus cash.
The owner of an apartment building on Morningside Ave. in Manhattan got a boost of $630,000 in Recovery Act funds despite 132 violations. Problems included an inadequate supply of heat, peeling paint, exposed electrical wires and roaches.
That building fell just short of making de Blasio's list, with 104 of the most serious violations in 53 units - slightly less than two dangerous violations per unit, records show.
So did a Bronx apartment building that is getting $1,514,016 despite 110 violations - 90 of them tagged dangerous.
The 49-unit building was cited for a leaky roof, roach and mice infestations, moldy ceilings, and broken toilets and tubs, records show.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defends giving stimulus money to properties with housing code problems.
Regional spokesman Adam Glantz said without Recovery Act money, HUD would have to cut back on housing subsidies under a program called Section8.
To qualify for stimulus money, landlords had to be in "immediate or potentially serious financial difficulty," HUD said.
The agency said the Recovery Act includes measures to "protect those in greatest need," along with promoting job creation and economic growth.
HUD was unable to say how many jobs have been saved or created with the emergency distribution of this taxpayer money.
Real estate mogul Naftali Frankel got $465,312 in Recovery Act funds for his properties, including $39,782 for a building at 1569-1583 Prospect Place in Crown Heights.
The city has 203 open violations against Frankel at that property - 170 deemed "hazardous." After two unsatisfactory HUD reviews, Frankel was forced to hire a new management company.
"I am the owner, and I take good care," Frankel, 83, said in an interview. He insisted he and the new managers are addressing issues such as upgrading security cameras and replacing the broken front door.
He said tenants often made it difficult to make repairs by not being home for appointments. Of the stimulus dollars, Frankel said, "Whatever has to be fixed will be fixed."
One of Frankel's Prospect Place tenants has her doubts.
Stacey Jordan said she cried in April when her kitchen ceiling collapsed because of plumbing problems in units above hers.
A section of the floor became soggy because of flooding in the basement. About a dozen floor tiles are missing, and the area feels soft enough to put a foot through.
The management company installed Sheetrock over the collapsed ceiling after she called repeatedly, but hasn't returned to sand and paint, records show.
The city gave Frankel 12 violations for a "broken or defective wood floor," a ceiling in need of further repair, mold and mice.
As Jordan spoke, her son, JJ, bounded past like any exuberant 10-year-old on summer break.
"Be careful!" Jordan yelled out. "I'm afraid he's going to fall through the kitchen floor," she said. "It's real weak. I don't want to live like this. I pay my rent."
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer wants landlords to use stimulus cash to fix violations.
"That's how you create jobs, that's how you make the building worth more," he said. "That's how you stimulate the economy."
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CNN Reports
(CNN) -- An African-American man has pleaded guilty after being accused of impersonating a white supremacist in a fictitious Facebook account to make death threats against an African-American university student.
A Mississippi man admitted creating a false Facebook profile in November.
Dyron L. Hart, 20, of Poplarville, Mississippi, pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt to one count of communicating threats in interstate commerce, according to a Department of Justice statement.
Hart admitted creating the fictitious account in November, pretending to be a white supremacist outraged by the election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American president, the statement said.
He then transmitted a death threat via Facebook to an African-American student at Nicholls State University in Louisiana, saying he wanted to kill African-Americans because of Obama's election, according to the statement.
A court document provided by the U.S. attorney's office said Hart told an FBI interviewer that he intended the threat to be a prank "to get a reaction."
The document said Hart admitted creating the Facebook profile under the name "Colten Brodoux" and used a photo of a Caucasian man that he found on a white supremacist Web site.
"This is an extremely odd case, a very unusual case," said U.S. Attorney Jim Letten of the Eastern District of Louisiana. "The contents of the messages were extremely troubling and provocative and very threatening."
Hart will face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced November 18, the statement said.
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HipHopWired Reports
Queen Latifah will be releasing her new album Persona on August 25th. The album has been described as a blend of Hip Hop and Pop creating a new sound for the Queen. Persona is executive produced by Cool and Dre and features production from Pharrell Williams.
The lead single off of the new album, “Cue the Rain” combines Latifah's melodic voice with a fun club beat and was first debuted on the season finale of 'American Idol.” With all of Latifah success, she also opens up some personal issues from her past that caused her to be the go-getter she is today. On the track “The Light,” she opens up about her upbringing in New Jersey and how through various obstacles she has "made it to the light." This song is a throw back to her rapping days when all hailed the queen.
The Queen also rocks out with the “Queen Of Hip-Hop/Soul” Mary J. Blige on the track “People” as the two examine the nature of personal interactions and relationships. Persona will also feature collaborations with Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot, and Serani.
On the acting tip, The Queen is currently shooting two films. Valentine's Day will feature her Jamie Foxx, Ashton Kutcher and Julia Roberts while Just Wright will star Latifah and Common.
Also in the works to feature La is the musically inspired feature film Stories I've Heard to be directed by Chris Robinson who also lensed the T.I. starring vehicle ATL. Written by Robinson and writing partner Neal Feldman, the film unfolds to reveal five separate stories that intersect under extraordinary circumstances.
According to Robinson, “Stories I've Heard is just that... Narratives inspired by conversations I've had over the years. Extraordinary tales from normal everyday people."
Varying from the harrowing to the mysterious, each story is based on some kind of real-life event. The five separate storylines eventually intersect, revealing just how involved we all are in each other's lives without even knowing it.
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Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. (left), and Police Sgt. James Crowley talk race at the White House.
Atlanta Journal Constitution Reports
With mugs of beer and a calm conversation, President Barack Obama tried to push himself and the nation beyond a political uproar Thursday, hailing a "friendly, thoughtful" conversation with the black professor and white policeman whose dispute had ignited a fierce debate over race in America.
"I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart," the nation's first black president said after the highly anticipated meeting ended. "I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode."
Under the canopy of a magnolia tree in the early evening, Obama joined the other players in a story that had knocked the White House off stride: Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley. Vice President Joe Biden was with them on a Rose Garden patio.
"We agreed to move forward," Crowley said later when asked if anything was solved. "I think what you had today was two gentlemen agreeing to disagree on a particular issue. I don't think that we spent too much time dwelling on the past. We spent a lot of time discussing the future."
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., left, and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley, right, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
The issue in question began when Crowley investigated a potential burglary at Gates' house and ended up arresting the protesting professor for disorderly conduct. The matter mushroomed into a debate on racial profiling, fueled when Obama said in a prime-time news conference that the police "acted stupidly." He later expressed regret.
Gates said after Thursday's White House gathering that he hoped the entire experience would prove to be an "occasion for education, not recrimination." He said the burden now rests with him and Crowley to use the opportunity to foster wider awareness of the dangers facing police officers and the fears that some blacks have about racial profiling.
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Ballerstatus Reports
The line between musical genres have become blurred over the years. With Lil Wayne crossing over to with his Rebirth album and guys like Kid Cudi and Kanye singing instead of rapping, hip-hop has become open to change.
As rappers cross over, so do rockers. Kid Rock has always had a strong hip-hop background, and is aiming to show it on his next album, collaborating with the likes of both Lil Wayne and T.I.
The Detroit rocker was gearing up to drop a new album this fall, but opted to take his project to veteran producer Rick Rubin, to go over what he's created, including the rap collabos.
Rock will head back into the studio after he wraps up his current summer tour.
In addition to Weezy working on his rock album, producer Timbaland is also working outside the hip-hop genre. He recently signed on to executive Seattle Rock veteran Chris Cornell's new album Scream. He joined formers with Cornell to tap his more soulful side.
No word on when this project is slated for release though.
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ESPN Reports
Never-before-released court documents and amateur video help provide the clearest picture yet of what happened inside a Las Vegas strip club on Feb. 19, 2007, when Adam "Pacman" Jones showered scantily clad dancers with money. Just minutes after "making it rain," Jones was involved in a fight inside the club. A short time later, three people were shot outside the club.
Jones initially was charged with felony coercion for his role in the melee. The charge later was reduced, but the incident ultimately helped push his NFL career to the brink.
The video and documents, including witness statements, search warrants and internal police memos, were obtained by "Outside the Lines" and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The documents include differing statements Jones provided to Las Vegas police -- one made the day of the shooting and one from seven months later.
The amateur video, held as evidence in the shooting case, could be played when Arvin Edwards stands trial in February. Edwards is charged with three counts of attempted murder in connection with the shooting.
Jones was in Las Vegas for NBA All-Star Weekend. After losing $50,000 or $60,000 gambling at Caesars Palace, according to statements, Jones went on a hot streak, winning $120,000 at the Palms hotel and casino.
Shortly after 2 a.m. on Feb. 19, Jones and an entourage of about seven people -- a group that included his stylist; his business manager, Chris Horvath; and Robert Reid, Jones' massive bodyguard for the evening -- arrived at the Minxx Gentlemen's Club & Lounge. Celebrity sightings at the club increased as the evening progressed. Rapper Nelly and rapper/producer Jermaine Dupri, both Grammy-winning artists, arrived at the club not long after Jones. Professional boxer Zab Judah and Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson were also in the crowd.
Jones told police he arrived at the club with "close to $100,000." He took $40,000 out of his Louis Vuitton bag and exchanged it for several stacks of $1 bills, which he put in a black trash bag, according to his statement. So much money was thrown onto the main stage that dancers, after their sets, started filling buckets with the loose bills covering the stage.
At one point, Jones told police, Dupri called him to the stage. Jones climbed the short steps while cradling "probably about $12,000 to $14,000," according to one of his statements.
Jones, with his bodyguard present in the background, can be seen on the video repeatedly throwing money to a dancer off stage at his feet and then over his shoulder to several dancers on stage. When several dancers bent over to collect the cash, Dupri took over the DJ's microphone and said: "We gonna show y'all how to make it rain."
"Don't start getting the money until I tell y'all to get off the stage," Dupri said. "… Just keep f---ing dancing! Don't bend down and try to get your money."
Moments after Dupri made those comments, the video recording ended. It was after 4:30 a.m. when trouble inside Minxx began.
According to court documents, Jones became angry when a dancer and a club promoter continued sweeping up the money he had thrown on the stage.
Two Minxx bouncers interviewed by "Outside the Lines" said Jones approached the dancer who was collecting the money, grabbed her by the hair and hit her in the face with a closed fist. Jones has denied attacking the entertainer. No charges have been filed.
According to witness statements in court documents, when Minxx bouncer Aaron Cudworth grabbed Jones in an effort to forcibly remove him from the club, Jones said, "I'm gonna kill ya. Matter of fact, all youse are gonna get it." During the struggle, according to witnesses, Jones bit Cudworth near his left ankle.
In his second statement to police, when asked by a detective whether he had made any threats, Jones said: "No sir. Not one threat." Jones told police that while he was "making it rain," several dancers started fighting over the money.
While trying to break up a fight between two of the dancers, Jones said, he noticed a club promoter snatch the black trash bag, which contained the remainder of the $40,000 Jones had received in $1 bills upon entering the club. Jones told police that when he and Reid, his bodyguard, confronted the man who took the bag of cash, they were both attacked by Minxx security.
According to Jones, the bouncers put Reid in a choke hold, pulled out expandable batons like the kind carried by riot police, and hurled racial epithets at Jones and Reid.
"I'll crack your f---ing knees, n-----," threatened one bouncer, according to a statement Jones provided.
Jones and his entourage were thrown out of the club. Moments later, prosecutors say, a lone gunman -- a man they say was Edwards -- stepped from behind a palm tree at the front of the club and opened fire.
Three people were shot. Cudworth, the bouncer who fought with Jones, was shot in the chest and left forearm. Shift manager Tom Urbanski was shot in the chest. A bullet remains lodged in Urbanski's spine, and he is paralyzed from the waist down. A patron, Natalie Jones, was grazed by a bullet on the left side of her head. The three shooting victims have filed separate civil lawsuits against Jones.
When Las Vegas Police arrived at Jones' suite in Caesars Palace several hours later to take his statement, he provided sketchy details about the alleged shooter.
"I didn't actually see him, uh, shoot the gun, but I seen a guy in a black shirt run off when I heard shots," Jones told police that night. He described the man as a slightly built, lighter-skinned black male. "It had to be him," Jones told police. But Jones acknowledged that the unidentified man might have simply been running from the gunfire.
The documents, recently obtained by "Outside the Lines," reveal the degree to which Las Vegas Police initially treated Jones as a suspect in the weeks and months after the shooting.
Detectives filed applications for search warrants to obtain Jones' cell phone records. They also traveled to Atlanta to interview his associates and sought cellular-site information that would help them place Jones and his associates in specific locations the night of the shooting based on their proximity to the nearest cell phone towers.
"I think they knew Adam Jones was not the perpetrator but they felt like he could help them in their investigation," said Worrick Robinson, Jones' Nashville-based player agent and attorney.
In March 2007, Las Vegas Police interviewed Minxx valet David Devine, who, according to witness statements, was the only person to clearly see the gunman open fire outside the strip club. Devine spent roughly 2½ hours reviewing surveillance video and still photos, according to a log of the investigation compiled by Las Vegas Det. Kirk Jordan.
"Devine cannot determine … if suspect was inside club prior to shooting," Det. Jordan wrote in his notes. "Without this information, Detectives cannot prove if shooter had/has any intimate knowledge of Jones or his entourage."
Robinson said Jones has fully cooperated with Las Vegas Police. In April 2007, detectives obtained a search warrant to take a sample of Jones' DNA; he provided an oral swab that same month in Atlanta. Robinson said police obtained the DNA sample because of the allegation that Jones bit a bouncer the night of the strip club fight. Prosecutors have declined to comment about the case before trial.
That same month, while waiting to hear whether there would be formal charges from the Minxx incident, Jones was suspended for the 2007 season by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Two months later, Jones and Reid were charged with felony coercion for their alleged roles in the strip club melee.
Jones' later statement
Jones' life as a suspect was short-lived, and the felony charge against him was later reduced, in large part because of the second statement Jones provided to Las Vegas Police -- in September 2007, nearly seven months after the shooting.
After the fight inside the strip club, Jones told police, he was approached in the parking lot by a light-skinned black male who asked simply, "What's wrong?"
When Jones explained that he'd had his money taken away from him inside the club, the man replied: "Don't worry about it. … I'm going to take care of it." Moments later, Jones said, that same man opened fire on the front of the strip club.
At one point in Jones' second statement, one of the detectives asked Jones why he waited nearly seven months to reveal his contact with the shooting suspect. An excerpt reads as follows:
Detective: "When you gave us an interview [in February 2007], why didn't you give us this information about the guy comin' up to you at that time?"
Jones: "Cause I was so nervous. And at, at the point I was thinkin' everybody was tryin' to put everything on me. I was just nervous."
Detective: "Cause that's gonna be a question. Why, if you weren't involved in the shooting or any relationship with anybody, why didn't you just tell us that up front?"
Jones: "I was just nervous."
In December 2007, Jones pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct for his role in the fight inside the strip club and agreed to assist police in their investigation.
In April 2008, 14 months after the Minxx shooting and with a trade to the Dallas Cowboys in the works, Jones picked Edwards out of a police lineup in Yakima County, Wash., identifying him as the man who had approached him briefly outside the club that night. Edwards had been arrested in Washington on an unrelated offense. In a jailhouse interview with "Outside the Lines," Edwards denied involvement in the Minxx shooting. Edwards' attorney, Dan Silverstein, said Jones changed his story to get a deal.
"In February, Pacman says he didn't see the shooting and he can't identify the shooter," Silverstein said. "In September, after getting a sweetheart deal from the prosecutor, Pacman becomes the key eyewitness identifying somebody else. Pacman learned a lot playing defense in the NFL."
Robinson maintains that Jones has been truthful throughout the course of the police investigation.
Edwards was scheduled to stand trial this week, but his trial date has been moved to February.
Jones, who is expected to testify against Edwards as a key prosecution witness, has kept a low profile in recent months and remains hopeful he can make another comeback in the NFL.
"He [Jones] has been trying to stay out of the news," Robinson said. "He's got a child. He's got other family he supports. He's trying to get back into the only career he knows: playing football."
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XXL Reports
With Raekwon and Rza currently on the Rock the Bells tour, there is no hope for a full-fledged Wu-Tang tour this summer, but two of its most popular rappers Ghostface Killah and Method Man will be hitting the road together starting at the end of July.
Fellow Def Jam MC and Meth’s longtime rap partner Redman will also be joining the bill, titled as The Foot Print in Hip-Hop Tour. Set to kick off in Asheville, North Carolina on July 22, the rappers’bus will make stops in cities like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New York, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Las Vegas and L.A., before their last show in San Fransisco on August 16.
Meth and Red will be promoting the release of their latest disc, Blackout! 2, the sequel to their multi-platinum selling 1999 debut, while Ghost will be plugging both his greatest hits collection, Ghostdeini The Great released last December, as well as his upcoming R&B album,The Wizard of Poetry.
In related news, Tony Starks recently announced plans to release his first comic book. Following in Meth’s footsteps, the book entitled Cell Block Z, will be published by Hachete Book Group who put out the Iron Lung’s self-titled graphic novel last year.
For a full list of tour dates and to purhase tickets fans can visit ticketmaster.com.
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Will Lloyd Banks soon have his own reality show soon? He says not only is that close but there is a movie in the works. "We are in talks right now for my own reality show," Banks revealed in an interview with Hip Hop Canada. "I don't know man...if that becomes a go then I'll definitely take that approach. You'll definitely see me on the screen soon. I have some scripts and things on the table. I'm a writer also so I like to create my own thing too. As an artist I don't want to limit myself, I want to write the screen and produce it and everything too...Me as an artist and as a fan of hip-hop I'd be more excited to hear a Lloyd Banks album, than to see a Lloyd Banks movie. Maybe as I get older."The long-time G-Unit member went on, bringing up Dr. Dre and Eminem. "When these [Dr. Dre and Eminem's] albums came out, they were around my age, so it's hard to take me and put me in the shoes of some of these guys. They've already been in the game for over 10 years. Maybe down the line."
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Angelina Jolie & Jennifer Aniston just can’t seem to escape each other.
The two stars placed first and second, respectively, on Forbes’ list of this year’s highest-paid actresses, which charted income from June 2008 to June 2009.
Angelina reportedly earned $27 million in the past year, $2 million more than partner Brad Pitt’s ex-wife, Jennifer.
The “Wanted” star took home a share of the profits from the action film, as well as earning an upfront sum from her role in the upcoming spy drama “Salt.”
Jen’s milllions sprang from the success of “Marley & Me” and a paycheck from her next film, “The Baster,” as well as serving as a spokesperson for SmartWater and residuals from “Friends” reruns.
Just under the two intertwined actresses was Meryl Streep, who earned $24 million thanks largely to the box office power of “Mamma Mia,” and Sarah Jessica Parker, who earned $23 million on the strength of the big screen debut of “Sex and the City.”
In fifth place was Cameron Diaz, who earned $20 million.
Rounding out the rest of the top 10 is Sandra Bullock ($15 million), Reese Witherspoon ($15 million), Nicole Kidman ($12 million), Drew Barrymore ($12 million) and Renee Zellweger ($10 million).
Source: AccessHollywoodRead more…
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