LA Times Reports
San Diego Chargers star linebacker Shawne Merriman was arrested early Sunday on suspicion of battery and false imprisonment after a female acquaintance told sheriff's deputies he had choked and restrained her.
Deputies responded to a call at 3:45 a.m. from Tila Nguyen, also known as Tila Tequila. The 27-year-old model and reality TV actress said Merriman had assaulted her when she tried to leave his home in Poway, a suburb north of San Diego. Nguyen was taken to a hospital, where she was treated and released.
Merriman was arrested after Nguyen said she would sign a complaint, and he was later released on bail. Nguyen, a Singapore-born American, has appeared in magazines and as the star of her own show, "A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila," which ran for two seasons.
The 25-year-old Merriman, 6 feet 4 and 270 pounds, was suspended by the NFL for four games in 2006 after he tested positive for a banned substance. A three-time Pro Bowl selection, he sat out most of the 2008 season because of a knee injury.
Merriman and Nguyen had been at a downtown San Diego nightclub until after 1 a.m., authorities said, adding that alcohol was a factor in the incident.
Merriman was cooperative with deputies and did not resist arrest, officials said. Several people were at the home when deputies arrived and have been interviewed.
Jan Caldwell, spokeswoman for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, said that deputies did not see any physical injuries on Nguyen: "That's not to stay they weren't there, the deputies just didn't see any," Caldwell said.
By procedure, deputies are required to make an arrest when someone signs a citizen's arrest form, as Nguyen did.
UPDATE***
NFL star Shawne Merriman has finally spoken out about the alleged choke out that he had with girlfriend Tila Tequila and in response Tila tweeted back.
Shawne talked to FoxSports.com about the alleged domestic incident with Tila and states that her actions were due to her being drunk:
On September 6, 2009 the San Diego Sheriff’s Department responded to a citizen’s complaint that was initiated by Tila Nguyen (aka TilaTequila). I was taken into custody based upon that complaint. At the time, I was concerned about her welfare given the intoxicated state she appeared to be in and I encouraged her to stay until safe transportation could be provided.
“We would all do our best to help a friend if we considered their actions to be detrimental to their personal safety. I in no way caused any harm to Ms. Nguyen, however, paramedics were called and she was examined but no injuries were reported. She was released and has since returned to Los Angeles, California.
“There have been no charges filed against me. I want to thank the San Diego Sheriff’s Department for their professionalism. I will continue to cooperate fully with the Department, and I look forward to clearing my name regarding these false allegations. I want to put this behind me so I can continue to focus on a successful season for the San Diego Chargers.”
Tila responded on her Twitter stating:
“I am allergic to alcohol. It has been publicly known for years. That is how I got the name Tila “Tequila” cuz the irony. I can’t drink”
Shawne can’t be that stupid to accuse someone of drinking who can’t really drink? And Tila can’t be stupid enough to believe that she is really allergic to alcohol… Something ain’t right
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MTVNEWS Reports
OK, so Kanye West and Lady Gaga probably have not actually gotten married, as Gaga jokingly said. However, they are apparently working on their first baby.
By "baby," we of course mean the super-ambitious set design they're collaborating on for their upcoming co-headlining tour, which, although it is yet to be officially confirmed, is reported to be kicking off on October 4 in Buffalo, New York.
In an recent interview with the BBC, Gaga said that she and Kanye have been working together on the look and feel of their tour, and, from the sound of things, it's shaping up to be a big production — if not, as she says, one of the biggest of all time.
"I love Kanye ... [he] is my very dear friend and we are creative kindreds," she said. "It's been fun to work on the design of the tour with him — we're finishing each other's sentences.
"It's going to be one of the most groundbreaking moments in touring history," she continued. "I am sure of it."
In another interview — this one in the September issue of Out magazine — Gaga made another claim.
She said she told Kanye, "I just want to be clear before we decide to do this together: I'm gay. My music is gay. My show is gay. And I love that it's gay," she told the magazine. "And I love my gay fans and they're all going to be coming to our show. And it's going to remain gay."
Before Gaga hits the road with West, she'll get the chance to work out the live show kinks at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. She's up for nine Moonmen, and earlier this week, it was announced that she'll also be performing at the big show, alongside the likes of Jay-Z, Green Day, Taylor Swift, Pink and Muse.
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New York Daily News Reports
Jeffrey Alba's Bronx heroin mills had air circulators because the odor was so strong and there was a white dust fog. The windows were sealed up and lists of orders to be filled were taped to the walls.
The workers used tiny spoons to allot a half a grain of heroin for each glassine envelope - that's nearly 30,000 times for every kilo - working in shifts around the clock.
When authorities raided a fancy Riverdale building over the Fourth of July weekend, they expected to make a good-sized bust.
What they found stunned them - a half-million glassine envelopes of heroin and a drug mill the size of which no one has seen since the days of Leroy (Nicky) Barnes in the 1970s.
The find was a blunt testament to local and federal drug cops' growing concern: Heroin is back, with a vengeance.
Jeffrey Alba
The heroin is pure - as much as 90% when imported, and 50% to 60% at street level - and cheap. Snorting a $10 glassine envelope gives the same euphoria as an $80 OxyContin pill.
That has widened its appeal to younger, working-class and middle-class adults with no memory of the drug's havoc on a generation that injected it by needle in the late 1960s and early '70s.
"Everyone starts with the pills in the beginning," said a 22-year-old Suffolk County man in treatment at Phoenix House for a $600-a-day habit.
He started out as a high school dealer, pushing prescription painkillers and then heroin because "all the little rich kids were doing it." He started snorting it when he was 19 because he thought he could easily quit.
Heroin has gained cachet from trendy young users in the city. Downtown artist Dash Snow, whose Polaroids captured sex-and-drug scenes, died last week, apparently of a heroin overdose. He was just 27.
The demand has led to huge amounts of the white powder blanketing the city. Most of it is packaged here for sale in the suburbs, as far away as Boston and even cities near the Canadian border.
Thirty pounds - about 15 kilos - were seized in the Bronx mill, said the city's special narcotics prosecutor, Bridget Brennan. Her office grabbed 270 pounds of heroin in 2008, more than twice the 116 pounds confiscated in 2007.
"Everybody's alarmed," said Brennan.
"There is more heroin throughout New York State, from New York City all the way up to Buffalo," said Chauncey Parker, director of the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program for New York and New Jersey.
"It is a growing threat ... the purity level is alarmingly high, so people are sniffing it," Parker said.
"There's an increased demand in suburbia, because this is not your heroin of old," said Joseph Evans, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York office. "It's intertwined with prescription drugs. People turn to heroin after using OxyContin."
"Prescription narcotics like Vicodin and Percocet are the gateway drugs to heroin," said Dr. Joseph Cannavo, unit chief and medical director of the chemical dependency unit at Flushing Hospital Medical Center.
Over the past 10 years, he said, the numbers of heroin addicts at his unit have quadrupled.
"They're decidedly younger, 18 to 22, middle-class, computer-savvy kids," Cannavo said.
Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal, founder of Phoenix House, said there's been a 10% rise in admissions for heroin addicts - to 33% of admissions - in the last few weeks.
"It certainly got our attention, but we have to look at it for a couple of months," he said.
He said snorting heroin does not lessen the devastation.
"Half the people go from snorting it to the needle," Rosenthal said.
The Suffolk County addict said he began shooting up a year into his habit. He was 6-feet-1 and weighed barely 130 pounds when he landed in an ICU.
In the heroin epidemic of the 1970s, 85% of Phoenix House admissions were for smack.
That was when the notorious Barnes formed a murderous syndicate of the seven largest drug rings who controlled heroin and other drug sales in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn.
They employed hundreds of mill workers, distributors and street dealers, and "inflicted incalculable damage on this city," prosecutors said at the time.
"Even in the Barnes era, they just cut out territories in the city," said a senior narcotics investigator in Brennan's office.
"But this [Riverdale] group was like a corporation, supplying the whole metropolitan area, Long Island, New Jersey."
The three Bronx mills in Riverdale and Pelham Parkway allegedly run by Jeffrey Alba were supplying dealers as far away as Boston, Evans said.
"The Northeast corridor has the most predominant heroin use, and 14% of all heroin seized in the U.S. is seized in New York City," Evans added.
The smack that turns up here is South American, exclusively, when as recently as 14 years ago, Asia supplied two-thirds of it. Authorities say the intricate, well-oiled Colombian cocaine networks handle heroin smuggled in via Mexico.
Investigators say a kilo costs $50,000 to $60,000 wholesale, a steep drop from when high-quality heroin would sell for $150,000 to $200,000.
"I think I became addicted the first time I took a bump, because it made me feel so good," the Suffolk addict said. "By the time I went into detox, I was up to 60 bags [glassines] a day."
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NYDailyNews Reports
Glenn Beck Wednesday defended calling President Obama a "racist” and saying the President must be held accountable for his actions.
Beck told his radio audience that he would exercise his right to free speech whether or not he had a radio or television show.
"Just know, you are never going to shut me up,” Beck told his listeners.
The comments came after the combustible host ignited a firestorm Tuesday, when, during an appearance on FNC's freewheeling "Fox and Friends,” he said the President's reaction to the Henry Gates Jr. arrest situation in Cambridge, Mass., suggested a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."
"Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade immediately responded, saying that most of the faces people see of the Obama administration are white, such as spokesman Robert Gibbs or chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
"I'm not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem," Beck responded. "This guy is, I believe, a racist."
Beck took to the radio airwaves Wednesday with an emotional defense of his comments. "Ever notice the one making the charge of racism is never the one on trial until it's a conservative making the charge,” Beck said.
"I am not willing to bow before the king, I will never bow before the king. In America, we do not have kings,” Beck said.
"The President of the United States is not above the law, or above criticism. I will never, ever say the emperor is wearing clothes — if he's not.”
Since the story emerged, Fox executives have made it clear that although they encourage free speech, the "racist” remark was Beck's and his alone.
"During Fox & Friends" [Tuesday] morning, Glenn Beck expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel," Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming for Fox News, said in a statement. "And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions."
Reaction to Beck's comments on the Daily News Web site ranged from outright approval to dismissing them as coming from a conservative white commentator trying to drum up an audience.
"Glenn Beck is another example of showboating, mostly male, mostly conservative radio and TV commentators who don't speak from fact but rather from their well-considered opinion of how much what they say will rile up their fan base and make them more famous and make them more money," wrote one reader.
Beck was reacting to Obama's initial handling of the Gates case.
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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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Former Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam artist Tru Life turned himself in to authorities last night (June 23) to face a charge of 1st degree murder, according to reports.
The charge is possibly tied to a brutal stabbing incident last week that left one man seriously injured, and an 18-year old teen dead.
As reported by AllHipHop.com, police were initially investigating Tru Life’s brother for a retaliation attack in the non-fatal shooting of Michael Slater.
The individual, whom police suspect is a drug dealer, was shot in the stomach outside of club Pacha.
Several hours after the crime, police claim five gang members ambushed 30 year old Jason Black and the teen at a Manhattan apartment complex.
Both men were stabbed repeatedly in the chest and face. Black survived the assault, while the unidentified teen succumbed to his wounds.
At the time, police theorized that the back and forth violence was the result of a feud between Jason Black and Tru Life’s brother.
1st degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison under New York law.
If an official or witness is not the victim, the distinction can also be decreed for murders involving multiple parties or tortuous killings.
Tru Life’s last music effort, “Wet ‘em Up,” was heard as a selection on the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto IV.
At press time, Tru Life could not be reached for comment.
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