FoxNews Reports
A federal civil rights lawsuit alleges a southern Illinois sheriff's deputy used a stun gun on three children at an emergency shelter while a fellow deputy mistreated a fourth child.
The children's guardian is suing the Jefferson County deputies, the county and Sheriff Roger Mulch.
According to the lawsuit filed July 1, the deputies responded to the shelter near Mount Vernon last summer to help control two 12-year-olds and an 11-year-old. But the three children who were allegedly shocked with the stun gun and another child who was forced into a closet after trying to intervene weren't the youths who prompted the call.
No criminal charges have been filed. And Mulch says investigations, including one by Illinois State Police, found that the deputies acted appropriately.
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Bossip Reports
Sooo Breezy’s Security, Big Dave is tweeting it up on Twitter on his day off about C. Breezy and RiRi’s relationship. He says that RiRi was insecure and they fought all the time and that they really didn’t know what love is… BUT then on the flip side he is selling autographed Chris Brown’s Sneaks to the Highest Bidder… WTH???
As you see if you want to know about Chris Brown and Rihanna… Big Dave is an open book. Especially if your trying to get some of C Breezy’s Original Gear… SMH!!! Big Dave also added that if Chris got a problem with what he’s doing… He can confront him like a grown azz man should…LOL!!! Let’s see how long Big Dave is employed…
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MTV Reports
Sorry, hip-hop fans — it doesn't look like the Jay-Z/ 50 Cent chart showdown will be happening after all.
The rappers won't go head-to-head when The Blueprint 3 and Before I Self Destruct debut in September. Jay has settled on September 11, while 50 Cent told MTV News last week that his album is coming on the last Tuesday of the month.
50 said that if by any chance he and Jay did drop on the same day, he would welcome the challenge.
"I wouldn't mind [that], either," Fif said via phone. "But it's just, the scheduling is different. Maybe he'll move back. ... Yeah, it'd be good."
50 came out on September 11 a couple of years ago, releasing Curtis at the same time Kanye West's Graduation hit stores. Graduation sold more the first week, but Curtis sold well too.
"People, you know, they love conflict," Fif said. "They love competition like that. And this is why it built so much energy for me and Kanye West when we came out on the same day, and in reality, we created the largest-selling week for hip-hop music. And at the end of the day, who loses?
"I tell you who wins: the Universal Music Group," 50 continued. "The both of us are on Universal Music Group. So as long as you create the largest-selling [day] from there, it hasn't done anything to strain any of my business in any other way."
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XXL Reports
The price tag on 50 Cent’s Connecticut mansion has taken another slash, this time by nearly 25 percent.
According to the Associated Press, the rap mogul has dropped $3.6 million from the $14.5 million asking price of his 50,000-square-foot home of five years. The estate—originally owned by former boxing titleholder Mike Tyson—is now on selling for $10.9 million.
As XXLMag.com previously reported, the 19-bedroom property originally hit the market for $18.5 million in May 2007. In December, 50 cut $4 million from the initial valuation.
The AP says Fif is tired of frequent two-hour commutes to New York City. His fourth solo LP, Before I Self Destruct, is slated for a September 29 release.
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AllHipHop Reports
The Beastie Boys have announced that their upcoming tour and album Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 have been postponed indefinitely, after a cancerous tumor was found in group member Adam “MCA” Yauch.
Representatives for the group told AllHipHop.com that a cancerous tumor was found in Yauch’s left parotid (salivary) gland.
Luckily, the tumor was caught early and is localized to one area, but the treatable tumor will require surgery and several weeks of treatment.
Also, reps said the tumor was in an area that would not impact Yauch’s vocal cords.
“Our thoughts, love and prayers are with Adam Yauch, his family and the Beastie Boys,” representatives for the group’s label, EMI told AllHipHop.com in statement. “The most important thing is to allow Adam to focus on staying healthy. We wish him all the best and a speedy recovery.”
The news comes as the group also prepares to launch a limited pressing of the track “Too Many Rappers” (featuring Nas), from the Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 album.
The single was recorded live at Bonnaroo in 2009. Only 5,000 vinyl pressings of the single are being distributed.
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Washington Post Reports
Michael Vick was released from federal custody Monday, with the sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation in Virginia expiring after he was imprisoned in Leavenworth, Kan., then on home confinement in Hampton, Va.
There still is no indication, however, about whether he'll be reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Goodell suspended Vick indefinitely prior to the 2007 season, and has not given a timetable for ruling on Vick's possible reinstatement. Goodell has said in recent months that he would not begin the decision-making process until after Vick's legal case concluded. He has said that Vick must demonstrate genuine remorse to be reinstated.
There is likely to be a face-to-face meeting between Goodell and Vick before Goodell makes a ruling. Goodell has not indicated whether he will make a decision before the upcoming season.
It also is not clear whether any NFL teams are interested in signing Vick, who is a free agent after being released by the Atlanta Falcons. He once was among the league's most dynamic players. But he's been out of the sport for two seasons, and any club that considers signing him will have to weigh the public relations implications of doing so.
Attorney Lawrence Woodward, who represents Vick, told the Associated Press that Vick was released from federal custody as scheduled. Vick had spent the past two months on home confinement, wearing an electronic monitoring device. The AP reported that two men in a car with a federal Bureau of Prisons folder on its dashboard visited Vick's home Monday morning, carrying a case similar to the one in which Vick's monitoring device was delivered when his home confinement began in May.
The period of home confinement was the completion of Vick's 23-month federal sentence. He had to serve at least 85 percent of that sentence under federal law, the AP reported. Vick worked a construction job, then switched to a job with programs for a boys and girls club, during his home confinement.
Vick remains on probation.
He also is without an NFL team and is ineligible for play in the league because of the suspension imposed by Goodell.
"The review of his status is ongoing," Greg Aiello, the NFL's senior vice president of public relations, said in a written statement Monday.
Goodell said at an NFL owners' meeting in May in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.: "Michael is going to have to demonstrate to myself and to the general public and to a lot of people: Did he learn anything from this experience? Does he regret what happened? Does he feel that he can be a positive influence going forward? Those are the questions that I would like to see [answered] when I sit with him."
Falcons owner Arthur Blank said at the same May owners' meeting: "There's no question Michael has paid his debt to society, obviously. But beyond that, the commissioner has to decide whether or not Michael, based on his view, has not only the personal remorse but has conducted himself, not only personally but in who he's associating with, in a way that is going to allow him to be a player in the NFL and represent our league well. That's the decision that the commissioner will make.
"... I believe in second chances," Blank said. "I believe in redemption. But the commissioner needs to satisfy himself that Michael has not only gone through his own journey but he's prepared to make other decisions than he's made in the past, both personally and in who he associates himself with. [That's] a very big part of that. He's, from what I've read, committed to getting his life back in order, his family and his own personal life and at the same time looking to the future in the National Football League. That was pretty clear going through [Vick's] bankruptcy proceedings."
Vick's representatives have made a return to the NFL by Vick a key component of his plan to emerge from the bankruptcy proceedings in which he's been involved. But any team that weighs the possibility of signing Vick will have to consider the PR implications.
"I think an owner would have to go through the same process that the commissioner would and satisfy himself or herself that Michael is--it goes beyond paying the price because clearly he's done that," Blank said in May. It's "whether or not he's a different person than he was... the last time he played a game in the NFL, and whether or not he's surrounding himself in an environment that's going to allow him to be a productive person and a productive player and a productive team member in the league."
Former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy visited Vick in prison and has said he believes that Vick deserves another chance in the NFL. Some former teammates also have lobbied publicly for Vick's reinstatement. But the public debate has continued, with some commentators contending that Vick doesn't deserve another chance to play in the NFL.
Some talent evaluators within the league wonder privately what the prolonged absence from the sport has done to Vick's on-field skills. Vick turned 29 in June and, while NFL quarterbacks regularly remain productive well into their 30s, Vick's six-season tenure as the Falcons' quarterback often included more success when he ran the ball than when he threw it. He ran for more than 1,000 yards in the 2006 season.
One development in the NFL that could aid Vick's potential return is the widespread use of the "Wildcat" offense around the league last season, in which the ball is snapped on some plays to an offensive player who is as skilled at running the ball as at throwing it. That offensive formation became increasingly popular after the Miami Dolphins used it to beat the New England Patriots in a game, and Vick perhaps could be a major on-field asset to a team wanting to use that approach.
ESPN reported Monday that Vick plans to hire speed and performance trainer Tom Shaw to aid his preparations for a prospective return to the league. Still, there's no way for NFL talent evaluators to know for certain what sort of player they'd be getting.
"You really don't know about the two years off because there's basically never been anyone who's been in that position," former NFL coach Dan Reeves, who coached Vick with the Falcons, said in a telephone interview Monday. "That's going to be a difficult thing. The other difficult thing for him will be finding someone to give him a chance. My hopes are that somebody will. I hope he does get that opportunity because he was such an exciting player. Two years away is a long time but hopefully the commissioner will reinstate him and he can get with a team for training camp so we can see what he can do."
Reeves said there's "no question" that he would sign Vick if he were running an NFL team.
"The guy's got three years probation," Reeves said. "That's a difficult thing. If he makes one mistake, he's back in prison. Michael needs to realize that. I know what type of person he is. He's a good person who made a huge, huge mistake. I'm not defending what he did. You can't defend what he did. But he's a guy who has a big heart. He's a great competitor. I'd like to see him given a second chance."
William Moran, an attorney who advised the New York Giants in connection with the Plaxico Burress shooting investigation, said that what Vick says in his face-to-face meeting with Goodell could be a significant factor in Goodell's reinstatement decision, and Vick will have to be similarly persuasive when meeting with any potential NFL employers.
"As far as what he needs to do to satisfy the commissioner that he is deserving of reinstatement and a chance to play, he needs to sit down and demonstrate he is accepting of the wrongful nature of what he's done and outline what he's going to do to avoid anything of this nature ever happening again," Moran, a partner in the New York office of the firm McCarter & English, said by phone Monday. "As far as dealing with teams, I think it's along the same lines.... I think it [Vick's crime] is of such a nature that teams are going to have to consider it and what implications it will have with the public going forward. On the other hand, the balance to that will be the obvious raw talent of the player."
Moran said he doesn't believe that Vick would be harmed by doing a high-profile media interview in which he expressed regret for his actions. The public generally is willing to forgive those who are contrite, Moran said, although this case seemingly continues to provoke raw emotions in the reactions of observers with views on both sides of the Vick reinstatement debate.
"The press has had enough high-profile cases lately that it's not unreasonable to expect another case to come along to take the attention away from this one," Moran said. "It's in the public's nature to forgive and move on. I guess that will remain to be seen. It will be a balancing act here between the notoriety of the acts and the skill of the player."
Vick also could draw interest from the upstart United Football League, which is scheduled to begin play in the fall and has hired former NFL coaches Dennis Green, Jim Fassel, Jim Haslett and Ted Cottrell to coach its four franchises.
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AllHipHop Reports
Police in the United Kingdom have launched an investigation into Compton, California native The Game, after a fan was assaulted by a member of his entourage during a concert.
The incident, which occurred at Liverpool’s O2 Academy, occurred after a 21-year-old man jumped on the stage to take a picture with the rapper.
A member of The Game’s entourage allegedly stuck the man, leaving him with lacerations and a broken cheek bone.
Police are currently investigating the incident, which took place on July 15.
The Game’s tour across Europe has drawn headlines at various stops, mainly because of his attacks on Roc-A-Fella/Roc Nation CEO Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter.
Police in Rotorua, New Zealand have stated that they have organized a “special operation” when the rapper and his entourage plays at the Sportsdrome on August 15.
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New York Daily News Reports
Christina Milian has something to sing about!
The 27-year-old singer is engaged to music producer boyfriend The-Dream, Usmagazine.com reports.
"We don't have plans yet -- but it hasn't [already] happened, that I can confirm," Milian said of her upcoming nuptials.
"We just want to have our closest friends and family there; it's not going to be too big."
The bride-to-be was reportedly proposed to with a six-carat engagement ring from Ivanka Trump's jewelry line.
Even though the big day hasn’t arrived, the couple already have kids on their minds.
"I love kids, and [Christina] loves kids probably more than I do," the producer said of his fiancee, who will soon be busy working on her upcoming album, “Elope.”
"I think when you're a female in this business, it's kinda hard to do the natural thing that you want to do," he said.
"You have to do your work -- then whenever she makes that time for herself -- she'll make that time [to have a baby]. In the next couple of years, there'll be something around."
This will be the first marriage for Milian, who previously dated “America's Got Talent” host and Mariah Carey’s hubby,
Nick Cannon. The-Dream's marriage to singer Nivea ended in late 2007.
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AllHipHop Reports
Producer Jermaine Dupri recently addressed footage that features him encouraging Adam “Pacman” Jones to “make it rain” in a strip club, shortly before an infamous shooting involving the star NFL player.
Jones is slated to take the stand as a star witness for the prosecution during the attempted murder trial of Arvin Edwards.
Edwards is accused of shooting three people in 2007, after Jones had an altercation with security inside of a Las Vegas strip club over $40,000 that had gone missing during an alleged fight between Jones and two strippers.
“I’m from a city where in Atlanta, we do this every day,” Dupri said. “You’ll hear this in Jeezy records. When Jeezy say he spends $10,000 on one song? That s**t is for real man. It aint no play."
After the shooting, Jones denied any involvement or knowledge of the shooting, but seven months later, he told investigators he had been approached by Edwards outside of the club.
Jones told police Edwards said he would retrieve the missing money for him.
Moments after speaking to Jones, Edwards allegedly fired into the crowd striking three people, including the strip club’s shift manager, who is permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
Previously unreleased footage of the events inside of the strip club being used as evidence in Edwards’ trial was released by ESPN last week.
Both Jermaine Dupri and Nelly are featured in the video, although neither of them are accused of any wrong doing in the incident.
"A lot of yall comment on how stupid it is. It might be stupid to you, but this is what we do," Dupri continued. "We eat, we kick it, we throw money. Don’t make this one situation blow the whole thing out.”
Dupri explained why he was shouting to the strippers not to pick the money up off the floor, even though Nelly and Jones were showering tens-of-thousands of dollars upon them.
He also lent some credibility to Jones’ claims that he was attempting to break up two dancers who began to fight over the money.
“You’re not supposed to get your money until the dance is finished,” Dupri said. “These girls was picking the money up [as] soon as the money was flying, like someone was going to steal it. That kind of gave me an idea of the place that we were in. I was like ‘oh these girls are going to start fighting or something because they don’t know understand what the f**k is going on in here.’”
Arvin Edwards’ attempted murder trial is was supposed to start last week, but was moved to February 2010.
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They call their home Silicone City – and for good reason. Chantal Marshall and four of her daughters have had NINE boob jobs between them.
That makes them the British family to have had the most breast surgery – bra, er, bar none.
While most mums and their daughters enjoy shopping trips together, Chantal, 50, and her daughters have spent nearly £40,000 on visits to cosmetic surgeons to have their breasts enlarged.
Ripley, 18, Tara, 22, Terri, 25, Emma, 28, and mum-of-nine Chantal, of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Notts, now boast chest sizes ranging from 34DD to 32GG.
On one occasion, Emma and Ripley even ended up having breast enhancement surgery on the same day and at the same clinic as their mum.
Tara had booked her consultation aged 17 so she could have the op as soon as she reached the age of 18.
The sisters – all with matching blonde hair just like their mum – say that like most siblings they have always copied each other.
But they insist that when it comes their chest sizes, they aren’t at all competitive.
They reckon their desire for bigger boobs was inspired by Chantal – who is often mistaken by strangers for their sister.
Here they share their stories...
Mum Chantal
Age: 50; No of ops: 3; Spent: £13,500
CARER and mum-of-nine Chantal is a petite Size 10 and was 34B before her first op. She is now a 34DD.
She says: “Having nine children left my boobs looking like milk bottles. In 1996, after I had my seventh child, I had my first set of implants but I ended up even more unhappy.
“They looked like balls in socks rather than the pert, round breasts I had imagined. I was quite traumatised. So when Emma said she was going to have a boob job I was terrified. But when I saw how great they looked it made me brave enough to consider having mine done again and in February 2004 I had them enlarged to 34DD.
“Two years down the line I wanted to perk them up. So when Emma and my second youngest daughter Ripley said they were going to get theirs done I suggested we all went together.
“My daughters say I inspired them to have boob jobs but I’ve got them to thank for encouraging me to get mine done again. There’s no mistaking the family resemblance – but now we’ve got the boobs to match too!”
EMMA
Age: 28; No of ops: 2; Spent: £9,500
Emma is a beauty therapist and is a Size 12. Before her first enlargement she was a 34B. She is now a 34F.
She says: “We all laugh it’s Silicone City round our house. It’s amazing we’re the family with the most boob jobs in Britain – and we’re all really happy with the results.
“I first got my boobs done 10 years ago when I was just 18. I had a good figure but longed for more curves.
“I’d look at Baywatch on TV and think ‘they look stunning’. Then I’d look in the mirror and imagine myself with a bigger pair.
“I knew it would give me more confidence. So I got a loan and got my 34B cup enlarged to a D cup. I felt so much happier as they suited my curvy frame.
“I didn’t have any problems but they say you should have implants replaced after 10 years, which is why I went under the knife again.
I went for my second op with my mum and sister Ripley. “One of the first things we said when we came round from the anaesthetic was, ‘Let’s have a look at yours!’”
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RIPLEY
Age: 18; No of ops: 1; Spent: £4,500
Ripley, 18, fashion and design student and trained nail technician. She is a Size 8. Before surgery in March she was a 34C. She went up to a 34DD.
She says: “I’m the youngest in our family to have a boob job. Some sisters are competitive – but I’m as delighted by my sisters’ and mum’s boob jobs as I am my own.
“It’s brought us closer together – I couldn’t wait to get mine done.
“Although I’m a Size 8 I don’t like the ironing board figure like Keira Knightley’s. I prefer the womanly curves of J-Lo. I’d buy bigger bras and then pad them out with chicken fillets and padding.
“After seeing my sisters and the way they felt about having theirs done, I wanted to do the same.
“I managed to save up half the money I needed and then got a loan.
“Emma and I investigated on the internet and found surgeon Dr Hicham Mouallem at The Wimpole Clinic in London. He was brilliant.”
TERRI
Age: 25; No of ops: 1; Spent: £4,500
Terri, 25, is a dancer and lives in Papplewick, Notts. She is a Size 10. Before her boob job she was a 32DD. She is now a 32GG.
She says: “I once had a jokey argument with my sister Emma about who had the biggest boobs. But it was all friendly – there’s never been sibling rivalry as we’re very close.
“I had my boob job after my sister Emma. When I saw hers I knew I had to go and get mine done. They looked amazing and I was so jealous.
“I’ve always had quite big boobs but I wanted to go bigger. So I booked myself in with the same surgeon just one month later.
“Some people might think I’m crazy but it’s what I wanted. I saved up and luckily my boyfriend Paul helped towards the cost.
“I had no trepidations about going – I’d rather get my boobs done than go to the dentist. I’d hate to be flat-chested. Put it this way, if I was, I’d be putting 10 chicken fillets in my boobs and be wearing a jelly-bra.”
TARA
Age: 22; No of ops: 2; Spent: £8,000
Tara, a receptionist, is a Size 10. Before her first boob job she was a 34A. She is now a 34E.
She says: “Looks-wise my sisters and I share nearly everything. We’ve all got similar hair and facial features but when it came to boobs I was no way near as blessed.
“I never got any bigger than an A-cup and my boobs looked like two little eggs. Everyone said I looked fine but I felt I looked pear-shaped.
“I knew bigger boobs would make me happy but rather than getting upset about it, I decided that as soon as I was old enough I’d save up and have breast implants.
“I managed to save up the money I needed and as soon as I was 17 I booked a consultation.
“I had the op when I turned 18 and I was so excited that I almost fell off the hospital bed beforehand.
“After I had my daughter in 2005 I decided to have them done again. I love the fake look so I decided to go for a 34E. I feel amazing.”
Source : TheMirror.Co.UKRead more…
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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LATIMES Reports
A 15-year-old Los Angeles girl who navigated a single-engine Cessna through thunderstorms in Texas and took in breathtaking aerial views of Arizona’s sunsets — landed her plane to cheering crowds at Compton Woodley Airport today, becoming the youngest African American female pilot to fly solo across country.
Kimberly Anyadike took off from Compton 13 days ago with an adult safety pilot and Levi Thornhill, an 87-year-old who served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. They flew to Newport News, Va., making about a dozen stops along the way.
Anyadike learned to fly a plane and helicopter when she was 12 with the Compton-based Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum, an after-school program that offers aviation lessons to at-risk youth and economically disadvantaged students. The organization owns the small plane.
She loved the feeling of streaking across the sky. She told her mom that it was like a wild ride at Magic Mountain.
Always up for a challenge, she came up with the idea to fly across the country a few months after learning to fly. Robin Petgrave, the aeronautical museum’s founder, warned that it would take a lot of preparation. “I told her it was going to be a daunting task,” he said, “but she just said, ‘Put it on. I got big shoulders.’ ”
Anyadike said she didn’t want to make the trip to set a record or become some kind of celebrity. “I wanted to inspire other kids to really believe in themselves,” she said. She also wanted to honor the Tuskegee Airmen, the U.S. Army Air Corps’ all-black combat unit who served during World War II.
“They left such a great legacy. I had big shoes to fill,” she said. “All they wanted to do was to be patriots for this country. They were told no, that they were stupid, that they didn’t have cognitive development to fly planes. They didn’t listen. They just did what they wanted to do.”
Anyadike’s Cessna and the other planes at Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum are painted with red tails, similar to the Tuskegee Airmen planes.
During her cross-country trip, Anyadike met about 50 Tuskegee Airmen who autographed the Cessna. “That way they can fly with us forever,” Petgrave said.
How will the young pilot celebrate? “By sleeping,” she said with a giggle.
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The recent spate of violence was sparked by the arrest of high-ranking drug cartel member Arnoldo Rueda Medina.
CNN Reports
A federal judge ordered 10 municipal police officers arrested Saturday in connection with the slayings of 12 off-duty federal agents in southwestern Mexico, the attorney general's office said.
The federal officers' bodies were found Tuesday on a remote highway in Michoacan state, where at least 18 federal agents and two soldiers have been killed since July 11 due to drug-related violence.
Video from the scene showed three signs, known as narcomensajes, or narcomessages, left by the killers. They all stated the same thing: "So that you come for another. We will be waiting for you here."
The officers arrested Saturday are on the police force in the city of Arteaga.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose home state is Michoacan, responded to the violence by dispatching 1,000 federal police officers to the area. The infusion, which more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling Michoacan, angered Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy Rangel. He called it an occupation and said he had not been consulted.
Authorities said Wednesday they were searching for the governor's half-brother, who they say is a top-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. The cartel is blamed for most of the recent violence in the state. The governor's brother, Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano, was elected July 5 to the lower house of Congress.
The governor has publicly urged his brother to surrender. There were no reports of his apprehension as of late Saturday.
The sudden spike in violence followed the arrest July 11 of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, described as a high-ranking member of La Familia.
La Familia members attacked the federal police station in Morelia to try to gain freedom for Rueda shortly after his arrest, authorities said. When that failed, cartel members attacked federal police installations in at least a half-dozen Michoacan cities.
Under Mexican law, the officers arrested Saturday will be held for 40 days while officials determine whether to formally charge them.
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AllHipHop Reports
Rapper Foxy Brown and R&B singer Toni Braxton are the latest celebrities to run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service.
Of the two, Brown owes the most, as the IRS is seeking $641,558 in federal taxes due to the state of New York.
A tax lien was filed against Brown in June for taxes owed as far back as May of 2003.
A tax lien was issued against the Brooklyn emcee for missing tax payments in the years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
The lien is the latest issue for Foxy Brown, who was accused of receiving favorable treatment while incarcerated on Rikers Island as part of a scandal currently dogging the New York Corrections Department.
Several top officials, including Correction Chief Peter Curico and prison Rabbi Leib Glanz have resigned due to allegations that Brown, Orthodox Jews and were treated better than other inmates.
In related news, this past March, the state of California issued a lien against R&B singer Toni Braxton and her husband Keirston Lewis as well, claiming the couple owes $79,315 in back taxes.
Braxton has faced financial hardships before, as she filed for bankruptcy protection in 1998 with over $1 million dollars of debt.
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