Serena was spotted posing on the top of a police car in he NYC with her Winner’s Cup from the US Open.
Venus was spotted at a show with Mama Oracene during NY Fashion Week
Serena & Ivana Trump
Kimora Lee Simmons at Calvin Klein's Party during NY Fashion Week
Kimora & DjimonPost-VMA Red Carpet:
T-Pain & Lil Wayne
Kid Rock said Lil Wayne barely showed up to rehearsal
Jaime Foxx giving Britney Spears her 1st ever VMA award. She won 3 that night. Strange..huh? All of a sudden...I wasnt aware that her album even sold that many copies. Is this favortism Mtv?
Chris Brown & Rihanna
Ahh so cute!
These two on the other hand....She doesnt look so happy...what you do now Kobe?
Michael Phelps & CiaraAfter the show is the after party:
Solange looking cute in her black dress
Christina Millian...WTF?
The Simmons sisters
DJ A & M, Paul Wall, & Travis Barker
I hope everyone's weeekend went well. Let me start off with a quote of the day....
Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear......think about it....
Moving on.....
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A huge hailstorm turned parts of central Kenya white, thrilling residents most of whom had never experienced such conditions, officials said on Wednesday.
Hailstorms are usual in some parts of Kenya, which straddles the equator, but the ferocity of the storm in Busara, 255 km (158 miles) northwest of the capital was unprecedented.
Excited villagers pelted each other with snowballs while some ate pieces of the icy sheet that formed over an entire hillside.
"We thought a big white sheet had been spread, so we decided to come and see for ourselves. We thought that it was Jesus who had come back," one villager told reporters.
Kenya's Meteorological Department said Tuesday's storm was caused by the convergence of cold air currents from the Indian Ocean and warm air currents from the Congo.
"The hailstones falling on the ground joined together to form expansive sheets of ice or snow flakes occupying a large area, 30 acres," a statement by the meteorologists said.
More than 12 hours after the storm, the forested hillside was still white despite the hot tropical sun.
"In fact this thing is very sweet, we have never seen anything like this. We like the ice so much because with the sun being hot, you take it and you feel satisfied," resident Simon Kimani said.
The only snow to be seen in normally sunny Kenya is on top of the country's highest mountain, 5,199-metre (17,057 ft) Mount Kenya.
DETROIT (AP) — After months of defiantly holding onto his office, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick appeared ready to give it up as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in a sex-and-misconduct scandal that has embarrassed the nation's 11th-largest city for months.
The Wayne County prosecutor's office, which has charged Kilpatrick with eight felonies in his perjury case, said the plea would take place during a scheduled docket conference before Circuit Court Judge David Groner on Thursday morning.
And while the mayor's lawyers later insisted that no deal had been struck, Kilpatrick spokesman Chris Garrett confirmed negotiations toward a plea were continuing.
It was "apparent that they are close," Kilpatrick attorney James Thomas said late Wednesday, adding that he was unsure if the deal being negotiated included any jail time for the mayor.
The mayor would automatically be expelled from office if he is convicted of a felony. Kilpatrick also faces assault charges stemming from a confrontation in July.
The announcement of a potential deal by the prosecutor's office interrupted an extraordinary hearing Wednesday in which Gov. Jennifer Granholm is tasked with deciding if Kilpatrick should be removed from office for misconduct for his role in an $8.4 million whistle-blowers' settlement.
The governor's spokeswoman, Liz Boyd, said the removal hearing's second day would resume Thursday, an hour after Kilpatrick's appearance ends in Wayne County Circuit Court. A deal to resign would make Granholm's role moot.
The City Council has asked Granholm to use her constitutional authority to expel Kilpatrick for misconduct, saying it was misled when it approved the settlement last year with fired police officers.
Council members said they didn't know the deal carried secret provisions to keep a lid on steamy text messages between Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty, who was his chief of staff, on city-issued pagers.
Those messages, published by the Detroit Free Press in January, contradicted denials of an extramarital affair when the two testified at a trial last year involving the officers. That led Prosecutor Kym Worthy to charge the pair with perjury, conspiracy, misconduct and obstruction of justice.
Michigan governors are allowed by the state constitution to remove elected officials for misconduct, but the target never has been the leader of the state's largest city. The last time was in 1982, when Gov. William Milliken let a township official stay in office if he stopped drinking.
The mayor's legal team twice failed to persuade courts to stop the hearing Tuesday. Lawyers filed an appeal Wednesday with the Michigan Supreme Court, but there was no response from the justices.
Granholm, a fellow Democrat, has pared the case to two issues: Did Kilpatrick settle the lawsuits for personal gain because he feared release of the text messages? And did the mayor conceal information from the City Council?
A witness, Michael Stefani, an attorney for the three former police officers, said that he quickly settled lawsuits against the city after he told opposing attorneys that he planned to file text messages in court showing an affair between the mayor and Beatty.
Two officers had already won their whistle-blower trial the previous month, but the financial remedy ordered by a jury could have been appealed. Legal fees were unsettled, too.
Kilpatrick's lawyer, Sam McCargo, "looked shaken up" when he saw the messages and said he could call the mayor to pursue a "global resolution" with the officers, according to Stefani.
The assault charges against the mayor stem from a confrontation on his sister's porch. A sheriff's detective says Kilpatrick shoved him into another investigator as they were trying to serve a subpoena to the mayor's friend in the perjury case.
I know the Beijing Olympics already passed, but I want to give props to whom props are due. With that being said, CONGRATULATIONS to Mary Wineberg. Here is some information on her:
Mary Wineberg won gold for the United States in the women's 4x400m relay final during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. She joined teammates Allyson Felix, Monique Henderson and Sanya Richards in completing the race in 3:18.54.
A native of Cincinnati, Wineberg was initiated into the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at Omicron Chapter at the University of Cincinnati, where she trained for the race and currently volunteers as a track coach. She was also a star runner at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, where she first starting competing—and winning.
Capturing the gold medal represents the triumphant high point of a career that began when she was four years old and raced in an annual block party street race in Brooklyn. Wineberg was the only girl in the field. Undaunted, she beat all the boys to win her first trophy for running. This was one of thousands of awards she would win during her career.
She plans to continue competing well into the future and hopes to be a member of the track and field team at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Whoopi Goldberg was spotted out and about in SoHo this weekend spending some QT with her teen granddaughters:
Amarah Skyeis the oldest in the grey hoodie and Jersey Martin is in the red hoodie. Fun times with Grandma!
The boxer was robbed again of $7 million worth of jewels from his Las Vegas home last week. And the guy in the photo BELOW is the culprit who was caught on a security tape.
If you know who this man is, hit up the Las Vegas Police department because you might GET A REWARD!!!!!!!!!!
MAYBE IF HE STOP FLASHING HIS MONEY AROUND...MAYBE JUST MAYBE HE WOULDN'T GET ROBBED ALL THE TIME.
THANKS TO theybf.com for the stories.
NEW DELHI — An old woman missing her upper front teeth holds a child in rumpled clothes — who is wearing a Fendi bib (retail price, about $100).
In Vogue India magazine, a child from a poor family modeled a Fendi bib, which costs about $100.
A man modeled a Burberry umbrella in Vogue that costs about $200. Some 456 million Indians live on less than $1.25 a day.
A family of three squeezes onto a motorbike for their daily commute, the mother riding without a helmet and sidesaddle in the traditional Indian way — except that she has a Hermès Birkin bag (usually more than $10,000, if you can find one) prominently displayed on her wrist.
Elsewhere, a toothless barefoot man holds a Burberry umbrella (about $200).
Welcome to the new India — at least as Vogue sees it.
Vogue India’s August issue presented a 16-page vision of supple handbags, bejeweled clutches and status-symbol umbrellas, modeled not by runway stars or the wealthiest fraction of Indian society who can actually afford these accessories, but by average Indian people.
Perhaps not surprisingly, not everyone in India was amused.
The editorial spread was “not just tacky but downright distasteful” said Kanika Gahlaut, a columnist for the daily newspaper Mail Today that is based here, who denounced it as an “example of vulgarity.”
There’s nothing “fun or funny” about putting a poor person in a mud hut in clothing designed by Alexander McQueen, she said in a telephone interview. “There are farmer suicides here, for God’s sake” she said, referring to thousands of Indian farmers who have killed themselves in the last decade because of debt.
Vogue India editor Priya Tanna’s message to critics of the August shoot: “Lighten up,” she said in a telephone interview. Vogue is about realizing the “power of fashion” she said, and the shoot was saying that “fashion is no longer a rich man’s privilege. Anyone can carry it off and make it look beautiful,” she said.
“You have to remember with fashion, you can’t take it that seriously,” Ms. Tanna said. “We weren’t trying to make a political statement or save the world,” she said.
Nearly half of India’s population — about 456 million people — live on less than $1.25 a day, according to World Bank figures released last week. But as any well-briefed luxury goods executive or private banker knows, India also has a fast-growing wealthy class and emerging middle class that make it one of the world’s most attractive new places to sell high-end products.
The juxtaposition between poverty and growing wealth presents an unsavory dilemma for luxury goods makers jumping into India: How does one sell something like a $1,000 handbag in a country where most people will never amass that sum of money in their lives, and many are starving? The answer is not clear cut, though Vogue’s approach may not be the way to go.
Marketers need to “create brand awareness” in India, said Claudia D’Arpizio, a partner with the consulting firm Bain & Company, who is based in Milan. She recommended the approach that some consumer brand companies took in China, opening big flagship stores and trying new forms of advertising like television.
As India’s population becomes more affluent, successful luxury goods manufacturers will “create aspirations,” Ms. D’Arpizio said, and people will buy their products to show their pride in their prosperity. On the other hand, she said, would not be prudent for marketers to open luxury stores on “streets where people are struggling for survival.”
OK I DONT KNOW ABOUT THIS! Clearly these people are in poverty and cant afford what they are wearing, and I doubt they are fully compensated for this...What do you think? Leave me a comment.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP)—Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Richard Collier was shot and critically wounded outside an apartment building early Tuesday as he and a former Jacksonville teammate waited for two women they had met at a nightclub, police said.
Collier, 26, and former Jaguars defensive end Kenneth Pettway were waiting in a Cadillac Escalade when a gunman fired into the vehicle, said Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesman Ken Jefferson. Collier was shot several times, but it wasn’t clear where he was hit.
Collier was in critical condition at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said early Tuesday. Later, spokesman Chris Turner said the hospital was no longer giving updates on Collier’s condition. There are a variety of reasons that can happen, such as a request by relatives.
The motive behind the attack was unknown, and the sheriff’s office was investigating. Pettway, who was released in final cuts Saturday, was not injured.
The shooting happened around 2:45 a.m. in a middle- to upper middle-class neighborhood just west of downtown Jacksonville and blocks from the St. Johns River. The players had gone to the apartment complex so the women could drop off their car, authorities said.
The women, who appeared to be in their 20s, were wearing nightclub dresses when they were escorted by police back to the complex midmorning Tuesday, but they declined comment. Jaguars spokesman Dan Edwards declined comment at the hospital. The team planned to release a statement later in the day.
Collier is the third NFL player to be shot in the past 18 months. Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor was fatally shot during what police said was a botched burglary attempt at his Miami-area home in November. Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was killed when his rented limousine was sprayed with bullets minutes after leaving a New Year’s party at a downtown Denver club in 2007.
Chris Brown and Rihanna were spotted hitting up the Beverly Hills Ferrari dealership Tuesday afternoon so Chris could check out some new models.
Rihanna sure is looking good....U go Girl! I guess money is on your mind..maybe that is why you are frowning so?
Doesn't Chris Brown look like a love-smitten puppy? I am just saying!
Hurricane Gustav is headed in a straight line for New Orleans and I can tell you first-hand that the hydraulic pumps don't work. Who manufactured the defective pumps? Moving Waters Industry (MWI), which is owned by J. David Eller, who was once a business partner of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. (From 1989 to 1993 the two operated the company Bush-El, which marketed MWI pumps.)
A brave and brilliant woman from the Army Corps of Engineers, Maria Garzino, complained to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) about the failure of the hydraulic pumps manufactured by Moving Waters Industry (MWI) and installed in New Orleans.
She should know. She was the team leader of pumping system installations. The OSC required the Department of Defense Secretary to conduct an investigation into her disclosures. The Department of Defense Inspector General substantiated more than half of her allegations, but ultimately concluded that . . . the deficiencies [were] performance related short-comings that did not rise to the level of a serious violation of law or regulation, abuse of authority or gross mismanagement.
So with that being said, what should one think about this? It's so difficult to read things like this.Although it is not certain that Hurricane Gustav will strike New Orleans, but for a city below sea-level its better to be prepared then not to be!
Thee years after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the New Orleans area, there is indisputable evidence of recovery.
Houses are being repaired or built. New and long-established restaurants are seeing busier days. Health care institutions are reopening. Music is pouring out of crowded clubs lining Frenchmen Street. Streetcars are clattering once again along the entire St. Charles Avenue line.
And sales of cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde's legendary French Quarter stand have climbed back to about 80 percent of what they were before the storm struck on Aug. 29, 2005, said Jay Roman, vice president of the business.
But Xavier University President Norman Francis has a warning for the overly cheerful: Don't be deceived.
For Francis, whose home near the London Avenue Canal was wrecked by floodwaters, Katrina has left a lingering presence that he likens to a garish dye stain in a rug.
"The deeper you go, you see more," he said. "You keep rubbing and say, 'I think I've got it.' No, we don't have it all."
The signs of Katrina's legacy are both visible and subtle. Although a smattering of homes are rising in the Lower 9th Ward, much of that working-class neighborhood -- and swaths of Gentilly, eastern New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish -- remain virtually untouched.
Thousands of people who fled Katrina's wrath are still struggling to come back home from what they had envisioned as temporary havens across the country. And the storm left its psychological impact on just about everyone, even if it amounts to little more than tensing up when storm clouds form.
"I think that, since Katrina, everyone reacts in a much more hypervigilant way than we did before," said Joy Osofsky, head of the pediatric mental-health division at LSU Health Sciences Center.
Although she said tests have shown that the number of people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression has dropped by about 30 percent since the storm, Osofsky, a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry, said the symptoms are more acute among some people with those conditions.
"The recovery has been slow," she said. "There are neighborhoods still with just a couple of houses on the street. Families are still separated."
Even in neighborhoods that have bounced back, stubborn reminders of the hurricane linger in the form of blighted properties. A report released last week showed the percentage of vacant homes in New Orleans outranks any other American city by a huge margin, with New Orleans' rate, 34 percent, nearly doubling that of Detroit.
FOR MORE OF THIS ARTICLE by John Pope and Andrew Vanacore,go to Times Picayune.com
