In the past two days, ISIS has conducted lethal suicide attacks in Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen and also, very likely, in Turkey.
Referring to Tuesday's suicide bombings at the Istanbul Ataturk Airport that killed at least 41, a U.S. government official told me there is "no reason to think it isn't ISIS." The official also noted that the airport is "not a typical PKK target," using the initials of a Kurdish group that also has carried out a number of recent terrorist attacks in Turkey. And Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said early signs point to ISIS. Still, ISIS has not claimed responsibility and it's not certain that it was behind the Istanbul attacks, which are the most lethal terrorist attacks ever at an airport.
In the past month, we've seen a surge of terrorism in the Middle East and the West.
None of this should be too surprising. After all, ISIS explicitly called for terrorist attacks during the holy month of Ramadan, which commenced three weeks ago.
Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the spokesman for ISIS, released an audiotape in late May in which he called for attacks, saying, "Ramadan, the month of conquest and jihad... make it a month of calamity everywhere for the non-believers."
Beginning on Monday, ISIS or its affiliated groups started carrying out multiple attacks across the Middle East. ISIS suicide attackers blew themselves up in a Christian village in Lebanon close to the Syrian border, killing five people.
Also on Monday, a wave of ISIS suicide attacks in Yemen in the southeastern city of Mukalla killed more than 40.
On Tuesday, ISIS launched a suicide attack that killed seven Jordanian security personnel at a border crossing between Jordan and Syria.
The same day, the Istanbul airport was attacked by three suicide bombers who were likely dispatched by ISIS.
In the past two and half weeks, ISIS-inspired attackers also struck in the West, first in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people were killed in a gay nightclub -- the most lethal terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11 -- and, the day after the Orlando attack, an ISIS terrorist killed a police official and his partner in a town outside Paris.
United Kingdom's Prime Minister David Cameron condemns post-Brexit xenophobic and racist abuse
Britian's Prime Minister David Cameroon
PM says government ‘will not tolerate intolerance’ after reported spike in hate crimes and abuse after EU referendum
Story by The Guardian
Written by Harriet Sherwood, Vikram Dodd, Nadia Khomami and Steven Morris
Related link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/27/eu-referendum-labour-crisis-jeremy-corbyn-vows-to-fight-on-after/
David Cameron has condemned “despicable” xenophobic abuse after the EU referendum as figures suggested a 57% increase in reported incidents.
The country would not stand for hate crime, the prime minister told MPs.
“In the past few days we have seen despicable graffiti daubed on a Polish community centre, we’ve seen verbal abuse hurled against individuals because they are members of ethnic minorities,” Cameron said.
“Let’s remember these people have come here and made a wonderful contribution to our country. We will not stand for hate crime or these kinds of attacks, they must be stamped out.”
Police believe there has been an increase in hate crimes and community tensions since last week’s referendum. Initial figures show an increase of 57% in reported incidents between Thursday and Sunday compared with the same days four weeks earlier, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said – 85 incidents were reported compared with 54 during the earlier period.
“It’s no coincidence this has come off the back of the EU vote,” said a police source.
Senior police chiefs have discussed how to respond amid concerns the continuing heated debate may contribute to heightened tensions.
Cameron’s condemnation came amid a growing chorus of concern over intolerance and hostility. The mayor of London and the UK’s biggest Muslim organisation spoke out against a spike in racist abuse in the aftermath of the referendum.
The Polish embassy in the UK said it was shocked at incidents of xenophobic abuse directed at members of its community in the past few days, and the Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was alarmed by reports of harassment and abuse.
Sadiq Khan, who was elected mayor of London last month, said he had put the capital’s police on alert for racially motivated incidents. “It’s really important we stand guard against any rise in hate crimes or abuse by those who might use last week’s referendum as cover to seek to divide us,” he said.
How Prison Labor is the New American Slavery and Most of Us Unknowingly Support it
Story by www.Returntonow.net
Related Link:
http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/search?q=rubio+prison
http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2016/06/maryland-chooses-jail-over-schools-for.html
If you buy products or services from any of the companies listed below (and you likely do), you are supporting modern American slavery
The full list of companies ( http://buycott.com/campaign/companies/504/boycott-companies-that-use-prison-labor ) implicated in exploiting prison labor includes:
Bank of America
Bayer
Cargill
Caterpillar
Chevron
Chrysler
Costco
John Deere
Eli Lilly and Company
Exxon Mobil
GlaxoSmithKline
Johnson and Johnson
K-Mart
Koch Industries
Mary Kay
McDonald’s
Merck
Microsoft
Motorola
Nintendo
Pfizer
Procter & Gamble
Pepsi
ConAgra Foods
Shell
Starbucks
UPS
Verizon
WalMart
Wendy’s
American slavery was technically abolished in 1865, but a loophole in the 13th Amendment has allowed it to continue “as a punishment for crimes” well into the 21st century. Not surprisingly, corporations have lobbied for a broader and broader definition of “crime” in the last 150 years. As a result, there are more (mostly dark-skinned) people performing mandatory, essentially unpaid, hard labor in America today than there were in 1830.
With 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s prison population, the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world. No other society in history has imprisoned more of its own citizens. There are half a million more prisoners in the U.S. than in China, which has five times our population. Approximately 1 in 100 adults in America were incarcerated in 2014. Out of an adult population of 245 million that year, there were 2.4 million people in prison, jail or some form of detention center.
The vast majority – 86 percent – of prisoners have been locked up for non-violent, victimless crimes, many of them drug-related.
Big Business is making big bucks off of prison labor:
While prison labor helps produce goods and services for almost every big business in America, here are a few examples from an article that highlights the epidemic:
Whole Foods – You ever wonder how Whole Foods can afford to keep their prices so low (sarcasm)? Whole Foods’ coffee, chocolate and bananas might be “fair trade,” but the corporation has been offsetting the “high wages” paid to third-world producers with not-so-fair-wages here in America.
The corporation, famous for it’s animal welfare rating system, apparently was not as concerned about the welfare of the human “animals” working for them in Colorado prisons until April of this year.
You know that $12-a-pound tilapia you thought you were buying from “sustainable, American family farms?” It was raised by prisoners in Colorado, who were paid as little as 74 cents a day. And that fancy goat cheese? The goats were raised and milked by prisoners too.
McDonald’s – The world’s most successful fast food franchise purchases a plethora of goods manufactured in prisons, including plastic cutlery, containers, and uniforms. The inmates who sew McDonald’s uniforms make even less money by the hour than the people who wear them.
Wal-Mart – Although their company policy clearly states that “forced or prison labor will not be tolerated by Wal-Mart,” basically every item in their store has been supplied by third-party prison labor factories. Wal-Mart purchases its produce from prison farms, where laborers are often subjected to long hours in the blazing heat without adequate food or water.
Victoria’s Secret – Female inmates in South Carolina sew undergarments and casual-wear for the pricey lingerie company. In the late 1990’s, two prisoners were placed in solitary confinement for telling journalists that they were hired to replace “Made in Honduras” garment tags with “Made in USA” tags.
AT&T – In 1993, the massive phone company laid off thousands of telephone operators—all union members—in order to increase their profits. Even though AT&T’s company policy regarding prison labor reads eerily like Wal-Mart’s, they have consistently used inmates to work in their call centers since ’93, barely paying them $2 a day.
BP (British Petroleum) – When BP spilled 4.2 million barrels of oil into the Gulf coast, the company sent a workforce of almost exclusively African-American inmates to clean up the toxic spill while community members, many of whom were out-of-work fisherman, struggled to make ends meet. BP’s decision to use prisoners instead of hiring displaced workers outraged the Gulf community, but the oil company did nothing to reconcile the situation.
Related Link: http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/search?q=rubio+prison
While not all prisoners are “forced” to work, most “opt” to because life would be even more miserable if they didn’t, as they have to purchase pretty much everything above the barest necessities (and sometimes those too) with their hard-earned pennies. Some of them have legal fines to pay off and families to support on the outside. Often they come out more indebted than when they went in.
“Prison farms” aka “modern plantations”
In places like Texas, however, prison work is mandatory and unpaid – the literal definition of slave labor.
According the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, prisoners start their day with a 3:30 a.m. wake-up call and are served breakfast at 4:30 a.m. All prisoners who are physically able are required to report to their work assignments by 6 a.m.
“Offenders are not paid for their work, but they can earn privileges as a result of good work habits,” the website says.
Most prisoners work in prison support jobs, like cooking, cleaning, laundry, and maintenance, but about 2,500 of them work in the Texas prison system’s own “agribusiness department,” where they factory-farm 10,000 beef cattle, 20,000 pigs and a quarter million egg-laying hens. The prisoners also produce 74 million pounds of livestock feed per year, 300,000 cases of canned vegetables, and enough cotton to clothe themselves (and presumably others). They also work at meat packaging plants, where they process 14 million pounds of beef and 10 million pounds of pork per year.
While one of the department’s stated goals is to reduce operational costs by having prisoners produce their own food, the prison system admittedly earns revenue from “sales of surplus agricultural production.”
Prisoners who refuse to work – again, unpaid – are placed in solitary confinement. When asked if Texas prisons still employ “chain gangs” in the FAQ section, the department responds:
“No, Texas does not use chain gangs. However, offenders working outside the perimeter fence are supervised by armed correctional officers on horseback.”
Similar “prison farms” exist in Arizona, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio and other states, where prisoners are forced to work in agriculture, logging, quarrying and mining. Wikipedia says while the agricultural goods produced on prison farms is generally used to feed prisoners and other wards of the state (orphanages and asylums) they are also sold for profit.
In addition to being forced to labor directly for the profit of the government, inmates may be “farmed out” to private enterprises, through the practice of convict leasing, to work on private agricultural lands or related industries (fishing, lumbering, etc.). The party purchasing their labor from the government generally does so at a steep discount from the cost of free labor.
President's remarks on Supreme Court's ruling on immigration reform and learn what it means for our immigration policies..
President Obama delivered remarks on the Supreme Court ruling on United States v. Texas, a case which challenged the deferred action policies President Obama announced in 2014. Since the Court wasn't able to reach a decision, the those policies cannot proceed. Here's a quick look at the President's remarks.
Story by NY Times
Written by Nicholas Fandos and Mike Isaac
WASHINGTON — C-Span knew it had a problem.
Democrats had unexpectedly sat down in the middle of the House of Representatives chamber to demand a vote on gun control legislation, and with the body officially in recess, C-Span, the cable network known for “gavel to gavel” coverage of Congress, had no means to cover it.
Then it found an unlikely source: the social media feeds of House members who had turned to Periscope, a live video-streaming app, and Facebook Live.
“As soon as we knew it was available, we went for it,” Terry Murphy, C-Span’s vice president for programming, said on Thursday after a short night’s sleep. “We didn’t know when we got into it that we would be doing it for 24 hours. There just wasn’t much time to debate it.”
So began what was arguably the most memorable 24-hour period the network has seen in years, one that Mr. Murphy estimated had probably set a record for continuous broadcast of a social media feed and that others suggested amounted to something of a declaration of independence from congressional landlords, who control the TV cameras inside the Senate and House chambers.
But it was perhaps even more momentous for Periscope, which debuted just over a year ago after being acquired by Twitter.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Twitter messages that one or both of the live video streams broadcast by Representatives Scott Peters and Eric Swalwell of California embedded had already been viewed more than a million times, according to the company.
“We always told ourselves that if we were successful, we were building a tool to give a voice to the voiceless,” Kayvon Beykpour, co-founder and chief executive of Periscope, said in an interview. “It’s showing you the truth from different people’s perspectives. It’s a really raw way of experiencing what you watch.
Maryland Chooses Jail Over Schools for Baltimore Youths
School aged children outside playing(photo by Reuters)
Prioritizing incarceration over education is a nationwide trend.
Story by Take Part
Written by Rebecca McCray
Two days after Maryland officials approved spending $30 million of taxpayer funds on a shiny new jail for Baltimore youth caught in the snare of the criminal justice system, Gov. Larry Hogan removed $11.6 million from the city’s school budget and reallocated it to the pension fund for state employees, The Baltimore Sun reported. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-hogan-announcement-20150514-story.html#page=1
The budget decisions reflect a pattern in Maryland and across the U.S. of prioritizing spending on incarceration over education—calling to mind what’s become known as the “school-to-prison pipeline”—and the elderly over the young.
On the heels of violent unrest in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, which focused attention on the city’s racial and economic inequities, Hogan’s choice to defund education has garnered criticism.
“Given how the needs of our children have been highlighted by the events of the past few weeks, I hoped that the governor would have agreed with the general assembly that these dollars are critical for expanded educational opportunities,” Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said at a news conference following Hogan’s announcement.
Spending on prisons nationwide has outpaced spending on schools in many states in recent years, according to a 2014 study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research institution. Though most states still spend more on education than on corrections, budget outlays on prisons and jails is on the rise while spending on schools is declining. The study found that the states making the deepest cuts to K–12 spending—Arizona, Alabama, and Oklahoma—are all among the 10 states with the highest incarceration rates. http://www.cbpp.org/research/changing-priorities-state-criminal-justice-reforms-and-investments-in-education
Although prisons are more expensive per person than schools, and imprisonment leads to costlier outcomes for criminal offenders compared with those who graduate from high school, such policies have been pushed most heavily in the last couple of decades by politicians who call themselves fiscal conservatives and are members of the Republican Party. Hogan is a Republican, and the Board of Public Works that approved the new jail is part of the executive branch.
The effects of such choices tend to be concentrated in low-income communities of color like the one where Gray grew up. High concentrations of prison and jail inmates tend to come from select neighborhoods, ( http://action.naacp.org/page/-/Criminal%20Justice/MisplacedPrioritiesFINALV2.pdf ) particularly those where children bring the damaging effects of their poverty into the local schools and tend to require more resources to educate them to state standards. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People studied this phenomenon in a report that examined what have been called “million dollar blocks,” ( http://spatialinformationdesignlab.org/projects.php%3Fid%3D16 ) where states spend millions of dollars on the incarceration of citizens in tightly defined areas even as they slash spending on education, housing, and public health. At the same time, the United States is among just three developed nations that spend more to educate wealthy children than poor ones, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag2013%20%28eng%29--FINAL%2020%20June%202013.pdf
Baltimore’s new 60-bed youth jail is being constructed to house teens charged as adults for violent offenses. Two years ago, the city considered spending as much as $70 million on a new youth jail. Some of these teens are currently housed alongside adult offenders in the Baltimore City Detention Center. In March, the U.S. Department of Justice criticized the state for housing youths and adults together. Studies have found that housing youths in adult correctional facilities can lead to higher suicide rates among juveniles, increased incidents of rape by adult offenders and staff, and assaults.
Police Savagely Punch and Tase 18 year old Black Girl in Wisconsin — Then Put a Bag Over Her Head (VIDEO)
A video showing police in Madison, Wisconsin, violently assaulting an unarmed black teenage girl at a mall has gone viral, and the footage captured by a bystander is causing alarm as it spreads across social media.
Story by U.S. Uncut
Written by Zach Cartwright
A video showing police in Madison, Wisconsin, violently assaulting an unarmed black teenage girl at a mall has gone viral, and the footage captured by a bystander is causing alarm as it spreads across social media.
In the video, originally posted by Facebook user RichBoy Robinson, the girl, who local media identified as 18-year-old Genele H. Laird, is seen standing in front of the East Towne Mall on East Washington in Madison, Wisconsin, being manhandled by a police officer. The officer, who is struggling with the girl to force her to the ground, soon gets help from a backup officer, who proceeds to repeatedly drive his knee into Laird’s ribs. The officer also punches Laird several times.
After Laird is beaten into submission, the two officers hold her on the ground, while one repeatedly uses his taser on Laird’s torso and leg. During the beating, Laird is heard screaming and pleading with the police to get off of her, saying “I can’t breathe.” Near the end of the video, a bag is put over Laird’s head while she lies facedown on the concrete.
In a press release, the Madison Police Department alleged that before the girl was taken outside the mall, she had threatened an employee at a Taco Bell restaurant in the mall’s food court, accused a worker of stealing her phone, and allegedly brandished a knife. However, Laird appears unarmed in the video circulating on social media.
According to Channel 3000 in Madison, Laird was arrested on tentative charges of disorderly conduct while armed with a knife, resisting police causing injury, battery to a police officer, and discharge of bodily fluid.
Neither Robinson nor the Madison Police Department immediately responded to interview requests.
___________________________________________________
Zach Cartwright is an activist and author from Richmond, Virginia. Send him an email: zachcartwright88@gmail.com
Supreme Court Upholds Affirmative Action Program at University of Texas
Abigail Fisher, right, and her lawyer, Edward Blum, left the Supreme Court in Washington after oral arguments in her case last December. Her case argued the University of Texas, Austin, had denied her admission based on her race. J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
Story by New York Times
Written by Adam Liptak
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to a race-conscious admissions program at the University of Texas, Austin, handing supporters of affirmative action a major victory.
The vote was 4-3. Only seven justices participated in the decision. Justice Elena Kagan had recused herself for prior work on the case as United States solicitor general and the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat remains vacant.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., dissented.
The case concerned the University of Texas’s idiosyncratic admissions program. Most applicants from within the state are admitted under a part of the program that guarantees admission to top students in every high school in the state. (This is often called the Top 10 Percent program, though the percentage cutoff can vary by year.)
“A university is in large part defined by those intangible ‘qualities which are incapable of objective measurement but which make for greatness,’” Justice Kennedy wrote, quoting from a landmark desegregation case. “Considerable deference is owed to a university in defining those intangible characteristics, like student body diversity, that are central to its identity and educational mission.”
In a lengthy and impassioned dissent from the bench, Justice Alito denounced the court’s affirmative action ruling, saying the university had not demonstrated the need for race-based admissions and saying the program benefitted advantaged students over impoverished ones.
“This is affirmative action gone berserk,” Justice Alito told his colleagues, adding that what they had done in the case was misguided and “is simply wrong.”
The Top 10 Percent program has produced significant racial and ethnic diversity. In 2011, for instance, 26 percent of freshmen who enrolled under the program were Hispanic, and 6 percent were black. The population of Texas is about 38 percent Hispanic and 12 percent black.
The case challenged a second part of the admissions program. Under it, remaining students from Texas and elsewhere are considered under standards that take into account academic achievement and other factors, including race and ethnicity. Many colleges and universities base all of their admissions decisions on such holistic grounds.
In Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003, the Supreme Court endorsed free-standing admissions programs, saying it was permissible to consider race as one factor among many to achieve educational diversity. Writing for the majority in that case, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said she expected that “25 years from now,” the “use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary.”
The case, Fisher v. University of Texas, No. 14-981, was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white woman who said the university had denied her admission based on her race. She has since graduated from Louisiana State University.
When the court last considered Ms. Fisher’s case in 2013, supporters of affirmative action were nervous. But the court deferred conclusive action in what appeared to be a compromise decision.
Cummings Statement on State of Maryland v. Caesar Goodson
Washington, D.C. (June 23, 2016) — Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) issued the following statement on the verdict in State of Maryland v. Caesar Goodson:
“Three cases have been heard in the death of Mr. Freddie Gray, and throughout, Judge Barry G. Williams has shown himself to be a tough, fair adjudicator. Today, after weighing the evidence presented by Mr. Goodson’s defense attorneys and the prosecution, he found Mr. Goodson not guilty on all charges. I know that many of our neighbors will be disappointed and frustrated by today’s verdict, and I understand those emotions.
But we must continue to channel our energies into efforts to improve our city for all residents, and continue to improve our police department’s practices and procedures to ensure that the policing of our streets is conducted professionally, safely, and fairly in all parts of our city. Baltimore’s future does not rest on the outcomes of the trials surrounding Mr. Freddie Gray’s death. Baltimore’s future rests on every one of us.”
Congressman Elijah Cummings Joins House Democrats’ Sit-In Against Congressional Inaction on Gun Violence
Cummings Joins House Democrats’ Sit-In Against Congressional Inaction on Gun Violence
Washington, D.C. (June 22, 2016)—Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) issued the following statement after joining House Democrats to stage a sit-in against congressional inaction on gun violence:
“Every year, tens of thousands of Americans die as a result of gun violence. In some states, firearms take more lives than car accidents.
“The American people are fed up with inaction and so am I. It is time for House Republicans to treat gun violence like the scourge on our country that it is.
“Our thoughts and prayers aren’t enough. Our moments of silence aren’t enough. We must act, and I am proud to sit with my colleagues to urge a vote on legislation to prevent gun violence. Enough.”
LeBron James named unanimous Finals MVP after Cavs' Game 7 win
2016 NBA Champions Cleveland Cavaliers
Story by ESPN
Written by Kevin Arnovitz and AP
OAKLAND, Calif. -- LeBron James was unanimously named MVP of the NBA Finals for the third time following the Cleveland Cavaliers' 93-89 win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 on Sunday.
Over the seven-game series, James averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists with an effective field goal percentage of 53.3. He became the third player to record a triple-double in Game 7 of the Finals, joining Jerry West in 1969 and James Worthy in 1988.
"Best player on the planet," Cavs teammate Kyrie Irving said.
Later, Irving compared James to Ludwig van Beethoven: "I'm very thankful that I have a guy like that that's leading our team that I can continue to learn from. And when my time does come of being able to lead a franchise and see the landscape of how it's supposed to be composed, I watched Beethoven right now of LeBron James compose a game.
Legacy play by LeBron James
"He had a freakin' triple-double in Game 7 of an NBA Finals game. There will still be naysayers, but I know it doesn't matter to him. It doesn't matter to me. All that matters is we're champions, and our whole team is etched in history."
James won consecutive Finals MVPs in 2012 and 2013, when he notched his first two titles with the Miami Heat. He returned to Cleveland as a free agent in July 2014. In addition to delivering the city its first major sports championship since 1964, James led the Cavs in becoming the first team in NBA history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit to win the Finals.
"I came back for a reason," James said. "I came back to bring a championship to our city. I knew what I was capable of doing. I knew what I learned in the last couple years that I was gone, and I knew if I had to -- when I came back -- I knew I had the right ingredients and the right blueprint to help this franchise get back to a place that we've never been. That's what it was all about."
James punctuated his historic Finals performance with a dramatic final two minutes of Game 7. With the game tied 89-89, James pursued the reigning Finals MVP, Andre Iguodala, on a Warriors fast break and recorded one of his trademark "chasedown" blocks as he rejected Iguodala's layup attempt.
Moments later, with the Cavaliers leading 92-89, James took a hard spill to the floor after being fouled by Draymond Green. He writhed in pain and held his right wrist before returning to his feet. Then he drained one of two foul shots to extend Cleveland's lead to four with 10 seconds remaining.
"You see his basketball talent, the way he can control a game," Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said. "But the reason why he deserves this is because he has a great heart ... and great things happen to great people."
James is now 4-2 all time in Game 7s and 2-0 when the ultimate game comes in the NBA Finals.
Cavaliers’ Richard Jefferson announces retirement after Game 7 win
Known for his High Flying Slam Dunks and corner shots throughout his NBA career, Richard Jefferson retires as NBA Champion.
Story by NBC Sports
Written by Kurt Helin
Talk about going out on top.
After an NBA Finals where the veteran journeyman ended up playing a key role for the Cavaliers, allowing them to go small and match up with the Warriors for stretches, Richard Jefferson decided this was the time to retire. Chris Haynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer broke the news.
Jefferson played 15 NBA seasons after Houston drafted him 13th out of Arizona back in 2001. He averaged 13.3 points per game for his career, with the high coming in 2008 when he averaged 22.6 for the Nets.
After the game, he talked about LeBron James and what he meant to Jefferson’s career.
“I’ll give you a little walk down right now,” Jefferson said. “I lost the national championship game to Duke, then I lost two straight NBA Finals (with the Nets), then my third year we lost to Detroit after being up 3-2 and they won the championship, then I lost to Miami and they won the championship, then to top it off I went to the Olympics and we were the worst (American) team of all time.
“My whole career has been so, so close. Then I had a stretch of six to seven years where you become a little bit of a journeyman. To be able to get on a team and walk in with a guy that says he’s going to be able to carry you and bring me here, I owe everything, every shot, every play, everything I’ve ever done to that man.”
You got 50-thousand for a Game Seven NBA Finals game?
Story by AFP
Tickets for Sunday’s decisive seventh-game NBA Finals championship showdown between the Cleveland Cavaliers and defending champion Golden State are going for a king’s ransom on the resale market.
StubHub spokesman Cameron Papp says the ticket resale firm sold the most expensive non-suite seats in its 16-year history to the Father’s Day matchup at Oakland’s Oracle Arena, with each ticket going for $49,500 (43,900 euros).
Papp told USA Today and ESPN that the unidentified purchaser of the courtside seats broke the website’s old record of $37,000 for a front-row seat to game four of the 2008 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics.
The buyer was “well known,” Papp told ESPN.
StubHub also sold a ticket for $35,000 to last year’s boxing showdown between Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao and unbeaten US fighter Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas.
“Nothing really surprises me with the Warriors,” Papp told USA Today. “It’s a game seven and it’s in Silicon Valley, where people have deep pockets.”
LeBron James scored 41 points in each of the past two games to spark Cleveland victories and rally the Cavaliers from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven series to force the seventh-game winner-take-all showdown.
The website sold five tickets to game six in Cleveland for $25,000 each.
Either the Cavaliers will complete the greatest comeback in NBA history – no team has ever rallied from 3-1 down to win the finals – and the Warriors will suffer the greatest choke in finals history or the Warriors will cap a campaign that included a record 73 regular-season wins from 82 games with a crown and hand James his fifth loss in seven NBA Finals appearances, including his third defeat in a row
Johnson Publishing sells Ebony, Jet magazines to Texas firm
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King photo in May issue of Ebony 1968
Story by Chicago Tribune
Written by Robert Channick
After a 71-year run in Chicago, Johnson Publishing is getting out of publishing.
The company said Tuesday it has sold Ebony, its iconic African-American lifestyle magazine, and the now digital-only Jet magazine to Clear View Group, an Austin, Texas-based private equity firm, for an undisclosed amount.
Johnson Publishing will retain its Fashion Fair Cosmetics business and its historic Ebony photo archives, which remains up for sale. The deal, which closed in May, also included the assumption of debt.
A family-owned business throughout its history, Ebony has documented the African-American experience since it first hit newsstands in 1945. It has shaped culture ever since, coming into its own as it reported from the front lines of the civil rights movement during the 1960s in powerful photos and prose.
In recent years, though, Johnson Publishing has seen declining media revenues as it struggled to evolve from print to digital platforms.
Linda Johnson Rice, chairman of Johnson Publishing and daughter of founder John Johnson, will serve as chairman emeritus on the board of the new company.
"This is the next chapter in retaining the legacy that my father, John H. Johnson, built to ensure the celebration of African-Americans," she said in a statement Tuesday.
O.J. Simpson's not-guilty verdict was the cover story of Oct. 23, 1995, issue of "Jet."
The new publishing entity, Ebony Media Operations, will maintain the magazine's Chicago headquarters and its New York editorial office, as well as much of the current staff, according to Michael Gibson, co-founder and chairman of African-American-owned Clear View Group.
It is the first investment in the publishing business for Clear View.
"We made this purchase because this is an iconic brand — it's the most-recognized brand in the African-American community," said Gibson, 59. "We just think this is a great opportunity for us."
Cheryl McKissack, who has served as chief operating officer since 2013, will assume the role of CEO of the new publishing entity under Clear View, operating out of the magazine's Chicago office. Kierna Mayo is stepping down as editor-in-chief of Ebony to pursue other opportunities, Gibson said.
Chicago-based Kyra Kyles, who has headed up digital content for Ebony and Jet since last June, will add the role of editor-in-chief of Ebony, Gibson said.
"When we make an investment, that's what we look for — a strong team that can actually run the company," Gibson said. "We're not managers or experts by any stretch of imagination in the media business. What we bring to the table is very strong networking and the ability to raise financing and the ability to establish a vision for the company."
Desiree Rogers, the former social secretary for President Barack Obama who has been steering Johnson Publishing since 2010, will remain CEO, focusing on the cosmetics business, which represents about half of the company's total revenue.
"The overall strategy of separating these two distinct businesses — media and cosmetics — will ensure that both iconic brands are positioned for future investment and growth," Rogers said in a statement.
Under Rogers, Johnson Publishing made a number of moves in an effort to shore up finances. Those included taking on a minority partner in 2011, and taking the money-losing weekly digest Jet out of print circulation in 2014.
In January 2015, Johnson Publishing put its entire photo archive up for sale, hoping to raise $40 million. The historic collection spans seven decades of African-American history, chronicling everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Sammy Davis Jr.
The collection is still for sale, Rogers said Tuesday.
While the publishing industry continues to face headwinds — year-over-year magazine revenue is down 9 percent through April, according to Standard Media Index — Gibson said Ebony will remain in print for the foreseeable future. At the same time, he recognizes the need to ramp up digital growth.
"There's a lot of good reasons to keep the print," Gibson said. "That will always be our anchor. We want to grow the digital platform more consistently with both Ebony and Jet."
Gibson also sees opportunity in leveraging and expanding Ebony's events business. But in the end, the greatest asset he acquired was the legacy of a brand, one which he hopes will be influential for years to come.
"It's a dream come true," Gibson said. "Growing up, we had Ebony and Jet in our household all along. You knew you made it when you made it to the cover of Ebony or Jet. It is just exciting — I pinch myself every morning."
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Link to Jet/Ebony covers: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-ebony-sold-0615-biz-20160614-story.html
Orlando Victim Says Shooter Omar Mateen Tried to Spare Black People: ‘He Said Black People Had Suffered Enough’
Story by Lovebscott.com
Patience Carter, a woman who was shot in the Orlando attack at Pulse nightclub, said that gunman Omar Mateen told her and other victims hiding in the bathroom that he did not “have a problem with black people,” that he thought they “have suffered enough.”
He added that he was “doing this to get America to stop bombing his country.”
According to Patience, she and her crew were waiting for an Uber home when the shots first rang out. She didn’t immediately register what was happening, but she began crawling towards the door and eventually made it outside. That’s when she realized her cousin was missing and went back inside to get her.
Because of the gunfire, she ended up taking cover in the bathroom with a group of people.
“It still wasn’t real to me yet — I was still Snapchatting after we squeezed into the stall,” she said.
Soon after they got into the stall, Omar Mateen entered the bathroom and began shooting.
At first, Patience said she thought it was a BB gun because she felt small objects hitting her legs. She soon realized it was pieces of the stall door flying toward her. She got shot in both legs. People in the stall began dropping to the floor.
“Bodies were piled on top of each other on the toilet seat,” she said. “There were handprints on everything, and blood.”
After shooting at the stall, Omar Mateen made a 911 call in the bathroom, Patience said. “He said the reason why he was doing this is he wanted America to stop bombing his country.”
When he got off the phone, he asked the people in the stalls if there were “any black people” in the bathroom. A man next to Patience said there were “six or seven of us.” Omar responded that he “didn’t have a problem with black people,’ adding that ‘You guys have suffered enough’” at the hands of white Americans.
Watch Patience tell her story and recite a poem she wrote in dealing with this experience below.
President's speaks about the Orlando shooting at Pulse
Read the President's full remarks:
Today, as Americans, we grieve the brutal murder -- a horrific massacre -- of dozens of innocent people. We pray for their families, who are grasping for answers with broken hearts. We stand with the people of Orlando, who have endured a terrible attack on their city. Although it’s still early in the investigation, we know enough to say that this was an act of terror and an act of hate. And as Americans, we are united in grief, in outrage, and in resolve to defend our people.
I just finished a meeting with FBI Director Comey and my homeland security and national security advisors. The FBI is on the scene and leading the investigation, in partnership with local law enforcement. I’ve directed that the full resources of the federal government be made available for this investigation.
We are still learning all the facts. This is an open investigation. We’ve reached no definitive judgment on the precise motivations of the killer. The FBI is appropriately investigating this as an act of terrorism. And I’ve directed that we must spare no effort to determine what -- if any -- inspiration or association this killer may have had with terrorist groups. What is clear is that he was a person filled with hatred. Over the coming days, we’ll uncover why and how this happened, and we will go wherever the facts lead us.
This morning I spoke with my good friend, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, and I conveyed the condolences of the entire American people. This could have been any one of our communities. So I told Mayor Dyer that whatever help he and the people of Orlando need -- they are going to get it. As a country, we will be there for the people of Orlando today, tomorrow and for all the days to come.
We also express our profound gratitude to all the police and first responders who rushed into harm’s way. Their courage and professionalism saved lives, and kept the carnage from being even worse. It’s the kind of sacrifice that our law enforcement professionals make every single day for all of us, and we can never thank them enough.
This is an especially heartbreaking day for all our friends -- our fellow Americans -- who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The shooter targeted a nightclub where people came together to be with friends, to dance and to sing, and to live. The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub -- it is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds, and to advocate for their civil rights.
So this is a sobering reminder that attacks on any American -- regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation -- is an attack on all of us and on the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country. And no act of hate or terror will ever change who we are or the values that make us Americans.
Today marks the most deadly shooting in American history. The shooter was apparently armed with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle. This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well.
In the coming hours and days, we’ll learn about the victims of this tragedy. Their names. Their faces. Who they were. The joy that they brought to families and to friends, and the difference that they made in this world. Say a prayer for them and say a prayer for their families -- that God give them the strength to bear the unbearable. And that He give us all the strength to be there for them, and the strength and courage to change. We need to demonstrate that we are defined more -- as a country -- by the way they lived their lives than by the hate of the man who took them from us.
As we go together, we will draw inspiration from heroic and selfless acts -- friends who helped friends, took care of each other and saved lives. In the face of hate and violence, we will love one another. We will not give in to fear or turn against each other. Instead, we will stand united, as Americans, to protect our people, and defend our nation, and to take action against those who threaten us.
May God bless the Americans we lost this morning. May He comfort their families. May God continue to watch over this country that we love. Thank you.
Story by CNN
Written by Ashley Fantz, Eliott C. McLaughlin and Tim Hume
While the bodies of Omar Mateen's victims were removed from Pulse nightclub overnight, investigators worked Monday to determine what motivated the Florida killer responsible for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history -- a man the FBI knew was sympathetic to terrorism and had previously investigated.
Mateen, who called 911 to pledge allegiance to ISIS during Sunday's attack, was possibly planning to carry out the massacre at the Orlando gay club for a long time. He attempted to buy military-grade body armor from a local store in recent weeks, according to a U.S. official. Personnel at the store refused to sell him what is known as Level III body armor, which offers more protection than the body armor police typically issue to officers. Mateen had also legally purchased a Glock pistol and a long gun, Trevor Velino of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said.
It's not known if those weapons were used in the attack.
The FBI and local law enforcement are examining Mateen's employment history. He had worked since 2007 as a security officer at G4S Secure Solutions, one of the world's largest private security companies. The company assigned him to the St. Lucie County Courthouse. CNN's Evan Perez reported that the security company knew the FBI had interviewed Mateen but he passed the company's background check.
The FBI interviewed him in 2013 and 2014 after he expressed sympathy for a suicide bomber, Assistant Special Agent Ronald Hopper said. Hopper said the interviews were "inconclusive," which meant there was no reason to keep them going but did not expound. It remains unclear what, if anything, the interviews covered or why the probes were dropped.
Mateen was not under investigation at the time of Sunday's shooting and was not under surveillance, Hopper said. That means, Hopper said, Mateen could "legally walk into a gun dealership and acquire and purchase firearms."
FBI Director James Comey said Monday that the agency is "highly confident" the gunman was radicalized, at least in part, by viewing extremism on the Internet.
"There are strong indications of radicalization by this killer and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations," Comey said.
He added that investigators have found no indication the attack was directed from outside the United States or that Mateen was part of any kind of network.
Families wait in anguish
Earlier officials had said the dead numbered 50 but clarified that they were including the gunman. Around midday Monday, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said the families of at least 36 out of 49 victims have been notified of their loved ones' deaths.
The city of Orlando is posting names of the deceased on a website after family members have been notified. The youngest person among those who have been named was Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20.
Survivors told horrific stories of the shooting, which began around 2 a.m. Sunday. One person hiding in the bathroom covered herself with bodies for protection. Some entertainers hid in a dressing room when the shooting started and escaped the building by crawling out when police removed the air conditioning unit.
Mateen initially engaged in a shootout with an officer and then retreated back into the club.
Police tried for hours to negotiate with Mateen, Orlando police Chief John Mina said.
"He was cool and calm when he was making those phone calls to us," Mina said. "We had a team of crisis negotiators that did talk to the suspect just trying to get as much information as possible. ... He really wasn't asking for a whole lot. We were doing most of the asking."
People trapped inside the club desperately called and messaged friends and relatives. Some clubgoers said they thought they were going to die.
Timeline of Orlando nightclub shooting
At around 5 a.m., police used an armored vehicle to punch through a wall and began pulling people to safety. The gunman came out of that hole, too, and exchanged fire with police, who shot him dead, Mina said.
One bartender recalled crouching, horrified, under the bar.
When police stormed in, they shouted, "If you are alive, raise your hand!"
She did, and was rescued along with others.
At least 53 people suffered wounds in the attack, officials said.
Possible ISIS ties explored
Mateen's possible ties to ISIS are a big part of the investigation. During the attack, Mateen called 911 to pledge allegiance to the terror group and mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers, according to a U.S. official.
ISIS sympathizers have reacted by praising the attack on pro-ISIS forums, while the official online ISIS radio channel, Al-Bayan, described it as a "raid on a Crusader gathering" carried out by "one of the Caliphate's soldiers in America."
People other than Mateen are being investigated in relation to the attack, U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley said.
"If anyone else was involved in this crime, they will be prosecuted," he said, adding there was "no reason to believe that anyone connected to this crime" was placing the public in imminent danger.
Mateen attracted the FBI's attention after co-workers reported he'd made what agency director Comey described Monday as "inflammatory and contradictory" comments about terrorism.
Mateen claimed his family had a connection to al Qaeda and said he was a member of Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group that the United States considers a terrorist organization and that's an enemy of ISIS.
"Mateen said he hoped that law enforcement would raid his apartment and assault his wife and child so that he could martyr himself," Comey said of that probe in 2013. At that time, the FBI's Miami office opened a preliminary investigation and spent 10 months trying to determine whether he was a terrorist. That action was "something we do in hundreds and hundreds of cases all across the country," Comey said.
That investigation involved introducing confidential sources to Mateen, the director said. Agents recorded conversations between the source and Mateen, followed Mateen and reviewed his transactional records, including his communication with others and searching other records.
The FBI interviewed Mateen twice, Comey said.
"He admitted making the statements that his co-workers reported," Comey said, "but explained that he did it in anger because he thought his co-workers were discriminating against him and teasing him because he was Muslim." With that, the FBI closed the investigation, the director said.
Two months later, in July 2014, Mateen's name surfaced again but in an indirect way, Comey said. The Miami office was investigating a Florida man who had blown himself up in Syria in support of al Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate.
The suicide bomber knew Mateen, investigators discovered, but those ties were not of "any consequence," Comey said. The FBI interviewed a witness who told agents that Mateen had gotten married, had a child and had a job as a security guard. Mateen was interviewed. Again, the FBI determined there was no significant connection between Mateen and the suicide bomber, and the investigation stopped focusing on Mateen.
Mateen reportedly outraged at seeing men kiss
Omar Mir Seddique Mateen was born in 1986 in New York. He most recently lived in Fort Pierce, about 120 miles southeast of Orlando. Fearing explosives at the complex where he lived, officials evacuated about 200 people while they looked through his residence for evidence. The FBI search has now been completed, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Mateen's parents, who are from Afghanistan, said he'd expressed outrage after seeing two men kiss in Miami, but they didn't consider him particularly religious and didn't know of any connection he had to ISIS.
He was married in 2009 to a woman originally from Uzbekistan, according to the marriage license, but he filed documents to end the marriage in 2011.
Sitora Yusufiy, whom CNN interviewed in Boulder, Colorado, said she and Mateen were together about four months, though it took a long time to complete the divorce because they lived in different parts of the country after separating.
Mateen was a normal husband at the beginning but started abusing her after a few months, she said. She said Mateen was bipolar, although he was not formally diagnosed. She also said he had a history with steroids. He was religious but she said she doesn't think his religion played a role in the attack.
According to a mortgage document, Mateen remarried a woman named Noor Salman, and they lived in a Fort Pierce condo. CNN's Sara Sidner spoke to a source in Rodeo, California, who knows the family well. The source said Salman's mother wept and tearfully asked, "Why is God doing this to me?"
Scene inside the club
Pulse describes itself as "the hottest gay bar" in the heart of Orlando. The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities are coming together across the nation to grieve and, many others, from all walks of life, have joined them in solidarity.
On Sunday, President Barack Obama addressed the nation from the White House.
"We know enough to say this was an act of terror and act of hate," he said. While the violence could have hit any American community, "This is an especially heartbreaking day for our friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender."
It was another time the President had to try to comfort a nation shaken by gun violence. There was Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, the 2012 Aurora, Colorado movie theater slayings, the shooting at Wisconsin Sikh temple in 2012, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, last year's Charleston, South Carolina, church attack and several others. One of the more recent shootings happened on December 2 in San Bernardino, California, when an ISIS-sympathizer and his wife mowed down co-workers.
National media attention was already focused on Orlando because of Friday night's fatal shooting of singer Christina Grimmie as she signed autographs after a show. Her shooter then killed himself. The Pulse shooting happened a few miles from the Plaza Live theater, where Grimmie was killed.
'This is a hate crime'
Numerous groups and officials denounced the attacks, including the Vatican, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"This is a hate crime, plain and simple," CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said. "We condemn it in the strongest possible terms."
Nadine Smith of Equality Florida said groups are planning vigils around the nation. "It has just been a devastating day, but people are starting to rally," she said.
Barbara Poma, owner of the Pulse nightcub, said her employees had been like family to her.
"From the beginning, Pulse has served as a place of love and acceptance for the LGBTQ community," she said.
"I want to express my profound sadness and condolences to all who have lost loved ones. Please know that my grief and heart are with you."
Order of Friday's Funeral Service for Muhammad Ali
Order of Service
Quranic chants
Readings from the Quran - Imam Shakir
Introduction of Speakers - Imam Shakir
Speakers
Protestant minister Kevin Cosby of Louisville
Representative of Catholic Church
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Rabbi Joe Rapport (Louisville)
Representative of the Buddhist religion
Mormon – U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch
Poetry reading
Ambassador Attalah Shabazz
Eulogists
Lonnie Ali
Maryum Ali
Natasha Mundkur, MAC Scholar (to be identified)
John Ramsey
Billy Crystal
Bryant Gumbel
The Honorable William J. Clinton
Islamic Prayers and Closing of Service
Imam Shakir
The Ali Family will also have several foreign dignitaries who have asked to speak at the service.
The public is invited to pay tribute to The Greatest on several occassions throughout the week.
I Am Ali Festival
10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Wednesday, June 8, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, 501 W. Main St. (Map)
The I Am Ali Festival will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the lobby of the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, 501 W. Main St. I Am Ali is meant to celebrate Ali’s life journey and fierce determination as an example to all children that no matter the circumstances, they can be the greatest at anything they choose. Jefferson County Public Schools, the Kentucky Science Center, Louisville Zoo, Louisville Free Public Library and other local arts and education organizations will provide booths and entertainment geared toward children.
Prayer Service
Noon, Thursday, June 9, Freedom Hall, 937 Phillips Lane (Map)
On Thursday, an Islamic funeral prayer will be held at Freedom Hall. Doors open at 9 a.m. and the prayer will be held at noon. Tickets will be available at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Kentucky Exposition Center box office, 937 Phillips Lane. The tickets will be limited to four per request and will be available on a first come, first serve basis.
Funeral Procession
9 a.m., Friday, multiple locations throughout Louisville
Beginning at 9 a.m., people are invited to line the route on surface streets as the funeral procession makes its way from A.D. Porter & Sons Funeral Home, 4501 Bardstown Road, to Cave Hill Cemetery, past sites of significance to him and his family.
From Bardstown Road, the procession will go north to the Watterson Expressway westbound, and then north on Interstate 65 toward Interstate 64. The procession will exit on Ninth Street, with a view of the Muhammad Ali Center, and then make its way to the street named for him, Muhammad Ali Boulevard. The procession will go west toward Ali’s childhood neighborhood. Making a left at 34th street, the procession will proceed to Broadway, then east to Cave Hill Cemetery for a private burial.
A map of the procession route can be found here.
Cave Hill, 701 Baxter Ave., is one of Louisville’s oldest cemeteries and an integral part of the legacy of the Louisville community. Dedicated in 1848, Cave Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Cave Hill Cemetery contains the gravesites of many prominent citizens, including Col. Harland Sanders and George Rogers Clark. For more information: www.cavehillcemetery.com
Public Celebration of Ali's Life
Noon, Friday, June 10, KFC Yum! Center, 1 Arena Plaza (Map)
After the private burial at Cave Hill, a public celebration of Ali’s life will take place at the KFC Yum! Center, beginning at 2 p.m. Friday. This celebration will include eulogies from former President Bill Clinton, comedian/actor Billy Crystal, and television journalist Bryant Gumbel. The ceremony will be led by an Imam in Muslim tradition.
Tickets were available exclusively at the KFC Yum! Center box office (1 Arena Plaza). They WERE available beginning at 10 a.m. today. Tickets were limited to four per request on a first come, first serve basis. 15-thousand tickets were available and sold out this morning in 90 minutes. Ticket hopefuls were allowed to line-up at 6 a.m.
The Friday event will be streamed live from www.alicenter.org.
* Ticketholders for Friday’s celebration will not be able to park within a three-mile radius of the KFC Yum! Center. Complimentary parking and a shuttle service will be available at the Kentucky Exposition Center for ticketholders beginning at 7:30 a.m. Friday. The shuttle will run continuously through 11:30 a.m. Also, TARC will provide free rides on all routes Friday to passengers with tickets to the memorial service at the KFC Yum! Center. More information can be found here.
* Road closure information for the funeral procession and the public memorial: https://louisvilleky.gov/government/public-works/services/road-and-street-closures
Tributes for Ali
* In Louisville, visitors to the Muhammad Ali Center (144 N Sixth St.) are invited to sign a book of condolences. The Center will be open throughout this week to allow the public to celebrate the life and legacy of Ali.
* Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer ordered flags lowered to half-staff at City Hall and other government buildings.
* The small house where Ali grew up on 3302 Grand Ave. has become a place for Louisville residents and visitors to mourn the loss.
* In lieu of gifts or flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Muhammad Ali Center so it may continue to promote Ali’s legacy of humanitarianism.
* “Muhammad Ali belongs to the world, but he has only one hometown,” Mayor Greg Fischer said at a brief Memorial Saturday.
We're asking Ali's fans to share stories of meeting him here.
Muhammad Ali, "The Greatest of All Time", Dead at 74
In this May 25, 1965, Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay Jr., knocks out Sonny Liston to retain his crown.
Links to past Ali blogs:
http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2014/09/muhammad-ali-versus-george-foreman-in.html
http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2015/10/muhammad-ali-was-more-than-boxer.html
http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2011/11/ali-foreman-react-to-death-of-joe.html
http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2016/02/black-history-muhammad-ali-talks-about.html
http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2015/12/muhammad-ali-defends-muslims-in.html
http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2012/01/muhammed-ali-celebrates-70th-birthday.html
Story by Associated Press
Written by Tim Dahlberg
He was fast of fist and foot — lip, too — a heavyweight champion who promised to shock the world and did. He floated. He stung. Mostly he thrilled, even after the punches had taken their toll and his voice barely rose above a whisper.
He was The Greatest.
Muhammad Ali died Friday at age 74, according to a spokesman for his family. He was hospitalized in the Phoenix area with respiratory problems earlier this week, and his children had flown in from around the country. Family spokesman Bob Gunnell said Ali, who had Parkinson's disease, died of septic shock. While it's not clear exactly what transpired with Ali, people with late-stage Parkinson's often have difficulty swallowing. Food and liquid landing in the lungs can lead to pneumonia or a chest infection that could cause sepsis, a bloodstream infection.
"It's a sad day for life, man. I loved Muhammad Ali, he was my friend. Ali will never die," Don King, who promoted some of Ali's biggest fights, told The Associated Press early Saturday. "Like Martin Luther King his spirit will live on, he stood for the world."
An Islamic funeral will be held in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky on Thursday, and general funeral with President Clinton giving the Eulogy on Friday. The city held a memorial service Saturday, and lowered the flag to half staff.
One of Ali's daughters described her father's last moments in an Instagram post, saying his heart wouldn't stop beating for 30 minutes after all of his other organs failed. Hana Ali said the family was surrounding her father, hugging and kissing him, holding his hands and chanting an Islamic prayer, while his heart kept beating as his other organs gave out. "No one had even seen anything like it. A true testament to the strength of his Spirit and Will!" she wrote.
With a wit as sharp as the punches he used to "whup" opponents, Ali dominated sports for two decades before time and Parkinson's disease, triggered by thousands of blows to the head, ravaged his magnificent body, muted his majestic voice and ended his storied career in 1981.
He won and defended the heavyweight championship in epic fights in exotic locations, spoke loudly on behalf of blacks, and famously refused to be drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War because of his Muslim beliefs.
Despite his debilitating illness, he traveled the world to rapturous receptions even after his once-bellowing voice was quieted and he was left to communicate with a wink or a weak smile.
"He was the greatest fighter of all time but his boxing career is secondary to his contribution to the world," promoter Bob Arum told the AP early Saturday. "He's the most transforming figure of my time certainly."
Revered by millions worldwide and reviled by millions more, Ali cut quite a figure, 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds in his prime. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," his cornermen exhorted, and he did just that in a way no heavyweight had ever fought before.
He fought in three different decades, finished with a record of 56-5 with 37 knockouts — 26 of those bouts promoted by Arum — and was the first man to win heavyweight titles three times.
He whipped the fearsome Sonny Liston twice, toppled the mighty George Foreman with the rope-a-dope in Zaire, and nearly fought to the death with Joe Frazier in the Philippines. Through it all, he was trailed by a colorful entourage who merely added to his growing legend.
"Rumble, young man, rumble," cornerman Bundini Brown would yell to him.
And rumble Ali did. He fought anyone who meant anything and made millions of dollars with his lightning-quick jab. His fights were so memorable that they had names — "Rumble in the Jungle" and "Thrilla in Manila."
But it was as much his antics — and his mouth — outside the ring that transformed the man born Cassius Clay into a household name as Muhammad Ali.
"I am the greatest," Ali thundered again and again.
Few would disagree.
Ali spurned white America when he joined the Black Muslims and changed his name. He defied the draft at the height of the Vietnam war — "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong" — and lost 3 1/2 years from the prime of his career. He entertained world leaders, once telling Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos: "I saw your wife. You're not as dumb as you look."
"Boxing was my field mission, the first part of my life," he said in 1990, adding with typical braggadocio, "I will be the greatest evangelist ever."
Ali couldn't fulfill that goal because Parkinson's robbed him of his speech. It took such a toll on his body that the sight of him in his later years — trembling, his face frozen, the man who invented the Ali Shuffle now barely able to walk — shocked and saddened those who remembered him in his prime.
"People naturally are going to be sad to see the effects of his disease," Hana Ali said when he turned 65. "But if they could really see him in the calm of his everyday life, they would not be sorry for him. He's at complete peace, and he's here learning a greater lesson."
The quiet of Ali's later life was in contrast to the roar of a career that had breathtaking highs along with terrible lows. He exploded on the public scene with a series of nationally televised fights that gave the public an exciting new champion, and he entertained millions as he sparred verbally with the likes of bombastic sportscaster Howard Cosell.
Ali once calculated he had taken 29,000 punches to the head and made $57 million in his pro career, but the effect of the punches lingered long after most of the money was gone. That didn't stop him from traveling tirelessly to promote Islam, meet with world leaders and champion legislation dubbed the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act. While slowed in recent years, he still managed to make numerous appearances, including a trip to the 2012 London Olympics.
Despised by some for his outspoken beliefs and refusal to serve in the U.S. Army in the 1960s, an aging Ali became a poignant figure whose mere presence at a sporting event would draw long standing ovations.
With his hands trembling so uncontrollably that the world held its breath, he lit the Olympic torch for the 1996 Atlanta Games in a performance as riveting as some of his fights.
A few years after that, he sat mute in a committee room in Washington, his mere presence enough to persuade lawmakers to pass the boxing reform bill that bore his name.
Members of his inner circle weren't surprised. They had long known Ali as a humanitarian who once wouldn't think twice about getting in his car and driving hours to visit a terminally ill child. They saw him as a man who seemed to like everyone he met — even his archrival Frazier.
"I consider myself one of the luckiest guys in the world just to call him my friend," former business manager Gene Kilroy said. "If I was to die today and go to heaven it would be a step down. My heaven was being with Ali."
One of his biggest opponents would later become a big fan, too. On the eve of the 35th anniversary of their "Rumble in the Jungle," Foreman paid tribute to the man who so famously stopped him in the eighth round of their 1974 heavyweight title fight, the first ever held in Africa.
"I don't call him the best boxer of all time, but he's the greatest human being I ever met," Foreman said. "To this day he's the most exciting person I ever met in my life."
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay on Jan. 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali began boxing at age 12 after his new bicycle was stolen and he vowed to policeman Joe Martin that he would "whup" the person who took it.
He was only 89 pounds at the time, but Martin began training him at his boxing gym, the beginning of a six-year amateur career that ended with the light heavyweight Olympic gold medal in 1960.
Ali had already encountered racism. On boxing trips, he and his amateur teammates would have to stay in the car while Martin bought them hamburgers. When he returned to Louisville with his gold medal, the Chamber of Commerce presented him a citation but said it didn't have time to co-sponsor a dinner.
In his autobiography, "The Greatest," Ali wrote that he tossed the medal into the Ohio River after a fight with a white motorcycle gang, which started when he and a friend were refused service at a Louisville restaurant.
The story may be apocryphal, and Ali later told friends he simply misplaced the medal. Regardless, he had made his point.
After he beat Liston to win the heavyweight title in 1964, Ali shocked the boxing world by announcing he was a member of the Black Muslims — the Nation of Islam — and was rejecting his "slave name."
As a Baptist youth he spent much of his time outside the ring reading the Bible. From now on, he would be known as Muhammad Ali and his book of choice would be the Quran.
Ali's affiliation with the Nation of Islam outraged and disturbed many White Americans, but it was his refusal to be inducted into the Army that angered them most.
That happened on April 28, 1967, a month after he knocked out Zora Folley in the seventh round at Madison Square Garden in New York for his eighth title defense.
He was convicted of draft evasion, stripped of his title and banned from boxing.
Ali appealed the conviction on grounds he was a Muslim minister. He married 17-year-old Belinda Boyd, the second of his four wives, a month after his conviction, and had four children with her. He had two more with his third wife, Veronica Porsche, and he and his fourth wife, Lonnie Williams, adopted a son.
During his banishment, Ali spoke at colleges and briefly appeared in a Broadway musical called "Big Time Buck White." Still facing a prison term, he was allowed to resume boxing three years later, and he came back to stop Jerry Quarry in three rounds on Oct. 26, 1970, in Atlanta despite efforts by Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox to block the bout.
He was still facing a possible prison sentence when he fought Frazier for the first time on March 8, 1971, in what was labeled "The Fight of the Century."
A few months later the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction on an 8-0 vote.
"I've done my celebrating already," Ali said after being informed of the decision. "I said a prayer to Allah."
Many in boxing believe Ali was never the same fighter after his lengthy layoff, even though he won the heavyweight championship two more times and fought for another decade.
Perhaps his most memorable fight was the "Rumble in the Jungle," when he upset a brooding Foreman to become heavyweight champion once again at age 32.
Many worried that Ali could be seriously hurt by the powerful Foreman, who had knocked Frazier down six times in a second round TKO.
But while his peak fighting days may have been over, he was still in fine form verbally. He promoted the fight relentlessly, as only he could.
"You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned," he said. "Wait till I whup George Foreman's behind."
Ali won over a country before he won the fight, mingling with people as he trained and displaying the kind of playful charm the rest of the world had already seen. On the plane into the former Congo he asked what the citizens of Zaire disliked most. He was told it was Belgians because they had once colonized the country.
"George Foreman is a Belgian," Ali cried out to the huge crowd that greeted him at the airport. By the time the fight finally went off in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 1974, Zaire was his.
"Ali booma-ya (Ali kill him)," many of the 60,000 fans screamed as the fight began in Kinshasa.
Ali pulled out a huge upset to win the heavyweight title for a second time, allowing Foreman to punch himself out. He used what he would later call the "rope-a-dope" strategy — something even trainer Angelo Dundee knew nothing about.
Finally, he knocked out an exhausted Foreman in the eighth round, touching off wild celebrations among his African fans.
"I told you I was the greatest," Ali said.
That might have been argued by followers of Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano or Sugar Ray Robinson, but there was no doubt that Ali was just what boxing needed in the early 1960s.
He spouted poetry and brash predictions. After the sullen and frightening Liston, he was a fresh and entertaining face in a sport that struggled for respectability.
At the weigh-in before his Feb. 25, 1964, fight with Liston, Ali carried on so much that some observers thought he was scared stiff and suggested the fight in Miami Beach be called off.
"The crowd did not dream when they lay down their money that they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny," Ali said.
Ali went on to punch Liston's face lumpy and became champion for the first time when Liston quit on his stool after the sixth round.
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," became Ali's rallying cry.
His talent for talking earned him the nickname "The Louisville Lip," but he had a new name of his own in mind: Muhammad Ali.
"I don't have to be what you want me to be," he told reporters the morning after beating Liston. "I'm free to be who I want."
Frazier refused to call Ali by his new name, insisting he was still Cassius Clay. So did Ernie Terrell in their Feb. 6, 1967, fight, a mistake he would come to regret through 15 long rounds.
"What's my name?" Ali demanded as he repeatedly punched Terrell in the face. "What's my name?"
By the time Ali was able to return to the ring following his forced layoff, he was bigger than ever. Soon he was in the ring for his first of three epic fights against Frazier, with each fighter guaranteed $2.5 million.
Before the fight, Ali called Frazier an "Uncle Tom" and said he was "too ugly to be the champ." His gamesmanship could have a cruel edge, especially when it was directed toward Frazier.
In the first fight, though, Frazier had the upper hand. He relentlessly wore Ali down, flooring him with a crushing left hook in the 15th round and winning a decision.
It was the first defeat for Ali, but the boxing world had not seen the last of him and Frazier in the ring. Ali won a second fight, and then came the "Thrilla in Manila" on Oct. 1, 1975, in the Philippines, a brutal bout that Ali said afterward was "the closest thing to dying" he had experienced.
Ali won that third fight but took a terrific beating from the relentless Frazier before trainer Eddie Futch kept Frazier from answering the bell for the 15th round.
"They told me Joe Frazier was through," Ali told Frazier at one point during the fight.
"They lied," Frazier said, before hitting Ali with a left hook.
The fight — which most in boxing agree was Ali's last great performance — was part of a 16-month period on the mid-1970s when Ali took his show on the road, fighting Foreman in Zaire, Frazier in the Philippines, Joe Bugner in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Jean Pierre Coopman in Puerto Rico.
The world got a taste of Ali in splendid form with both his fists and his mouth.
In Malaysia, a member of the commission in charge of the gloves the fighters would wear told Ali they would be held in a prison for safekeeping before the fight.
"My gloves are going to jail," shouted a wide-eyed Ali. "They ain't done nothing — yet!"
Ali would go on to lose the title to Leon Spinks, then come back to win it a third time on Sept. 15, 1978, when he scored a decision over Spinks in a rematch before 70,000 people at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Ali retired, only to come back and try to win the title for a fourth time against Larry Holmes on Oct. 2, 1980, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Ali grew a mustache, pronounced himself "Dark Gable" and got down to a svelte 217 1/2 pounds to beat Father Time. But Holmes, his former sparring partner, mercifully toyed with him until Dundee refused to let Ali answer the bell for the 11th round.
"He was like a little baby after the first round," Holmes said. "I was throwing punches and missing just for the hell of it. I kept saying, 'Ali, why are you taking this?'
"He said, 'Shut up and fight, I'm going to knock you out.'"
When the fight was over, Holmes and his wife went upstairs to pay their respects to Ali. In a darkened room, Holmes told Ali that he loved him.
"Then why did you whip my ass like that?" Ali replied.
A few years later, Ali said he would not have fought Holmes if he didn't think he could have won.
"If I had known Holmes was going to whip me and damage my brain, I would not have fought him," Ali said. "But losing to Holmes and being sick are not important in God's world."
It was that world that Ali retreated to, fighting just once more, losing a 10-round decision to Trevor Berbick in the Bahamas.
With his fourth wife, Lonnie, at his side, Ali traveled the world for Islam and other causes. In 1990, he went to Iraq on his own initiative to meet with Saddam Hussein and returned to the United States with 15 Americans who had been held hostage.
One of the hostages recounted meeting Ali in Thomas Hauser's 1990 biography "Muhammad Ali — His Life and Times."
"I've always known that Muhammad Ali was a super sportsman; but during those hours that we were together, inside that enormous body I saw an angel," hostage Harry Brill-Edwards said.
For his part, Ali didn't complain about the price he had paid in the ring.
"What I suffered physically was worth what I've accomplished in life," he said in 1984. "A man who is not courageous enough to take risks will never accomplish anything in life."
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