April 1st marks the 24th anniversary of the tragic death of lyrical genius and master performer, Marvin Pentz Gaye, Jr. He would have turned 69 years old on April 2nd.
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(The LA Times) A Los Angeles Times story about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur was partially based on documents that appear to have been fabricated, the reporter and editor responsible for the story said Wednesday.

Reporter Chuck Philips and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, issued statements of apology Wednesday afternoon.
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(contactmusic) Israel 'Cachao' Lopez, the Cuban musician credited with inventing the mambo, died on Saturday in Florida at the age of 89.

His spokesman Nelson Albareda said the Grammy-winner passed away surrounded by his family at Coral Gables hospital in Miami having been taken ill in the past week.
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Brooklyn born comedian, Rasheed Thurmond, died at his Queens home on Nov. 27, leaving behind three young daughters, a family and an unfinished career.
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Poet and lyrical genius, Sekou Sundiata, died today. He leaves behind a legacy of music, poetry and genius that will be missed.
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(folio) When Italian Vogue announced that its July issue would feature all black models, it caused a relatively major stir in the fashion world. Now that the issue has arrived in the U. S. , it seems to be causing a major publishing stir, too. Historically, the conventional wisdom?and circulation and newsstand wisdom?in consumer publishing has been that putting an African American (model or celebrity) on the cover of a fashion magazine means that it ?just won?t sell? well.  More...

The bad, embarrassing news does not seem to end for Reverend Jesse Jackson. An on-line news outlet reports receiving a “tipâ€� that Jesse did use the term “niggerâ€� in his on-mic chatter before going live at a July 6th Fox News appearance. According to the online outlet TV Newser, a “tipâ€� came in along with the transcript, and Fox News confirmed the tip. Here is what TV Newser reports Jesse saying: “Barack. .  More...

(lat) The Los Angeles Times list 10 controversial magazine covers that shook the world. . . . .  More...

(chicagodefender) Media watchdogs are declaring it a victory. Black Entertainment Television hasn't said much, and advertisers are mum. What is clear, though, is that at least two top advertisers–-automaking giant General Motors and consumer goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble–-have pulled ads from BET's Rap City and 106 & Park programs. Rap City features music videos and artist interviews, and 106 & Park is a top 10 music video countdown. They air at 4 and 5 p.  More...

(thrfeed) Given Barack Obama's historic run for the Oval Office, African American-themed cable network TV One plans to break from its usual entertainment programming to provide extensive coverage of the Democratic National Convention in August. Sen. Barack Obama running for president is a huge deal for TV One as it is for the African American community," said Johnathan Rodgers, president and CEO of TV One, a channel in about 40 million homes. "African Americans have fallen in love with his candidacy, his family … we will be covering the democratic convention all the time. " But John McCain shouldn’t expect the same treatment.  More...

(ap)Don Imus has once again injected race into his radio show. During an on-air conversation Monday about the arrests of suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones, Imus asked, "What color is he?" Told by sports announcer Warner Wolf that Jones is "African-American," Imus responded: "There you go. Now we know. " Civil rights leader Al Sharpton issued a statement calling the exchange disturbing "because it plays into stereotypes. " He says his National Action Network was still deciding how to respond.  More...

(nyt) People who think of “Soul Trainâ€� as an artifact from 1970s television may be surprised to learn that the 38-year-old song-and-dance show was never canceled. Although no new episodes are produced, it lives on in reruns that showcase the taste-making music, hairstyles and fashions of decades past. Now a production company, MadVision Entertainment, has bought the “Soul Trainâ€� franchise from its founder, Don Cornelius, and plans to breathe new life into it. The plan is to open up the show’s archives for older consumers as well as to create a new version of the program for younger ones. “The series has never been shown on DVD, and it’s not been utilized on video-on-demand or mobile or Internet platforms,â€� Peter Griffith, a co-founder of MadVision, said.  More...

Nominated in 13 categories, “In the Heights,â€� a Broadway play of Dominican life in NYC wins four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. View source for more information. Bravo! . . .  More...

(nydn) Shock jock Wendy Williams' husband plotted to kill a Hot 97 rival deejay for bad-mouthing his wife on the air, an explosive federal lawsuit charges. Kevin Hunter, who is married to Williams, sought out a male WBLS employee for help in finding a hit man to rub out Hot97 personality Tarsha Jones, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday. Hunter "was apparently angry over some comments that Miss Jones made about his wife on the air," the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court claims. Williams' lawyer did not return calls for comment. The blistering allegations are included in a federal sexual-harassment lawsuit filed by Nicole Spence, a 29-year-old talent booker for "The Wendy Williams Experience" on WBLS.  More...

A new Broadway production providing a snapshot about Latino families in New York's Dominican enclave Washington Heights topped the Tony Award nominations with 13, including two for Puerto Rican Lin-Manuel Miranda, the musical's 28-year old composer and star. "In the Heights" has gotten very good reviews for its cast, dancing and for its tale of hope and self-discovery. The show is rap, hip-hop and salsa flavored. The winners will be announced at the 62nd annual Tony awards ceremony on June 15 at Radio City Music Hall, which will be hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. The musical began last year off-Broadway before moving to the big time.  More...

(wapo) LOS ANGELES Amid all the national debate over immigration, at least one firm consensus has emerged: Newcomers to the United States should learn English because it remains the lingua franca of our civic life. All three remaining presidential contenders say that the ability to speak English should be a requirement of U. S. citizenship. And last year, the immigrant governor of California told a convention of Latino journalists that immigrants should watch only English-language TV so they can understand the language and news of their home state.  More...

(tvnewser) ABC News will open several mini-bureaus in September 2008 in an effort to expand their news-gathering resources while training future journalists. The "ABC News On Campus" program will open bureaus within the journalism departments at several top American universities allowing students to participate directly in ABC News programming. Campuses participating in the program include Syracuse University, the University of Florida and Arizona State University. ABC News on Campus will be unlike one of the education initiatives in which NBC News is involved: the partnership with the New York Film Academy in that students will work as staffers in each of the bureaus, contributing story ideas and using equipment provided by ABC. ABC News President David Westin said this morning in an internal email, "This is a great opportunity for these students to learn about the news industry and for us at ABC News to help nurture these bright young journalists.  More...

BBN's very own Sharon Toomer was quoted in this update article on the annual Spring Break event Freaknik which ended in 1999 after a 16 year run. (By Ernie Suggs, AJC)…. . It was a heck of a run. From 1983 until 1999, Freaknik — the college picnic that morphed into a sprawling street party — tormented, titillated and drove Atlanta to the brink.  More...

(ap/msn)A Hispanic woman who won the Miss California USA contest only to have her crown yanked days later sued the pageant Thursday for half a million dollars, alleging rigging and racial bias. The pageant director rejected the claims, saying winners during his tenure have been some of the pageant's most racially diverse ever. Christina Silva, 24, was crowned Miss California USA on Nov. 25. Three days later, the pageant's executive director, Keith Lewis, told her "there has been a mistake and you are not the winner," according to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court.  More...

(ap) Wayne "Frosty Freeze" Frost, a hip-hop pioneer whose acrobatic performance with the legendary Rock Steady Crew in the 1983 movie "Flashdance" helped set off a worldwide breakdancing craze, has died. He was 44. Frost died Thursday at Mount Sinai Medical Center after a long illness, said Jorge "Fabel" Pabon, a senior vice president of the crew where Frost and other so-called b-boys (for beat or break boys) made their name performing complicated and daring dance routines. "He was one of most charismatic b-boys that ever lived," said Benson Lee, director of the new documentary film "Planet B-Boy. " Breakdancing emerged from the Bronx and Harlem in the early 1970s, part of the hip-hop culture that also included graffiti, MCing or rapping, and disc jockeys scratching and mixing vinyl records on turntables.  More...

(btn) "Fences," the first play in August Wilson's 10-play cycle, will be revived in the fall in a Broadway production to be directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks ("Topdog/Underdog"). Carole Shorenstein Hays, the San Francisco-based producer who presented the original production of"Fences" is behind the revival. Set in the 1950s, "Fences" tells the story of Troy Maxon, once a famous baseball player in the Negro Leagues and now a proud garbage collector, father and husband. When his youngest son is offered a football scholarship, Troy must reconcile his anger at past racial inequities with wanting the best for his family's future. James Earl Jones won a Best Actor Tony as Troy in the original production, which also starred Mary Alice, Courtney B.  More...

(nydn) Oprah Winfrey is giving away millions on her new hit, "Oprah's Big Give. " But the talk queen refuses to share a dime with a Boston mom who claims she gave Winfrey the idea for the show. Darlene Tracy, a mother of four with no experience in TV producing, claims that, way back in February 2005, she hatched the concept for a reality show called "The Philanthropist," in which contestants are challenged to help the needy. Tracy claims she sent her pitch to Ellen Rakieten, executive producer of Winfrey's talk show, and that Rakieten and another producer, Jennifer Thornton, wrote back to ask for more details. Tracy contends she shipped off a fine-tuned business proposal on March 1, 2005.  More...

(eurweb) Los Angeles Times writer Chuck Philips, whose article last weekend suggested that Sean "Diddy" Combs and the Notorious B. I. G. had prior knowledge of the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur, stands firmly behind his allegations despite a statement from Diddy claiming the report is untrue. During a live chat Tuesday (March 18) on LATimes.  More...

(nydn special) The fashion shows in Bryant Park were a glorious explosion of color - unless you were looking at the models. A campaign to promote diversity on the runways during New York's Fashion Week appears to have failed miserably. In one of the globe's most multicultural cities, the talent in the tents last week was as white as a Vera Wang wedding gown. A survey by the Daily News revealed that out of 1,584 model slots, 94 went to black mannequins - a paltry 6%. Latinas accounted for only 17 slots, about 1%, and Asians for 95, or 6%.  More...

(nationalgeographic) For 75 years Nubian kings ruled over ancient Egypt, reunifying the country and building an empire. Until recently, theirs was a chapter of history lost in the shadows. (BBN Strongly Recommends this article). . .  More...

(wapo) On the day she is to become a woman, Monica Reyes sits in front of the church for Mass. Her white dress -- sewn in her mother's Mexican home town -- spills over her chair like an oversized lampshade. The priest urges her to live as a daughter of God. Her parents give her a gold ring shaped like the number 15. Near the end of the service, Monica lays a bouquet of roses before a statue of the Virgin Mary.  More...

(BBN Recommends). . . (FDR Library). .  More...

(nabj) The National Association of Black Journalists mourns the passing of its eighth national president Thomas Morgan III. Morgan, who served as NABJ’s leader from 1989 until 1991, died Monday in Southampton, Mass. while visiting family for the holidays. He was 56. Friends say that Morgan, a Brooklyn resident, suffered a heart attack on Sunday night.  More...

Time Magazine announced its ‘Person of the Year, ’ Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Criteria for Time’s Person of the Year: “TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse.  More...

Ike Turner, music legend and former husband of Tina Turner, died on Wednesday at his home in San Diego, CA. He was 76. . . .  More...

(lat) Evel Knievel, the flamboyant motorcycle stuntman whose thrilling triumphs and spectacular failures enshrined him as America's consummate daredevil, died Friday in Clearwater, Fla. He was 69. Knievel, who survived at least 38 broken bones, multiple concussions and countless abrasions acquired in daring jumps that ended in unplanned crashes, had been in failing health for years, including suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs. Longtime friend and promoter Billy Rundle told the Associated Press on Friday that Knievel had difficulty breathing at his Clearwater condominium and died before an ambulance could get him to a hospital. "It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it," said Rundle.  More...

Writer/Blogger Brian Palmer shares his take on the writers strike and why he can't get worked up over it. "People and principle are important, but I see this strike as an opportunity to examine the mass-entertainment engine at the center of our culture and the mediocre and often shoddy merchandise it spits out, particularly as far as people of color are concerned. From where I sit, people of color are still marginal or marginalized in both the TV and motion picture mainstream. I’m not talking only about numbers of colored faces on the screen - a Shrekicized America Ferrera or a Vanessa Williams on Ugly Betty, a Blair Underwood on Dirty Sexy Money. I’m talking substance.  More...

(AP) Donda West, mother of Kanye West and former chairwoman of Chicago State University's English department, has died, a spokesman for the rapper said. She was 58. Donda West died Saturday night in Los Angeles, said the spokesman, who asked for anonymity because not all family members had been notified. "The family respectfully asks for privacy during this time of grief," the spokesman said. A cause of death has not been released.  More...

(AP) The National Civil Rights Museum, built around the motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, is drawing criticism that its governing board is too white and too closely tied to big business to watch over such an important piece of black history. “The board should more nearly approximate the soldiers of the civil rights movement that it celebrates, and they were overwhelmingly African-American,â€� said D’Army Bailey, a black Tennessee judge who played a major role in the museum’s founding but resigned from the board in 1991 when it refused to make him chairman. The museum opened 16 years ago at the old Lorraine Motel and is run by a foundation under a lease from the state.  More...

(bbc) Actress Halle Berry has apologised for making a joke about the appearance of Jewish people which she conceded could have been "offensive". She said during US chat show Tonight with Jay Leno that a distorted photo of herself with a huge nose made her look like her "Jewish cousin". "I so didn't mean to offend anybody," the star told the New York Post. Pressed by BBC News on the subject on Wednesday, she replied: "I already said everything I need to say on that. " After the Oscar-winning star made the comment during the chatshow recording, host Leno said: "I'm glad you said it.  More...

These are not the best of times for Latinos. It's not only Alberto Gonzales, dropout rates and rampant racism against Hispanics. It is also that not even the Latino soldiers who died for this country - their country - during World War II are recognized and given their place in the history of the nation without a fight. It could not have been easy for famous documentarian Ken Burns to create "The War," his new seven-part epic about World War II, while completely ignoring the contributions of about half a million Latinos. Give him credit, though; somehow he managed to do it.  More...

(AP/MyM) Call it a guilt trip or a cultural awakening, but some Latino filmmakers feel that the controversy over Ken Burns' upcoming World War II documentary has unexpectedly opened doors for their work at PBS. The maker of Brown Is the New Green: George Lopez and the American Dream, which airs Sept. 12, said he believed PBS was anxious to air his film before Burns' because "they had egg on their face. " The Lopez film is one of five Latino projects that PBS is airing in the weeks before the start of Burns' The War on Sept. 23.  More...