SuperBooker is ready to take it to the next level Newark Mayor Cory Booker Announces That He Is Running For Senator Via HuffingtonPost Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Saturday formally announced he’s in the race to finish the U.S. Senate term of the late Frank Lautenberg. The 44-year-old Democrat made his candidacy official at a news conference Saturday in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city. He was joined by former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, a former pro basketball player who for 18 years held the seat Booker is seeking. Bradley, who endorsed Booker, called him “the right person for the right office at the right time.” Booker began raising money for a Senate run even before Lautenberg, who died Monday, announced retirement plans in February. He had raised $1.9 million by the end of the last reporting period in March. Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt are also planning to enter the Democratic primary. Booker is considered the early front-runner. Pallone, 61, had $3.7 million in his campaign coffers at the end of March and has deep union support. Holt, 64, a former research physicist, had $800,000 on hand. No need to worry though, Cory has always been gangsta at gettin’ gwap. According to a Senate campaign filing made in May, Booker has brought in $1.3 million for 90 speeches he has given around the country since 2008. His campaign says he has donated the majority of that money to charities that serve Newark. Booker’s campaign has said that the networking he does ultimately helps the city. In 2010, he was seated next to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at a dinner during a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Two months later, Zuckerberg announced a $100 million donation to improve education in Newark. Would you cast a vote for Newark’s charismatic mayor?
Politicians hittin’ the pipe now too?!? Dayyyuuumm Toronto Mayor Denies Recent Drug Use Report A group of Toronto reporters are standing by their story that they’ve seen video footage of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford piff puffin’ on “white powder,” despite the Mayor’s claims that the entire story is completely false. via Chicago Tribune Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on Friday denied allegations that he smoked cr**k c*c*ine. “Absolutely not true… It’s ridiculous,” Ford told reporters gathered outside his west Toronto house, before driving off in his SUV. Reporters for the Toronto Star newspaper and Gawker Media said late Thursday they had watched a cellphone video that appears to show Ford smoking the drug. The video is allegedly being shopped around for about $100,000 by people said to be involved in the drug trade. Reuters could not independently confirm the existence of the video. Ford’s lawyer, Dennis Morris, did not immediately return Reuters’ requests for comment. The Toronto Star said it stands by its reporting and the story is just one piece of a broader investigative report about Ford it has been working on for months. “This isn’t a story that we’re going to report lightly,” said Robyn Doolittle, one of two Toronto Star reporters who said they watched the video three times. She added: “The Toronto Star has a high bar that we always make sure we meet before we run something, especially when it comes to this mayor.” A surefire way to kicked out of political office? Get your “Pookie” on while a camera is rolling. SMH. We’ll keep you posted on who is actually telling the truth… Shutterstock
Some kids just need a good old fashioned a** whooping. Two Girls Make Video Death Threats Against Classmates According to North Jersey Two seventh-grade girls from School 27 have been removed from classes and face criminal charges for posting a video on YouTube this week threatening to kill their classmates, officials said. Authorities have not made public any evidence the two students actually planned to carry out the threats. But one parent at the school, Jackie Quinones, said the girls in the video named 10 to 12 classmates they said they wanted to kill and stab. “It’s serious enough for us to have this investigated, especially because of the current climate we’re in,’’ said Mayor Jeffery Jones on Thursday afternoon, shortly after being informed of the situation by acting Police Chief William Fraher. “Let’s hope that it was just frustrations and emotions and they didn’t mean anything, but we can’t sit back and just hope.’’ Parents, too, aren’t taking any chances. Officials say parents whose daughters were on the girls’ hit list went to police headquarters on Wednesday evening to file terroristic threat charges against the two students. Quinones said some parents also have spoken to investigators with the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office at 401 Grand St. Quinones said the two girls who made the threats had not been in any previous disputes with their classmates. “No bullying, no fights, nothing,’’ said Quinones. “I don’t understand it.’’ Quinones said her daughter told her the situation started on Tuesday afternoon during a classroom journal writing exercise. One of the girls wrote in her journal the names of students – mostly other girls – she wanted to kill, said Quinones. At the end of the class, the girl read her journal entry to classmates, but not within earshot of the teacher, said Quinones. “My daughter said to her, ‘You want to kill me?’” said Quinones. “She said, ‘Yes, I want to kill you.’” Quinones said her 12-year-old daughter, whose name she asked not be published, then went to the bathroom to hide. “My daughter called me from the bathroom,’’ said Quinones. “She was so scared she was crying.” Quinones said she was working in Newark at the time but rushed back to Paterson and went right to the school principal’s office. She met with Graciella Ayala, who she said is the principal. Ayala told her the student who made the threats was being removed from the school and would not be allowed to return until she had been evaluated by a doctor, Quinones said. But the next day, Quinones said her daughter called again from the school to let her know that the girl who had made the threats was back in the building, but in a different classroom. Quinones said she returned to the principal’s office and was told the girl had gotten medical clearance. By Wednesday afternoon, another student in the class had found the threatening video on YouTube, Quinones said. The video showed the girl involved in Tuesday’s threats again saying she wanted to kill certain classmates, naming about a dozen of them, Quinones said. A second girl participated in the video, speaking off-camera about classmates to target, said Quinones. The video was 21-minutes long and remained posted on YouTube until about 1:30 am on Thursday, Quinones said. School district spokeswoman Terry Corallo issued a statement saying educators learned of the “disturbing video” on Wednesday. “As the safety of our students and staff is our utmost concern, we immediately took action and removed these students from the school environment,’’ said Corallo’s statement. “We have been communicating with the parents who had children in the same class as these two students. We have assured these parents that we have taken this issue very seriously and are taking the necessary steps to address this issue.’’ Corallo would not clarify whether the students have been suspended. “Additionally, the video has been pulled from YouTube,’’ Corallo said. “This is now a police investigation and they will have our full cooperation.” Capt. Heriberto Rodriguez, head of the Paterson Police Department’s detective bureau, declined to answer questions about the case. “It’s under investigation,’’ Rodriguez said. Have we become a culture obsessed with violence? Google Maps
Trick Daddy and Lil Wayne are far from friends. Reportedly, Da Mayor of Dade County rolled up to the King Of Diamonds strip club while Weezy was hosting a party to check the rapper over the comments he said about the city of Miami during his infamous anti-Miami Heat rant… Continue
Melissa Joan Hart’s post-baby weight loss can be attributed to Nutrisystem, she says … and she happens to be the newest spokesperson for the company. “I love working with Nutrisystem,” Hart tells ET Online. “The weight loss program is really delivering results for me and I look forward to long term success, staying motivated and helping others do the same.” The actress welcomed her third child, son Tucker, in 2012 with husband Mark Wilkerson. Since then, the mom to sons Mason, 7, and Brady, 5, has lost 20 pounds. “She mirrors our values and will resonate with our customers as authentic,” Nutrisystem said in a statement of the 36-year-old Melissa & Joey actress. “Moving forward, you’ll see us have an appropriate mix of inspiring celebrities and real life customers alike who have also enjoyed terrific success.” Shortly after welcoming baby Tucker, Hart said she’s done her best to be active: “I know a lot of people with newborn babies that stay at home with the baby.” “Maybe I’m a little selfish but I’m like, ‘I want to watch my son at hockey,’ so I bundle up the baby and bring him in a car seat and bring him with me.” “I go through the extra effort to be with the older ones too!”
For the first time since Shain Gandee died early yesterday morning, authorities have spoken out on the accident that took the life of this 21-year old and two others. “Foul play has been ruled out,” Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper of West Virginia told People, while an autopsy has confirmed yesterday’s hypothesis: All three victims died from c arbon monoxide poisoning. As previously reported: Ganee was last seen around 3 a.m. on Sunday, telling people he was going four-wheeling with his uncle David. The bodies of Shain, David and an unidentified woman were found in a Ford Bronco yesterday, submerged up to its windows in mud. In response, Shain’s cousin is organizing a mud run tomorrow to raise funeral funds . And the mayor of Charleston, West Virginia has called on MTV to cancel Buckwild . Wrote Gandee’s cousin, Ashley Gandee Lewis, on Facebook: “The family feels that Shain died peacefully in his sleep without pain or suffering.”
I’ve never been a huge fan of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset and Before Sunrise for exactly the reason that so many people adore it: the self-absorbed dialogue and debates about life and love that take place between Jesse ( Ethan Hawke ) and Céline ( Julie Delpy ) are so authentic that I’d much prefer to engage in them myself rather than watch two actors do it for me. (I do self-absorption magnificently, if I do say so myself.) But if you are entertained by two actors bickering about their on-screen relationship, you’d have a hard time doing better than Hawke and Delpy in this trailer for Before Midnight . In the latest installment of their 18-year romance, Céline complains that she’s “stuck with an American teenager” and Jesse calls her the “Mayor of Crazy Town.” And yet, all these years later, they’re still together and have two daughters in tow as they vacation in romantic, seductive Greece. I missed the movie at Sundance — so why do I feel like I know how this story ends? The Mayor of Crazy Town Vs. The American Teenager Check out the trailer here: Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The thickummms in Mississippi said ‘miss us with that slimmy trimmy bs’ and have passed a bill to keep restaurants from forcing them to be more healthy. Via NYDailyNews reports : Lawmakers in Mississippi — the most obese state in the nation — have overwhelmingly approved what they’re calling the “anti-Bloomberg bill.” It would ban communities from requiring restaurants to post calorie counts on menus or limit portion sizes, as Mayor Bloomberg tried to do with his proposed ban on large sodas. Also forbidden: any local rule banning toys from being distributed with kids’ meals. The governor is expected to sign it. Its author, state Sen. Tony Smith, owner of the Stonewall’s BBQ chain, which serves dishes like the Lil’ Piggy, said government has no business telling people what they cannot eat. “If we give government a little more control of our personal rights – where does it stop?” he said. Smith told the Daily News that Bloomberg‘s proposed ban on large sugary sodas in New York helped give impetus to his legislation. He said Bloomberg’s rule – which was written to attack obesity – doesn’t make sense. If customers “want to supersize, they’re going to figure out how to do it, whether that means buying two or whatever,” said Smith, whose restaurants only service sodas 20-ounces at a time, a serving size that Bloomberg‘s ban would outlaw. Smith‘s bill – which says nutritional requirements should only be decided at the state level – sailed through the Mississippi legislature with broad bipartisan support, overwhelming the arguments of a small group of opponents who said that local governments should be allowed to make their own rules. Smith said Mississippians trust the market to respond to demands for healthy food. “For a lady, if all you can buy are black shoes, well, that doesn’t go with every dress you may have,” he said. “Hey, if you want to buy baked fish, fine, I love it. But if I want fried fish, that’s my right.” SMH. Leave it to Mississippi — the state where ignorance is always bliss. Don’t get us wrong though — we agree that people have a right to be just as fat as they wanna be. Shutterstock
Kwame Kilpatrick Found Gulity On 22Charges Including Corruption And Fraud Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has finally had his day in court following a 5-month trial in connection with a laundry list of corruption allegations that began surfacing back in 2008. via NY Times Kwame M. Kilpatrick, a former mayor of Detroit, was found guilty on Monday of a range of charges, including corruption and fraud, at the completion of a five-month trial. Jurors reached consensus on 40 of the 45 charges leveled against Mr. Kilpatrick and his co-defendants, the judge in the trial said. The verdicts brought to a close a trial in which prosecutors laid out a complex case against Mr. Kilpatrick and his co-defendants — including his father, Bernard, and a city contractor, Bobby W. Ferguson — arguing that they had used the mayor’s office to enrich themselves for years through shakedowns, kickbacks and bid-rigging schemes. The jury found Mr. Kilpatrick guilty of some 22 of the 30 charges against him, including the most serious charges, that of racketeering and extortion, which each have a maximum sentence of 20 years. In 2008, Mr. Kilpatrick resigned after text messages were unearthed by The Detroit Free Press that exposed an affair with his chief of staff. The romantic revelation led him to plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges for lying about the relationship under oath in an unrelated lawsuit against the city. But the corruption charges against Mr. Kilpatrick, filed in 2010, had been by far the most serious of his troubles. Prosecutors accused him and his close associates — a group referred to in the indictment as the Kilpatrick Enterprise — of extortion and illegally steering municipal contracts to Mr. Ferguson worth $84 million. After the verdicts were read, Mr. Kilpatrick shook his head, muttered and looked at his lawyer. Mr. Kilpatrick, whose wife and three children live in the Dallas area, could face up to 20 years in prison.
Long live the super-sized soda….. Judge Blocks NYC Super-Sized Soda Ban If you were one of the hundreds of people acting like your air supply was being threatened in the wake of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to ban to the distribution of drinks over 16 oz in all major restaurant and food establishments, you’re in luck. via CBS News Smaller sodas were set to hit New York City eateries tomorrow until a judge stepped in at the eleventh hour to strike down the new regulations. New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling ruled Monday that the city may not enforce the new regulation, CBS New York reported Monday afternoon. The ban, which was set to take place Tuesday, applied to sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces sold at restaurants, fast food establishments, delis, sports venues and movie theaters. The limits do not apply to milk-based and alcoholic beverages sold at these eateries. Also exempt are sugar-sweetened drinks sold at grocery stories and convenience stores. Tingling said loopholes in the regulations defeated the limit’s stated purpose. “It is arbitrary and capricious because it applies to some but not all food establishments in the City, it excludes other beverages that have significantly higher concentrations of sugar sweeteners and/or calories on suspect grounds, the loopholes inherent in the Rule, including but not limited to limitations on re-fills, defeat and/or serve to gut the purpose of the Rule,” Tingling wrote in his ruling. So Bossip fam, whose side are you on in this debate? If the mayor of your city was able to get this type of soda ban into effect, would you hate it or love it ?
