The butler did it. Despite a clutch of new films in theaters this weekend, Lee Daniels’ The Butler topped them all, serving up $25 million, according to studio estimates. The victory came as a surprise to some analysts, who expected summer’s latest superhero flick, Kick-Ass 2, to whip the competition. But Butler trounced the newcomers among critics, and connected solidly with fans. About 73% of reviewers recommended the movie, while it scored an 81% approval rating among moviegoers, says survey site Rottentomatoes.com. The movie earned an “A” among audiences, says pollsters CinemaScore.
The Forest Whitaker drama also benefited from canny timing, says Box Office Mojo’s Ray Subers, who notes that similar August dramas including Julie & Julia, Eat Pray Love and The Help all enjoyed August debuts above $20 million. “One of The Butler‘s biggest advantages is its very strong release date,” Subers says. “After a few months of big-budget, male-skewing blockbuster fare, female-skewing adult dramas have consistently done good business” at summer’s close.
Posts published in “U.S.”
Pro wrestler Darren Young is also known as “Mr. No Days Off” to his fans. Young announced he was gay to a TMZ photographer Thursday morning in Los Angeles and he was in New York Friday morning to joinTODAY’s Matt Lauer for an exclusive interview — living up to his nickname. Young, whose real name is Fred Rosser, told Lauer it just felt like the “right place and right time,” to comment on his sexuality.
“I’ve been suppressed in these feelings for so long in my life,” said Young, 29. “I just need to be happy. To the day I’m six feet under, I will always say ‘I want to be happy.’ And I’m happy now.” Young wrestles for World Wrestling Entertainment and has received support and praise from his colleagues and company. The WWE released a statement midday Thursday congratulating Young on his announcement:
“WWE is proud of Darren Young for being open about his sexuality, and we will continue to support him as a WWE Superstar.”
As comfortable as Young appeared in the candid interview, he told Lauer Friday he had been living in fear he would be “outed” by someone in the wrestling world before he was ready. “I was terrified,” Young admitted. “And I think anybody in my shoes would feel the same way. But, you know it took some guts.” Young revealed to Lauer he spoke with NBA veteran and current free agent Jason Collins Thursday night. Collins, who announced he was gay earlier this year in an article for Sports Illustrated, served as an inspiration to Young and even gave him advice on how to handle increased public attention.
Young said he expects a mixed reaction from the crowd the next time he steps in the ring but is more concerned with his role moving forward. “At the end of the day, I want to be able to be a role model,” Young said. “I want to be a role model to people that are afraid to come out. I want to be there. I want to be able to speak at different functions and educate and tell my story.” One of WWE’s premiere pay-per-events, SummerSlam, is Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
article by Todd Johnson via thegrio.com
According to Time.com, today is International Left-Handers Day. So in honor of this occasion, Good Black News is celebrating a few of the famous African-American southpaws who have made their mark on the world (so to speak):
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
In the past hundred years, the U.S. presidency has veered more and more to the left — not in policy, but in handedness. Barack Obama is the latest to join a long list of left-handed presidents from the 20th century: James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were all southpaws.
What makes lefties so electable? Some experts think left-handed people have a greater aptitude for language skills, which may help them craft the rhetoric necessary for political office. And as for the bout of recent left-handed presidents, some think it’s because teachers only recently stopped working to convert lefties to righties at an early age.
OPRAH WINFREY
The talk-show maven doesn’t need much more to set her apart from the rest — with her estimated $2.7 billion fortune and ever-expanding media empire — but she also has the distinction of being a member of the left-handed club. Since men are more likely to be left-handed than women, that makes Oprah doubly impressive. She’s in good company: Other show business titans of the southpaw persuasion include Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie (FYI, Brad Pitt is also a lefty).
JIMI HENDRIX
Jimi Hendrix learned to play in Nashville blues clubs before touring as a back-up musician for the Isley Brothers and Little Richard. He broke out on his own in 1966, but his career was cut short by a drug overdose in August 1970. Hendrix’s use of distortion and wah-wah effects warped and extended notes in ways no other player could quite achieve; for years,
right-handed guitarists have tried to emulate his sound, going so far as to put left-handed necks on their own guitars. There was one technique not impacted by Hendrix’s lefthandedness: setting his guitar on fire. For that, he used both hands.
This Academy-Award winning actress and current “The View” co-host is as eclectic as they come, so it’s no wonder she is also a leftie. From her dazzling debut on Broadway in the 1980s with her one-woman show, to directing a documentary on comedic pioneer Moms Mabley to her upcoming turn as the matriarch in Lifetime’s adaptation of the Terry McMillan novel “A Day Late and A Dollar Short”, Goldberg always keeps it fresh and interesting, as lefties often do.BABYFACE
Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds not only has the distinction of looking much younger than his years, but this multi-platinum award-winning producer, composer (“I’ll Make Love To You”, “Take A Bow”, “Change The World”, “When Will I See You Again”) and musician, like Hendrix, also belongs to the small group of successful and talented left-handed guitarists. Martin, one of the world’s premiere guitar makers, designed a special model named after Babyface in 2000 and in honor of him, made both left and right-handed versions.article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (full disclosure; also a proud leftie)
Cory Booker moved a step closer to becoming New Jersey’s first African-American U.S. senator Tuesday when voters gave the Newark mayor a wide victory in the Democratic primary. Booker will face Republican Steve Lonegan, former mayor of Bogota, N.J., in a special election October 16. Turnout was low for the special election, which was necessitated by the death of Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg in June at age 89.
Booker leveraged his national name into prodigious fundraising: with the help of friends like Oprah Winfrey and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, he brought in more than $8.6 million, well ahead of his rivals. Booker defeated two members of the state’s congressional delegation, Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt, as well as Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver. “This is our victory – thank you. Please continue to run with me,” Booker tweeted to his 1.4 million Twitter followers shortly after he was declared the winner.
Booker argued that his high profile would allow him to be more effective in Washington. “I find ways to break through the noise of the country and more effectively advocate and get things done,” he told the Asbury Park Press last month. In his victory speech in Secaucus Tuesday night, Lonegan said Booker was “anointed by Hollywood” and the candidate of “Silicon Valley moguls” who want to make him California’s third U.S. senator, the Associated press reported.
Booker, 44, was the front-runner from the moment he indicated in December that he wanted to run — even before Lautenberg had declared whether he intended to run for re-election. Lautenberg ultimately said he would not run, then died in June, setting up the special election. Booker’s choice to run for Senate disappointed Democrats who hoped he would take on popular Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who is up for re-election in November.
article by Martha T. Moore via usatoday.com
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A state panel has proposed striking segregationist language from Alabama’s 1901 constitution that mandates separate schools for “white and colored children.” The Anniston Star reports the Alabama Constitutional Review Commission voted 9-7 Monday (http://bit.ly/165Hc57) to propose that Section 256 of the document instead say the state will maintain a system of public schools and to drop references to segregation.
The passage hasn’t had legal authority since the civil rights movement. Some state leaders say they’d like to strike the passage because it’s an embarrassment to Alabama. Commissioner Carolyn McKinstry told the newspaper it’s disappointing more people didn’t agree on the topic. Two prior attempts at striking the passage have failed. In 2004, opponents said dropping the language could allow courts to demand equal funding for the state’s school districts.
article by Associated Press via huffingtonpost.com
Darius Rucker has hit the top of the charts both the leader of Hootie and the Blowfish and as a solo country artist. And now, a street in his hometown bears his name. The pavement leading to the North Charleston Coliseum in South Carolina where Hootie and the Blowfish played in the 1990s shortly after it opened was renamed Darius Rucker Boulevard on Monday, reports the Associated Press.
Rucker grew up in the Charleston area and was on hand for the ceremony along with North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey. Rucker says he may return to the coliseum this fall to play a country set. But first he plays with Hootie and the Blowfish next week at the Family Circle Stadium on Daniel Island.
article via eurweb.com
SAN FRANCISCO — Federal prosecutors will no longer seek long, “mandatory minimum” sentences for many low-level, nonviolent drug offenders, under a major shift in policy aimed at turning around decades of explosive growth in the federal prison population, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. announced today. The nation’s top law enforcement official called for a “fundamentally new approach” to enforcing drug laws in order to help alleviate prison overcrowding and reduce race-based disparities in drug prosecutions.
“It’s clear – as we come together today – that too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason. It’s clear, at a basic level, that 20th-century criminal justice solutions are not adequate to overcome our 21st-century challenges,” Holder told the annual meeting of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates in San Francisco. “And it is well past time to implement common sense changes that will foster safer communities from coast to coast.”
The new policy involves the prosecution of low-level, non-violent drug offenders who have no ties to gangs, cartels or other large-scale organizations. They will be charged with offenses that — like those for most crimes — specify a range of months or years, allowing judges to decide sentence length. Holder has long argued that mandatory minimums are contributing to the fact that the number of inmates in federal prisons has increased by 800 percent since 1980, far faster than the growth of the U.S. population.
The new policy involves the prosecution of low-level, non-violent drug offenders who have no ties to gangs, cartels or other large-scale organizations. They will be charged with offenses that — like those for most crimes — specify a range of months or years, allowing judges to decide sentence length. Holder has long argued that mandatory minimums are contributing to the fact that the number of inmates in federal prisons has increased by 800 percent since 1980, far faster than the growth of the U.S. population.
Mellody Hobson, 44, and George Lucas, 69, have welcomed their first child together into the world, according to reports. Their daughter, Everest Hobson Lucas, was born on Friday, August 9, various sources say, and was reportedly carried via a surrogate. Hobson and Lucas recently married in late June at Lucas’ Skywalker ranch in Marin County, Calif. Hobson, the president of the financial management firm Ariel Investments, had been dating Lucas, one of the most successful producers and directors in Hollywood history, for several years before their nuptials. This is Hobson’s first marriage, and a second for Lucas.
Hobson, an on-air personality who offers financial advice for CBS, is also the chairperson of Dreamworks animation. Lucas, creator of the Star Wars film franchise, previously made headlines through selling his production company Lucasfilms Ltd. to the Walt Disney company for $4.05 billion in October 2012. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Hobson credited her strong bond with Lucas to their both being, “extraordinarily open-minded people” who “are open to what the universe brings us.”
Keeping an open mind allowed each partner to perceive the value in the other. “We didn’t have preconceived ideas about what a partner should be, and so we allowed ourselves to discover something that was unexpected,” Hobson said.
Everest is Hobson’s first child. Lucas also has three adopted children who are now adults.
article by Alexis Garrett Stodghill via thegrio.com
In a repudiation of a major element in the Bloomberg administration’s crime-fighting legacy, a federal judge has found that the stop-and-frisk tactics of the New York Police Department violated the constitutional rights of minorities in New York, and called for a federal monitor to oversee broad reforms. In a blistering decision issued on Monday, the judge, Shira A. Scheindlin, found that the Police Department had “adopted a policy of indirect racial profiling” that targeted young minority men for stops. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the city would appeal the ruling, angrily accusing the judge of deliberately not giving the city “a fair trial.”
The mayor cited the benefits of stop-and-frisk, crediting the tactic for making the city safer and for ridding the streets of thousands of illegal guns. But in her ruling, Judge Scheindlin found that in doing so, the police systematically stopped innocent people in the street without any objective reason to suspect them of wrongdoing. The stops, which soared in number over the last decade as crime continued to decline, demonstrated a widespread disregard for the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government, as well as the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, according to the 195-page decision.
Judge Scheindlin’s criticism extended beyond the conduct of police officers; in holding the city liable for a battery of constitutional violations, the judge found that top police officials acted with deliberate indifference. She said that police commanders were content to dismiss allegations of racial profiling as “a myth created by the media.” Citing statements by the mayor and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, Judge Scheindlin accused the city of using stop-and-frisk as a checkpoint-style policing tactic, with the intent of deterring minorities from carrying guns on the street.
“I also conclude that the city’s highest officials have turned a blind eye to the evidence that officers are conducting stops in a racially discriminatory manner,” she wrote. The judge designated an outside lawyer, Peter L. Zimroth, to monitor the Police Department’s compliance with the Constitution.
Judge Scheindlin also ordered a number of other remedies, including a pilot program in which officers in at least five precincts across the city will wear body-worn cameras in an effort to record street encounters. She also ordered a “joint remedial process” — in essence, a series of community meetings — to solicit public input on how to reform stop-and-frisk.
Can a company pay its workers well and also make money? Many aren’t quite hitting the right balance. Hundreds of dissatisfied workers at major American companies like Wal-Mart (WMT), McDonald’s (MCD) and Wendy’s (WEN) have joined protests nationwide in the past year demanding higher wages and better benefits. One company that hasn’t had to deal with such strikes is Costco (COST).
The no-frills warehouse chain pays its hourly workers an average of just over $20 an hour, compared to just under $13 at competitor Wal-Mart. Even President Obama praised Costco in a recent speech about helping the middle class. The recession has been good for companies that targeted budget-minded customers. Sales at Costco have grown an average of 13% annually since 2009, while profits have risen 15%. Its stock price has more than doubled since 2009.
During the same period, discount retailer Wal-Mart’s sales grew an average of 4.5% each year, profits rose 7%, and its stock price increased 70%. Costco seems to be investing some of those profits back into its employees. Cesar Martinez, a 37-year-old fork lift operator, has worked at a Costco in North Carolina for 19 years. He makes $22.82 an hour, gets health benefits and a pension plan. He manages to save, and doesn’t worry about hospital bills for his daughter, who suffers from asthma.