This story is a little too in depth to sum up in Bria’s Own Words. I will add some of my words…but I’m totally exhausted. *sigh* I read about this idiot 1st at Wayne’s blog, Electronic Village, and then on Eurweb.com .

Send an email to HRC (Human Rights Campaign-committee dedicated to fighting for equality in GLBT communities) I did:

hrc@hrc.org

Stupid and Ridiculous can only be used a certain amount of times…

READ ON:

ACTIVISTS PROTEST AGAINST BLACKFACE CHARACTER: Web site launched to ban “Shirley Q. Liquor”; Bev Smith’s radio show in the fight.

*Several activists are coming out in force to express outrage with Charles Knipp, a 45-year-old, gay, drag comedian best known for performing in blackface as his alter ego character, Shirley Q. Liquor – nicknamed “the Queen of Ignunce.”

Charles Knipp in tasteless character (complete w/blackface),”Shirley Q. Liquor”

Knipp describes Liquor as being “an illiterate welfare mother with 19 kids who guzzles malt liquor and drives a Caddy.” Her conversation is saturated with malapropisms. For example, she says her cat needs to get “sprayed,” and she pronounces K-Mart and Wal-Mart “K-Mark” and ‘Wal-Mark.”

The character attends Mount Holy Olive Second Baptist Zion Church of God in Christ of Resurrected Latter-Days AME CME (a reference to historically African-American churches).

Knipp’s is also known for mocking the black American holiday Kwanzaa and makes fun of stereotypical-sounding black names in a music video entitled, “Who Is My Baby’s Daddy,” where his character Shirley Q. Liquor tries to recollect the names of her “chirrun,” “…Cheeto, Orangello, Chlamydia, and Kmartina…”

WWW.BanShirleyQLiquor.com has been launched in an attempt to ban Knipp’s minstrel show. Also, “The Bev Smith Show” on American Urban Radio Networks (AURN) will dedicate its entire broadcast today (8:12 p.m.-10 p.m. ET) to the campaign to ban Shirley Q. Liquor and spread the word about his upcoming performances.

National Black talk radio “The Bev Smith Show” on American Urban Radio Networks (AURN) will dedicate its entire Monday, March 3 (7p-10p ET) broadcast to the campaign to ban Shirley Q. Liquor and spread the word about his upcoming performances. AURN is the only African-American owned network radio company in the United States. It is the largest network reaching urban America, with more than 200 weekly shows, AURN reaches an estimated 20 million listeners.

“We believe that if Mr. Knipp is a true talent, he can find plenty of folks who look just like him to present in 3-dimensional caricature,” read a statement from Smith’s camp. “If he really is funny, then he can find more than enough insulting and stereotypical elements of his own group, their background, and their culture, to mock. HE DOES NOT NEED OURS. As it is said, we have enough problems.

“As if injury could further be added to this insult, a recent posting to his website allegedly included the headshot of well-respected journalist/activist Jasmyne Cannick–a woman who daily responds to and fights for the rights and dignity of persons of color and the LGBT communities–edited atop the body of a naked and hefty-breasted woman.

Understand this, please: One of our journalists has been insulted. Would Charles Knipp have done this to an AP journalist? Would the head of Mike Wallace or Cokie Roberts or Jorge Ramos be used this way without response from their respective communities? We think not.”

Cannick added: “Imus may have called Black women ‘nappy-headed ho’s,’ but it’s Knipp who routinely tries to bring that image to life onstage as Shirley Q. Liquor. The hypocrisy is sickening. Isaiah Washington was unable to escape the wrath of gay America, but Charles Knipp, a white gay man, can perform a blackface minstrel and be rewarded by gay Americans to the tune of $90k annually. Someone has some explaining to do. This has gone on for far too long under the radar.”

SAN LUIS OBISPO, California (CNN) — A respected California transplant doctor faces charges he hastened a comatose man’s death to retrieve his organs — a far-reaching case that could impact the nation’s organ donation industry.

Ruben Navarro had suffered from a debilitating nerve disease since he was 9. He died at the age of 25.

Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 34, is accused of ordering excessive doses of drugs to expedite the death of Ruben Navarro, a 25-year-old man who had suffered from a debilitating nerve disease since he was 9, according to the criminal complaint.

On February 3, 2006, Dr. Roozrokh hurried from San Francisco to the Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center with a transplant team after receiving word Navarro would be a donor.

In a pretrial hearing last week, Dr. Laura Lubarsky, a critical-care specialist, testified she would not have ordered morphine or the sedative Ativan as Roozrokh allegedly did. She said she was called into the operating room to monitor Navarro after he was taken off life support and to pronounce him dead.

Lubarsky told the court she heard Roozrokh order a nurse to give Navarro more “candy,” meaning additional drugs.

Prosecutors have charged Roozrokh with three felony counts, including one charge of “dependent adult abuse” for allegedly administering excessive amounts of a drug cocktail that included morphine and Ativan, both of which are used to comfort dying patients. Roozrokh is also accused of injecting Betadine, a topical antiseptic, into Navarro’s feeding tube.

If convicted, Roozrokh — a Stanford-trained doctor — could face up to eight years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

“Dr. Roozrokh did not intend to hasten Mr. Navarro’s death and, in fact, did not hasten his death,” defense attorney Gerald Schwartzbach told CNN before a gag order was imposed in the case.

Navarro’s mother, Rosa Navarro, disagrees. Her son, she says, “died without respect and dignity.”

“I loved that boy,” she told CNN. “He was the world to me and nothing can make me happy, except him.”

Some in the transplant profession say Dr. Roozrokh should not have even been in the operating room while the patient was still alive.

“The standard of practice is for the transplant surgeon to be outside the operating room until death has been declared,” said Thomas Mone, president of the Association of Organ Procurement Organization. “The unfortunate error in this case was the transplant surgeon being in the room and that’s highly, highly unusual.”

Organ donation groups are keeping a close eye on the courtroom proceedings. Mone said the case had forced his staff and fellow transplant colleagues to “review the recovery procedures with our transplant programs when we start a case — every single case.”

A written statement from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons said it doesn’t have enough facts about the Roozrokh case, but the group is concerned about its possible effects.

“The sensationalism of this case in the media will unfortunately result in a decrease in organ donation. This, in turn, will deprive patients waiting for life-saving organ transplantation their opportunity for life,” said Goran Klintmalm, the president of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

“If Dr. Roozrokh is guilty, it would represent a gross aberration in the organ donation process, not the gift of life we are all trying to provide.”

At least one former patient has spoken out in support of Roozrokh.

“He performed surgery on me and literally saved my life,” Joe Quiroz told CNN-affiliate KCOY in an August interview. “I have known Dr. Roozrokh to be a man of great, great compassion.”

The preliminary hearing continues this week. Rosa Navarro has filed lawsuits against the doctor and the hospital. The hospital settled with her, but denied liability. Her suit against Roozrokh is pending.

In a written statement, the hospital said it had “been cooperative with all regulating agencies, law enforcement and legal representatives. We have entered into this settlement with Mrs. Navarro in an effort to put this incident behind us and to hopefully allow her healing process to begin.”

HOW DOES A PARENT RECOVER FROM THE DEATH OF A CHILD?! HOW DO U RECOVER FROM UR CHILD BEING KILLED SENSELESSLY?! Three females lives snuffed out like a flame on a candle. Why??? When are we going to stop the insanity in our community?

The alleged killer is 17! SEVENTEEN YRS OLD! Father in heaven…please help me with this one. Prayer and thoughts are with the families and friends….and esp those who are close to the boy as they try to make sense out of this senseless crime.

*sigh*

Joy Deleston and daughter Jelani (top R) & Micaiah (bot. R)

Seventeen year old Anthony Terrell Jr. was arrested and charged Friday with killing his mother and two younger sisters.

Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Deputy Joy Deleston, 39, and her two daughters, Micaiah, 11, and Jelani, 4, were found late Thursday at their home near Lawrenceville, Ga.

The motive for the killings is still under investigation and according to various news sources, the youngest victim, Jelani was the daughter of rapper Juvenile.

Terrell is being held without bail in the neighboring DeKalb County jail to avoid any potential conflict because his mother worked for Gwinnett County.

Jeff Beaird, who lived across the street from the family, said he often saw Terrell playing basketball or washing his mother’s patrol car in the driveway but doesn’t remember anything out of the ordinary. “It’s so shocking because you don’t expect something like this to happen,” he said. source

***

The SON killed his own family! See this is when I have to look up towards heaven and ask Jesus-what’s going on? When are u coming? I know it’s in his timing-but my goodness! I don’t even WANT to imagine the condition this world will be in, by the time Christ comes back…smh How do u reconcile yourself with the fact that-your child’s sibling (who’s still alive) killed your offspring???

my goodness.

My words are this…Detroit Mayor has bitten off more than he can chew. He’s in over his head, and his reputation is goin to be dirtier than mud/clay mixed. If you’re unawares Kwame, Detroit’s youngest mayor ever…had an affair w/his Chief of Staff Christine Beatty and his “sex texts” on his state given cell was revealed and publicized. Now suspicions has circled around him like vultures and a carcass when a stripper was killed at the Manoogian Mansion (Mayor’s residence). Believing evidence may lie on past texts, motions were filed to release the rest of past texts. Kwame filed to suppress. Well yesterday the Michigan State Supreme Court-denied Mayor Kwame Kilpatrice. It’s on now….

Release Of Secret Documents Not An End To Mayor’s Trouble

DETROIT — Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has lost one battle in an ongoing text-messaging sex scandal, but his next fight may be to stay out of legal jeopardy while saving his job as head of one of the nation’s largest cities.Download: Read Lawyer’s Deposition About Secret Documents

Exhibits Released
Statement: Statement From Mayor’s Office
SoundOff: Do you agree with the ruling?
Timeline Of Text Message Scandal A prosecutor is expected to rule by mid-March on whether she will pursue felony perjury charges against Kilpatrick and his former top aide for statements both made under oath in a whistle-blower’s trial that eventually cost Detroit taxpayers $8.4 million.

Records made public Wednesday also reveal a trail of deceit — signed off on by Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty — detailing the cover-up of an affair between the two as a factor behind the huge settlement amount.The documents reveal how the mayor decided to quickly settle the whistleblower case.In a five-hour deposition, Mike Stefani, the fired officer’s attorney, recounted how on the last day in October he showed up to settlement negotiations with the city with an envelope detailing the text messages between the mayor and Christine Beatty, and proof they perjured themselves on the stand.The documents outline how Sam McCargo, the mayor’s attorney, opened the envelope and read it.Stefani continued, “Another 15 minutes went by. And the facilitator came back into the room and said, “He got ahold of the mayor at the airport, and the mayor has approved negotiating for a global resolution.”

Download: Read Entire Deposition About Secret Documents
Stefani said he subpoenaed the city’s communications carrier, SkyTel, for text messages from those periods because they appeared to coincide with a long-rumored wild party at the mayor’s official residence in 2002.”… the Manoogian Mansion party was supposed to have taken place in September. And I wanted to see if there were text messages about that,” Stefani said in the deposition.

And one of the exhibits released Wednesday, Exhibit 11, appeared to be proof the city wanted to cut a deal to protect the mayor’s alleged philandering. The city would not appeal an $8.4 million settlement for three police officers investigating the mayor, in exchange for the officer’s attorney to destroy thousands of text messages that exposed the mayor and his chief of staff as lovers.If the lawyer or police talked about it, they would fork over every penny of the $8.4 million the city paid them.And it wasn’t just love the mayor was hiding.

Exhibit 11 shows the mayor wanted all the banking documents showing special deals for Beatty’s current and former house turned over and destroyed.Detroit Free Press attorney Herschel Fink calls it the smoking gun in a monumental cover-up from the public and City Council.The documents were released Wednesday a few hours after the Supreme Court ruled.City lawyers initially filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals to stop Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Robert Colombo Jr.’s order releasing documents from the whistle-blowers’ agreement as well the Jan. 30 deposition of attorney Michael Stefani, who represented former Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown and officer Harold Nelthrope in the lawsuit.

A transcript of Stefani’s five-hour deposition was among the documents released Wednesday afternoon.The Supreme Court’s decision was unanimous. It concurred with an Appeals Court panel that said Colombo was correct in ordering the documents to be unsealed. They are part of an $8.4 million settlement the city made with former officers in last summer’s whistle-blowers’ suit.The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News sued the city to get the sealed documents. In addition to the deposition, the documents released Wednesday include the initial Oct. 17 settlement agreement, which included a clause keeping the text messages secret; Kilpatrick’s rejection of that agreement on Oct. 27; and a copy of an escrow agreement detailing how documents related to the settlement would be placed into a safe deposit box.

“There’s nothing new there,” Sharon McPhail, the mayor’s legal adviser, said of the documents. “It really was all about the principle of protecting the mediation process.”In Stefani’s deposition, he explained that he thought Kilpatrick rejected the Oct. 17 agreement because the Detroit Free Press had filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the settlement.”I’m presuming, but don’t know for a fact, that they — that is, Mayor Kilpatrick and perhaps Beatty, did not …. want the reference to the text messages in the Settlement Agreement,” Stefani said.

After the mayor rejected the Oct. 17 agreement, a separate confidentiality agreement detailing how the text messages would be kept secret was reached Nov. 1 between all parties.Stefani was deposed by lawyers for the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News after Colombo allowed the newspapers to question him.The city argued the documents and deposition should remain sealed because they involved communications between attorneys during court-ordered mediation, but the high court ruled “there is no FOIA exemption for settlement agreements.”City of Detroit Corporation counsel John Johnson said the city is disappointed by the ruling.”

Opening up settlement information to public view will most certainly put a chilling effect on parties trying to settle cases,” Johnson said in a statement. “This ruling discourages the city from entering into the time honored and cost effective process of mediation.”James Canning, deputy press secretary for the city of Detroit, further added to Johnson’s sentiment in a written statement released Wednesday night.” The purpose of our legal action from the beginning has been based on the principle of protecting the sanctity of the mediation process,” said Canning.” It is evident by today’s news reports that no new information has been revealed. This is just a re-hashing of information that has been published over and over during the past four weeks. We are thoroughly reviewing this document and will consider any and all appropriate legal action,” he said.

The Free Press first reported last month on the embarrassing text messages between the married mayor and Beatty, who also was married at the time. Beatty announced her resignation shortly thereafter and Kilpatrick made a televised speech apologizing to family and constituents but avoiding direct mention of the allegations.The Free Press has not said how it obtained the text messages. Kilpatrick and Beatty denied under oath having a physical relationship in the whistle-blowers’ lawsuit filed by Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown and Officer Harold Nelthrope.

Kwame and former lover, former Chief-of-Staff, Christine Beatty

They claimed they were fired or forced to resign for investigating claims that Kilpatrick used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs.Nelthrope told Local 4 he does not hold a grudge against the city but he does have some harsh words for the mayor.”It there are things that are done inappropriately, maybe it’s better for the city that he resigns his position,” said Nelthrope.

The documents could open the door to a perjury case against Kilpatrick. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is investigating and has said she expects to have a decision by mid-March.Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. said he received a subpoena from the prosecutor’s office and appeared Wednesday for a deposition. He said the deposition took about 45 minutes but declined to offer any details.Cockrel said fellow City Council member Kwame Kenyatta also appeared for a deposition on Wednesday.”This is complete indication for the idea that public officials cannot lie under oath and go behind closed doors in secrecy to make decisions with so much public money in the balance,” Free Press Editor Paul Anger said in a story posted on the paper’s Web site. “The public’s right to know has been upheld.”"Finally, as a result of The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, the public is about to have access to their own records,” said James E. Stewart, attorney for the News. “These are public records involving the expenditure of millions of dollars of public money that the mayor has attempted to keep from the public and the City Council.”A jury ruled against the city in September, and despite vowing to appeal that decision, Kilpatrick agreed to pay $8.4 million to the plaintiffs and a third former officer who filed a separate lawsuit.Other settlement agreement documents made public Feb. 8 reveal that Kilpatrick and Beatty authorized and signed the confidential agreement with the three officers and their attorney to keep the text messages secret.The text messages are from Beatty’s city-issued pager in 2002 and 2003.The Free Press has not said how it obtained them.

Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly in Wednesday’s ruling said certain parts of the Stefani deposition involved confidential communications protected by court rules. But the city did not argue to redact those parts of the testimony and instead asked that the entire transcript be exempt from disclosure.”Because most of the deposition testimony does not fall within the parameters of (court rules), the trial judge properly decided not to exempt the entire transcript from disclosure,” Kelly wrote.

The Detroit City Council, which signed off on the settlement without knowledge of the secret deal, has opened its own investigation.”I believe that this vindicates the position of the Detroit City Council that enough is enough,” Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said. “It is time for a transparency, time for accountability and time to take responsibility for actions that individuals have taken.”Attorney General Mike Cox applauded the Supreme Court’s decision. His office had filed a brief urging the court to allow the release of a document Kilpatrick signed showing he rejected an earlier settlement in the case. Cox said he did not have enough information on other documents the newspapers asked to be unsealed.

“The public’s going to benefit from having this information opened up,” Cox spokesman Rusty Hills said. “That’s the whole point of open government.”