In addition to being a three-time NBA champion, 16-time All-Star, philanthropist, and Hollywood producer, LeBron James can now add children’s book author to his résumé. HarperCollins Publishers announced Tuesday that they have signed the basketball phenom to a two-book deal, according to the Bleacher Report. His debut picture book, I PROMISE, is set for an August release date. In 2021, James is slated to release a middle school-grade novel. “King James” continues to be a shining role model for the younger generation and a positive example for everyone back in his hometown of Akron, Ohio.

“Books have the ability to teach, inspire, and bring people together,” James said in a statement, according to EW. “That’s why these books, and the opportunity to get children and parents reading together, mean so much to me. Most importantly, we wanted to make sure these stories are ones that every single kid can see themselves in.” Illustrated by Nina Mata, the book is described as “a lively and inspiring picture book that reminds us that tomorrow’s success starts with the promises we make to ourselves and our community today.”

The I PROMISE concept is based on the LeBron James Family Foundation I PROMISE program, which provides resources, incentives, and academic and emotional support to students and their families. James’ I Promise School recently announced that the inaugural graduating class will receive free tuition to attend Kent State University. James opened the public school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, in 2018 through the LeBron James Family Foundation to specifically help at-risk youth. The James Foundation has been working in the community for nearly a decade, focusing on educating children from difficult backgrounds.

“I can’t wait for everyone to read this, share this, feel empowered and strive for greatness the same way kids from Akron do every day,” James said on his Instagram account.

Bowie State University, an HBCU in Maryland, opened its new food pantry where students can shop for food for free. The food pantry and nutrition lounge was made possible through a new partnership with Capital Area Food Bank and Food Lion. The Food Lion Feeds program donated $10,000 to Maryland’s first HBCU to launch the pantry, according to WJLA. Students will be able to grab food items for free and Capital Area Food Bank will ensure that the pantry stays stocked. The university stated that many of its students only eat one meal per day, so having a food pantry with fresh produce will allow them to get a healthy alternative whenever they want one. The food pantry also includes a lounge with sofas and a television.

“When we talked about this concept with Food Lion we really wanted to attack the stigma and breakdown the stigma of people feeling like they didn’t want to come and get food because of the thought that there is something wrong with suffering from food insecurity,” Brent Swinton, Bowie State vice president for Institutional Advancement said in a statement sent to WJLA. “That’s a growing trend across the country and colleges are attacking that and Bowie State University is at the cutting edge. So we want people to feel welcome, to come in and realize that this is all about making sure nutrition is available so our students can achieve in the classroom.”

The stigma that college students mostly eat frozen pizza and ramen noodles stems from the fact that paying for food could be very costly. The average cost for an 8-month meal plan for an undergrad is roughly $4,500, although this number can vary greatly depending upon the school, according to edmit.me.  An individual college-aged student will spend approximately $163–$367 monthly, according to a report. BSU started a great initiative and Swinton said this is just the beginning. He hopes to eventually stock the lounge with free toiletries for students, as well as food.

The Morehouse College Polo Club has been officially declared a member of the United States Polo Association, an esteemed honor that makes the school the first historically black college and university (HBCU) to embrace a polo team.

The Morehouse club was co-founded in 2019 by Miguel Wilson, founder of Ride to the Olympics Foundation, with Morehouse students Rian Toussaint, Justin Wynn, and Caleb Cherry as its first members according to The Washington Informer. “We would like to officially welcome Morehouse College to the family! Morehouse will be playing out of the Atlanta Regional Polo Center with Jolie Liston and Frankie Questel,” Amy Fraser, director of Intercollegiate/Interscholastic Polo, said in a letter addressed to Morehouse.

The idea originated from Cherry’s polo coach, who suggested that he start a team at Morehouse. Cherry competed in dressage for 10 years before and started playing polo five years ago. He is the only player on the team with prior experience with horses, according to Atlanta Daily World.

Through Ride to the Olympics, the students received scholarships that support their membership of the Morehouse Polo Club, giving them access to horses, riding lessons, and appropriate gear and allowing them to compete against other polo teams, both domestic and international.

Established in 2017, Ride to the Olympics’ primary mission is to empower youth who aren’t exactly born with great means with the opportunity to learn the art of equestrian sports, fashion, and leadership development. The program is also committed to increasing awareness and exposure to horse-related sports such as polo, showjumping, and dressage throughout the country.

Last September, Wilson’s foundation raised additional funds for the team through its annual Atlanta Fashion & Polo Classic event, where high-profile Atlantans and celebrities attended to support the Morehouse Polo Club.

The Wilson Elementary School in Richmond, California, will be renamed as Michelle Obama Elementary School when it reopens later this year, according to Newsweek.

The unanimous decision was made recently among board members of the West Contra Costa Unified School District after considering a proposal from the school’s Parent Teacher Association for the school to be renamed in honor of Obama, whose name is synonymous with her support of education and children’s health programs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

“Naming this school after Michelle Obama is a sign of the school’s rebirth,” Stephanie Hernandez-Jarvis, the president of the board, said in a statement. “The parents and students advocated to rename their school after Michelle Obama because they believe the values our former First Lady embodies and the educational, child-centered causes she champions are representative of what we all aspire to nurture in our school communities.

Obama was a huge advocate for education during her time in the White House and continues to advocate for students. President Barack Obama and the first lady launched the “Let Girls Learn” initiative in 2015 to raise awareness and ensure adolescent girls around the world are ensured the right to an education. There are several other initiatives led by Obama supporting post-secondary education, the necessity of school counselors, education for African Americans, and art education, to name a few according to theedadvocate.org.

The elementary school, which was formerly named after Woodrow Wilson, will be the second school in California to be named after Obama, the school district says, with the other in Panorama City in Southern California. The school is currently being hosted in a temporary campus in El Cerrito while its Richmond location at 42nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue is being developed into a new “state-of-the-art 21st facility,” according to the statement, the East Bay Times reports.

• Lifestyle

by michelr

February 14, 2020

Los Angeles Will Dismiss Almost 66,000 Marijuana Convictions

---

Nearly 66,000 marijuana convictions in Los Angeles County will be dismissed thanks to state laws that paved the way for the action, the county district attorney said Thursday.

The cases include 62,000 felony convictions for cases, including those for marijuana sales and cultivation dating as far back as 1961, and roughly 4,000 misdemeanor possession cases, District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s office said.

“The dismissal of tens of thousands of old cannabis-related convictions in Los Angeles County will bring much-needed relief to communities of color that disproportionately suffered the unjust consequences of our nation’s drug laws,” Lacey said in a news release.

“I am privileged to be part of a system dedicated to finding innovative solutions and implementing meaningful criminal justice reform that gives all people the support they need to build the life they deserve. The 66,000 dismissals mean conviction relief for about 53,000 people. About 45% are Latino; 32% are black; and 20% are white, Lacey’s office said according to CNN.

On Nov. 8, 2016, the majority of California voters passed Proposition 64, the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act. California joined several states including Washington, Oregon, and Colorado, where the personal possession and use of marijuana is decriminalized according to post.ca.gov. In 2018, the state Legislature passed AB 1793, which required the state Department of Justice to scour California’s crime records and find past cannabis convictions that are eligible to be expunged or downgraded to misdemeanors.

Lacey’s office stated it worked with Clear My Record, a service that helps people expunge nonviolent marijuana convictions, to evaluate records. The service is offered by the nonprofit Code for America. Including the Los Angeles County cases, Clear My Record has helped prosecutors dismiss about 85,000 marijuana convictions across the state, according to Code for America Senior Criminal Justice Program Director Evonne Silva.

“This is a clear demonstration that automatic record clearance is possible at scale,” Silva added, “and can help to right the wrongs of the failed war on drugs.”

• Events

by michelr

February 14, 2020

Jennifer Hudson Will Perform a Special Tribute to Kobe Bryant During the NBA All-Star Game

---

Jennifer Hudson will perform a special tribute to basketball legend Kobe Bryant during the 2020 NBA All-Star game in Chicago. The National Basketball Association announced that the GRAMMY Award-winning singer, Academy Award-winning actress, and Chicago native will perform a special tribute to the late Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and the seven others that tragically passed away on Jan. 26 in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, California.

Hudson’s performance will open the night ahead of player introductions for the 69th NBA All-Star Game. Also that day, Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled, and Quavo will join Chance The Rapper for the NBA All-Star Game Halftime Show, while Chaka Khan and Tenille Arts will sing the U.S. and Canadian national anthems, respectively. Queen Latifah will sing with Chicago Youth in a special performance the night before during the State Farm® All-Star Saturday Night, according to an official press release from the NBA.

During the annual game, LeBron James‘ All-Star team will wear jerseys with the No. 2 in honor of Gianna, also known as Gigi, and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s team will wear No. 24 in honor of Kobe. Both teams’ jerseys will feature patches displaying nine stars, representing those who lost their lives in the crash, including John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah and Payton Chester, Christina Mauser, and Ara Zobayan.

Additional nods to Bryant during TNT’s NBA All-Star Game presentation will include a Los Angeles Lakers-themed tribute within the virtual shot clock, displaying gold and purple accents at 24 seconds and eight seconds remaining on the clock during the fourth quarter, representing Bryant’s jersey numbers. The game will also have a new fourth-quarter format; the game clock will be turned off and the teams will play to reach a “Final Target Score” determined by adding 24—again for Bryant’s jersey—to the leading team’s cumulative score through the first three quarters.

Hudson expressed great grief over the passing of Bryant. “It’s like every time I go to sleep and then wake up somebody else is gone! This news hurts my heart so bad! I was holding out hoping that it wasn’t true! Lord his daughter too,” she stated via Instagram, according to bangshowbiz.com. Meanwhile, Vanessa Bryant recently confessed that her “brain refuses to accept” that her husband and their 13-year-old daughter are gone.

• Lifestyle

by michelr

February 13, 2020

Health Officials Warn the Coronavirus Could Spread to Two-Thirds of the World Population

---

The coronavirus epidemic could spread to roughly two-thirds of the world’s population if the deadly bug is not controlled, according to a top health official. Professor Gabriel Leung, chair of Public Health Medicine at Hong Kong University, told the Guardian he was examining the implications of the world warning that cases of coronavirus spreading outside China are the just “tip of the iceberg.”

Most experts believe that each person infected can go on to transmit the coronavirus to about 2.5 other people, which would cause an “attack rate” of 60% to 80%, Leung told the paper. He also stated that “even with a general fatality rate as low as 1%, a possibility once milder cases are taken into account, there could still be a massive global death toll.”

Zhong Nashan, 83, China’s foremost medical adviser on the outbreak, told Reuters that the numbers of new cases are dropping in some parts of the country. The epidemic may peak this month and then plateau, he said. “I hope this outbreak or this event may be over in something like April,” said Zhong, an epidemiologist best known for his role in combating a surge of severe acute respiratory syndrome cases, or SARS, in 2003, according to the New York Post.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the epidemic is far from over. “With 99% of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world,” Ghebreyesus told researchers.

This isn’t the first time the world has had a health crisis like the coronavirus. The Third Plague Pandemic of 1855, also referred to as the Modern Plague, refers to a bubonic plague pandemic that started in the Yunnan province in China. Over 20 years it spread to Hong Kong and port cities around the world by rats that carried the infectious fleas responsible for the disease. It caused almost 10 million deaths according to health24.com. The Asian flu, The Cholera pandemic, or Typhus fever during World War I are all comparable examples and had death tolls in the millions before being contained.

At this point the outbreak is still relatively contained; only 319 cases have been confirmed in 24 other countries and territories outside mainland China, the WHO and Chinese health officials said according to Reuters.

• Arts and Culture

by michelr

February 13, 2020

Hip-hop’s Impact on High-end Fashion Is Undeniable

---

Hip-hop started in the South Bronx during the 1970s. The sound and culture gradually spread around the world, transcending nationality and race.

Hip-hop stars formally stepped into the fashion industry by becoming brand ambassadors for clothing companies and even starting their own lines like Jay-Z’s Rocawear brand or Sean P. Diddy Combs’ Sean John in the ’90s. Slowly but surely high-end fashion designers noticed these rap superstars influence and luxury brands began to collaborate with these artists, making the genre even more influential.

Nicki Minaj recently released a capsule collection with Fendi called “Fendi Prints on” and East Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane also has a partnership with fashion powerhouse Gucci for his “Cruise” collection. High-end designers are not just stopping at clothing collaborations, iconic Italian label Versace and rapper 2 Chainz released the “Chain Reaction” sneaker and unveiled them officially during its Winter 2018 show in Milan and it went on to become one of their fastest- selling sneakers.

These are just a few examples, other hip-hop artists like ASAP Rocky, Off-Set, Travis Scott, and Tyga are also delving into the fashion industry. These ventures and partnerships make sense because the visibility of the genre is the highest it has ever been.

Related: Cardi B. Album Artist Launches Brand Calling Out Virgil Abloh’s Silence on Diversity

Hip-hop’s influence, however, does not stop at the musician; even designers like Virgil Abloh (Off-White), Jerry Lorenzo (Fear of God) and Kerby Jean-Raymond (Pyer Moss) have been embraced by the culture because they put rappers in their campaigns, fashion shows, and lookbooks.

In turn, hip-hop allowed these designers to create their own versions of high-end clothing. Virgil Abloh is entering his third year of being the creative director of Louis Vuitton, which is the top luxury brand in the world with a $32.233 billion brand valuation and 14% year-over-year growth according to Business Insider.

Hip-hop’s impact on high-end fashion is undeniable. It’s surreal to know that the genre that originated in the parks and street corners is now one of the faces of a billion-dollar industry!

• News

by michelr

February 12, 2020

Actor Jussie Smollett Faces 6 New Charges in Chicago

---

A little over a year after Jussie Smollett’s controversial allegations of being a victim of a racist and homophobic attack, a grand jury charged him with a six-count indictment for lying to Chicago police about the attack, a special prosecutor announced on Feb. 11.

Back in January 2019, Smollett told Chicago police that he was walking home at night and was approached by two masked men who viciously attacked him. He claimed that they also tied a noose around his neck and hurled racial and homophobic slurs at him. Smollett alleges that one of the assailants also told him that “he was in MAGA country,” a reference to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan, according to Fox Business. Several weeks later, authorities alleged that Smollett had paid two Nigerian men $3,500 to help him stage the attack because he was unhappy with his salary as an actor on the popular drama series Empire and wanted to garner attention and publicity for his career. Smollett was later charged with felony disorderly conduct after Chicago officers said he orchestrated the alleged hate crime and falsified a police report. The city also sued Smollett, seeking reimbursement of more than $130,000 for overtime paid to officers who were involved in investigating Smollett’s false report. Smollett’s attorneys said the city should not be allowed to recover costs from Smollett because it accepted a forfeited $10,000 bond from the actor “as payment in full in connection with the dismissal of the charges against him.” The 16 counts of disorderly conduct were later dropped against Smollett.

This story immediately became newsworthy and high-profile considering the FBI reported more than 7,100 hate crime incidents in 2017, the most recent year for which data is available. But the Bureau of Justice Statistics conducts a hate crimes survey and estimates there could be up to 250,000 hate crimes a year, according to ProPublica.org.

Tina Glandian, Smollett’sattorney, did not immediately return a call for comment, according to the AP News.

Now in its third year of operation, the inaugural graduating class from LeBron James’ I Promise School will receive free tuition to attend Kent State University.

Representatives from Kent State surprised the 11th-grade-students with the announcement of free tuition and one year of room and board, according to BleacherReport.com. The oldest class of the 193 students attending I Promise are currently in their junior year. They will be eligible for the free tuition offer from Kent State beginning with the 2021-22 academic year.

James opened the public school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, in 2018 through the LeBron James Family Foundation to specifically help at-risk youth. The James Foundation has been working in the community for nearly a decade, focusing on educating children from difficult backgrounds.

“The I PROMISE program is built on the ‘earned, not given’ philosophy,” said Michele Campbell, executive director of the LeBron James Family Foundation. “We are so excited that our students that have worked incredibly hard have earned even more life-changing opportunities to grow and excel.”

Although free, the program does come with a few stipulations: to be eligible for the free tuition, I PROMISE students must be successfully admitted to Kent State, fill out required financial aid forms, and complete a requisite number of community service hours each semester. In addition, Kent State is also launching a fundraising effort to help these students with any additional expenses, including books and the remaining three years of room and board, according to wkyc.com.

According to valuepenguin.com, the average cost of college for the 2017–2018 school year was $20,770 for public schools (in-state) and $46,950 for nonprofit private schools, only including tuition, fees, and room and board. As a result, oftentimes youth from disenfranchised backgrounds are forced to skip college or fail to finish because they cannot afford it or are unable to secure a loan. Needless to say, a free ride to attend college is a huge deal for the students at James’ public school.