Latest news with #TheAtlantaJournal-Constitution
The Star
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Unreleased Beyonce music stolen from car during her tour in Atlanta
Thieves allegedly broke into an SUV near downtown Atlanta last week and stole several items that belonged to superstar Beyonce (pic), including unreleased music, footage plans for her tour shows, and past and future set lists, authorities said Monday. Atlanta police confirmed an arrest warrant was issued for a suspect following the vehicle theft at Krog Street Market on July 8, just two days before the Grammy Award-winning musician's Cowboy Carter Tour kicked off in Atlanta. Authorities are not sharing the alleged thief's name, but the person remains at large, police confirmed. Beyonce's choreographer, Christopher Grant, and one of her dancers, Diandre Blue, said they parked a rented black Jeep Wagoneer in the market's parking deck at 99 Krog Street around 8pm, according to a police report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . They returned to the vehicle an hour later and saw the trunk window was damaged and two suitcases filled with their belongings had been taken, the report stated. Grant said he was also carrying hard drives that contained 'personal sensitive information for the musician Beyonce,' according to police. 'The hard drives contained water-marked music, some unreleased music, footage plans for her show, and past and future set list,' an officer wrote in the report. Other items listed in the report as stolen included laptops, clothes, Tom Ford sunglasses, a book bag and a pair of AirPods Max headphones. The AJC has reached out to a spokesperson for Beyonce, her choreographer and her dancer for comment. Police said cameras managed to capture the theft at the entrance of the parking deck, and officers canvassed the area. Law enforcement then used the Find My app to search for the headphones that were pinging at an undisclosed location, where officers 'conducted a suspicious person stop,' the report stated. 'After further investigation, a silver (redacted) which had also traveled into Zone 5 was moving at the same time as the tracking on the AirPods,' the report stated. 'Larceny from automobile investigators were on scene and flagged the vehicle on the system.' An officer dusted for prints and was able to 'retrieve two very light prints,' though police haven't confirmed if they were from the unidentified suspect who remains at large, the report said. The theft happened as thousands of excited fans prepared to descend upon Atlanta for four star-studded nights of the star's tour at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Tribune News Service
Miami Herald
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
How Steve Harvey changed ‘Family Feud': ‘I turned it into a comedy show'
ATLANTA - Like Alex Trebek on "Jeopardy!" and Bob Barker on "The Price Is Right," Steve Harvey found a match made in game show heaven with "Family Feud." Harvey, 68, has been hosting the show forlonger than original host Richard Dawson. Since 2010, he has presided over more than 2,700 syndicated episodes and another 100-plus "Celebrity Family Feud" episodes on ABC. Harvey, an Atlanta resident who made it big as a stand-up comic and sitcom star in the 1990s, has shot most of his syndicated show in metro Atlanta, but producers this season moved the celebrity version from Los Angeles to Tyler Perry Studios. The series returned Thursday night on ABC with Taraji P. Henson vs. Jennifer Hudson, followed by Dan Patrick vs. Rich Eisen. Harvey spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on set in May after actress andAtlanta resident Kat Graham competed against fellow actress Francia Raisaon an episode scheduled to air July 17. He changed "Family Feud" to fit him: "I made a conscious decision when I first got the show that I had to make it more than a show about a survey. I don't think people would tune in or care about what 100 people think about anything. I made the show about the contestants and our relationship and their answers. It doesn't matter what's on the board. I'm going to have fun with your answer. I turned it into a comedy show." Time has passed - and so has his hair: "Most of the younger generation don't know about my stand-up. They think I'm a game show host and motivational speaker. My makeup artist said she didn't know I ever had hair. She thought I was born a bald-headed baby. I have to understand how long I've been doing this. When I had my sitcom out, she wasn't even born." On Los Angeles losing business to other locations: "L.A. was king of the castle for so long. But they have to step up their game, or they're going to be obsolete. It makes sense to come to Tyler Perry Studios. This lot is as good as anything in L.A." (After the interview, California greatly enhanced its tax credit program.) On Dawson, the man who made "Family Feud" famous in the 1970s and 1980s: "He was the dude. And that was a different time. He kissed everybody. And he got married to one of the contestants!" How "Celebrity Family Feud" is different from the regular version: "The timing of the show is different. The way you pace the show is different. A lot of the actors and musicians don't know how the game works. You have to tell them to get in the huddle. You have to walk them through it." Favorite guest: "Anthony Anderson's mom Doris (Hancox). I've known her for years. I used to hold a domino tournament in L.A., and she would come. She says whatever she wants to say. I don't know how we handled it. She is so serious, but she's so funny, too." Notable upcoming guest: "E-40 was part of Lil Jon's crew. He is such a special guy. He's a solid dude. I told the story about what happened at this lunar ball in LA. I saw one of his crew members being disrespectful to a woman, and E-40 took him into a trailer. When the dude came out, he looked different. He apologized to that woman. That spoke volumes to the type of guy E-40 is. Don't disrespect women!" His friendship with Cedric the Entertainer, part of "The Steve Harvey Show" and the Kings of Comedy tour: "Ced is my best friend in this business. He's a special human being. We've never had a dispute or fall out. People ask me who is the funniest person alive. It's Cedric the Entertainer. Nobody makes me laugh harder." Retirement? "I don't see it right now. I've always been a worker. My dad ingrained that in me. Work hard. Don't ask for anything. Wait til you have the money to do it. I just work." --- If you watch "Celebrity Family Feud," 8 p.m. ET Thursdays on ABC, available on Hulu. --- Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Miami Herald
22-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Judge: Arrests could result from plan to end homelessness in downtown Atlanta before World Cup
ATLANTA - A controversial plan to remove homeless people from downtown Atlanta before the 2026 FIFA World Cup could lead to some arrests "solely to make the city look nice," according to a Fulton County judge. Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who co-chairs a justice board that seeks alternatives to incarceration in metro Atlanta, said he's concerned the city's plan to end homelessness in downtown and house hundreds of people by next summer could prompt encounters between police and unsheltered people, leading to arrests. Any increase in the local jail population shouldconcern "everyone in the criminal justice system," because it would tax resources and expose people to an unhealthy, unsafe environment,McBurney told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As Atlanta prepares for the World Cup and the international attention it will bring, the city's sizable homeless population has emerged as a flash point. Some advocates worry that officials will turn to arrests to clear the streets, with some of the city's homeless ending up in the troubled Fulton County Jail. Partners for HOME, the nonprofit that implements the city of Atlanta's homeless strategy, is leading the effort, known as "Downtown Rising." The initiative is part of a $212 million campaign called "Atlanta Rising" to end unsheltered homelessness in the city. Mayor Andre Dickens said at a news conference on summer safety on Wednesday that his administration has been working to make housing available since long before anyone knew Atlanta would be hosting World Cup matches. He added that encampments under bridges are unsafe and won't be tolerated. "We want to make sure those unsheltered individuals don't come anywhere downtown, and throughout the city of Atlanta, not just during the World Cup, but now," he said. Asked how the city will handle enforcement, Dickens said police would take people who violate city ordinancesto the pre-arrest diversion center, which offers treatment and other services to people who are homeless or have substance use or mental health issues, allowing them to avoid arrest. "If you break the law, we have measures to deal with that like any other lawbreaker," Dickens added. Not focused on arrests Partners for HOME Chief Executive Cathryn Vassell said their plan calls for housing 400 people who are sleeping outdoors in downtownby the end of 2025 and offering them the services they need - not to arrest them if they don't want what is offered. Atlanta Police Maj. Jeff Cantin also said he doesn't envision Downtown Rising resulting in arrests "unless there's something really egregious." "We are not trying to prosecute people for being homeless," said Cantin, who oversees the department's Homeless Outreach Proactive Enforcement team, known as HOPE. "We're trying to get them the help they need." But racial justice advocate Michael Collins objects to the involvement of entities like the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District and the Metro Atlanta Chamber in the Downtown Rising strategy. "A bunch of downtown businesspeople have gotten together and decided that in order for the World Cup to be economically successful to them, they need to eradicate homelessness from the area, even if this means lots of low-income, Black and brown people end up going to the county jail - a death trap that has been deemed unconstitutional," said Collins, senior director of the organization Color of Change. In an investigative report, the U.S. Department of Justice found conditions at the Fulton County Jail "abhorrent" and "unconstitutional." The report is replete with examples of how people have been harmed by the horrific conditions, rampant violence, indifferent supervision and poor medical care. After the report was released, the DOJ and Fulton County reached a legally binding consent decree. Marcus Mister, a vice president of the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, said the organization added an outreach team in 2020 and is focused on helping refer homeless people to also has an ambassador force supported by off-duty police officers. Mister said the organization's approach toward homeless people has gradually become more empathetic. "That has really required some retraining of our ambassador force," he said. However, if homeless people resist efforts to close downtown to outdoor sleeping, he said, "Then it's whatever ordinance is on the book to enforce." 'This is what I know' Officials in Fulton County in recent weeks have complained publicly that police officers in the city of Atlanta and across Fulton County are taking too many people to jail on minor charges like trespassing, instead of bringing them to the new diversion centerin downtown Atlanta. McBurney said the diversion center could connect people to housing resources but that people can only stay there for up to 23 hours. He added that any effort to relocate dozens of people - who consider their homes to be a tent on sidewalk in downtown - "can be the emotional trigger, the mental health trigger that causes them to do something that gets them locked up," like taking a swing at an officer. "If history is a guide, there would be a significant number of people who are not interested in moving," he said. Twenty-four people declined offers of permanent supportive housing and seven refused shelter during Downtown Rising's first encampment closure, which took place last month on Pryor Street under the Interstate 20 overpass in downtown Atlanta, according to Vassel of Partners for HOME. Another 49 people from the Pryor Street camp moved into housing, 27 moved into shelters, and 74 others were "referred to housing," Vassell said. Some relocated to the Cooper Street area in the nearby Mechanicsville neighborhood - where the city shut down a large encampment last year, Vassel said. Officials said no one was arrested during the Pryor Street encampment's closure. "Most people who are declining (offers of housing) have very complex challenges, whether they're severely mentally ill and can't make a good decision for themselves or aren't lucid enough," Vassell said. Chukey Carter, 42, said he was living at the Pryor Street camp for several months earlier this year. He said he ended up in Atlanta accidentally after he fell asleep on a bus on New Year's Eve and missed his stop in Columbia, South Carolina. He said he recently received an apartment with a one-year lease that doesn't require him to pay rent or utilities. But he said a lot of homeless people will refuse to leave downtown if the city tries to relocate them. They will say: "'I'm going to still stay out here. This is what I know.'" Mandy Chapman Semple, managing partner of Clutch Consulting, which is working with Partners for Home to develop the Downtown Rising plan, said it often takes several offers of housing and services to convince a homeless person to accept them because many are skeptical. For those who don't accept help, Chapman Semple said outreach workers will continue to encourage them to go to shelters. A Partners for Home map shows several "outreach" zones, including at least 10 encampments near Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the city will host eight World Cupmatches, including a semifinal game on July 15, 2026. "We are not going to a zone and closing it until we know we have sufficient housing to offer to everybody in that particular geography," Vassell said. Robb Pitts, chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, said he has not been briefed on the Downtown Rising plan but believes it is possible to house 400 people. Providing homes to people sleeping near Mercedes-Benz Stadium, he said, would be "the best of all worlds." "But in the absence of that, I think they will probably be able to relocate them on a temporary basis," Pitts said. "Now the question becomes: What happens after the World Cup if they come back to where they were?" --- (Staff writer Shaddi Abusaid contributed to this story.) --- Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MAGA lawmaker expresses concern over Trump admin's mass deportation agenda
Donald Trump's administration has sought to portray its immigration crackdown as immensely popular and opposed only by liberal extremists. But as it turns out, the disturbing scenes and stories of agents doggedly pursuing immigrants and deporting them with abandon is making even some of the president's staunch supporters queasy. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., expressed horror over the detention and potential deportation of a Venezuelan man named Gregory Sanabria, who human rights organizations say was tortured under Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro's regime. The Trump administration recently rescinded temporary protection for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans who came to the U.S. under a Biden-era program. And fears about what this could mean for communities where large numbers of these immigrants reside have caused some GOP lawmakers in these districts — such as Diaz-Balart — to essentially plead with the administration for mercy. 'I'm increasingly concerned with the growing cases of people in the United States who have fled oppressive regimes and are being detained and held for possible deportation. Cases like Sanabria's, and so many others with legitimate claims of persecution, require a thorough review,' Diaz-Balart wrote on X on Sunday while sharing his letter, which specifically asks Noem to 'judiciously review' Sanabria's case and expresses concern that he might be forced to live under the Maduro regime again. There's a growing trend of Trump supporters reckoning with the reality of his immigration agenda and being taken aback by its apparent disregard for immigrants' humanity. Podcaster Joe Rogan and boxer Ryan Garcia are two of the most prominent Trump-friendly voices who have denounced the president's mass deportation agenda. And other examples abound. Florida businessman Vincent Scardina, who said he voted for Trump last year, gained attention after he got choked up during an NBC News interview in which he explained the emotional toll inflicted by the detention of one-third of his workers. And last month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a story about a couple who say they voted for Trump but are now outraged after their green card-holding son was placed in detention. Indeed, many of the president's critics predicted that his anti-immigrant agenda would have far-reaching impacts that stood a high chance of devastating many of his own supporters. Belatedly as it seems, some people are beginning to realize just how prescient those predictions were. This article was originally published on
The Star
17-06-2025
- The Star
Rapper Silento gets 30 years after pleading guilty to killing his cousin
Silento (pic), the Atlanta rapper known for his hit song Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) , pleaded guilty but mentally ill Wednesday to voluntary manslaughter and other charges in the 2021 shooting death of his 34-year-old cousin. The 27-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Ricky Lamar Hawk, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said in a statement. Hawk also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, possessing a gun while committing a crime and concealing the death of another. A murder charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement. DeKalb County police found Frederick Rooks III shot in the leg and face in the early morning hours of Jan 21, 2021 outside a home in a suburban area near Decatur. Police said the found 10 bullet casings near Rooks' body, and security video from a nearby home showed a white BMW SUV speeding away shortly after the gunshots. A family member of Rooks told police that Silento had picked up Rooks in a white BMW SUV, and GPS data and other cameras put the vehicle at the site of the shooting. Silento confessed about 10 days later after he was arrested, police said. Ballistics testing matched the bullet casings to a gun that Silentó had when he was arrested, authorities said. Rooks' brothers and sisters told DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Courtney L. Johnson before sentencing that Silento should have gotten a longer sentence, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The rapper was a high school junior in suburban Atlanta in 2015 when he released Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) and watched it skyrocket into a dance craze. Silentóo made multiple other albums, but said in an interview with the medical talk show The Doctors in 2019 that he struggled with depression and had grown up in a family where he witnessed mental illness and violence. "I've been fighting demons my whole life, my whole life,' he said in 2019. "Depression doesn't leave you when you become famous, it just adds more pressure,' Silento said then, urging others to get help. 'And while everybody's looking at you, they're also judging you. "I don't know if I can truly be happy, I don't know if these demons will ever go away.' Silento had been struggling in the months before the arrest. His publicist, Chanel Hudson, has said he had tried to kill himself in 2020. In August 2020, Silento was arrested in Santa Ana, California, on a domestic violence charge. The next day, the Los Angeles Police Department charged him with assault with a deadly weapon after witnesses said he entered a home where he didn't know anyone looking for his girlfriend and swung a hatchet at two people before he was disarmed. In October 2020, Silento was arrested after police said they clocked him driving 143 miles per hour (230 kilometers per hour) on Interstate 85 in DeKalb County. Hudson said at the time of Silento's arrest in the killing of Rooks that he had been "suffering immensely from a series of mental health illnesses." – AP
