aquababie's world

go brother paul!

here's a video of my friend paul taking up a challenge from the jfd.  check him out.

the cowboy get a delay

the big news here, after the obama win, has to be the trial of our mayor.  he's managed to get a delay until january.  i think the city needs some closure. 

November 11, 2008

Judge delays Melton's trial

By Chris Joyner
chris.joyner@jackson.gannett.com

U.S. District Court Judge Dan Jordan this morning agreed to a request by defense attorneys to delay the civil rights violation trial of Jackson Mayor Frank Melton and his former bodyguard until January.

Defense attorneys had told the judge they needed more time to review thousands of pages of prosecution material.

Jury selection was slated to begin Wednesday. The new trial will begin January 5.

Melton and ex-bodyguard Michael Recio are facing a three-count indictment charging them with violating the constitutional prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure in an Aug. 26, 2006, police-style raid on a Ridgeway Street duplex in northwest Jackson. According to prosecutors, Melton instructed several young men to attack the house with sledgehammers and participated in the destruction himself, while Recio and fellow bodyguard Marcus Wright stood guard.

Wright also was indicted but has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor conspiracy and agreed to testify for the prosecution.

Jordan said Monday he already was concerned the case would bridge the holiday weekend, meaning he would have to send jurors home for four days where they could be influenced by family members or news coverage of the trial.


Melton's attorney, John Reeves, and Recio's attorney, Cynthia Stewart, complained that prosecutors dumped on them thousands of pages of grand jury testimony, Jackson Police Department Internal Affairs files and FBI investigative documents last week.

"It's the guts of the case," Reeves said Monday.

Stewart said reading those documents between by Wednesday is "simply not humanly possible."

U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor Mark Blumberg said Monday that the defense was overstating the case. The evidence had been turned over in advance of a court deadline and given to Reeves and Stewart by e-mail as well as on DVD and CD.

While defense attorneys complained about 7,000 pages of evidence, Blumberg said the actual count of recently released pages is 3,792 — 1,700 pages of which is a single internal affairs file.

link:  http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20081111/NEWS/81111010&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

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i'm five days late...

for my own anniversary! 

it's been three years since i started this blogging thing.
 i'm still enjoying every minute of it!

sad...

WAPT.com

Some Pearl Students Told Not To Say Obama's Name

School Bus Driver, Coach Disciplined

POSTED: 4:03 pm CST November 6, 2008

UPDATED: 11:29 pm CST November 6, 2008

PEARL, Miss. -- The Pearl Schools superintendent said that a school bus driver and a coach were disciplined for allegedly telling students not to say President-elect Barack Obama’s name.Reporters with 16 WAPT News received several calls from upset parents that said a school bus driver told the children on a Pearl school bus that if they said Obama’s name, they would be written up and taken to the principal’s office for disciplinary reasons.Another parent said that a coach at Pearl Junior High School told students that if they speak Obama’s name, they would face expulsion.Parents said the incident is sad as America begins a new presidency."They feel like they are afraid to say our president's name because they will get in trouble," mother Canishia Simpson said.

 "They shouldn't have to feel that way."Simpson's son Reginald was one of two students removed from a Pearl school bus Wednesday morning.Reginald Simpson said kids on the school bus were saying, "Obama is our president." That's when he said the bus driver told the kids not to say the president-elect's name because she didn't want to hear it."Somebody said, 'This is history, woman,'" Reginald Simpson said. "She pulled over and kicked me and the kid off the bus."The two boys were left at Pearl High School. They were later taken to Pearl Junior High School, where they attend school."We teach our kids not to be racist, and here it is going on," Canishia Simpson said. "I feel hurt by this."School officials looked at surveillance video from inside the bus.

They told Canishia Simpson that the bus driver overreacted.In a separate incident, a girl's basketball coach at Pearl Junior High School told students they would be suspended for saying Obama's name."I did have two incidents and the principals did review the bus driver tapes. It appears that some persons, out of disappointment and disillusionment with the election, may have been so frustrated that they said something inappropriate to students,” Pearl Schools Superintendent John Ladner said. “We have taken appropriate steps with the bus driver and the coach.”Ladner would not say what disciplinary action was taken."This is what the whole election was about, to support someone," parent Venus Neagu said. "Now they are facing consequences for it."Neagu's son Devin was on the bus Wednesday. He did not get kicked off, but his mother said she plans to confront school officials about the incident.Both of the students kicked off the school bus were allowed to ride on Thursday.

They won't face any disciplinary action from the school.“As adults and professionals we are not going to deprive anyone of their excitement over the current election of President-elect Obama, or any other candidate,” Ladner said. “The whole nation was excited, and in no way and at no time will children be disciplined for saying the name of the president-elect of the United States. Any employee who would attempt to do that would be corrected and disciplined. We expect professional behavior, respect and demeanor of staff and students. It is unfortunate that some employees mishandled this situation but they have been disciplined and I have spent the day clarifying our policies."Pearl's school superintendent said no child will be punished for saying Obama, Barack Obama or President Obama.Ladner said this is a part of our history now, and students will learn it.

link:  http://www.wapt.com/news/17925627/detail.html

black president

now the work begins...

i've cried.  now it's time for me and all of us to get to work! 

so....

it's almost v-day for me and millions of americans in this country.  i've made my choice and i'm ready.

i hope you are too.  i'll be back tomorrow...

happy halloween yall!!

since we had the opening last night, i didn't a chance to take my halloween pic.  instead, take a look at this video.  i found this site yes we carve via twitter (yes i twitter!)

Expanding the Mind

here's the article about the opening of our new show at sanaa gallery

Expanding the Mind

Kyle Doherty
kyle.doherty@jackson.gannett.com

'New Traditions'

Top-line: "Nontraditional" is the order of the day for a new exhibit at Fondren's Sanaa Gallery.

Titled New Traditions, the show features works by renowned artists Gwendolyn Magee, whose abstract works are on display at the Smithsonian Institute and the Mississippi Museum of Art, and Johnnie Mae Maberry, the chairwoman of the art department at Tougaloo College.

Gallery owner Lorenzo Gayden hopes the show will provoke thought and expand minds.

"I hope that they will take away the fact that art here in Jackson goes beyond what is traditionally considered to be art," he says. "A lot of folks believe that art has to be of a person or a thing, like, say, floral scenes or figurative portrayals of people.

"I want people to see that art here in Jackson is as progressive as any other part of the country or the world."

Magee and Maberry, who collaborated on the exhibit in addition to providing their art, have made careers out of finding inventive ways to channel creativity.

"Maberry actually epitomizes that in the use of organic and inorganic matter in her abstract art," Gayden says. "(She) uses a number of different nontraditional techniques; I don't think she even uses a brush.

"This is a new avenue of expression for her."

Gayden describes one of his favorite pieces by Maberry, a combination of acrylic paint and moss called Untitled #3.

"Most of her pieces are actually untitled, which is done intentionally to allow the viewer to interpret them," he explains.

Magee, on the other hand, takes a traditional craft and stands it on its head.

"She uses fabric the way a painter would use paint to render works that are both abstract and figurative," says Gayden. "Quilting uses various pieces of cloth to render images. What she would do is actually embroider designs into individual pieces of fabric and incorporate them into an overall design."

Gayden adds that despite their renown, the artists were pleasant to work with while organizing the show.

"Most people think of artists as being very egotistical and strange, but both of these ladies ... break that stereotype."

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Expanding the Mind

it's homecoming!!!!

this is homecoming week for my alma mater jackson state university!  go tigers!!!  i don't know how much i'm getting into, but pictures will be taken :)