Songstress to be spanked by Uncle Sam again!

Songtress maybe singing in Sing Sing! 

Songstress Lauryn Hill, who nearly six months ago was released from federal prison on a tax evasion conviction, is now reportedly facing yet another battle with Uncle Sam, according to RadarOnline. Hill has reportedly been slapped with a slew of liens from the Internal Revenue Service, totaling a whopping $866,868.05

Hill, who is the Mother of six children and currently on a national tour, has reportedly been hit with seven liens beginning with tax year 2005 and ending in 2011. 

RadarOnline obtained Hill’s filed January 14th tax documents and the New Jersey resident reportedly owes the following amounts: for 2005, $422,008.26; 2006, $19,838.75; 2007, $61,158.50; 2008, $58,405.71; 2009, $30370.91; 2010, $13,247.73; and 2011, $261,838.19.

The 38-year-old Grammy Award-winning singer, who pled guilty to three counts of failing to file tax returns on more than $1.8 million between 2005 and 2007. was incarcerated for a three-month stint last year. Hill was released last October but then faced three months of home confinement and a year of supervised probation. Hill, who has sold 16 million albums over the course of her career, was also ordered to pay penalties and the taxes she owed. She has since satisfied that tax debt.

Is Uncle Sam gunning for Hill again merely because she is Black?

According to Hill’s last rant against the government, where she claimed racism played a huge role in her tax woes, she is a victim of a racist system, expressing it in her own words.

The hatred, violence, cruelty and brutality that [black people] were shown by White people for centuries.”

Hill went on to further explain why she was targeted by the Feds:

To me, it is obvious that the accumulation of generational trauma and abuse have created the very behaviors the system tries to punish, by providing no sufficient outlets for the victims of institutional terror,” she claimed. “Clearly, the institution tries to hide its own criminal history at the expense and wholeness of the abused, who ‘acting out’ from years of abuse and mistreatment, reflect the very aggression that they were exposed to. 

Is this a display of irresponsible behavior or has a target been placed on L Boogie's chest. I would want to believe being in the entertainment industry for roughly 20 years give or take she would have gained more than just Grammys and Platinum Records. 

Author Will T Barlow 

Tracy Edmonds for Tea

Girl Power Series:

A Moment with a Mogul

 Amidst my glamorously planned life, I had the chance to sit down for tea with Ms. Tracey Edmonds. I couldn’t imagine what she’d be like or how this experience would impact me as a young woman in entertainment. I could only describe it as AMAZING. 

 Confidence radiated through her like the sun on a clear spring afternoon, brightening the already rainy day. She was like the Barbie dolls of my childhood, I cherished so dearly within my endless collection. Her suit perfectly tailored, hair strategically placed, and makeup nothing less than marvelous, I waited anxiously to ask questions and hear what wisdom she had tucked away in her Prada purse.

 Aside from the glitz that is Tracey Edmonds, she shared her life lessons, triumphs, realizations, and awe-ha moments. The time that she spent to give an insight on her life was priceless. As she explained, I jotted down notes and compiled a few nuggets of truth that have assisted in the momentum of my career and passion for my life’s work. Hopefully they can help you too!

1. Small happenings can occur to change your life’s path, don’t be afraid just go with it.

2. You’ll know when you’re in the right place in your life and career.

3. Always have more than one thing in your arsenal.

4. Everything you do give one thousand and one percent. 

5. Always remember, YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL!

a. Happiness

b. Family

c. A career

c. Money

 At 22 years of age these points all gave me reassurance. I could breath easier, dream bigger, and DO ANYTHING.

 Tracey Edmonds is only one example of Girl Power! Stay tuned for more installments to the Girl Power Series, presented by Bars and Warfare Blog.

Author Lyrric Cosby Jackson 

 

 

 

 

 

Kim, Kanye & Vogue

KANYE & KIM Cover VOGUE

Kanye West’s campaign to get fiancee Kim Kardashian on the cover of Vogue magazine has finally paid off. They appear in a photo by Annie Leibovitz on the April issue.

The photo shows Kardashian wearing a white wedding-style dress with West’s arms around her. She posted it on her official Twitter and Instagram accounts saying: “This is such a dream come true!!!” West wrote “Thank you (at)voguemagazine” on his Twitter account. West has said he believed Kardashian is cover-worthy. In a radio interview with Ryan Seacrest last October, he said “there’s no way Kim Kardashian shouldn’t be on the cover of Vogue.” He also said Kardashian was more influential than first lady Michelle Obama in her clothing choices.

However, in the magazine, which hits stands March 31, Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour told readers it was the magazine’s idea to feature Kardashian, and the decision was based on the reality starlet’s dominance – and was not influenced by her famous boyfriend.

“You may have read that Kanye begged me to put his fiancee on Vogue’s cover,” Wintour wrote. “He did nothing of the sort. The gossip might make for better reading, but the simple fact of the matter is that it isn’t true.”

The couple are the parents of 9-month-old daughter North. Which has already created a stir in fashion and hollywood. 

The photos will chronicle a beautiful pictorial of Kanye West enjoying his blooming family. 

However Sarah Michelle Gellar Tweeted

"Well……I guess I'm canceling my Vogue subscription," Gellar tweeted. "Who is with me???"

 

Which is interesting, the first hip hop artist to appear on the cover of American Vogue is completely slighted by hollywood has beens. I wonder is the presence of color still an obstacle in American Society. 

Aimé Grisham

Faith vs Fitness

Muslim Woman Files Lawsuit Against Planet Fitness Over Head Covering

Tarainia McDaniel recently filed a lawsuit against a Planet Fitness in New Mexico over an incident that occurred in October 2011, claiming that the gym wouldn’t allow her to wear her religious head covering when she tried to work out.

According to the 37-year-old Albuquerque resident, she signed a two-year contract with the New Hampshire-based business at one location where she was never given a problem about wearing her Muslim head covering. When McDaniel transferred her membership to another Planet Fitness location, though, she was allegedly told that her religious head covering was not allowed because it was against the gym’s dress code, according to the lawsuit.

However, the gym in question did display a sign that read, “No jeans, work boots, bandannas, skull caps, or revealing apparel.”

McDaniel alleges in her complaint that she asked the gym’s representatives if she could wear her head covering to accommodate her faith and even asked if she could instead wear a hijab, a more formal piece that covers the head and chest.

McDaniel claims that her requests were flatly denied and told that the head coverings were direct violations of the strict gym dress codes.

Planet Fitness’ attorney, Erika Anderson ,defends her client’s position regarding the case, telling Albuquerque Journal, “My client’s position is that they didn’t know the head covering was for religious purposes. It violated their dress code policy."

But the New Mexico Human Rights Act and the Unfair Practices Act states that Planet Fitness had no legal right to deny McDaniel entry on to its facility while wearing her religious head covering.

According to McDaniel’s civil suit transcript, the married Mom, who is a financial consultant and business owner, claims that she did see the gym’s dress code sign but states in the legal document, “I already (had) made it known before I signed the contract that I covered my hair. I had on [what] I call a head covering. I guess for the sake of the record, they’re referring to it as a head covering.”

McDaniel’s case is scheduled for August. Meanwhile, Planet Fitness who advertises a “Judgement Free Zone” appears to be a very judgmental gym after all. The gym’s policies have come into question as in the case of Tiffany Austin, who was reportedly told by a Richmond, Calif., facility that her body, which was in a midriff-clad outfit, was just too toned; therefore, she was thereby too “intimidating” to the gym’s other patrons. 

Aimé Grisham

Work Hard + Results = Low Pay ?

Is RESPECT for hard work gone....? 

Even in the NFL great credentials and work ethic doesn't really mean anything. Former Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate said Tuesday that Seattle’s contract offer was so “laughable” that it made his decision to sign with the Detroit Lions “a no-brainer.”

The Seahawks’ leading receiver in their Super Bowl-winning season, Tate told 710 ESPN Seattle radio that he’s due to earn about twice as much money with the Lions than he would if he stayed in Seattle. The deal he accepted with Detroit last week was a reported $31 million over five years.

“Seattle offered a number that was laughable,” he told radio hosts Bob Stelton and David Grosby. “It was laughable considering — I’m sorry, I’m going to vent to you guys for a little bit, so just hold on — considering that I have played there four years, a starter two of those years, I missed a total of one game in my two years including the playoffs.

“(I was) in the community, did everything right, was not a troublemaker, everyone loved me in the locker room. I did everything right, and the offer that they offered, it was like, ‘Is this serious?’ The organization is offering guys from other places two times, almost three times what they were offering me. And I was kind of like: ‘Are you serious? I’ve given literally everything and this is what you give me?’”

Tate, who was Seattle’s second-round pick out of Notre Dame in the 2010 NFL Draft, became one of the Seahawks’ most dynamic players on offense and special teams once quarterback Russell Wilson took the helm in 2012. In 2013, Tate caught a team-leading 64 passes for 898 yards and five touchdowns, and also ran back 51 punts and 3 kickoffs for a total of 616 return yards.  

If this is how you repay a hard worker I would hate to see what would be done for a fair to basic football player.

 

Eric Walters 

Why Women Prefer Black Men?

Men of Color is what women what....

Black skin is thick and lush, sensuous to the touch, like satin and velvet made flesh. There’s only one patch of skin on a white man’s body that remotely compares to nearly every inch of a black man’s skin. The first time I caressed black skin, it felt like a luxury I shouldn’t be able to afford. I craved it more strongly than Carrie Bradshaw craved Manolo Blahnik shoes. That phrase, “Once you go black, you never go back” is all about the feeling of the skin. 

And I had the socially acceptable explanation for my craving. I used that paucity-of-available-white-partners rationale to explain my relationships with black men for several years. A white girl in her twenties is often passed over by her white-male contemporaries. She goes younger or ethnic or foreign-born or down the socioeconomic scale or darker or she spends lonely nights at home with her books. Black men are happy to get true loyalty and love from a woman of any race. The laws of the marketplace do prevail. It’s not me, it’s them being the white guys who weren’t after me for love but only for sex, which I was taught by my father to only give when received a security of companionship. 

Even in a time when nearly 40 percent of single Americans have dated outside their race, that deliberate seeking of the specific other makes some people, especially black women, damned mad.

Black men are two and a half times more likely to marry a woman that has more than he has, than a white man is to marry a women that has more than he has, But in truth, white men would rather marry a sexually free woman with nothing to offer but porn like sex than a hard working woman willing to give loyalty and a quality life. 

The truth is, more than 60% of white men are lame or corn balls. Then their is another 30% that are freaks, sexual weirdos or just plain scary. Of course you have the last 10% that are just sexy, suave and suave but they only date black girls or woman of ethnic background. This is the reason why some white women would rather date black men! Black men are supportive of all woman maximizing their potential, while white men feel threatened. Men of African decent are more fertile than most races. Men of color also are more pleasing to women in bed. Masculinity of their background is always consistent (thug, prep, rich, poor, etc.) with every step in life.  

Black men have something white guys don’t have. Confidence in their masculinity, their sexuality. They clearly know they’re men. White men appear to be waiting for the latest sociological research study to let them know if they are men or not. 

Yet black men are gentlemen, masculine and leaders something else white men aren't. They make you feel like a woman, both respected and desired. I can let go of my inhibitions, my need to control, when I am with them. How many white men can treat a woman like a lady and ravish her too? 

For example walking down the street with a black man is totally different from walking down the street with a white man. A black man doesn't need the latest car to turn you on, but with white guys it's a little different, they feel to need material things to validate their manhood. What's the point of a mansion and you husband can't command enough respect in the world to protect your home?

Analyze the roots of attractions all you want like scientists have done and you won’t come up with a perfect explanation for why women crave what we do. 

Desire rises from our depths and is gloriously oblivious to the good opinion of others. Yet I have excepted that I have pretended that my attraction was an equal-opportunity craving, because that seemed like the right thing to do.

Katie Brach 

@KatieBrach on twitter and instagram

Chris Brown.... Bad Boy or just needs guidance?

The singer was locked up on a probation violation warrant Friday after he was booted from a court-ordered drug rehab program for undisclosed reasons.

When his probation for the 2009 beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna was revoked in November, the judge allowed Brown, 24, to enter a Malibu rehab facility instead of the Los Angeles County jail. His ejection from rehab after four months left jail as the only alternative.

If attorney Mark Geragos is unsuccessful in persuading Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin to set Brown free at a hearing Monday afternoon, it is likely he will remain in jail until the next hearing on April 23.

Brown was "cooperative when taken into custody" as he was picked up from the facility and taken to the Los Angeles County men's central jail Friday afternoon, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's statement said.

Brown's legal troubles began five years ago, when he beat Rihanna as the two sat in a rented Lamborghini on a Hollywood street. He pleaded guilty to felony assault in June 2009, which resulted in a sentence of five years of probation and 1,400 hours of community labor.

The judge has revoked Brown's probation twice in the past year, most recently because of his arrest on a sidewalk near the White House after allegedly punching a man.

Brown voluntarily entered a rehab program a day after being released from a Washington jail in October, but he was kicked out a few days later for "throwing a rock through his mother's car window" after a family session at the center, a probation report said. Brown was upset because his mother said she wanted him to stay in treatment, the report said.

"Mr. Brown proceeded to walk outside and pick up a rock and threw it through his mother's car window and it shattered," according to letter from the rehab center included in the probation report.

His probation was revoked in November, but the judge allowed him to stay out of jail by entering a 90-day anger management and drug rehab program. Although he completed that program last month, the judge ordered him to remain a resident at the Malibu treatment facility until a hearing April 23.

Does he need a helping hand or is he a lost soul? 

James Neal