WOW! Chris Tucker Now Owes Over 12 Million in Taxes
Wednesday, 22 February 2012 06:46 | |
Comedian Chris Tucker doesn’t have a lot to laugh about these days considering Uncle Sam and the Peach state are after him big time.
Georgia is now getting in on the act for a 2007 tax lien and has reportedly added yet another $592.594.82 to the actor’s already whopping IRS debt of $11,571,909.26 reports TMZ.
Tucker owes the feds taxes for 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006 and even got rid of two Florida homes to help lessen the debt. Last October, Tucker unloaded one of his Florida homes for $1,050,000 even though the asking price on it was $1.5 million. Before the bank planned to foreclose on his 8,861 square foot Lake County, Florida home back in November of last year, Tucker had a short sale on it and sold the mansion for a reported $2 million even though he still owed $4.4 million on it.
Back in 2001, the funnyman reportedly took in a $20 million payday for “Rush Hour 2″ and scored $25 million for “Rush Hour 3″ which hit theaters in 2007. Now there is talk that Tucker might resurrect his role in Ice Cube’s “Friday” movie franchise which could also help chip away at his compounding tax debt.
Tucker’s tax situation is similar to what actor Nicholas Cage went through about two years ago when the IRS came gunning after him. Cage owed roughly $14 million in back taxes for apparently living way beyond his means. He actually had a head spinning-treasure trove — over two dozen homes, a castle, two Bahamian islands, Gulfstream jet, dinosaur skulls, shrunken heads, at least 50 expensive cars, two yachts, 18 motorcycles. The lavish spending seemed endless and the actor had to sell off properties, businesses, cars and yachts in order to pay down his mountainous debt with the feds.
More than 20 years after he last played pro basketball, former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson is ready for a whole new game: running his own TV network.
The Hall of Famer, who has become a successful business mogul, is preparing to launch Aspire, a 24-hour channel with a focus on what Johnson called positive, uplifting images of African-Americans. The basic cable outlet will join other channels targeting black viewers, such as BET and TV One, and will offer opportunities for blacks who have struggled to find work in mainstream Hollywood.
“This is so exciting for me, I’m pinching myself,” Johnson said in a phone interview. “This is big for myself, for the African-American community and the African-American creative community. I wanted a vehicle to show positive images and to have stories written, produced and directed by African-Americans for our community. Aspire — that’s how I’ve been leading my life.”
Aspire’s mix will include film, TV, music and comedy, with a combination of acquired projects and original programming. “There will some performing arts and shows about faith,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s entry into the television arena comes courtesy of communications giant Comcast Corp. as part of its agreement with the FCC and Department of Justice to diversify the cable landscape. Comcast agreed last year to launch 10 new independently owned cable channels, with most backed by African-Americans and Latinos, by 2018. Johnson’s channel is scheduled to be the first.
Comcast’s obligation to support minority-owned channels came after a bruising yearlong federal review of the Philadelphia cable company’s acquisition of NBCUniversal, which includes the NBC broadcast network, NBC television stations, Universal Studios, Universal Pictures, cable channels USA, Bravo, Syfy, MSNBC and CNBC and Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo.
During the extensive review process, which spanned all of 2010, executives were called before Congress to defend the merger. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., was particularly tenacious in her grilling of NBCUniversal and Comcast officers, questioning their commitment to hiring and advancing minorities.
With Aspire, which is scheduled for a June 30 launch, Johnson becomes the second A-list celebrity to launch a network in the last two years. Oprah Winfrey established OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network as a vehicle for her philosophy of inspiration and personal empowerment. But OWN has struggled ever since its January 2011 launch, failing to develop any shows or projects that have attracted large audiences.
Johnson is aware of the risks: “We’ll learn from those who have gone before us. We understand the landscape, and we will run a sound business.”
A little more than two decades ago, Johnson announced he was retiring from basketball after testing positive for HIV.
A little more than two decades ago, Johnson announced he was retiring from basketball after testing positive for HIV. The news shocked and saddened fans who saw the point guard — an Olympic gold medal “Dream Team” player and three-time National Basketball Association MVP — as one of the world’s most popular and successful athletes.
Since then, Johnson, now 52, has achieved great success off the court, overseeing a vast empire of fitness centers, restaurants and other businesses. He has run a large charitable foundation and pumped millions of dollars into inner-city neighborhoods with a variety of establishments under the Magic Johnson Enterprises umbrella.
He recently made a multimillion-dollar investment to become chairman of Vibe Holdings, the New York parent company of Vibe magazine and the “Soul Train” dance series. Magic Johnson Enterprises also has an interest in Inner City Broadcasting, a group of 17 radio stations that includes the largest urban station in New York.
Owning and running a channel seemed like the next logical move for Johnson, who majored in communications studies during his time at Michigan State University: “Once we got into this whole new media space, we were thinking, ‘Now how do we get a television station?’” When Johnson learned that Comcast was accepting proposals, he immediately threw his hat into the ring. “We wanted to be the first one.”
Launching a cable channel takes considerable investment — in some cases, as much as $100 million. Johnson declined to discuss the financial details, although the venture will be paid for through a combination of personal and private equity funds.
Aspire will have headquarters in Atlanta and will partner with GMC, a regional cable channel that offers uplifting programming. The channel Aspire initially will be available in 11 million of Comcast Cable customers’ homes. Johnson hopes to expand the network to other cable providers to reach about 50 million homes within a few years.
Johnson will be the chief executive of Aspire, while Eric Holoman, the president of Magic Johnson Enterprises, will be chief operating officer.
An executive to run the channel is being sought. Johnson will not have much involvement with programming: “I’m not going to be picking shows. That’s not what I do.”
And even though Johnson may pop up on Aspire from time to time, one show is definitely off the table: a return of “The Magic Hour,” Johnson’s 1998 talk show, which was plagued by low ratings and less-than-flattering reviews.
Said Johnson with a huge laugh: “‘The Magic Hour’ is long gone.”
U.S. Supreme Court will revisit race in college admissions
Wednesday, 22 February 2012 06:22 | |
The New York Times is reporting that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to revisit race in higher education admissions.
In the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision, the court, in a 5-4 vote, upheld the affirmative action admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School, saying that the Constitution “does not prohibit the law school’s narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.”
But the court decision made clear that race had to be treated as a “plus” factor rather than as the sole factor and that quotas were illegal:
The Law School’s admissions program bears the hallmarks of a narrowly tailored plan. To be narrowly tailored, a race-conscious admissions program cannot “insulat[e] each category of applicants with certain desired qualifications from competition with all other applicants.” Instead, it may consider race or ethnicity only as a “ ‘plus’ in a particular applicant’s file”; i.e., it must be “flexible enough to consider all pertinent elements of diversity in light of the particular qualifications of each applicant, and to place them on the same footing for consideration, although not necessarily according them the same weight,” It follows that universities cannot establish quotas for members of certain racial or ethnic groups or put them on separate admissions tracks.
The Supreme Court has changed since Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the majority opinion in Grutter, and it’s likely that current members of court will look askance at affirmative action in admissions.
According to the Times:
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has been particularly skeptical of government programs that take account of race. “Racial balancing is not transformed from ‘patently unconstitutional’ to a compelling state interest simply by relabeling it ‘racial diversity,’ ” he wrote, for instance, in a 2007 decision limiting the use of race to achieve integration in public schools. Justices Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas agreed. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the court’s swing justice, was less categorical. But he has never voted to uphold an affirmative action program.
The new case, Fisher v. Texas, No. 11-345, was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white student who said she was denied admission to the University of Texas because of her race. The case has idiosyncrasies that may limit its reach, but it also has the potential to eliminate diversity as a rationale sufficient to justify any use of race in admissions decisions.
Students in the top 10 percent of Texas high schools are automatically admitted to the public university system. Ms. Fisher just missed that cutoff at her high school in Sugar Land, Tex. She sued in 2008, challenging the way the state allocated the remaining spots using a complicated system in which race plays an unquantified but significant role.
Ms. Fisher is soon to graduate from Louisiana State University. Lawyers for the University of Texas said that meant she had no standing to sue, an issue that the justices must now consider.
Franklin Graham Calls Obama's Religious Beliefs Into Question
Wednesday, 22 February 2012 06:10 | |
Evangelist Franklin Graham called President Barack Obama's religious views into question on Tuesday, stating that he does not know for sure if Obama is a Christian.
Graham, who is the son of Billy Graham and the CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Obama "has said he's a Christian, so I just have to assume that he is."
"All I know is I'm a sinner, and God has forgiven me of my sins... you have to ask every person," he said about whether he could say for sure that Obama is indeed of the Christian faith.
However, when asked about GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum's religion, Graham gave a much more concrete answer.
"I think so," Graham said when asked if he believes Santorum is a Christian. "His values are so clear on moral issues. No question about it... I think he's a man of faith."
MSNBC's panelists questioned the reverend's double standard, but Graham continued to draw distinctions between the candidates on the issue of faith. On Mitt Romney, Graham was again evasive, stating that "most Christians would not recognize Mormonism as part of the Christian faith."
But Graham was more willing to label Newt Gingrich's faith. "Newt's been married several times... but he could make a good candidate," Graham said. "I think Newt is a Christian. At least he told me he is."
Later in the segment, Graham also said he could not be sure that Obama was not a Muslim.
"All I know is under Obama, President Obama, the Muslims of the world, he seems to be more concerned about them than the Christians that are being murdered in the Muslim countries," he said.
He continued, "Islam sees him as a son of Islam... I can't say categorically that [Obama is not Muslim] because Islam has gotten a free pass under Obama."
Graham drew the criticism of the White House last spring when he suggested in an interview with ABC that Obama had not been born in the United States.
During that same interview, Graham also questioned whether Obama's actions and values matched up with his identification as a Christian.
"Now he has told me that he is a Christian. But the debate comes, what is a Christian?" Graham said of Obama. "For him, going to church means he's a Christian. For me, the definition of a Christian is whether we have given our life to Christ and are following him in faith and we have trusted him as our lord and savior.
Melissa Harris-Perry: The Media Suffers From 'Premature Speculation'
Tuesday, 21 February 2012 03:54 | |
MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry gave viewers a sharp critique of the media during the debut weekend of her self-titled show.
The network announced the addition of "Melissa Harris-Perry" last month and a restructuring of its weekend coverage. Harris-Perry was a frequent contributor on the network, with guest appearances on "The Rachel Maddow Show" and Al Sharpton's "PoliticsNation." She also served as a substitute host for both Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell. The network awarded her with her own weekend show, which airs on both Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Harris-Perry is also a columnist for The Nation and a professor at Tulane University.
During her Sunday show, Harris-Perry discussed what she called "a dirty little secret" that those who cover "horse-race politics" like to keep under wraps. "We are suffering from premature speculation," Harris-Perry said. The 2012 Republican primary race has taken many sharp twists and turns. Harris-Perry showed headlines from leading news organizations that reflected the Republican primary's constant change of course. Headlines read "Herman Cain, Frontrunner," to "Another Poll Confirms Trump As Republican Frontrunner," to "Ingraham: Perry Should Drop Out."
"Headlines like these...expose the media for its secret desire to skip the foreplay and get right to the main event," Harris-Perry said. "And it's all left me very frustrated."
Harris-Perry discussed what she referred to as the pressure media outlets feel to keep viewers and readers engaged, but wondered if what she called the media's "premature speculation" was in fact hurting the election process. "Now I know we are all servants to the insatiable appetite of the news monster...We have to keep you watching and reading, our lives and livelihoods depend on it," she said. Harris-Perry wondered, however, "What's the rush? Why can't we just let democracy happen?"
What Does President Obama's Budget Mean for Black Americans?
Tuesday, 21 February 2012 03:44 | |
As is the case with pretty much everything that happens in an election year, President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget proposal is more political statement than actual policy. Much of what is included in the 220 page, $3.8 trillion proposal is a rehash of what appeared in the American Jobs Act he sent to Congress in the fall of 2011. Like that bill, this budget is not likely to pass. Still it’s worth investing to see the specifics of the president’s priorities during his re-election campaign.
Building on the main thrust of his State of the Union address, Obama’s budget focuses on fairness in taxation, seeking to implement the “Buffett rule” for millionaires that would impose a 30% tax on those making $1 million or more, a measure that has been a non-negotiable with his Republican opposition. The other major point is to the create jobs. After 23 months of continuous job growth, amounting to 3.7 million private sector jobs created, and a recent dip to an 8.3% national unemployment rate, the economy looks to finally be in recovery with a economists more optimistic about the future. There still isn’t full-employment, and millions of those falling in the 8.3% are long-term unemployed. Obama’s budget addresses the need for jobs through investment in infrastructure, calling for $50 billion in spending in 2012 as well as an additional $476 billion to improve U.S. highway, transit, rail, airport, and air traffic control systems in the future.
Also a major proponent of this budget proposal is spending on education. The Obama administration proposes to prime the pump on their controversial Race to the Top program with $850 million. The program has come under fire for awarding grants based on performance, which may then leave lesser performing schools behind and also creates a competition for what, many view as, a basic right. Obama is also focusing on expanding access and reducing the cost of college education, in part by making permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit, a “partially refundable tax credit worth up to $10,000 per student over four years of college.”
Though most of the budget fits Obama’s “a rising tide lifts all boats” mantra for economic recovery, there are some proposals for spending that would directly impact Black people. Included in the budget is a 4% increase for the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission in order to strengthen anti-discrimination enforcement. There is also $831 million for the Department of Justice’s prisoner re-entry program. As Black people are over-represented in the prison population, this would most certainly be a boon for the Black community. In a more ceremonial proposal, Obama has called for $85 million to continue construction of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
What isn’t addressed is the loss of public sector jobs that has hit Black people the hardest. Black women, the group hardest hit during the recession, have not fared better during the recovery, losing more jobs (258,000) during the time of recovery than they did over the course of the recession (233,000). Black unemployment saw an unexpected and sharp decrease in February, going from close to 16% to just under 14%, but it still hovers far above the national average. Cuts intended to shrink the size of government could wind up hurting Black people disproportionately.
There are other provisions that provide for revitalization of urban neighborhoods, affordable rent, home ownership, and improving nutrition and access to healthy foods that are desperately needed in Black communities. While it is still unlikely that Obama will mention race explicitly on the campaign trail, as it would not be politically expedient, his budget proposal at least recognizes he understands issues facing Black America and will put them on the table in his quest for a second term.
