Like many of us still can't believe our eyes, understand just how unreal this seems to every little black boy and how they now see themselves, every day for the rest of their lives. That's what change means...
Recent photo of a little boy visiting the White House. He wanted to feel Obama's hair because he wanted to know if the President's hair felt just like his. Obama obliged. Priceless.
Sunday June 28, 2009, 7:02 AM
Is it the weather or the economy keeping Jersey Shore rentals vacant? Both have been dreary, but only one has a shot of turning around within 24 hours.
Homeowners hope the sun will finally show up for good and prompt the untanned masses to pick up their phones and look for last-minute deals -- of which there are plenty.
Lisa Fleisher/The Star-LedgerSilvine Felicio cleans this Monmouth Beach mansion twice a week. After the house sat on the market, now at $2.9 million, down from $3.4 million, the owner rented it out for the summer for $50,000. The price includes the cost to furnish the place.
"Some owners are saying, 'I still have Fourth of July open,' and that was never the case before," said Maria Kirk, owner of shoresummerrentals.com which lists rentals. "Most of my owners are really happy, saying they're really booked, but some have a couple weeks left, and they're offering specials."
With vacationers across America committing ever-later to travel arrangements, real estate agents and tourism officials say it's still too early to tell whether the summer business season will be as washed out as the beach was in June. To try to fill in those few empty weeks, owners are willing to negotiate or are even starting out at lower rental rates.
Jimmy Brusca is offering a $100 discount off his weekly rate of $1,690 for a house in Lavallette to get that last week in August wrapped up.
"Usually we're booked by March," he said. "It's already June."
After a strong spring rental market, things have cooled off instead of heated up, said Barbara Shirvanian, the owner of Shore Homes in Monmouth Beach. She worries some properties have reached the point of no return.
"The leftovers won't get rented," she said. "It will be more difficult."
After all, who thinks about renting a beach house while huddling under umbrellas or sitting behind windshield wipers? So far, June has not dangled summer in front of children stuck behind desks or workers in front of computers.
Some parts of the shore have seen more than six inches of rain so far this month, almost three times as much as usual, according to the National Weather Service.
Beach local Lesly Ferreira, 30, of Long Branch, just picked up her $35 season pass to the beach Wednesday, the latest she'd ever waited to get one, she said.
"Last year, we were already tan, ready to go, had been to the beach a million times," she said.
The town is feeling the slump in daily and seasonal ticket sales, which are off more than $61,500. With no one to sell to, the town's ticket booths closed early three days and didn't even bother opening twice, beach manager Danny George said.
Daily beach passes, which sell for $5, are down by almost half -- from $103,995 last year to $52,570 this year, George said. Even in this budget-conscious time, when amusements across the country say they've seen more season ticket sales, revenue from the season passes are down to $83,755, from $93,800.
Even lifeguards are aching for some type of action.
"The weather's so iffy and disgusting out lately," said Mike Wilbur, 19, who has been a lifeguard in Long Branch for five years. "I don't think I've ever seen a June like this."
The rain hasn't kept Jill Kwiecinski's three daughters out of the surf. In fact, the Jackson residents will get to enjoy more action at their Bradley Beach rental because they were able to afford two months this year instead of one. "We've had our choice of rentals this year," she said.
The doleful housing market has pushed would-be sellers to put their homes up for rent, agents say.
Shirvanian, of Shore Homes, said a mansion for sale in Monmouth Beach had sat on the market for a year while the asking price dropped from $3.4 million to $2.9 million. A deal fell apart in April, so Shirvanian rented furniture and got professionals from Hoboken in for the summer.
She shaved $10,000 off the $60,000 price the place could have pulled in, hoping the renters will want to become owners. "That's the idea," she said.
Jim Flynn says the property he's owned in Long Beach Island since 1998 is off 30 percent from most summers, but he is optimistic.
"When the weather gets sunnier, which it probably will be this weekend, people will say, 'Gee, I really want to get to the beach,' " Flynn said.
Keep up with the latest in real estate nj.com/business/nj-real-estate
See more in Business, Economy, Environment, Jersey Shore, Monmouth County, Must-See Stories, Ocean County, Real estate
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Friday June 26, 2009, 6:09 PM
The National Weather Service has issued multiple severe weather warnings tonight for several counties in Northern New Jersey that will remain in effect until 10 p.m. tonight.
Officials issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Passaic, Essex, Hudson and Union counties. The storms could produce heavy downpours, hail, strong wind gusts and frequent lightning. Heavy rainfall is likely to reduce visibility and could cause flooding on streets and highways.
Tyson Trish/The RecordA June 15 thunderstorm dumped a large amount of hail on Bergen County, forcing these people to break out their snow shovels in early summer.
A separate thunderstorm warning for Bergen County forecasts up to 1.5 inches of rainfall that could cause street flooding and poor drainage areas. Winds could reach speeds of 50 miles per hour. The storm could also produce small amounts of hail in the area.
A pair of severe thunderstorm warnings, issued for Sussex and Warren Counties at 4:32 p.m., predict damaging winds of up to 60 miles per hour, quarter sized hail and frequent lightning.
The warnings for all counties advise people to stay inside and avoid unnecessary travel.
See more in Essex County, Hudson County, News, Passaic County, Union County, Weather
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Sunday June 28, 2009, 8:41 PM
NEWARK -- Two deadly shootings in the city during the weekend have left families and neighbors grief-stricken and frustrated by the city's latest street violence.
"It's just craziness," said Sharonda Melvin, whose 17-year-old son, Nareek Dozier, was shot numerous times in the torso at 5:45 p.m. Saturday at West Kinney Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. A 19-year-old man wounded in the leg during the shooting is expected to recover, authorities said.
Matt Rainey/The Star-LedgerSharonda Melvin, the mother of a 17-year-old killed Saturday at Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Kinney St. in Newark, holds a picture of him as an eighth grader today at home. She is surrounded by family members including the victim's cousin Angela Gainer (left) and Aunt Sharon Melvin (right).
"Our young boys are dying," said Sharon Melvin, Dozier's aunt. "They're not being given a chance. It's the anger. I don't understand why they are so angry."
Within hours of Dozier being pronounced dead at University Hospital, a second shooting killed Tarrence Hudgins, 21, at 18th and Sunset avenues at about 7 a.m. Hudgins, who was shot in the chest and buttocks, was pronounced dead at the same Newark hospital, police said.
"My brother was shot dead right there," Sean Hudgins said as he walked through the intersection where the killing was marked only by a scrap of yellow plastic police tape trapped in a sewer grate. He said his brother had helped him celebrate his birthday only three days ago. "There's nothing more to say."
Matt Rainey/The Star-LedgerSean Hudgins (center), the brother of Terrence Hudgins, a shooting victim, was comforted today by Capt. Vangerl Dupigny of the Salvation Army (left), and family friend Rashonna Bryant (right), less than a block from where Mr. Hudgins' brother was allegedly shot and killed.
Newark Detective Todd McClendon said the slayings were they city's 32nd and 33rd reported this year. At this time last year, he said, 30 homicides had been reported in Newark.
No suspects or motives were identified in the shootings, and there were no indications they were connected, McClendon said. But in the neighborhoods where the killings occurred, residents muttered their suspicions that the violence was gang-related.
Dozier was an aspiring boxer who intended to get a commercial driver's license after he completed summer courses needed to graduated from Malcolm X. Shabazz High School, his mother said.
"He was so eager to graduate," said Melvin, who makes a living entertaining children as a clown and was leaving her home at Oscar Miles Village for a birthday party when she found out her son had been shot.
Before he was killed, Dozier was coming home from downtown Newark carrying shopping bags of T-shirts, socks and other items he had bought, Melvin said. The grieving mother said she believed her son's shooting was the result of an ongoing dispute that escalated on Saturday.
"My son knew the guy," Melvin said, stopping short of identifying a killer. "He went to school with him."
Hudgins' mother, Sharon, who moved to Syracuse, N.Y., about 18 months ago, returned today to the Newark neighborhood near the Irvington border where her son died, said Vangerl Dupigny, a family friend and a captain at the Salvation Army's urban ministry center on Brookdale Street.
Dupigny was among those who tearfully embraced Hudgins' brother when he came to the crime scene. They described Hudgins as an early riser, who took walks around the neighborhood in the morning.
Dupigny said the neighborhood was getting increasingly rough in recent weeks -- her own 27-year-old son was jumped two weeks ago, she said. But Hudgins and his brother had avoided the problems the streets can bring.
"This is definitely Bloods territory," Dupigny said. "They ain't really like drug dealing boys. They're little boys."
Below the street sign, a memorial to Dozier today included inscriptions, signatures and hearts penned in blue ink. "Gone but not forgotten" and "The good die young" were among the writings.
From her doorstep, Melvin urged people to set fears of repercussion aside and come forward with information about her son's death.
"When are we going to stop being scared -- scared to come forward and testify?" she asked.
Anyone with information about the slayings or other crimes is urged to make an anonymous call to (877) NWK-TIPS, (877) 695-8477, or (877) NWK-GUNS, (877) 695-4867.
See more in Crime/Courts, Editors' Picks, Must-See Stories, Newark law and order, News
NEWARK -- Washington Florist on Broad Street in Newark has probably seen it all as a family business. The store, next to Washington Park, is home to tales as colorful as the flowers it has sold in its 103 years.
Gangster Dutch Schultz bought his gardenias there in the 1930s and was killed a few blocks away at the old Palace Chop House and Tavern. More recent celebrities such as Queen Latifah, Jon Voight, Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick have all been customers.
John O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerLeon Zois, owner of Washington Florist, inside the front display window of his store on Broad Street in Newark. The florist has been in business since 1906.
Angry wives, however, have no need for flowers. They have come to the shop demanding the name and addresses of their husband's girlfriends when the store's name showed up on the credit card bill. A corrections officer needed information, too. She became unnerved when she learned a former inmate was sending her flowers at the prison.
And you thought this florist just sold bouquets, right?
They're not doctors or lawyers exercising confidentiality, but the Zois family has had to respect customer privacy, even when a man called up and threatened them. He blamed the store because the three women he was dating found out about each other.
Nothing became of his intimidation, but that situation was just as scary to the florists as when two street gang members were killed by their rivals in the 1960s. The feud could have continued at the flower shop, but the gangs missed seeing one another when they came in at separate times to have a panel of flowers made bearing the gang emblems for their lost comrades.
Washington Florist has created arrangements for every occasion, some more unusual than the traditional wedding and funeral centerpieces.
They've done Cadillacs, a telephone and a Lucky Strike cigarette box. They even designed a Chinese pagoda bear they almost were unable to get past the front door. Inside the store, every inch is adorned with flowers, balloons, flags and floral supplies, family photos and Avon products they've been selling.
There's a bunny rabbit in the store window with an Uncle Sam hat on its ear and cemetery bouquets. Just above the window, the name of the store is written in script with fluorescent lighting. It appears again on a gold sign with black letters that says 1906, the year the store opened for business.
The flower shop, believed to be the oldest in the city, has stayed in the family all these years. Leon Zois who took over from his father, William, remembers peddling roses -- three for a dime -- in front of the Hahnes Building on Broad Street.
He had to back then to help his dad when the stock market crashed leading into the Great Depression. Times were tough. Banks collapsed, and many families were penniless. Needless to say, customers were not walking into the flower shop named after Washington Park next door.
Just to survive, young Zois had to pitch in, too. He sold as many flowers on the street as he could until the police took his basket of roses and chased him away. In a way, he was an early street vendor before going off to fight in World War II, his service to this country continuing then as a member of an auxiliary Coast Guard unit.
After a century of flowers and adventure, the store is on the same block and still adjacent to the park. The family believes its name, service and loyal customers have kept them afloat. And Zois, like his father, hasn't changed, either. He's always there, overseeing what needs to be done, even though he's kind of turned the business over to his daughters, Athena Zois and Peggy Capko.
At 89, Zois could slow down, but he doesn't.
"I could've done something else, but we're family," he said. "Families stick together.''
He comes to work every day, leaving his home in Nutley to put together a floral arrangement if necessary. On Sundays, he'll make deliveries in the company van. He can't be away for long unless it's doctor's orders. A sinus infection kept him home for a week this year, and he could barely stand the separation.
"He was counting down the days until he could come back," Capko said. "It (store) is what keeps him going."
Just the other day, after taking his wife, Bessie, of 52 years to a doctor's appointment, Zois called the shop to see how things were going. He wanted to come back, but his daughters had everything under control.
He taught them well, as his father taught him and other family members who came over from Greece. At one time, the store had 36 employees, many of them relatives who learned the craft and ventured out to start their own stores outside Newark. It's not certain if the fourth generation of family members will take over, but Zois' granddaughter helps out now just as everyone has in the past.
How can you blame him for not wanting to be here? There's family history, his life. It's filled with tons of stories of people and characters who have passed through the store over the years. Schultz, a New York gangster, set up shop in Newark in the 1935 and stayed at the Robert Treat Hotel.
Zois remembers seeing Schultz around town. He ate at the Palace Chop House, bought cigars at a local cigar shop and came into his store from time to time for fresh gardenias.
"He would come in, buy his flower and say hello,'' Zois. "He was just a regular guy to me."
Most of his customers are everyday folk, and when they stop by, it's not even to buy flowers. They are looking for "Tiger," the family cat the Zoises inherited from the owner of a store on the block that went out of business. The feline just roams the store, but can often be seen in the front window display lying there in his bed.
"We don't know what he's doing in the window," Athena said. "This cat is so popular. People love him."
Then there's the story of an elderly gentleman, a recluse of sorts, who used to come in to eat whatever the Zois family prepared when it cooked in the back of the store. He was hunched over and would dunk the bread in homemade soup so it would be soft enough to eat. He had no teeth.
If it wasn't someone like him, then there were people who refused to take flowers delivered to them and procrastinators trying to place a last-minute order on Valentine's Day.
But one of the most memorable anecdotes, one that has a fairy-tale thread, centers on Zois. He proposed to his wife at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, then decorated the church for the wedding with flowers from the store.
That's been his life. The store, the flowers, his family.
"What else is there,'' he said.
June 29, 2009, 2:25 pmAndrea Mohin/The New York Times The final Saturday of last year’s Summer Streets program, when cyclists and pedestrians controlled a roadway usually dominated by vehicles.
Traffic on Park Avenue may seem slower in August than the rest of the year. But traffic on the avenue will literally stop for three Saturdays this year, as the city shuts down 6.9 miles of a Manhattan roadway in a reprise of last year’s Summer Streets program.
Inspired by a 1970s recreational experiment in Bogotá, Colombia, the program attracted 50,000 bicyclists and pedestrians last year on a path that extended from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 72nd Street. This year’s events will take place on Aug. 8, 15 and 22 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The city has also expanded the program to smaller stretches of the outer boroughs, hitting a total of 13 neighborhoods.
The street shutdowns will be staggered throughout the summer. For example, five blocks of Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, will be shut this Saturday as well as on July 11, while a stretch of Van Duzer Street in Staten Island will close on Aug. 1, 8, 15 and 22. A full list of the program, called “Weekend Walks,” can be found on the city’s Web site [pdf].
The project is another initiative by the city’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, who has led a veritable annexing campaign that has walled off automobiles from large swaths of Manhattan, opening up public space in Times Square, Herald Square and along Broadway and Ninth Avenue.
Ms. Sadik-Khan said she hoped the Summer Streets program would become a regular event for New Yorkers, “right up there with the New York City Marathon and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”
June 30, 2009
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday, in a case with enormous implications for workplaces across the country, that white firefighters in New Haven suffered unfair discrimination because of their race when the city scrapped the results of a promotional exam.
“The city’s action in discarding the tests violated Title VII,” the court held in a 5-to-4 decision, referring to a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The majority said the city’s fundamental arguments were “blatantly contradicted by the record.”
Monday’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, No. 07-1428, came on the last day of the court’s term and was one of the most closely watched discrimination cases in years. The ruling is sure to be closely studied by personnel departments and their lawyers for indications of how far employers can go, and under what circumstances, in considering race in decisions on hiring and promotion.
And while the case concerned public employees, the ruling is also likely to affect private employers, since Title VII of the Civil Rights Act covers private employers as well as public ones, according to Prof. Sheila Foster of Fordham Law School and other attorneys who specialize in labor and employment law.
“This decision will change the landscape of civil rights law,” said Professor Foster, who teaches anti-discrimination Law and has been involved in litigating cases under the Civil Rights Act.
Daniel P. Westman, a Washington-area lawyer who works extensively in labor and employment law, said: “This is a ruling that every business covered by Title VII will need to take into account. Some companies may have thought this was just a public sector firefighter case that would not apply outside the government employment context, but that is not the case.” Mr. Westman said the decision could affect hiring, firing and discipline in the workplace, as well as promotions.
The New Haven case was rooted in tests given in 2003 for promotion to lieutenant and captain. The exams yielded no black firefighters eligible for advancement, prompting the city to throw out the results and promote no one. That move, in turn, triggered a lawsuit by 18 white firefighters, one of them Hispanic, who claimed racial discrimination, or what is often termed “reverse discrimination.”
The ruling reverses a federal district court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which had found in favor of the city, and sends the case back to the lower courts for further action. (Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, had ruled in the city’s favor as a Second Circuit judge.)
The ruling on Monday, written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, acknowledged that the city faced a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation, as Justice David H. Souter put it when the case was argued on April 22. That is, if the city had allowed the promotional exam to stand, it would have faced a lawsuit from black firefighters.
But the city’s dilemma did not justify scrapping the exam results, Justice Kennedy wrote, in a conclusion also embraced by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
“Fear of litigation alone cannot justify the city’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions,” the majority said.
The white firefighters had contended that the city’s action also violated their rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. But the court said it did not have to address that allegation once it found against the city under the Civil Rights Act.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a dissent joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen G. Breyer and Souter, taking part in his last opinion before he retires from the court. Justice Ginsburg read her dissent from the bench, a clear signal of her deep disagreement with the majority.
“It took decades of persistent effort, advanced by Title VII litigation, to open firefighting posts to members of racial minorities,” she said. Moreover, she said, contrary to the majority’s finding, there was “substantial evidence of multiple flaws in the tests New Haven used.”
“Firefighting is a profession in which the legacy of racial discrimination casts an especially long shadow,” Justice Ginsburg observed, alluding to a report by the United States Civil Rights Commission in the early 1970’s finding racial discrimination in municipal employment even “more pervasive than in the private sector.”
The terms “disparate treatment” and “disparate impact” were crucial to the New Haven case. As originally enacted in 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act held employers liable only for disparate treatment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
But in a 1971 case, Griggs v. Duke Power Company, the Supreme Court interpreted Title VII as prohibiting, in some cases, employer practices that were neutral on their face but discriminatory in operation. These “disparate impact” practices are to be prohibited if the employer cannot show that they arise from “business necessity.”
Notwithstanding Justice Souter’s “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” observation when the case was argued, the majority concluded on Monday that the City of New Haven “cannot meet that threshold standard” of showing that it would have been liable to a suit under the “disparate impact” principle.
This article is about the American salesman. For the Welsh football (soccer) player, see Billy Mays (footballer). For the American baseball player, see Willie Mays. For the composer, see Billy May.
This article is about a person who has recently died. Some information, such as that pertaining to the circumstances of the person's death and surrounding events, may change rapidly as more facts become known.
Billy Mays
Born
William Darrell Mays, Jr.
July 20, 1958(1958-07-20)[1]
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died
June 28, 2009 (aged 50)
Odessa, Florida, U.S.
Other names
Billy Mays
Occupation
Television direct-response advertisement salesman
Years active
1993–2009
Home town
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania
Spouse(s)
Deborah Mays [2]
William Darrell "Billy" Mays, Jr. (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009)[3] was a television direct-response advertisement salesperson most notable for promoting OxiClean, Orange Glo, and other cleaning, home-based, and maintenance products. His distinctive beard and loud sales pitches made him a recognized television presence.[4]
Mays was born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, and began his career as salesman on the Atlantic City boardwalk. He travelled across the United States for 12 years, selling various items before he was hired to sell OxiClean and other products on the Home Shopping Network. His success as a TV pitchman led him to found Mays Promotions, Inc. On April 15, 2009, the Discovery Channel began airing Pitchmen, a documentary series that featured Mays. On the morning of June 28, 2009, Mays was found dead in his home by his wife.
Mays was born on July 20, 1958 and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He later dropped out of West Virginia University and worked for his father's hazardous waste company before moving to Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was taught how to sell by the older salesmen in Atlantic City, saying "I was taught to pitch by a lot of old pitchmen. That's the kind of style I have."[1] On the Atlantic City boardwalk he sold the Washmatik portable washing device to passersby,[5] along with other "As Seen on TV" products.[1]
Mays later traveled to home shows, auto shows, and state fairs across the United States for a period of twelve years, selling various maintenance products and tools, including cleaning products and food choppers.[5]
At a Pittsburgh home show in 1993, Mays struck up a friendship with rival salesman Max Appel, founder of Orange Glo International, a Denver-based manufacturer of cleaning products. He was then hired by the company to promote their line of cleaners, OxiClean, Orange Clean, Orange Glo, and Kaboom on the Home Shopping Network in St. Petersburg, Florida.[6]
Customer response to Mays' sales pitches was enthusiastic, with a sharp increase in sales after his first day on the network, although some reviews were poor. He was very well known for shouting in an abrasive manner during infomercials. For example, Washington Post staff writer Frank Ahrens called him "a full-volume pitchman, amped up like a candidate for a tranquilizer-gun takedown."[7]
Mays was the CEO and founder of Mays Promotions, Inc., based at his home in Odessa, Florida.[4] His services as a pitchman became highly sought-after, and he appeared in commercials for many diverse "as seen on TV" products such as Mighty Putty. Mays claimed to be an avid user of the products he promoted.[8]
In December 2008, Mays began appearing in ads for ESPN's online service, ESPN360.[9] These ads were a slight departure for Mays as they were designed to be parodies of his and other infomercial cliches with Mays appearing to be doing a parody of himself. He also made a live appearance during the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl promoting ESPN's and ABC's January 1, 2009 bowl games.
Mays resided in Florida in a $1.8 million home which was built in 2005.[10]
In February 2009, Mays publicly challenged Vince Offer to a "pitch-off" between their respective products, the Zorbeez and the Shamwow. Popular Mechanics compared the absorbency of two towel products and declared Shamwow the clear winner.[11]
On April 15, 2009, the Discovery Channel began airing Pitchmen, a documentary series that features Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their jobs in direct response marketing.[12] Mays and Sullivan appeared together on the June 23, 2009 episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.[13]
Wikinews has related news: American pitchman Billy Mays dies at age 50
Mays was found unresponsive by his wife in his Odessa, Florida, home on the morning of June 28, 2009. He was then pronounced dead at 7:45 am, appearing to have died sometime overnight.[3][14] The Associated Press reported that there were no indications that the house had been broken into, and that police did not suspect foul play.[14]
On June 27, Mays had been aboard US Airways Flight 1241,[15] which landed roughly when one of its front tires was blown out. The heavy impact of the landing caused objects from the overhead storage compartments to fall and strike some passengers. Mays told WTVT-TV, a local Tampa Fox news station, that some of the objects "hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."[16] His wife noted that he felt unwell when he went to bed that night. The next morning, he was pronounced dead at 7:45 am by a local fire rescue crew.[14]
On June 29, after an initial autopsy on Mays' body, Dr. Vernard Adams, the Hillsborough County, Florida medical examiner, stated that Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease and that heart disease was the likely cause of his death, though a final determination as to the cause of death would not be made until toxicology and tissue tests were complete. No evidence of interior or exterior head trauma was discovered during the autopsy.[17][18]
Why is this face of the Jackson Family?
I am doing a spell here
Let's banish all old Negroes
These old guys compete with their kids
They are shameless self attention seekers
Let's name a few
Jessie Jackson
Let's banish old Negro men
Time to move on
And why is Old Joe the best spokes man for the family
Let Janet or one of the daughters talk
Oh god not Latoya
But one of the others
Joe please takes a drink and hides some where
I know you are a good man
I think you might be
But please you are hurting your son's image
By looking so
Fucking
Ugly mean and self serving
Sorry I got that out
This is rant day
I just made my magic spell
To banish old Negroes
Oh shit
My feet and arms just vanished
I guess I have to remove myself too………….lol
Ok I have one more question
That has astounded me for years
The Jackson Family
Michael Jermaine, etc
Why are these people so inarticulate?
I don't mean to be a pain
But these are rich worldly people
Who sound like they just crawled out the back woods some place?
Is it only me
Why did Michael who had to have been a genius
Not only with his music
But with Business
I don't care that he lost his money
He made tons of it
He was an icon
Why couldn't he hold a conversation?
Why cant the rest of the family
Don't get mad
It's just an observation
Sorry
Ok Lets talk about Michael
But first we have to talk about black people
I just posted an article titled
“In Jackson’s Death, Black Ambivalence Fades
Now what does this mean?
Firstly let talk about black folks
We talk about every one
And lord knows
When Michael started
Stripping his skin
He left us wondering
NO I don’t think
We wondered if he was still black
NO we are American
We know the one drop rule
We knew what this
Was all about
Michael
Was one of the first to pass into the world
Of white and more
He Stumbled
But, He took the collective Conscience
Of black America unto his self
He did this through his music
He did this through the physical vision
Of what he had become
Ok I am not speaking to all of us
I like my skin color
And thanks to
Stephen Sampson
My racial identity was more than just a bit fine
But Michael
He took straightening of the hair
To the extreme
He just did what Malcolm did
While in prison
When he put that lie in his hair
Then he did what many black were doing in the country
Anyway way
With natanolia, or nutanile
Bleaching their skin
My mother once told me that when
Black kids were born
That many of their mothers would
Take their babies
Young pliable noses
And squeeze them straight
Shape the nose with their fingers
Other mothers would take the babies urine
And spread it around on different
Body parts to lighten the skin
Urine has a bleaching element in it
And its sterile so don’t panic
Anyway
This is a true story for those of you too young
To remember
Yea Michael
Just became the public face
Of a systemically
Confused black America
He wasn’t listening too closely
To James Brown words
Another man who lived a troubled life
But whose blackness was never in dispute
Despite many of the things that he did
That seemed to be contrary to this
James also straightened his hair
But was black as tar baby
So he had no choice
So when Michael
Did all of this we were confused
But not really
We were shocked
But not really
And most of all
We knew he was ill
Knew that any one that hated their skin color
Enough to change it
Had some serious problems
Inside
And at a certain point
We thought that Michael
Was lost to us
But as a race
We know
Just like OJ
Just like Clarence Thomas
He and They will return to the fold before they die
And when they do
And I predict this for Clarence too
We will mourn them
Mourn what America did to them
Was Michael an Uncle Tom?
Not at all
Confused
Hurting inside
And fragile
Yes
Think about some of the crazy stuff Michael did
Look
I didn’t want to mention this
But I will
Michael loved them boys
Now he could have brought his own island
In some dark depressed country
And did what ever he wanted to
Like the Saudi sheiks and other rich crazy people
He could have done this
Out of the light of day
And the prying eyes of the press
But America left his mark
And nothing would do for Michael
But white boys
It was a tell tale sign
Of his perversion
But I think most of all
Of his need
His love of any thing American
How many black guys are dating white woman
Now not because they like them
Not because they found some one
Who they can care for
But because they are simply white
And that white skin renews them
Or feels better to them
So let’s not just talk about Michael
And it’s ok to date any one
Regardless of color
But when you choose a color
Over a sincere desire
You are a product of America
Anyway
I don’t know if this makes sense
But their were many times
That that Michael didn’t
But he was a genius
Stuff that legends are written about
And legends usually die badly
And alone
Like Captain Kirk said
He would did alone
And he did
Michael predicted much of the same thing
Michael was and is a black man
Who expressed more clearly than most
The hurtful reminders of slavery
And misdirection
And self hatred
If you couldn’t see the beauty of the violence in his dance
The transformation of Michael on stage
To the wimpy little creature
That spoke in public
You were missing it
Anyway
He was one of us
And although some may think that
This is not so
Michael never left the fold
He just took a short vacation
Black people talk about every one
Why would Michael be immune?
That’s what we do
We can say things that are really really racist
About ourselves and about others
But
Our intent is much different
It cultural I think
Sitting around with nothing to do
But play the dozens…………………
It’s what we do
Anyway
That black community has always
Welcomed
Any one who by default
Wanted to join it
So Michael
I can’t write a poem about you yet
I am still too stunned
Not by your death
But by what I want to say
Still to stunned by so many leaving at once
But ill get to it
Let me think on this for a minute
Posted in: Stuff Kevin Wrote
June 29, 2009
By MARCUS MABRY
Jamie Foxx, the host of the Black Entertainment Television music awards, was unequivocal on Sunday night.
“We want to celebrate this black man,” Mr. Foxx said of Michael Jackson. “He belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else.”
Around the world, Mr. Jackson was celebrated Sunday, but there was a special fervor in black neighborhoods and churches.
At the First African Methodist Episcopal church in South Los Angeles, the 10 a.m. service opened with the strains of “I’ll be There” by the Jackson 5, over a video tribute to Mr. Jackson. The congregation clapped and cheered.
“He may not be the king of kings,” the Rev. Carolyn Herron said, “but he’s the King of Pop.” He was, Ms. Herron said, “a gift from God.”
Mr. Jackson was to music what Michael Jordan was to sports and Barack Obama to politics — a towering figure with crossover appeal, even if in life some of Mr. Jackson’s black fans wondered if he was as proud of his race as his race was of him.
But since his death on Thursday, many African-Americans have embraced Mr. Jackson without ambivalence. In scores of interviews across the country over the weekend, few expressed the kind of resentment some once had for his strangeness, his changing appearance, his distance from the cherubic Michael of the Jackson 5.
Darrell Smith, 40, a filmmaker in Brooklyn, recalled that “when his skin started getting lighter,” many black people said Mr. Jackson did not want to be black.
Now, he said: “I honestly feel like I lost a brother. It’s a pain inside me.”
Some African-Americans said those most determined to discuss Mr. Jackson’s failings were white.
“The system likes to take black men down,” said Stan Jamison, a 61-year-old house painter, leaning against a fence on Sunday outside the old Jackson home in Gary, Ind. “They did it to Ali. They did it to Tyson.”
When Mr. Jackson was accused of child molesting, many African-Americans leaped to his defense because they felt he was being persecuted.
But even some blacks acknowledged that Mr. Jackson, like many African-Americans, had issues with his identity.
Gerald L. Early, a professor of African-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis, pointed to Mr. Jackson’s self-image as an adolescent who hated the fact that he had a broad nose. In some reports, his father was said to have told Mr. Jackson he was ugly.
“If blacks were not, in some degree, emotionally and psychologically scarred from their oppression,” Professor Early said in an e-mail message, “they would hardly have needed the Black Power and the Black is Beautiful movements of the 1960s, efforts to restore their mental health.”
“Jackson reminds me of Sammy Davis, Jr.,” he added. “Davis was a singer and dancer, like Jackson, and a man who felt inferior about his looks and who wanted to fit in with the white Hollywood environment in which he found himself.”
Still, it was Mr. Jackson’s changeability that, in part, allowed him to resonate with millions of people around the world.
“His race was very blurry,” said Ning Liu, 28, an electrical engineer who moved to the Chicago suburbs from China four years ago.
Mr. Liu, who went to Gary to place flowers outside Mr. Jackson’s childhood home, said: “His voice, his look, the way he did things — it didn’t fit the stereotype people had of black people. People were not afraid of him.”
Amy Whitlock, 38, and her husband, Dave, 42, who are white, drove 100 miles to Gary to pay their respects to the pop star. They described how a young Mr. Jackson had transformed the way white children saw race.
“I was from a small town in Illinois where there weren’t any black people,” Ms. Whitlock said, tears splashing down her cheeks. “There was prejudice in our town.
“The older people, they saw just some black guy dancing. But we saw someone who was extraordinary, someone who made us want to dance. Michael was for unity. And he made people my age want to be for unity.”
Meighan Maheffey, 27, who is white and grew up in North Carolina, said the Jackson 5 was the only black group her grandmother allowed her mother to listen to. “It was very nonthreatening to her,” Ms. Maheffey said.
But Mr. Jackson also staked out new terrain for black performers.
“He dubbed himself the King of Pop, which was a pretty daring act,” Professor Early said. “Previously in our culture, the King of Jazz was Paul Whiteman and the King of Swing Benny Goodman and the King of Rock and Roll was Elvis Presley, all white men.
“This, in a way, radically redefined the black performer’s relation to music, made Jackson an auteur. In this way, Jackson may have paved the way for Obama in the sense of black man as auteur and self-mythmaker.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has been acting as a family spokesman in the past few days, said Mr. Jackson — like Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, James Brown and Josephine Baker — had redrawn the boundaries of black possibility by showing whites, and blacks, that the race was capable of more than had been previously acknowledged.
“The light cast by these luminaries was great and shined on the whole race, even when they did not intend to be ‘political,’ ” Mr. Jackson said.
The Black Entertainment Television music awards were not originally intended to be a tribute to Michael Jackson, whose hits dried up long ago. But plans were rushed through to change the program once he died. Over the course of the evening, Mr. Foxx wore different costumes from Mr. Jackson’s long career.
On Saturday, at the Malcolm X Blvd Pizzeria in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of New York, an impromptu dance party and memorial service for Mr. Jackson was set up. Just steps away from the oven, two dozen or so people danced to the blaring Michael Jackson marathon on the sidewalk outside, holding black, white and red balloons, some clutching candles and wiping away tears. Some wore T-shirts with Mr. Jackson’s face.
Eric Smith, 50, a social worker, snapped his fingers and stepped back and forth to the beat. “He was more than a musician,” Mr. Smith said. “He was a worldwide ambassador for love and peace.”
But Mr. Jackson may have helped bring about a world of multiracial acceptance that no longer understands his own obsession with his skin color.
The night that news of Mr. Jackson’s death came, Ingrid Deabreu, 49, a patient care and dialysis technician from Guyana who lives in Brooklyn, stayed up watching a marathon of his videos with her 7-year-old daughter Kimberly.
When the video of Mr. Jackson’s “Black and White” came on, her daughter turned to Ms. Deabreu and asked: “Mommy, he said it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white. So why’s he trying to make his skin white?”
Reporting was contributed by Ana Facio Contreras from Los Angeles; Jon Caramanica and Karen Zraick from New York; Malcolm Gay from St. Louis; Dirk Johnson from Gary, Ind.; and Janie Lorber and Ariel Sabar from Washington.
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For the 1978 Israeli–Egyptian peace agreement, see Camp David Accords.
Main Lodge at Camp David during the Nixon administration, February 9, 1971
Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the President of the United States and his guests.
First known as Hi-Catoctin, Camp David was originally built as a camp for federal government agents and their families, by the WPA, starting in 1935, opening in 1938.[1] In 1942 it was converted to a presidential retreat by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and renamed U.S.S. Shangri-La. Camp David received its present name from Dwight Eisenhower, in honor of his grandson, Dwight David Eisenhower II.[2]
The camp is very isolated and quiet. The compound consists of several cabins hidden throughout the woods, connected only by small mulch walking paths. These cabins are all named after various trees, plants, and flowers. There is only one main road on the compound, essentially cutting the camp in two parts: one side in which the Marines and Naval personnel live, eat and train; and the other side consisting of all the guest cabins and presidential recreational facilities. Camp David is a United States Navy installation, commanded by a Naval Commander. Sailors are mostly Seabees and most officers are in the civil engineering field. The Navy Seabee Detachment performs maintenance and beautification. The sailors must undergo a "Yankee White" level background check, which involves passing the most rigorous background check conducted by the Department of Defense (DOD). The sailors are hand-picked for their service at Camp David, and represent the best of the U.S. Navy. Some of the sailors include: grounds and maintenance personnel, electricians, carpenters, corpsmen, and the President's cooks (mess specialists). The Camp is alleged to be one of the most secure facilities in the world, as reported by a Department of Defense journal in 1998. The Facility is guarded by one of the United States Marine Corps' most elite units, MSC-CD (Marine Security Company, Camp David). Each Marine is hand-picked from the infantry and sent through a battery of psychological and physical tests. The chosen Marine must then undergo specialized security training at the Marine Corps Security Forces School in Chesapeake, Virginia. The candidate then reports to the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C. Assuming the Marine successfully completes all of their schooling, they still must undergo the "Yankee White" background check. Only then will the candidate be eligible for the assignment at Camp David. After 12 months of service at Camp David, a Marine is awarded the Presidential Service Badge. Typically tours at Camp David are 18–20 months. Every president since Franklin Roosevelt has made use of Camp David. Roosevelt hosted Sir Winston Churchill in May of 1943.[3]
Dwight Eisenhower held the first cabinet meeting here. John F. Kennedy and his family often enjoyed horseback riding and other recreational activities. Kennedy often allowed White House staff and cabinet members to use the retreat when he or his family was not there. Lyndon Johnson often met with important advisors at the retreat and hosted Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt. Richard Nixon was a frequent visitor and did much to add and modernize the facilities. Gerald Ford often rode his snowmobile around Camp David and hosted Indonesia President Suharto.[4]
Jimmy Carter brokered the Camp David Accords here in September 1978 between Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.[5]
Ronald Reagan visited the retreat more than any other president. Dorothy Bush Koch the daughter of George H.W. Bush was the first person ever to be married here in 1992. Bill Clinton increasingly used Camp David more as his tenure in office progressed. George W. Bush hosted dignitaries including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2007.[6] As of late June 2009, Barack Obama seldom finds time for Camp David because of the busy schedule of his daughters, but said "If Michelle and I had our way we'd go there every weekend".[7]
Seriously, there are only two things needed to drive effectively in NJ: A
horn and a middle finger. Everything else is superfluous, including
knowing where you are going. For those of you who live in Jersey or have
lived there, these things may come as no surprise. For those who haven't
traveled there before,
Beware, Be Prepared and Be Afraid ,,,,,,, Be Very Afraid.
1. You must first learn to pronounce the city name, it is Nork - rhymes
with Fork, not New-ark. Also, Trenton is not pronounced Tren-ton, it is
Trent-in.
2. The morning rush hour is from 5 AM to NOON. The evening rush hour is
from NOON to 7 PM. Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.
3. The minimum acceptable speed on the turnpike is 85 mph. On the parkway
it's 105 or 110. Anything less is considered "Sissy." (Just ask the
Governor of NJ)
4. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Jersey has its own
version of traffic rules. For example, cars/trucks with the loudest
muffler go first at a four-way stop; the trucks with the biggest tires go
second;
However, in Monmouth and Burlington counties, SUV-driving, cell
phone-talking moms ALWAYS have the right of way.
5. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear ended, cussed
out, and possibly shot.
6. Never honk at anyone. EVER! Seriously. It's another offense that can
get you shot.
7. Road construction is permanent and continuous in all of Jersey .. Detour
barrels are moved around for your entertainment pleasure during the middle
of the night to make the next day's driving a bit more exciting.
8. Watch carefully for road hazards such as drunks, skunks, dogs, cats,
barrels, cones, celebs, rubber-neckers, shredded tires, cell-phoners, deer
and other road kill, and the Homeless feeding on any of these items.
9. MapQuest does NOT work here -- none of the roads are where they say they
are or go where they say they do and all the Turnpike EZ Pass lanes are
moved each night once again to make your ride more exciting.
10. If someone actually has their Turn Signal ON, wave them to the shoulder
immediately to let them know it has been "accidentally activated."
11. If you are in the left lane and only driving 70 in a 55-65 mph zone,
you are considered a road hazard and will be "flipped off" accordingly.
If you return the flip, you'll be shot.
12. Do not try to estimate travel time -- just leave Monday afternoon for
Tuesday appointments, by noon Thursday for Friday appointments, and right
after church on Sunday for anything on Monday morning.
SAFE DRIVING ! ! !
(CNN) -- Infomercial pitchman Billy Mays died at his Tampa, Florida, home Sunday morning, authorities told CNN.
The 50-year-old known for his shouting OxiClean ads was pronounced dead at 7:45 a.m. The Hillsborough County medical examiner will perform an autopsy, Tampa police Lt. Brian Dugan said.
Mays was on the US Airways flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Tampa on Saturday that had a hard landing at Tampa International Airport when the plane's front tire blew out. There were no reported injuries on Flight 1241, US Airways told CNN.
According to a local Tampa TV station, Mays said: "All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping. It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."
Airline spokesman Jim Olson told CNN Sunday there were no reported passenger injuries from flight 1241. The airline vowed to "cooperate fully" with authorities in the investigation.
"We were very sad to learn of Billy Mays' passing and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family," Olson said. Tampa officials say the Medical Examiner's Office expects to complete an autopsy by Monday afternoon. In a statement, Deborah Mays said that although "Billy lived a public life," the family does not plan immediate public statements about his death.
Mays was a spokesman for Orange Glo and detergent OxiClean and appeared in commercials for other products.
He is featured on the reality TV show ''Pitchmen'' on the Discovery Channel, which follows pitch people in their jobs.
"It is with incredible sadness that we have to report that Billy Mays died in his sleep last night," said a statement from the Discovery Channel. "Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth. Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family at this time of incredible loss."
CNN's Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.
June 28, 2009
By NICK KURCZEWSKI
PIMPRI, India
GIVEN that is was designed to be the world’s cheapest car, should it matter whether the Tata Nano is any fun to drive? After all, base models start in India at $2,200 including taxes and fees — less than a quarter of the sticker price of the least expensive new cars in the United States.
Impressive as this rock-bottom bottom line may be, it took squealing tires to convince me of the Nano’s merits.
From behind the wheel of a bright-yellow model at Tata Motors’ engineering and testing center here in a suburb of Pune, an industrial city some 60 miles southeast of Mumbai, the Nano proved agile and fun to hustle around the test track. The rear wheels could even be coaxed into a sports car-style slide. I found the Nano hugely entertaining, though the engineer riding shotgun beside me — who seemed slightly queasy — might have had a different view.
The turtle-shape four-door comes in three trim levels: base, midlevel CX and the top-of-the-line LX in which I spent much of my time. This version has air-conditioning and power front windows. Interestingly, for a car forged in the spirit of frugality, the relatively costly ($3,800) LX has proved to be the most popular Nano, Tata Motors says, accounting for more than half the orders.
•
Indian customers have reasons to avoid the barest-bones model, which lacks air-conditioning, power brakes and even map pockets in the doors. The spoil-yourself LX comes with frills like central locking, body-color bumpers, fancier seat and door trim, including map pockets; cup holders in the console, foglights and an outlet for charging a cellphone. The LX even has a small spoiler that presumably helps to keep it anchored to the road in the unlikely event of high speeds. (The top speed is around 65 miles an hour.)
While cost containment was a big factor in the Nano’s development, safety features were not. While all Nanos have three-point safety belts, there are no air bags or antilock brakes.
The steering is not power-assisted, but the car’s light unloaded weight (1,320 pounds) and tight turning radius (13.1 feet) make it nimble. This proved especially useful when Tata Motors allowed a group of journalists to leave the test track and drive through the noontime scrum on city streets.
Cheap though it is, I did not find the Nano to be so cheap that it squeaked. Nor did I hear any rattles on the cratered local roads, which made a credible stand-in for Manhattan’s potholes. The tiny 12-inch wheels coped admirably with the rough terrain, and the power-assisted brakes — old-style drums, not discs — brought the car to a reassuring stop.
An easy to modulate clutch and sharply defined gates in the 4-speed manual transmission made rowing through the gears a breeze. There is no radio — not even as an option — to drown out cabin noise, but thankfully the interior din was limited to the whoosh of the air-conditioner and the distant putt-putt of the 624 cc 2-cylinder engine mounted in the rear. For comparison, that 0.6-liter engine is less than half the size of the 1.5-liter power plants in the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit.
Acceleration does not impress: from a stop, the Nano takes around 30 seconds to reach 60 miles an hour — twice as long as the slowest gasoline-powered new car in America, the Smart ForTwo. And during my test drive, performance deteriorated noticeably when four or five people were in the car.
Tata Motors prefers to talk about this engine’s carbon-dioxide emissions, which the company says are among the lowest for Indian cars, and fuel economy of 50 miles a gallon.
Despite its seeming power deficit, in the cut and thrust of Indian traffic the Nano proved to be more of a hare than a tortoise. The Nano easily zipped around the ponderous trucks and wheezing auto rickshaws — noisy three-wheel taxis — clogging the streets. Though only 122 inches long (two feet shorter than a Mini Cooper), clever packaging somehow provides plenty of room for four full-size adults.
Visibility is excellent because of an upright seating position and an airy greenhouse. But the lack of an exterior passenger-side mirror — another casualty of cost containment — seemed not just a serious nuisance but a significant safety issue.
Throughout the car are reminders of the engineers’ adherence to a squeaky-tight budget, aimed at holding the starting price to Tata’s promise of 100,000 rupees, or $2,054. (With taxes and fees included, the price to consumers is about $150 more.)
Cost-cutting tricks include a bare-bones dashboard made of a single piece of plastic, adaptable to markets with either right- or left-hand drive. There is only one windshield wiper and no outside opening for the luggage compartment.
The hinges and hardware required for a hatchback would have added too much cost, Tata’s engineers said. So cargo has to be awkwardly loaded from inside the cabin after first folding down the rear bench seat. Buyers may want to factor chiropractor bills into the final cost of ownership.
The car does come with a spare tire, which is stored in the nose.
Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group and Tata Motors, has said the Nano was conceived as a way to help India’s working class, especially the countless families forced to travel on overburdened scooters and motorcycles.
And while the Nano is intended to provide affordable all-weather transportation for people who lack the money to buy existing cars, Tata Motors hopes the car’s penny-pinching charm will captivate truly frugal customers around the world.
Mr. Tata even has the United States in his sights.
At the Geneva auto show in March, Mr. Tata announced that a better-equipped Nano would arrive in Europe by 2011. Fitted with air bags, a wider track between the wheels, revised bumpers and a more powerful 3-cylinder engine, the Nano Europa will meet European safety and emission standards, he said, while also selling as the lowest-price car in every market where it competes.
An American version based on the Europa is also under development, Mr. Tata confirmed during an interview at the Geneva auto show, and could arrive around the same time. Company officials say a hatchback and an automatic transmission are both in the works.
Tata has not disclosed prices for Europe or America, and it has not commented on how the cars might be sold. But it is conceivable that the cars could be offered at Chrysler dealerships, given Tata’s business ties with Fiat, which now controls Chrysler. Sergio Marchionne, Fiat’s chief executive, has said he would like a budget brand that fits below Fiat’s existing models.
•
How the hell did you think that Michael would wind up?
Stop every one
Didn't we all know that Michael was in some serious pain
Both mental and physical
People like Michael
Wind up like Michael
Genius
Flawed
People like Michael
Elvis, Janet, Jimi,
Abraham Martin and John
Come on what are we analyzing
We knew he was a junkie
We all knew this
Come on
Stop
Celebrate his music
His legacy
And stop looking for dirt
He wore his dirt
On his face
The parents need to know what happened in the last hours of Michael Jackson's life, Jesse Jackson said. Murray is believed to be the last person to see Michael Jackson alive.
"The routine inquiry is now an investigation," Jesse Jackson said. "They [the Jacksons] didn't know the doctor. ... He should have met with the family, given them comfort on the last hours of their son."
Police, who met briefly with Murray after the singer's death, have been able to reach him and are trying to set up an interview, Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Charlie Beck told the Los Angeles Times on Friday. Police said the doctor has been fully cooperative.
Detectives impounded Murray's car, which was parked at the singer's rented home, because it may contain evidence related to Michael Jackson's death.
Police have released no information on what they may have found.
Michael Jackson died Thursday, and an autopsy was performed the following day. The body was taken to an undisclosed mortuary Friday night.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office told reporters Friday that more tests must be conducted before a cause of death can be determined. That could take four to six weeks. 
Watch the coroner's spokesman discuss the autopsy »
Jesse Jackson visited the family compound in Encino, California, on Friday.
"I talked with Mrs. Jackson and with the father, Joe, and she could not fight back the tears. She said, 'My baby is gone. Michael was such a good son. I loved him so much. I miss my baby.'" Watch Jesse Jackson detail the family's concerns »
The family wants to hear Murray's account of what happened, but they can't locate him, Jesse Jackson said.
"The doctor's bizarre behavior here is creating all these suspicions," he said. There are lingering questions, such as: 'How long had he stopped breathing? How long had he been unconscious?'"
He said the family may decide to pursue its own inquiry.
"At this point it [the investigation] is very incomplete," he said. "... They need an independent autopsy to get even more answers to questions that are now being driven by the gap between when Michael was last seen alive and [when] he was pronounced dead day before yesterday."
The possibility that Michael Jackson was taking medication that could have contributed to his death at age 50 weighs heavily on people close to the star.
In 2005, after he was cleared on charges of child molestation, Jackson spent a week at a center run by Dr. Deepak Chopra, a physician who focuses on spirituality and the mind-body connection.
During that week, the pop star asked Chopra for a prescription for a narcotic, the doctor told CNN.
"I said, 'What the heck do you want a narcotic prescription for?'" Chopra said. "And it suddenly dawned on me that he was probably taking these and that he had probably a number of doctors who were giving him these prescriptions, so I confronted him with that. At first, he denied it. Then, he said he was in a lot of pain."
Chopra said he told Jackson that there were plenty of other ways to handle his pain, but that Jackson was not convinced.
He blamed Jackson's death on drug abuse, though he offered no direct evidence.
"When you have enough drugs in your system, your heart goes into an arrhythmia and your respiration stops," he said. "I think the drugs killed him."
Brian Oxman, a former lawyer for the Jackson family who was in the emergency room Thursday, also expressed concern about medications the pop star was taking.
"I talked to this family about it, I warned them -- I said that Michael is overmedicating and that I did not want to see this kind of a case develop," Oxman told CNN's "American Morning" on Friday.
He referred to Anna Nicole Smith, the former model and reality television star who died of an overdose in 2007.
"I said, 'If that's what's going to happen to Michael, it's all going to break our hearts.' And my worst fears are here," he said.
Oxman emphasized that he did not know what killed Jackson, and was not making accusations against anyone. Watch high-profile guests discuss Jackson »
Jackson was in cardiac arrest when paramedics took him Thursday from his home to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where the music idol was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. (5:26 p.m. ET).
In a 911 call released Friday, an unidentified caller told a dispatcher to send help. He told the dispatcher that Jackson was not breathing and Jackson's doctor was performing CPR on a bed. Listen to the 911 call »
Jackson had been preparing for a comeback tour -- aimed at extending his legendary career and helping him to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.
Jackson is survived by his three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II.
All AboutMichael Jackson • Jesse Jackson • Deepak Chopra • Prescription Drugs
June 27, 2009
Ms. Rockburne, with help from a team of artists, is working on a gargantuan mural of deep blues, shimmering aquas and luminous gold leaf that is headed for the American Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica.
“It shows the constellations in the nighttime sky when Colin Powell was born,” Ms. Rockburne explained, referring to the former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose roots extend back to Jamaica.
For most people around the world, American culture pours out of a television or movie screen. Yet Ms. Rockburne’s painting is part of another means — less known and more highbrow — of exposing American art to foreign eyes. She is one of hundreds of prominent and accomplished artists who have either donated or been commissioned to create art for the scores of new American embassies, consulates, residences and other buildings that have been opened in every part of the globe during the last decade.
For the next two months, visitors to the museum can watch Ms. Rockburne’s team at work. After that the canvas will be rolled up and sent to Kingston, and the wall on which the mural hangs will be torn down as construction on a new museum extension begins.
There is little wiggle room on the deadline and work has already been delayed twice. First the large hydraulic scissor lift wouldn’t fit through the museum’s door, so a hole had to be punched in a wall to get it through. Then the archival, iridescent acrylic paint ordered from Switzerland was held up at customs.
And now, on this rainy June day, the project has hit another bump. Titanium white, the color needed for the underlying coat, is running out, and the paint manufacturer (American this time) said it would take two weeks to deliver more. Ms. Rockburne had been wrangling to speed up the delivery and that airlifted phone call told her she had succeeded.
After hanging up, she ran her fingers over the canvas. “I think it needs more texture,” she said. Not so heavy that it looks like stucco, but not flat, she explained. “And it should be extra heavy in the middle section where the Milky Way is.”
The artists assisting her have been practicing the unusual technique she developed, which involves dabbing paint on a canvas in layers with round masonry brushes — each about the size of an old 45 r.p.m. record.
“It has to do with getting light between the layers of the paint,” she said. The iridescent colors will cause the night sky to sparkle, giving “spatial mystery to a flat surface.”
Ms. Rockburne was asked to create the mural by the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, a nonprofit group that works with the State Department to create and donate custom-made artwork for American outposts abroad. In 2001, the foundation gathered 245 pieces of art for State Department buildings worldwide; it has also commissioned more than a dozen large installations like Ms. Rockburne’s.
The foundation, which has an art advisory committee whose chairman is Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art, has curated some significant pieces, but the vast majority of the art is provided — through loans, acquisitions and commissions — through the department’s own ART in Embassies program, created in the early 1960s to promote cultural diplomacy.
The past decade has been particularly busy. Ever since 1998, when terrorist bombs struck the American Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, the United States has been building or renovating its foreign outposts. In the last eight years, the department has built 68 new facilities and has another 28 under design and construction, said Jonathan Blyth, Director of External Affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. To keep up with the demand, ART expanded its mission in 2005, seeking to acquire new works by both American and host country artists. Since then works have been installed in about 30 embassies, according to Virginia Shore, the chief curator and acting director of the program.
“The curators of the program are sensitive to political, religious, sexual” matters, Ms. Shore said, and they “do extensive research on the culture of the host country.” The artists often work closely with the architects and professional curators (and the foundation, if it’s involved) to find an appropriate space and to make the work as accessible as possible despite the rigorous security requirements — help that the artist Joel Shapiro said was extremely useful. Ms. Rockburne, who traveled to Kingston to look at the wall where her work would hang, said she was given total creative freedom.
Ms. Shore said she was not aware of any artist who declined a commission because of politics, but some previously did not want to loan work because of opposition to the policies of the Bush administration.
The amount of money allotted for each building is calculated with a formula based on the gross square footage, Ms. Shore said. Maya Lin, the architect who created the Vietnam War memorial in Washington, was one of 28 American and Chinese artists the program asked to create work for the American Embassy in Beijing, which opened last summer. ART has about $4.5 million to spend each year for its permanent collections, though the collection is valued at many times that amount. “Dealers and artists all really work with us,” Ms. Shore said. The art in Beijing, for example, cost about $800,000, she said, but has been appraised at $30 million. The total value of art on loan to the embassy program is estimated at $200 million.
The foundation has also been involved with the buildings in China, inviting Ellsworth Kelly and Martin Puryear to create pieces specifically for the embassy in Beijing. (Two sculptures by Louise Bourgeois were also donated.) Mr. Kelly, who also created a sculpture for the Berlin embassy, has completed a sculpture that is not yet installed.
“They’re beautiful,” Mr. Kelly said of his 18-foot pieces. One side is painted in red, white and blue, he explained, while the other has the same design in red and yellow, China’s colors. Mr. Shapiro, who created a work for the American Embassy in Ottawa, was asked by the foundation to do something for the consulate in Guangzhou, which handles all American adoptions in China. “It’s a challenging commission, embassies are not very accessible,” Mr. Shapiro said. You want to create something “that has a warmth and humanity to it” to counter the architecture’s fortresslike requirements.
Part of the lure is the chance to create on such a large scale, he added: “You can’t just do work like that on your own.”
As for the program’s goals, Mr. Shapiro said he hopes art can contribute to a dialogue between cultures. “I think art has a kind of universal appeal,” he said, “I would like to think, that people can really respond to it.”
