By: DAVID BROWNE

A founding member of The Supremes has passed away. She was 76. Wilson’s publicist, Jay Schwartz, confirmed the singer’s death to Rolling Stone, but did not reveal a cause.

The original Supremes — which also included Diana Ross and Florence Ballard — were one of Motown’s biggest and most consistent hitmakers, scoring 12 Number One hits from 1964 to 1969. With Wilson’s warm alto blending in with Ross’ feathery lead vocals and Ballard’s grittier delivery, Supremes hits like “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “Come See About Me,” and “Stop! In the Name of Love” defined the Motown sound and the decade itself. With their gowns, wigs, and elegant dance moves, the Supremes also brought an elegance and sophistication to pop.

Although Ross left the Supremes in 1970, Wilson continued on with another version of the band until 1977. Although she struggled to find musical success on her own, she toured regularly and authored several books, including the bestselling Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme, and her later, candid assessments of the Supremes and Motown’s history made her one of the most insightful of its performers.

“My condolences to Mary’s family,” Ross said in a statement. “I am reminded that each day is a gift. I have so many wonderful memories of our time together. ‘The Supremes’ will live on, in our hearts.”

“I was extremely shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of a major member of the Motown family, Mary Wilson of the Supremes,” Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement. “The Supremes were always known as the ‘sweethearts of Motown.’ Mary, along with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, came to Motown in the early 1960s. After an unprecedented string of Number One hits, television and nightclub bookings, they opened doors for themselves, the other Motown acts, and many, many others.… I was always proud of Mary. She was quite a star in her own right and over the years continued to work hard to boost the legacy of the Supremes. Mary Wilson was extremely special to me. She was a trailblazer, a diva, and will be deeply missed.”

Born in Greenville, Mississippi, on March 6th, 1944, Wilson moved with her family to St. Louis and then Chicago when she was young. Her father Sam, a butcher, lived an erratic life, and Mary wound up living in Detroit, where she was raised by an aunt and uncle amid middle-class trappings. Eventually, her mother, known as Johnnie Mae, returned, and the family wound up living in the Brewer-Douglass Projects in Detroit.

As challenging as life in the projects could be, the setting changed Wilson’s life. At 14, she met two other residents — first Ballard, with whom Wilson started a singing group, and eventually Ross. Together with another neighbor, Betty Travis, they formed the Primettes (an answer to the Primes, a local all-male band, featuring Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams, later of the Temptations), and the quartet began performing locally. Thanks to Ross’ friendship with Smokey Robinson, the Primettes landed an audition at Motown, where they sang the Drifters’ “There Goes My Baby” for Gordy. Gordy considered signing the Primettes (which also included Barbara Martin, who replaced Travis) to Motown, but elected to wait until they were no longer underage. In 1960, the Primettes became Motown’s first girl group.

The name wouldn’t last long; just before their first single, 1961’s “I Want A Guy” was released, Gordy informed them that they needed a new name, and Ballard suggested they use “Supremes,” taken from a list of possibilities. The group’s first eight singles didn’t fare well on the charts, and eventually Martin left, reducing the Supremes to a trio. Finally, in 1964, “Where Did Our Love Go” broke through,

From their earliest days as the Primettes, the group had paid attention to wardrobe and dance moves, but as the Supremes, they became Motown’s most glamorous act; they also became regulars on television and the charts. Wilson would later claim that she would only make $5,000 from a million-selling Supremes hit. But by 1966, the group’s hits came to include “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” “My World Is Empty Without You,” and “I Hear a Symphony.” They were rich and famous, and Wilson owned a 10-room duplex in Detroit.

But as Wilson would later write in her memoir Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme, it became apparent that Gordy and Motown wanted to “emphasize Diana’s role and diminish Flo’s and mine.” In 1967, the group’s name was changed to Diana Ross and the Supremes, by which time Ballard (who died in 1976, years after being fired from the group) was replaced by Cindy Birdsong. A few of the later Supremes singles, like “Love Child” and “Someday We’ll Be Together,” did not even include Wilson.

Inevitably, Ross left the Supremes, who continued with Wilson, Birdsong, and new singer Jean Terrell. They charted a few singles of their own — 1970’s “Stoned Love” was a Number One R&B hit — but they never replicated their fame with Ross and broke up for good in 1977. “My heart was kind of broken,” Wilson said in 1990. “I realized that the biggest part of what would happen to me in life was over.” Wilson released an eponymous solo album in 1979 but soon parted ways with Motown. “The Supremes had 12 Number One hits,” she said later. “I’d love to just have one.”

In 1983, the original Supremes reunited for the “Motown 25” TV special, but it proved to be a one-off. Three years later, Wilson explored her previous life in the bestselling Dreamgirl. (The title was a nod to the hit Broadway show, based on the life of the group, which Wilson called “dead on.”) ”With hindsight,” she wrote of Ross’ eventual departure, “one can see that [Ross] had a plan,” and that Ross ”had Berry and never hesitated to hold that over the head of anyone who crossed her.”

The book and its sequel, Supreme Faith: Someday We’ll Be Together, firmed up Wilson’s place in history, but finding her voice as a solo artist provided elusive. She would frequently tour as an opening act for comedians like Joan Rivers and Howie Mandel, and a 1992 solo album sold poorly after the indie label that signed her went bankrupt. In 2000, an attempt at a Supremes reunion tour fizzled thanks to money; Wilson claimed she would only be paid $2 million, far less than Ross’ fee. Ross wound up touring with two later Supremes for the poorly received “Return to Love” tour.

“Mary Wilson was such a strong and beautiful spirit,” actress Anika Noni Rose, whose character in the film version of Dreamgirls was inspired by Wilson, says in a statement. “I met her at the Fairmont in San Francisco when I was there performing. I was stunned to find she knew exactly who I was, and she was so warm and kind; not just to me, but to my mother who grew up with her as an icon. I was excited, my mother was blown away, and Ms. Wilson was the epitome of grace and welcoming acceptance. She was a woman made of strong, strong stuff. A survivor who weathered many storms. She will truly be missed.”

In later years, Wilson hit the road with her own show, sometimes called “The Supremes Starring Mary Wilson.” She was also an activist, becoming involved in the fight against the misleading use of band names (after later members of the Supremes toured using that name), and she also helped lobby for the passage of the Music Modernization Act, which made it easier for music creators to be paid when their music streamed online. In 2015, she released an EDM-driven solo single, “Time To Move On” and remained in the public eye as late as 2019, appearing on Dancing With the Stars and publishing her fourth book, Supreme Glamour, focusing on the group’s famous wardrobe.

According to Variety, Wilson released a video on her YouTube channel two days prior to her death announcing that she was at work with Universal Music to release solo material, including the unreleased album Red Hot that she recorded in the Seventies with former Elton John producer Gus Dudgeon. “Hopefully, some of that will be out on my birthday, March 6th,” she said in the video.

According to Schwartz, funeral services will be private due to Covid-19 restrictions and protocols, but there will be a public memorial later this year.

“Most people only know me as a background singer, the oohs and aah,” Wilson said in 2000, “but before they leave my show, they see there’s a voice. I have a very warm, nice voice. I want people to go away knowing, ‘Wow, it wasn’t just one girl in the Supremes. Maybe it was three.’”

The historic importance of the former Mrs. Miles Davis

By: CARL L LANE

A giant has fallen. Even at the age of ninety six, the death of legendary actress Cicely Tyson feels premature. It feels like she was taken from us way too soon. Being an actress of her generation, much of her work was done before my birth, but in the hearts and homes of black America she was always there. Cicely Tyson was always ours, in a way that perhaps no other black actress in the history of American film making ever was.

Through the long and historically racist history of America film, Hollywood has usually not given black people and most other minority groups many chances to play meaningful roles. When a black actress was given the rare opportunity to play a leading lady or even a significant supporting role, studios and movie executives usually chose a certain type of black actress whose looks were more eurocentric in terms of beauty standards. Cicely Tyson looked like black America.

She was the kind of black that Hollywood executives wouldn’t even let walk in the door for anything more than a role playing a maid or a prostitute. The role of the rare black leading lady was traditionally saved for a fair skinned, Dorothy Dandridge type. Yet Cicely Tyson climbed unconquerable mountains. The price for refusing to play roles that demeaned her or the larger Black community, was that she often went years without working at all. But she refused to be a stereotype.

In a day when there were essentially no meaningful roles for black actors, especially black women, Cicely Tyson began an historic career that would see her go from fashion model to an Academy Award nominee for her role in the film Sounder. She went on to win three Emmy Awards, a Screen Actor’s Guild Award and a Tony Award. As a kid, my first experience of her greatness was watching her in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

She played the title role of Miss Jane Pittman, who in the film tells the true story of her life as a young slave in the last years of American slavery, telling her story to a reporter who comes to interview her at her home when she is an old woman. I was a small boy then, but it probably was first time I can remember being conscious of an actor’s ability to be great at her craft. And throughout a career that spanned seven decades, she was never coopted. Cicely Tyson was never stolen from the Harlem community in which she was born in 1924.

She was the first cousin of controversial Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan. But her most famous relationship was with her former husband, the legendary jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis. Cicely Tyson and Miles Davis were married in 1981, by Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young. The ceremony took place at the home of the now imprisoned actor, Bill Cosby.

Yet she was no spare rib of any man. She was a lioness of uncommon talent and strength. In Cicely Tyson, generations of young black girls and women saw themselves. They saw her grow wings, and knew that they too could learn to fly.

An Asian friend of mine who had never heard of her, ask me yesterday who was this woman that even at almost one hundred years old, had filled his social media with the news of her passing. I didn’t think unkindly of him not knowing Cicely Tyson. If I had not been black myself, I likely would not have been aware of the career of this woman who was older than my own grandmother.

But in answering my friends question about who Cicely Tyson was, I said she is everybody. She is everything. I said she is the reason there is a Viola Davis, an Octavia Spencer, Regina King, Lupita Nyong’o. Four Oscar winners, none of whom fits into the traditional beauty standard of America. I told him that she was perhaps the first dark skinned black woman who was ever so near the mountaintop of acting without being type cast as someone’s housekeeper or drug addict.

As African American actresses go, she was a god and we were all devout.

The news of Cicely Tyson’s death took me by surprise. It’s kind of like everybody’s grandmother died all at once. And when the grandmother of a family dies, you wonder for a time if it is possible to still be a family without her. We will go on, as all families do, but it will take some time to stop thinking of her death as a hole in the heart of black America.

Some years ago, I waited on legendary actor Sidney Poitier at a steakhouse I was working at in Houston, Texas. He was the first black actor to win the Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the film Lilies of The Field, and was later awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2002.

Throughout their dinner, Sidney Poitier told stories to his two hosts about his days as one of the first black leading men in Hollywood. He talked about how difficult it had been to even get a chance to audition for roles. Mr. Poitier spoke of black men with lighter skin who had had more opportunities because Hollywood executives and directors could “understand” how someone would think of them as handsome.

And then he gave the great Cicely Tyson as an example of a great actor who had not gotten nearly the amount of work she would have gotten had she looked more like the kind of woman whose beauty could be understood by European eyes. He named a list of black women who had fair skin and more European features. After he called out each of their names, he told his hosts, “None of them could even hold a candle next to Cicely Tyson, but they all got more work than her.”

I had by then watched Cicely Tyson in any number of roles throughout my life. But to hear the great Sidney Poitier speak of her with such admiration made me think how lucky I had been to know her work even though most people would never have bothered with such old fashioned movies as hers.

I guess part of me had come to assume that she would live forever. So, like with Nelson Mandela, I’d never imagined the world without her in it. Today is the first day I have drawn breath in a world that did not have the great Cicely Tyson as one of its inhabitants. I hope that she will not be forgotten. I know that she will be missed by the generations before and after mine. I know this world will never know another like her.

By: BRUCE C.T.WRIGHT

The boxing world was stunned to learn of the news that “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler died on Saturday at the age of 66. His wife made the announcement on the legendary boxer’s Facebook fan page and said her husband “passed away unexpectedly” in their New Hampshire home.

Absent from all the news coverage and ensuing obituaries has been Hagler’s cause of death.

That lack of disclosure drew attention to a couple of social media posts from fellow boxing legend Thomas ” Hitman Hagler with whom Hagler had arguably his greatest triumph in the ring back in the 1980s. Hearns said on Saturday prior to Hagler’s death that his former rival was suffering health problems due to “the vaccine,” using an exclamation mark for emphasis.

Hearns posted that message to his verified Instagram account and asked his followers to pray for Hagler, who he called “the king,” and his family.

“He’s in ICU fighting the after effects of the vaccine!” Hearns claimed in the post without offering any proof or specifying which vaccine.

Hearns assured his followers that Hagler will “be just fine but we could use the positive energy and Prayer for his Full Recovery !”

The Facebook announcement from Hagler’s wife came later that same day.

After Hearns’ Instagram post was widely interpreted as confirmation Hagler had an adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine, he went back on the social media app to add some context.

“Allow us to have our peace. Our love and respect to Marvin and his family, this is not an anti vaccine campaign,” Hearns wrote via his instagram stories “It’s outrageous to have that in mind during the passing of a King, Legend, Father, Husband and so much more.”

TMZ reported that one of Hagler’s sons said his father was hospitalized Saturday “after experiencing trouble breathing and chest pains at home.”

Hagler’s website was updated to say he died “of natural causes near his home in New Hampshire,” contrasting slightly with his wife’s statement that he died “at his home in New Hampshire.” Hearns initial statement suggested Hagler may have died in a hospital.

Hagler is forever linked to Hearns after beating him by TKO in the third round of their legendary fight in 1985.

To be sure, it was unclear when — or if — Hagler had actually been vaccinated.

Conspiracy theorists on social media cited the recent deaths of other aging high-profile former athletes like Hank Aaron and Leon Spinks who had been given the COVID-19 vaccine before dying as purported proof, but their deaths were never officially linked to taking vaccines.

By: KERSHAW ST. JAWNSON

Rapper Queen Latifah just received her first coronavirus vaccine dose and is encouraging others to take the step toward helping control the deadly sickness.

On Tuesday night at the public Essex County COVID Vaccination Center, a day after filming on the set of her hit CBS show “The Equalizer,” the Newark native expressed why she is decided to get the shot. 

“Every time I go to work, I feel like I’m responsible for hundreds of peoples’ lives,” the “Ladies First” trailblazer said.

“That’s why I’m here, and maybe something people out there are thinking about,” she said.

“We hear a lot of things in the media,” Queen Latifah said. “they’re frightening but to see someone in a hospital on a ventilator is much more frightening than what’s going to happen getting a shot in the arm that’s here to help our bodies fight this thing.”

Mayor Ras Baraka, who many consider Hip-Hop’s mayor, noted that since there have been over 900 people from the city who have died from the coronavirus, that having an effective roll-out was important. 

And it seems that they are on to a good start.

His city has administered 7,997 total doses which totals a third of Essex County. There is still work to do considering that there are over 280,000 people in the largest city in New Jersey.

By: HEALTH RANGER

While dumbed-down, brainwashed White liberals are lining up to get vaccinated with a deadly covid vax “kill switch” injection, Black leaders are sounding the alarm about the vaccine genocide agenda to exterminate Blacks. Think about it: White Christian leaders are telling their flocks to hurry and get vaccinated (and killed, in many cases), claiming that overwriting your RNA synthesis is somehow godly… while many Black religious leaders are warning their members to steer clear of the vaccine genocide agenda that’s specifically prioritizing Blacks for mass extermination. Could it be that Black religious leaders are closer to God than the brainwashed White Christian sellouts who are working for Satan? Seems so. It might also be that Black leaders are acutely aware of the war on Blacks that has been waged for generations by the abortion industry, the cancer industry, vaccines spiked with infertility chemicals and even municipal water systems that are engineered by government to deliver high levels of lead poisoning to Black communities such as Detroit. When Black leaders warn that the vaccine is a depopulation weapon being deployed against humanity, intelligent White people should listen and take heed. We’re all in this together, after all, fellow brothers and sisters in the race called “humanity.” While the powers that be want to divide us between Black and White, the truth is they want to exterminate us all. And if we fight against each other instead of banding together to fight the globalist extermination agenda, we will all be destroyed. Nobody gets this better than Black religious leaders in America today. And by the way, one of the most powerful voices on this particular subject isn’t Christian… he’s a Muslim. So take off your blinders and listen to the truth in today’s shocking, jaw-dropping podcast that dares to discuss dumbed-down Whites, highly-informed Blacks, the future of the human race and why none of us are safe when crazed White globalists like Bill Gates have the power to alter the atmosphere and engineer a global famine by blocking the sun. In today’s podcast, you’ll also learn how my friends and I smuggled contraband cassette tapes of comedian Richard Pryor among our little social circle, listening to “unauthorized” truth, satire and comedy from arguably the most brilliant comedian who ever lived (and a champion of free speech). Yet censorship is so extreme today that even Richard Pryor would never survive cancel culture if he took to the stage today. Listen to Richard Pryor’s “The Exorcist” bit for a foul-mouthed tour de force of raw comedy that would never be allowed anywhere today. And that’s precisely what makes it so funny, even in 2021. Hear my full podcast today at Brighteon.com (where Richard Pryor would be highly welcomed…) 

By: ZACHARY STIEBER

Fifty-five people in the United States have died after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, according to reports submitted to a federal system.

Deaths have occurred among people receiving both the Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, according to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a federal database. The system is passive, meaning reports aren’t automatically collected and must be filed. VAERS reports can be filed by anyone, including health care providers, patients, or family members.

VAERS reports “often lack details and sometimes can have information that contains errors,” according to the reporting system’s website. Still, reports on VAERS represent “only a small fraction of actual adverse events,” the site states, although underreporting is believed to be less common for serious events.

In some cases, patients died within days of being vaccinated.

One man, a 66-year-old senior home resident in Colorado, was sleepy and stayed in bed the day after getting Moderna’s vaccine. Early the next morning, he “was observed in bed lying still, pale, eyes half open and foam coming from mouth and unresponsive,” the VAERS report states. “He was not breathing and with no pulse.”

In another case, a 93-year-old South Dakota man was injected with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Jan. 4 around 11 a.m. About two hours later, he said he was tired and couldn’t continue with the physical therapy he was doing. He was taken back to his room, where he said his legs felt heavy. Soon after, he stopped breathing. A nurse declared a do-not-resuscitate order.

While Moderna and Pfizer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, Abigail Capobianco, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), via email, “Any reports of death following the administration of vaccines are promptly and rigorously investigated jointly by FDA” and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Officials at the agencies work with health care providers to obtain medical histories and clinical follow-up information and conduct a clinical case review, she said, adding, “It is important to note that it is generally not possible to find out from VAERS data if a vaccine caused an adverse event.”

Health officials on the VAERS website caution that a report to the system doesn’t prove a vaccine caused the adverse event; proof that the event was caused by the vaccine is not required in order for the system to accept the report.

In addition to the death, people have reported 96 life-threatening events following COVID-19 vaccinations, as well as 24 permanent disabilities, 225 hospitalizations, and 1,388 emergency room visits.

Neither the CDC nor the FDA has a central database of reported adverse events. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on Jan 6. that severe allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines were happening at a rate of 11.1 per million vaccinations, compared to the rate of 1.3 per million flu shots.

As of Jan. 15, 10.5 million Americans have received a COVID-19 vaccine. Federal health officials have said that adverse events are being investigated but that the vaccines are still safe.

“These are safe and effective vaccines. We have good data to show that,” Messonnier said.

One death following a vaccination attracted attention earlier this week. Gregory Michael, a 56-year-old medical worker at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, was injected on Dec. 18, 2020. Sixteen days later, he died.

Michael’s wife Heidi Neckelmann said on Facebook that her husband was “very healthy” before being vaccinated. She said he was admitted to an intensive care unit with a diagnosis of acute idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, a blood disorder, allegedly caused by a reaction to the vaccine. He eventually died.

“He was a pro-vaccine advocate, that is why he got it himself,” Neckelmann wrote. “I believe that people should be aware that side effects can happen, that it is not good for everyone, and in this case destroyed a beautiful life, a perfect family, and has affected so many people in the community. Do not let his death be in vain, please save more lives by making this information news.”

Pfizer told news outlets in a statement that no evidence currently shows a link between that death and its vaccine.

“Pfizer and BioNTech are aware of the death of a health care professional 16 days after receiving a first dose of BNT162b2,” Pfizer said in a statement. “It is a highly unusual clinical case of severe thrombocytopenia, a condition that decreases the body’s ability to clot blood and stop internal bleeding.”

“We are actively investigating this case, but we don’t believe at this time that there is any direct connection to the vaccine,” the company said. “There have been no related safety signals identified in our clinical trials, the post-marketing experience thus far, or with the mRNA vaccine platform. To date, millions of people have been vaccinated and we are closely monitoring all adverse events in individuals receiving our vaccine. It is important to note that serious adverse events, including deaths that are unrelated to the vaccine, are unfortunately likely to occur at a similar rate as they would in the general population.”

A Pfizer spokesperson said earlier this month that the company “closely monitor[s] all reports following vaccination.” Moderna hasn’t responded to requests for comment on its involvement in monitoring serious adverse events in people who get its vaccine.

The updated VAERS data came after Norway changed it’s Covid-19 vaccination guide to direct officials not to give “very frail” people the vaccines, citing 13 deaths among people who were vaccinated.

By: MIMI NGUYEN LY

Newly-elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Jan. 21 announced she has introduced articles of impeachment against the new president, Joe Biden.

The articles of impeachment concern Biden’s alleged actions involving a “quid pro quo” deal in Ukraine and alleged abuse of power “by allowing his son, Hunter Biden, to siphon off cash from America’s greatest enemies Russia and China,” Greene’s office announced in a statement just a day after Biden was sworn in as the 46th U.S. president.

The move comes less than a month into Greene’s first term in Congress. Democrats control both the House and Senate, so it is unlikely that the attempt to impeach Biden, a Democrat, will succeed.

“President Joe Biden is unfit to hold the office of the Presidency,” Greene said in a statement. “His pattern of abuse of power as President Obama’s Vice President is lengthy and disturbing. President Biden has demonstrated that he will do whatever it takes to bail out his son, Hunter, and line his family’s pockets with cash from corrupt foreign energy companies.”

She added, “President Biden is even on tape admitting to a quid pro quo with the Ukrainian government threatening to withhold $1,000,000,000 in foreign aid if they did not do his bidding. President Biden residing in the White House is a threat to national security and he must be immediately impeached.”

At an event in 2018, Biden said that in 2016 he had threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid from Ukraine unless then-President Petro Poroshenko fired Viktor Shokin. Shokin at the time was investigating Burisma, an energy company in Ukraine for which Hunter was a board member from 2014 to at least 2018.

Biden in 2016 was responsible for overseeing anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine.

“I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,” Biden recounted at an event at (The Council on Foreign Relations) in 2018. “Well, son of a [expletive], he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”

Hunter Biden has said he consulted for Burisma but critics have suggested he was not doing actual work in return for his substantial income—an allegation he denies.

Biden previously denied using his influence to get Shokin fired to prevent him from investigating Hunter’s involvement. Biden claimed that the reason that Shokin was fired was because Shokin was inept.

In direct contrast to Biden’s claims, Shokin said in a sworn affidavit obtained by investigative reporter John Soloman that he was told that he was fired in March 2016 because Biden wasn’t pleased with the investigations into Burisma.

Greene alleges that Joe Biden abused his power as the country’s vice president by allowing his son “to influence the domestic policy of a foreign nation and accept various benefits—including financial compensation—from foreign nationals in exchange for certain favors.”

“During his father’s vice presidency, Hunter Biden built many business relationships with foreign nationals and received millions of dollars from foreign sources, seemingly in exchange for access to his father. The financial transactions which Hunter engaged in illustrates serious counterintelligence and extortion concerns relating to Hunter Biden and his family,” Greene’s office said.

“President Biden gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. Through blatant nepotism, he enabled his son to influence foreign policy and financially benefit as a result of his role as Vice President.

“He supported his son engaging in collusion with Chinese Communist party-linked officials. He allowed his son to trade appointments with his father and other high-ranking administration officials in exchange for financial compensation. He permitted his son to take money from Russian oligarchs, including Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow,” it continued.

The New York Post last year obtained emails and messages from a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden, allegedly showing that he had tried to arrange a meeting between himself, his father, and a top executive at Burisma. Both Bidens have denied that a meeting took place, with Joe Biden saying that the story by the outlet was “another smear campaign.”

Other emails obtained by the outlet allegedly show that Hunter Biden was engaged in deals involving a Chinese energy giant with ties to the Chinese military–the now-bankrupt Chinese oil giant CEFC China Energy.

Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, announced during a press conference in Nashville in October 2020 that Hunter and his associates brought him into a deal with CEFC China Energy in 2017.

A federal appeals court in New York in late December 2020 upheld the bribery conviction of Patrick Ho, a Chinese businessman and the former head of a think tank funded by CEFC China Energy.

Hunter is currently under federal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware over his taxes. The details and nature of the investigation have not been publicly disclosed. The office said it couldn’t comment on ongoing investigations.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a friend and adviser to Biden, said in December 2020 that Joe Biden will not interfere in the investigation. The then-president elect said that he was “confident” his son did nothing wrong, and later said that accusations against Hunter Biden are “foul play.”

By: BLAINE TRABER

Hall of Famer and one-time home run king Atlanta Braves legend Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron passed away at the age of 86. He leaves behind an indelible legacy on and off the baseball diamond.

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There are no reports in mainstream media about how the slugger died, but it’s conspicuous that he was given the COVID-19 vaccine earlier this month. It was highly publicized at the time because he did it on camera as a way to encourage African-Americans to take the vaccine.

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Hank Aaron got his COVID vaccine shot on Tuesday — and he did it in front of cameras in the hopes of inspiring other Black Americans to follow his lead. The 86-year-old Hall of Famer masked up and went to the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta along with his wife Billye to receive the first of two doses of the Moderna vaccine.

“[It] makes me feel wonderful,” Aaron told the Associated Press … “I don’t have any qualms about it at all … I feel quite proud of myself for doing something like this. … It’s just a small thing that can help zillions of people in this country.

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An alarming number of people have died within days or weeks after taking the vaccine. The elderly, who are most susceptible to the coronavirus, seem to be most at risk from the vaccine as well. Hank Aaron took the vaccine on January 5th.

By: SREEHARI MENON

Atalanta Braves legend Henry Louis ‘Hank’ Aaron breathed his last on Friday, January 22, 2021. Regarded as one of the finest baseball players of all-time, Aaron had eclipsed Babe Ruth as baseball’s home run king, hitting 755 homers and holding the most celebrated record in sports for more than 30 years. He died at the age of 86. 

Hank Aaron cause of death: How did Hank Aaron die?

In a Hank Aaron death official statement, Atlanta Braves revealed that their legend had passed away in his sleep. No details on Hank Aaron health or his cause of death were disclosed. A little over two weeks before his death, the Hall of Famer had got vaccinated against COVID-19 in Georgia hoping to send a message to Black Americans that the shots are safe.

Aaron, at the time, had told Associated Press that he had no qualms in getting vaccinated and was proud of himself for doing so. Many have alleged that his death could be triggered by the vaccine dosage, but there have been no confirmed reports of the same. Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr. called his friendship with Aaron “one of the greatest honors of my life” while paying his respects to the Braves legend. 

Hank Aaron death: MLB legend’s career at a glance 

Hank Aaron played the majority of his MLB career for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, etching his name in the record books in what was a stellar career. In a time when racism was at the forefront of baseball, Aaron made a name for himself, after being inspired by Jackie Robinson as a young kid. Aaron’s incredible power-hitting achievement came in the face of hate and death threats when he eclipsed Babe Ruth’s home run record, from people who did not want a Black man to claim such an important record. Aaron ended with 755 home runs before retiring in 1976.

The Braves legend held the record for more than 30 years, with San Francisco Giants’ Barry Bonds surpassed Aaron’s home run record in August 2007 and went on to hit 762 homers. However, Bonds’ record was maligned by suspicions that he had used performance-enhancing drugs in what came to be known as baseball’s steroid era. Post retirement, the Braves legend was elected to Cooperstown on the first ballot in 1982 with 97.8 percent of the vote, at the time the second-highest percentage (behind only Ty Cobb) in history.

By: TANASIA KENNEY

The mother of slain Illinois girl Rica Rountree came face to face with her daughter’s killer for the first time on Friday at a court hearing that ended with the suspect’s sentencing hearing being delayed.

Anntionetta Rountree is now calling for charges against her child’s father and demanding accountability from the system she says failed to protect her young daughter.

In November, a jury convicted Cynthia Baker of first-degree murder in the death of her then-boyfriend’s daughter, 8-year-old Rica Rountree. The child died last January after ongoing violence and abuse at the hands of Baker and, allegedly, her own father.

“I’m seeking full justice,” Anntoinetta Rountree told Peoria station WMDB after the hearing. “Everybody that got up on the stand, ’cause I wasn’t there, [but] everybody that got up on that stand and said they saw something, is responsible for my daughter’s death.”

Baker was set to be sentenced Jan. 31, but that hearing was delayed last Friday by trial Judge Casey Costigan to give Baker’s new attorney time to review her case. Last month, the Normal, Illinois, woman hired a new lawyer to take up her case in her efforts to earn a new trail, arguing ineffective counsel from her previous lawyer, Todd Ringel.

Her new counsel, Phil Finegan, requested additional time to gather more information related to the case, and the ask was granted by a judge.

Rountree, who rallied with community members outside the McLean County Law and Justice Center during Baker’s hearing in Bloomington, Illinois, was less than pleased with the decision.  

“She’s guilty, she needs to just accept her guilt and just go to prison and start her time,” the grieving mother said.

Clutching her daughter’s ashes in an urn, an emotional Rountree said it was the support of her family and friends that gave her the strength to attend Baker’s hearing. She was incarcerated during Baker’s murder trial but was released from prison last month after a year-long stint for forgery and failure to complete the terms of her probation for an aggravated DUI, WGLT reported.

Rountree, who previously used the surname Simmons prior to her child’s death, lamented the lengthy custody battle that resulted in her daughter’s father and Baker having the girl in their care for two years. She said her concerns for her daughter’s safety fell on deaf ears or were overlooked because she’s a felon.

“They should’ve removed her from that house,” she said. “They should’ve talked to her alone. They should’ve taken her seriously. She got marks on her. People that are mandated to speak on behalf of our kids, they need to either stop working in their jobs, and let somebody come in that’s going to protect our kids or they need to do their jobs because Rica did not need to die.”

Authorities said Baker kicked the child in stomach, causing life-threatening trauma and internal ruptures that eventually killed her. A pathologist also noted more than 60 marks and bruises to the child’s body as evidence of ongoing physical abuse.

At Baker’s trial, the jury was shown disturbing videos in which Rica was made to hold cans in her outstretched arms for extended periods of time while standing naked. In another, an older daughter of Rica’s father, Richard Rountree, was seen participating in the abuse, which included kicking, beatings and other forms of humiliation.

Police also obtained text messages between Baker and Richard, expressing disdain for the young girl. Despite evidence that he condoned Baker’s abuse of his daughter, Richard Rountree remains uncharged in her death.

Anntoinetta Rountree hopes that will soon change.

“Richard, ’cause I won’t call him her dad, Richard needs to face charges,” she told WMDB. “Kelsey, the girl, the daughter, needs to face charges.”

Baker’s sentencing is rescheduled for Feb. 24.

**UPDATE**

Richard Roundtree, the father of Rica Rountree, was arrested by police Tuesday for circumstances surrounding the death of his daughter, local outlet WEEK-TV has reported.

Normal Police booked Rountree on multiple charges including felonious endangerment of the life or health of a minor. His alleged conduct in relation to his daughter also makes him eligible for an extended-term sentence, authorities said.

Rountree remains in custody on $100,000 bond.