Former Newark Mayor Receives Jail Sentence

(The New York Times)

NEWARK — After lecturing a federal prosecutor for adhering “heartlessly” to a cold version of bureaucratic justice, a federal judge on Tuesday sentenced former Mayor Sharpe James of Newark to 27 months in prison for failing to disclose his romantic relationship with a woman whom he helped to get a lucrative deal on some city-owned land.

Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James entered the federal courthouse in Newark, N.J., to be sentenced on corruption charges on Monday. United States District Judge William Martini also ordered Mr. James to pay a $100,000 fine.

Mr. James’s former mistress, Tamika Riley, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $27,000 in restitution to the city.

In an angry and frustrated outburst from the bench, Judge Martini, who upheld the convictions of Mr. James and Ms. Riley last week, lashed out at the prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office in a remarkable admission. “Now I’m trying to talk about what happened here — what really happened,” he said.


(Read full NY Times Article here)

1968 Olympians Tommie Smith & John Carlos: ESPY Award & New Movie "Salute"

The 1968 Mexico City Olympics are best described and remembered in one photograph: Two black men, one gets the gold medal, the other the bronze, and both stand with a black fist raised in the air and their heads bowed. The picture sparked tons of controversy in a country divided and time period where tension between Black and white soared high.

Forty years later at the 2008 ESPN “ESPY Awards” the two men- Tommie Smith and John Carlos received the Arthur Ashe Award and the truth about their famous picture was revealed in a short video shown at the awards.

Now, a new international movie- written, directed and produced by Matt Norman (nephew of Peter Norman, the 200m Olympic Silver Medalist pictured with Tommie Smith and John Carlos)- is coming out called “Salute” that ventures into the experience of the 1968 Olympics and the stories of all of the people involved after the historic event: