Herman Melville - "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men."

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JACKIE CHAN IS THE BEST EVER





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TOP 10 CHILD-WARPING MOMENTS OF THE 80'S

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/03/the_10_most_insane_childwarping_moments_of_80s_car.php

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The Times apologizes over article on rapper
By James Rainey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 27, 2008
A Los Angeles Times story about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur was partially based on documents that appear to have been fabricated, the reporter and editor responsible for the story said Wednesday.

Reporter Chuck Philips and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, issued statements of apology Wednesday afternoon. The statements came after The Times took withering criticism for the Shakur article, which appeared on latimes.com last week and two days later in the paper's Calendar section.

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The criticism came first from The Smoking Gun website, which said the newspaper had been the victim of a hoax, and then from subjects of the story, who said they had been defamed.

"In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job," Philips said in a statement Wednesday. "I'm sorry."

In his statement, Duvoisin added: "We should not have let ourselves be fooled. That we were is as much my fault as Chuck's. I deeply regret that we let our readers down."

Times Editor Russ Stanton announced that the newspaper would launch an internal review of the documents and the reporting surrounding the story. Stanton said he took the criticisms of the March 17 report "very seriously."

"We published this story with the sincere belief that the documents were genuine, but our good intentions are beside the point," Stanton said in a statement.

"The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used. We apologize both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents and, as a result, in the story. We are continuing to investigate this matter and will fulfill our journalistic responsibility for critical self-examination."

The story first appeared March 17 on latimes.com under the headline "An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War." The article described a Nov. 30, 1994, ambush at Quad Recording Studios in New York, where the rap singer was pistol-whipped and shot several times by three men. No one has been charged in the crime, but before his death two years later, Shakur said repeatedly that he suspected allies of rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs.

The assault touched off a bicoastal war between Shakur and fellow adherents of West Coast rap and their East Coast rivals, most famously represented by Christopher Wallace, better known as Notorious B.I.G. Both Shakur and Wallace ultimately died violently.

The Times story said the paper had obtained "FBI records" in which a confidential informant accused two men of helping to set up the attack on Shakur -- James Rosemond, a prominent rap talent manager, and James Sabatino, identified in the story as a promoter. The story said the two allegedly wanted to curry favor with Combs and believed Shakur had disrespected them.

The purported FBI records are the documents Philips and Duvoisin now believe were faked.

The story provoked vehement denials from lawyers for Combs and Rosemond, both before and after publication.

Rosemond said in a statement Wednesday that the Times article created "a potentially violent climate in the hip-hop community." His attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, added: "I would suggest to Mr. Philips and his editors that they immediately print an apology and take out their checkbooks -- or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit."

Although The Times has not identified the source of the purported FBI reports, The Smoking Gun (www.the smokinggun.com) asserted that the documents were forged by Sabatino. The website identified him as a convicted con man with a history of elaborate fantasies designed to exaggerate his place in the rap music firmament. He is currently in federal prison on fraud charges.

"The Times appears to have been hoaxed by an imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries," the Smoking Gun reported.

Combs' lawyer Howard Weitzman, in a letter to Times Publisher David Hiller, called the story inaccurate. He expanded an earlier demand for a retraction and said he believed that The Times' conduct met the legal standard for "actual malice," which would allow a public figure such as Combs to obtain damages in a libel suit.

The purported FBI reports were filed by Sabatino with a federal court in Miami four months ago in connection with a lawsuit against Combs in which he claimed he was never paid for rap recordings in which he said he was involved. Sabatino, 31, said he had obtained the documents to help him prepare his defense in a criminal case against him in 2002, according to the Smoking Gun.

Philips, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, said he believed in the authenticity of the documents in part because they had been filed in court. But the Smoking Gun's sharply critical review said The Times had overlooked numerous misspellings and unusual acronyms and redactions that could have cast doubt on the documents' authenticity.

Moreover, the documents appeared to have been prepared on a typewriter, the Smoking Gun account noted, adding that a former FBI supervisor estimated that the bureau ceased using typewriters about 30 years ago. The website said its reporters had learned that the documents could not be found in an FBI database.

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WORDSWORTH AND MASTA ACE @ SOB'S:



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T.I ABOUT TO GET MAAAD LUCKY:

Rapper T.I. expected to plead guilty to firearms charges
Faces about 1 year in prison, long community service

By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/27/08

Atlanta rapper T.I. today is expected to enter a plea of guilty to multiple weapons charges, according to a person familiar with negotiations between prosecutors and the rapper's defense team.

T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., is scheduled to enter his plea at 1:30 p.m. today at the federal courthouse in Atlanta. When he is sentenced at a later date, Harris faces about a year of prison time. He is expected to agree to spend a great deal of time on community service speaking to youth groups across the country. Harris would face stiff prison time — several years in prison — if he finds himself in trouble with the law again, according to the person familiar with negotiations.

Harris was indicted in October on weapons charges that include illegally possessing three machine guns and two silencers and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Federal prosecutors and Harris' defense team have been engaged in intense plea negotiations the past several weeks. The plea agreement must be approved by a federal judge. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell Jr., who will preside over today's plea.

Harris was arrested in a sting in a Midtown parking lot on Oct. 13 as he allegedly tried to buy the weapons just hours before he was to receive two top awards at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta.

Harris, one of the world's most popular rappers, is confined to his home under $3 million bond.

Harris and Atlantic Records provided the cash to cover two-thirds of the bond and the balance was secured by Harris' posh Clayton County property. He has been living there with his girlfriend and his children.

A federal magistrate recently gave Harris permission to attend Easter service. Harris and his family were among thousands who went to the Georgia Dome, where New Birth Missionary Baptist Church held its annual worship extravaganza.

Before his arrest in October, Harris had a litany of dealings with law enforcement dating back to 1997 that placed him either in jail or under arrest. These include a crack cocaine distribution conviction, giving false names to police, skipped court dates, probation violations and illegal weapons charges.

When he was arrested by federal agents, Harris was found with marijuana. He told agents the marijuana was his and that he smoked it to get ready for the BET awards show, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Alley said during an October bond hearing.

In an affidavit accompanying Harris' charges, Jason Stricklin, a Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives special agent, said one of Harris' bodyguards cooperated with authorities in the rapper's arrest. The bodyguard, whose name has not been disclosed, told agents he illegally bought nine firearms for Harris since he began working for him in July 2007. In these "straw" purchases, Harris fronted his bodyguard thousands of dollars for the weapons, the agent's affidavits said.

Because Harris was convicted of drug distribution in June 1998 in Cobb County, his felony record prevents him from legally making gun purchases himself.

On four different occasions, Stricklin's affidavit said, Harris gave his bodyguard cash to buy firearms. The bodyguard told authorities that in September he delivered a 9 mm pistol to Harris, who invited the bodyguard into his bedroom, where he saw a large walk-in safe that contained multiple short rifles, according to the affidavit.

In October, hours before the BET awards ceremony, the bodyguard met Harris at a pre-arranged meeting place in Midtown and handed over the three machine guns and two silencers, the affidavit said. At that time, the bodyguard was wearing a hidden wire and cooperating with federal agents.

When Harris was told about one of the silencers, he said, "no flash, no bang," and later asked for the "change leftover" from the $12,000 he had given the bodyguard for the weapons, the affidavit said.

Harris was then arrested, without incident, by federal agents in the Midtown parking lot.

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I CAN'T EVEN WRITE THE BULLSHIT THAT IS GOING ON IN MY HEAD RIGHT NOW...
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