Lakers

Nov 9 2012

Disappointing 1-4 start of the season

With the team off to a disappointing 1-4 start, the Los Angeles Lakers fired head coach Mike Brown today.

“This was a difficult and painful decision to make,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. “Mike was very hard-working and dedicated, but we felt it was in the best interest of the team to make a change at this time. We appreciate Mike’s efforts and contributions and wish him and his family the best of luck.”
 

Stanley O. Williford  |   OW Editor
Mar 15 2012

Reflecting in verse on some of the people he’s met

No one can laugh at life like Thomas Jerome Hawkins, partly because the former Lakers and Cincinnati Royals  star has scored on virtually every challenge life has thrown him. He has succeeded in the NBA, as a broadcaster and as Dodgers executive. Now, Hawkins, 75, who is generally known simply as Tommy, has turned to verse.

When his alcoholic father left the family in Winston Salem, N.C., his mother moved him, his three brothers and sister to Chicago, where some of her relatives lived.

Dec 29 2011

Nuclear crisis in Japan

Nuclear crisis in Japan
On March 11, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation of Japan, and sent a 23-foot tsunami crashing across the country. It was the largest quake in the island’s history and left more than 15,839 dead.

But even more challenging than the death and destruction, was the failure of the cooling systems in one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in the Fukushima prefecture on the east coast. This failure caused a nuclear crisis.

Sep 16 2011

Judge grants request for name change

As of today Ron Artest, NBA champion and Los Angeles Lakers forward, will now be known as Metta World Peace, a name he officially requested in June but was only granted permission to change officially today after approval from the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
 
After dealing with a with a couple of traffic tickets, a judge ruled that Artest could have his name changed.  This comes just in time for the new season of  ”Dancing with the Stars,” where he will compete alongside Peta Murgatroyd.

Jul 29 2011

First time citizens would hear details of the plan

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Hundreds of people, including members of three high school football teams, dozens of construction workers and former Lakers star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, packed City Hall today for the first full council discussion of a proposed downtown NFL stadium.

The City Council chamber was standing room only by mid-morning, and about 200 people were forced to stand in the City Hall Rotunda and outside in a forecourt along Spring Street.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.