Allee Willis, Songwriter of Earth, Wind and Fire’s "September," Has Died

Allee Willis, the prolific songwriter who penned Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September”, and the Broadway musical, The Color Purple, has died at age 72.

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Missouri brothers, ages 8, 7, drown in frozen pond after going on bike ride

The tragic deaths of two young brothers are “going to be hard to get over for a long time,” said Opal Kamper, a neighbor that often spoke to the boys who died over the weekend after drowning in a pond.

READ MORE: Slain Baltimore salon owner feared for her ‘life and business’

Cleveland “C.J.” Hicks, 7, and Terrance Hicks, 8, went for a bike ride together on Sunday but when they didn’t return home when they were supposed to, family members went searching for them. That’s when the younger of the two siblings was found floating in a pond on private property in St. Clair, Mo. Divers found Terrance soon after, and both boys were pronounced dead later at the hospital, PEOPLE reports.

7- and 8-year-old brothers drown in eastern Missouri pond https://t.co/fBjZ8PUIiJ #kwch12 pic.twitter.com/GUlZHgsksi

— KWCH Eyewitness News (@KWCH12) December 24, 2019

Sheriff Steven Pelton told CNN that one of the boys may have slipped into the water and the other attempted to rescue him.

“Ice is not safe until you have approximately 4- to 5-inch thick ice,” St. Clair Fire Protection District Chief Craig Sullivan told KWCH. He noted that the thickness of ice on ponds can be hard to determine as temperatures warm, “and with the weather temperatures we’ve been experiencing, we have not had a long stretch of extremely cold weather to thicken that ice,” he added.

“It’s just a shock to me, it’s going to be hard to get over for a long time,” said 93-year-old Kamper.

“They would stop by in the evenings and visit with me and I would always give them a hug and they would hug me,” she said. “I would always say ‘I love ya.’ I told them, ‘I love you,’ they knew I loved loved them.”

READ MORE: Brutal stabbing of Black veteran at Oregon truck stop probed as hate crime

The tragedy occurred just days ahead of Christmas.

“I had their Christmas gifts ready for them,” Kamper said. “And I thought, ‘Oh I won’t get to give it to them.'”

The Hicks family are reportedly in the process of setting up a GoFundMe page.

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Michael Bloomberg severs ties with firm that hired prison laborers to make campaign calls

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says his presidential campaign has cut ties with a firm that used prisoners to make calls on the candidate’s behalf.

READ MORE: Cory Booker responds to Mike Bloomberg’s ‘well-spoken’ comments, assures there is ‘no beef’ between friends

Bloomberg said his campaign used a third-party vendor to contract a call center company named ProCom to conduct calls for his 2020 presidential run. But when a report by The Intercept noted that two of the company’s Oklahoma centers operate out of prisons, Bloomberg said his campaign immediately ended the arrangement, The Huffington Post reports.

“We do not support this practice and we are making sure our vendors more properly vet their subcontractors moving forward,” Bloomberg said in a statement he posted on Twitter.

Bloomberg campaign responds to that Intercept story. pic.twitter.com/CYdbcNwZev

— Asma Khalid (@asmamk) December 24, 2019

He entered the 2020 Democratic race late in the game, on Nov. 24. A source told The Intercept that some of the female inmates at the women’s prison Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Oklahoma have made calls for his campaign.

“The people were required to end their calls by disclosing that the calls were paid for by the Bloomberg campaign,” wrote reporter John Washington. “They did not disclose, however, that they were calling from behind bars.”

Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP (parent company of Bloomberg News), claims he knew nothing about prison laborers being used to make calls on his behalf.

As The Grio previously reported, soon after announcing his Democratic presidential run, Bloomberg apologized for his support of the “stop-and-frisk” strategy, employed by the New York Police Department while he was mayor.

READ MORE: Bloomberg: I ‘regret’ impact of police tactics on minorities

The targeted harassment of Black and Latino residents across the city was supported for a decade by Bloomberg.

In a speech, the first since expressing interest in taking over the white house, Bloomberg stated “I was wrong” and “I am sorry” and acknowledged that he “can’t change history.”

He apologized to those wrongly stopped as a part of the policing efforts.

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Slain Baltimore salon owner feared for her ‘life and business’

A 21-year-old Baltimore, Md., business owner reportedly told police she feared for her life days after her salon was robbed of hair bundles worth $3000. Now, police are investigating here murder after she was shot in the head Saturday night, report says.

READ MORE: Baltimore on track to reach highest per-capita murder record as two women are slain

The incident occurred at Madam D Beauty Bar the 200 block of North Milton Avenue in southeast Baltimore. Police were called to the scene shortly after 6 p.m. for a report of a shooting. When officers arrived, they found Destiny Harrison suffering from gunshot wounds to the head, WMAR Baltimore reports. The victim was taken to an area hospital where she later died.

Police say a woman was fatally shot earlier tonight inside of a beauty salon in the 200 block of N Milton Ave, the Madam D Beauty Bar. Friends on social media are saying the victim was the owner … pic.twitter.com/r6Q2I9G4du

— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) December 22, 2019

Earlier this month, Harrison filed charges against two individuals she caught stealing merchandise from her business. Upon confronting them, one of the suspects held her down while the other physically assaulted her. The couple then fled with $3,000 worth of hair extensions that Harrison sold at her salon.

In her written testimony, Harrison noted that one of the thieves had a violent background and she was “scared for my life and business.”

The suspects have been arrested and charged with assault, theft and burglary.

But police have not arrested anyone in Harrison’s murder. They, however, witnesses who were inside the salon at the time of the shooting will come forward with information.

“It’s unbelievable that some evil soul would do something like this,” said her uncle Dewine McQueen.

“Somebody gotta know something. Please come forward. We need to get these demonic souls here. They need to pay for their crime. There’s no doubt about that, in the name of Jesus, there’s no doubt,” he added.

READ MORE: Three Baltimore men have been exonerated after serving 36 years

In a GoFundMe page dedicated to the new mom, Harrison’s mother said: “We lost a angel due to tragedy that broke hearts all over Baltimore . We are asking that if anyone have any monetary donations we would greatly appreciate the help to lay my beautiful daughter in peace.”

Anyone with information about Harrison’s death should contact homicide detectives at 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7Lockup.

 

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Jussie Smollett Donates $10,000 to Flint KIDS Program

Despite being mired in one of the biggest controversies of 2019, Jussie Smollett still seems to have a heart of gold during this holiday season.

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