Spike Lee and the Obamas to drop projects on Netflix in 2020

Netflix has announced a slate of projects that will premiere on the streaming service this year, including titles from Spike Lee and the Obamas.

As TheGrio previously reported, Barack and Michelle Obama inked a deal with Netflix back in 2018 to produce fiction and non-fiction content for adults and children, including documentaries, dramas that all focus on “celebrating the human spirit through struggles and triumph.”

READ MORE: Spike Lee and Tarana Burke to participate in 2019 BlackStar Film Festival

American Factory was the first project from their Higher Ground Productions imprint, which debuted on Netflix last August. Up next is a documentary about a summer camp for disabled teenagers titled Crip Camp. The Obamas serve as executive producers on the project, which “follows the journey of disabled teenagers attending a summer camp in the 1970s,” Complex writes.

Another hotly anticipated project under the High Learner banner includes a biopic about Frederick Douglass, based on David W Blight’s Pulitzer-winning book, according to The Guardian.

Meanwhile, Spike Lee’s partnership with Netflix continues with the release of Da 5 Bloods starring Chadwick Boseman. The tale follows “four African American vets who return to Vietnam seeking their squad leader’s remains and the promise of buried treasure,” per the official synopsis.

Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It series was canceled last summer by Netflix after its second season. The acclaimed director plans to shop the show around to other networks.

“Spike Lee is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time and we’re thrilled he brought the series She’s Gotta Have It to Netflix. While this is our last season, we’re very proud that it will be on our service for years to come and excited to be working with Spike on his upcoming Netflix film Da 5 Bloods,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in a statement at the time to The Hollywood Reporter.

READ MORE: The Obamas set to purchase $14 million mega mansion on Martha’s Vineyard

Meanwhile, with the Obamas’ Netflix deal, they will be able to reach 148 million paying subscribers, the New York Times reports. But they will avoid producing politically-driven material that could inflame tensions during the 2020 presidential election.

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Vince Carter makes history as first NBAer to play in four different decades

Vince Carter has cemented his place in sports history by becoming the first player in the NBA to play in four separate decades.

Carter was drafted in 1998, and the 42-year-old veteran played through the 2000s, the 2010s and now the 2020s as forward for the Atlanta Hawks.

The future Hall of Famer is also the first NBAer to play 22 seasons in the league, msn.com reports, breaking the four-way tie with Robert Parish, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett, and Dirk Nowitzki.

READ MORE: Skylar Diggins-Smith reveals she played 2018 WNBA season pregnant

As retirement looms, Carter, now in his final season, has played in 1,510 total games and bagged 45,930 career minutes. He would have to play another year to top Parish’s all-time record of 1,611. He’s expected to pass Nowitzki’s 1,522 this season, CBS Sports reports, but Carter has a long way to go to challenge the all-time minutes’ record held by NBA icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with 57,446.

As Carter continues to go strong in the latter part of his career, he recently showered praise on another athlete for putting in that work: Patriots QB Tom Brady.

“For somebody to do it for that long, who has made a lot of money, it’s not about money. It’s about the love of the game,” Carter said. “He can still play and compete at a high level against guys who could be your kid. That’s what it’s all about. It’s doing what you love. We’ve been doing it for a very long time, and we’re fortunate enough that we’re healthy enough to continue doing what we love for a very long time.”

Fun Fact: Carter previously spoke about how Shaquille O’Neal nearly became a Toronto Raptor when he played on the team. This went down after O’Neal’s departure from the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I tried to get Shaq to Toronto,” Carter said in a Sports Illustrated interview.  “I felt like it was close. It was tough at the time, just because … a lot of guys were like, What’s Canada about? It was tough to convince players that it’s a great place until they’re actually there. Even me, when I worked out for them, I didn’t really know what they had to offer until I was actually there.”

READ MORE: Kevin Durant steps off court to bring sports business talk show to ESPN

Carter, who ranks 20th all-time in points scored in the NBA, is widely regarded as the greatest dunker of all time.

 

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Black drivers in California are stopped and searched at higher rates than whites

Black drivers in Los Angeles are disproportionately stopped and searched by police officers at nearly three times the per capita rate of white drivers, according to a new report by the state’s Department of Justice.

While Blacks make up about 6% of the population, they accounted for 15% of all traffic stops across California in the second half of 2018, “while White and Latino drivers were stopped at rates proportional to their populations,” cbs8.com writes.

READ MORE: Atlanta suburb votes to fire police chief accused of racial profiling

The report was released Thursday from the California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, an entity reportedly comprised of leaders from law enforcement, community groups and attorneys who are responsible for advising the Attorney General’s Office about racial profiling and traffic stops.

The annual report is required under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015, and, according to The Huffington Post, these latest findings highlight the racial statistics of about “1.8 million traffic stops from July through December 2018 from the eight largest law enforcement agencies in the state,” the outlet writes — including jurisdictions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, and California Highway Patrol.

Officers targeted Black people the most due to “reasonable suspicion” but found contraband on white drivers at a higher rate than any other racial group. Asians as a whole were stopped the least when compared to Middle Eastern or South Asian drivers.

“For the first time ever, Californians have comprehensive racial and identity data on each stop and search conducted by police officers at the largest law enforcement agencies in the state,” said Sahar Durali, co-chair of the advisory board that produced this report. “This is a critical first step in the fight to end racial profiling.”

Black folks were also more likely to be stopped and arrested at night.

“Anytime you have disparities that do not reflect the population, it’s concerning. so you have to look at that,” said local attorney Douglas Oden, a member of the statewide board overseeing the data collection.

“We always perceived there was racial profiling and we wanted a way to document that and to some extent, the statistics are bearing that out,” he added.  “I know growing up, I was stopped a number of times – five times in one night.”

READ MORE: Report shows Nashville police officer who shot and killed Black man stopped more Black drivers than white on patrol

When asked to comment on Black drivers being disproportionately targeted for stops and searches, Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office said: “We’ll let the report, data and press release speak for themselves.”

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DaBaby’s alleged robbery victim plans to sue rapper over assault in Miami

The promoter who was on the receiving end of a beat down by rapper DaBaby is now planning to sue the artist.

DaBaby, 28, was slapped with a battery charge on Thursday after his involvement in a robbery of a music promoter, identified as Kenneth. The attack was the result of the hip-hop star not being paid in full by the promoter for hosting a party for rapper Stunna 4 Vegas at a Florida nightclub.

READ MORE: DaBaby on dumbing down lyrics to win fans and going no. 1 on day of dad’s untimely death

Kenneth claims since the attack, several attorneys have hit him up to offer their services in suing the North Carolina native, according to TMZ. He is planning to take legal action against everyone involved in the incident, claiming he suffered cuts and bruises on his face.

DaBaby and members of his entourage reportedly took the victim’s iPhone 7, a credit card and about $80 in cash. The promoter “stated that during the altercation, one of the offenders doused him with apple juice,” the police report said. Surveillance footage reportedly captured the attack and the moment DaBaby and his crew fled the scene in a black SUV.

DaBaby, whose birth name is Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, was released on a $1,500 bond on Saturday, two days after his arrest, E! News reports.

He was questioned by robbery detectives in what Miami Police Department spokesperson, Kenia Fallat, is calling “an open and ongoing investigation.”

As TheGrio previously reported, last week, DaBaby was also detained in his hometown after police found marijuana in his car, according to TMZ. He was charged with misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana and resisting an officer.

READ MORE DaBaby gets heckled by fellow rapper Cam Coldheart, then gets some licks in

He told TMZ he was targeted by police after they received a “bogus” tip that he had drugs and guns in his vehicle.

“Every time. There’s nobody when I pull up in the parking lot, the second I get out the car, 15 cops come around — can I borrow your microphone?  ****** grabs mic … shining it into the car windows … they follow me, they pull us over for no reason,” TMZ quotes the rapper as saying.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls Donald Trump’s Iran threats a ‘war crime’

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has added her voice to the chorus of critics against Donald Trump’s threat to target “52 Iranian sites” if the county retaliates against America after his drone strike Thursday in Baghdad, killing Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

READ MORE: Donald Trump writes racist tweet about congresswomen of color

In a tweet on Saturday, the Democrat congresswoman from New York described Trump’s aggressive stance against the nation as a “war crime.”

“This is a war crime,” AOC tweeted. “Threatening to target and kill innocent families, women and children – which is what you’re doing by targeting cultural sites – does not make you a ‘tough guy.’ It does not make you ‘strategic.’ It makes you a monster.”

Trump ordered an airstrike last week after Iranian-militants reportedly surrounded the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Despite the president’s claim that Soleimani was preparing an attack on American targets, New York Times correspondent Rukmini Callimachi claims credible sources, including “two US officials who had intelligence briefings after the strike on Suleimani,” shared with her that  “evidence suggesting there was to be an imminent attack on American targets is “razor-thin”,” she wrote on Twitter.

This is a war crime.

Threatening to target and kill innocent families, women and children – which is what you’re doing by targeting cultural sites – does not make you a “tough guy.”

It does not make you “strategic.”
It makes you a monster. https://t.co/IjkNO8BD07

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 5, 2020

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed vengeance after his top official was killed, Washington Examiner reports.

“With his departure and with God’s power, his work and path will not cease, and severe revenge awaits those criminals who have tainted their filthy hands with his blood and the blood of the other martyrs of last night’s incident,” said a statement released by Khamenei.

Iran’s Gen. Gholamali Abuhamzeh triggered Trump over the weekend when he claimed to have 35 US targets ready to attack.

“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago),” Trump responded in a tweet.

“Some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets. and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!” he added.

Ocasio-Cortez believes Congress has a “moral and legal obligation” to prevent war with Iran.

READ MORE: Bernie Sanders: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be part of his White House

Following last week’s killing of Soleimani, the US has been increasing military presence in the area by deploying 3,000 paratroopers to Iraq, New York Post reports. Trump believes retaliation from Iran could go down “within weeks.”

Meanwhile, thousands took to the streets of Baghdad on Saturday chanting, “Death to America,” and many more attended Soleimani’s funeral procession in Ahvaz.

 

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