All About People
by James E. Booker
TOP DRAWER STUFF:Talk-show queen and billionaire Oprah Winfrey, who has signed a new three-year contract extending her live program activities through 2011,. Continues her reign as the wealthiest and most influential woman on the boob tube . . .
TOP DRAWER STUFF:Talk-show queen and billionaire Oprah Winfrey, who has signed a new three-year contract extending her live program activities through 2011,. Continues her reign as the wealthiest and most influential woman on the boob tube . . .
When the Republican National Convention convenes at Madison Square Garden later this month, there will be a 70 percent increase over the 2000 convention of non-white delegates, amounting to 17 percent of the total delegates. “These are truly historic gains the Republican Party is making with America’s minority voters,” said Edward Gillespie, GOP convention chair. The percentage of non-White delegates at the recent Democratic Convention was 39 percent . . . .
Meanwhile, republican conservative Alan Keyes, a two-time presidential dreamer from Maryland, announce his move to Illinois and is acceptance of th4 GOP nomination to oppose Democratic potential super-star Barack Obama for the U.S. Senate, making the first time the two major parties have endorsed Back candidates for the U.S. Senate, which insures the election of the nation’s fifth Black senator. With over $10-million in his campaign chest, Barack is considered a slam-dunk in the November race as he campaigned this week with Kerry’svice presidential running mate John Edwards. Barack’s popularity has led to the reprinting of his book, published in 1995, “Dreams of My Father,” in paperback . . .
Speaking of books, a new study by the American Library Association reveals that “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of Blacks in rural and racist Georgia, published in 1982, is one of the most re-read books . . .
Black women with breast cancer are much more likely than White women to have a generic mutation that makes their cancer more dangerous, and, as a result, they are more likely to die of the disease even though they are less likely to develop breast cancer in the first place, a study, released this week, by the Yale University School of Medicine has concluded . . .
Oracle Corp. co-president Charles Phillips looms as the highest ranking African-American in the technology industry since taking office in 2003, after nine years as a software industry analyst for Morgan Stanley. Philips,45, who holds an MBA from Hampton and a J.D. from New York Law School, is a key economic advisor to the Kerry/Edwards ticket . . .
The Williams sisters, Venusand Serena, will be participating in the August 15-22 Olympic tennis matches in Athens, Greece, and expect to return to New York the first week in September for the U.S. Open . . .
An army of non-White journalists, more than 7,000 strong, were considered luke-warm when they received President Bush, as compared to the enthusiastically warm reception given to presidential challenger John Kerry before the group called UNITY, in Washington last week. Kerry received a standing ovation before he addressed the group and was interrupted nearly 50 times with applause, compared to Bush, who drew polite applause and only a standing ovation when he concluded . . . .
A Decatur, Ga. Judge has ordered the arrest of former NFL wide receiver Andre Rison for failure to pay $107,350 in child support payments and called upon other state court jurisdictions to help in his arrest . . . .
Attacking his nation’s lackadaisical policy on AIDS and AIDS-related diseases, south Africa’s Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi spoke out revealing the deaths of his daughter, 48, and his son,53, due to AIDS complications this year. Meanwhile, the New National Party, which ran the dictatorship, dedicated to preserving White minority power, during four decades of apartheid in South Africa, announced that it was disbanding and urging the members to join the Black-led African National Congress which currently runs the government . . . .
Lawyers for the woman who has accused Los Angeles Laker star guard Kobe Bryant of rape, bitterly criticized the trial judge of trying to protect his own reputation in the mistakes made during pretrial in the release of the accuser’s name and the “Mister X” transcripts, by now imposing an unfair gag order, which they claim is unconstitutional. . . .
AROUND TOWN: Shyne(aka Jamal Barrow), whose home-away-from-home for the past four years has been upstate in maximum-security Dannemora Prison as the gunman in the Sean “P. Diddy” Combs-J.Lo nightclub incident, is getting a big splash of publicity on the release of his new album, “Godfather Buried alive,” although he still has three more years to go . . . .
New York State Secretary of State Randy Daniels, who may be a candidate for governor on the Republican ticket, and his wife of 30 years. Jackie Daniels, have filed for a divorce. According to published reports, the couple who have been separated for over a year, has put a “for sale” sign o their palatial brownstone in Harlem for about $2.25 million . . . .
Two of the rap-music world’s businessmen, Damon Dash and Jay Z, are not too friendly these days since Jay-Z bought a ritzy Tribeca penthouse, owned by adman Peter Arnell, under the nose of Dash who was all ready to sign the contract to purchase the penthouse for $7.5-million, the same price Jay-Z paid. The background on this sale and the lifestyle of the new tenant in the tiny building is more involved than the story on the WMD that President Bush is still looking for. More headlines on this story . . . .
Supreme Court Judge Leland DeGrasse has politicians hot under the collar after he named three special masters to overhaul the stat’s education-funding system after the legislature failed to act by his deadline, namely Fordham Law School Dean John Ferric, and retired appeals court judges LeoMilonasandWilliam C. Thompson, Sr., father of City Comptroller Bill Thompson . . . .
