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Man stabs himself fakes robbery to avoid court

Spring Hill man accused of stabbing himself, lying about robbery

Times staff

May 31, 2011 09:49 PM

SPRING HILL — Authorities say a man who claimed he was robbed and stabbed Tuesday made up the story — and in fact stabbed himself — to justify missing his court date and avoid paying back child support.

Michael Cherubino, 51, of 5464 Birchwood Road in Spring Hill had told deputies two men attacked him at his home, stabbed him in the stomach and stole about $4,000 before fleeing in a "beat up" white pickup.

Investigators say he later admitted to Hernando County sheriff's deputies that he had lied and cut himself with a piece of glass so he would be hospitalized, miss his court date and have an excuse not to pay $4,000 he owed in child support.

Cherubino was issued a notice to appear on a charge of giving a false report to law enforcement.

Entry #4,743

Employment Data May Be the Key to the President's

Employment Data May Be the Key to the President’s Job

BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

Published: June 1, 2011

WASHINGTON — No American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has won a second term in office when the unemployment rate on Election Day topped 7.2 percent.

Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

President Obama speaking on Monday at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. The White House is pursuing a number of smaller initiatives to create jobs.

Matthew Staver/Bloomberg News

A sign outside a job fair in Denver last month. New figures on jobs, due Friday, are expected to bring fresh cause for concern.

Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto Agency

Representative Eric Cantor, center, the House majority leader, speaking after a meeting with President Obama on Wednesday.

Seventeen months before the next election, it is increasingly clear that President Obama must defy that trend to keep his job.

Roughly 9 percent of Americans who want to go to work cannot find an employer. Companies are firing fewer people, but hiring remains anemic. And the vast majority of economic forecasters, including the president’s own advisers, predict only modest progress by November 2012.

The latest job numbers, due Friday, are expected to provide new cause for concern. Other indicators suggest the pace of growth is flagging. Weak manufacturing data, a gloomy reading on jobs in advance of Friday’s report and a drop in auto sales led the markets to their worst close since August.

But the grim reality of widespread unemployment is drawing little response from Washington. The Federal Reserve says it is all but tapped out. There is even less reason to expect Congressional action. Both Democrats and Republicans see clear steps to create jobs, but they are trying to walk in opposite directions and are making little progress.

Republicans have set the terms of debate by pressing for large cuts in federal spending, which they say will encourage private investment. Democrats have found themselves battling to minimize and postpone such cuts, which they fear will cause new job losses.

House Republicans told the president that they would not support new spending to spur growth during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday.

“The discussion really focused on the philosophical difference on whether Washington should continue to pump money into the economy or should we provide an incentive for entrepreneurs and small businesses to grow,” said Eric Cantor, the majority leader. “The president talked about a need for us to continue to quote-unquote invest from Washington’s standpoint, and for a lot of us that’s code for more Washington spending, something that we can’t afford right now.”

The White House, its possibilities constrained by the gridlock, has offered no new grand plans. After agreeing to extend the Bush-era tax cuts and reducing the payroll tax last December, the administration has focused on smaller ideas, like streamlining corporate taxation and increasing American exports to Asia and Latin America.

“It’s a very tough predicament,” said Jared Bernstein, who until April was economic policy adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “Is there any political appetite for something that would resemble another large Keynesian stimulus? Obviously no. You can say that’s what we should do and you’d probably be right, but that’s pretty academic.”

More than 13.7 million Americans were unable to find work in April; most had been seeking jobs for months. Millions more have stopped trying. Their inability to earn money is a personal catastrophe; studies show that the chance of finding new work slips away with time. It is also a strain on their families, charities and public support programs.

The Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, has the means and the mandate to reduce unemployment by pumping money into the economy.

As financial markets nearly collapsed in 2008, the Fed unleashed a series of unprecedented programs, first to arrest the crisis and then to promote recovery, investing more than $2 trillion. The final installment, a $600 billion bond-buying program, ends in June.

Now, however, the leaders of the central bank say they are reluctant to do more. The Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said in April that more money might not increase growth, but there was a growing risk that it would accelerate inflation.

Congress charged the Fed in 1978 with minimizing unemployment and inflation. Those goals, however, are often in conflict, and the Fed has made clear that inflation is its priority. Fed officials argue in part that maintaining slow, steady inflation forms a basis for enduring economic expansion.

Eric S. Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said in a recent interview that the Fed had reached the limits of responsible policy.

“We’ve done things that are quite unusual. We’re using tools that we have less experience with,” Mr. Rosengren said. “Most of the criticism has been that we’re being too accommodative. That is a concern that we have to put some weight on.”

Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research group, said that the Fed was being too cautious about inflation and too callous about joblessness.

“We have a massive unemployment problem in this country right now. It is festering. It’s not good for our economy. It’s not good for our society. And we have the tools to fix it,” she said. “We certainly need to be concerned about what happens down the road, but shouldn’t we first be concerned about getting the U.S. economy back on track?”

Ten presidents have stood for re-election since Mr. Roosevelt. In four instances the unemployment rate stood above 6 percent on Election Day. Three presidents lost: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush. But Ronald Reagan won, despite 7.2 percent unemployment in November 1984, because the rate was falling and voters decided he was fixing the problem.

The Obama administration hopes to tell a similar story.

“We have undertaken some of the biggest policy actions to create jobs that any administration has ever done,” said Jason Furman, deputy director of the National Economic Council, which advises the president on economic policy. Mr. Furman said that the economy was still benefiting from last year’s tax cuts, and from the dollop of federal stimulus spending that Democrats pushed through in 2009.

The White House is pursuing a number of smaller initiatives, like persuading China to buy more American goods and services; increasing business confidence in the health of the economy, to spur new investment; and striking a deal with Republicans to overhaul corporate taxation.

It is also pushing to renew federal financing for transportation projects with an important twist: The six-year plan would be front-loaded so that $50 billion would be spent in the first year.

But Christina Romer, who headed the president’s Council of Economic Advisers until fall 2010, said in a recent speech at Washington University in St. Louis that no part of the government was addressing unemployment with sufficient urgency or hope.

“Urgency, because unemployment is a tragedy that should not be tolerated a minute longer,” she said. “And hope, because prudent and possible policies could make a crucial difference.”

Entry #4,742

Burglar spotted riding bike with stolen 59-inch TV

Burglar spotted riding bike with stolen 59-inch TV, cops say
Steven Long, 23, was arrested on burglary and theft charges.

Jeff Weiner
Orlando Sentinel

7:20 PM EDT, May 31, 2011

A burglary suspect was arrested in South Daytona on Sunday � after he was spotted carrying a 59-inch stolen television on a bicycle, police said.

According to police, a bicycle patrol officer spotted Steven Long, 23, near the intersection of Wells Drive and Magnolia Avenue in South Daytona about 4:20 a.m. Sunday.

The officer said Long, who had the TV wedged between his lap and the handlebars, panicked upon seeing police and fled. He later ditched the bike, and its cargo, and fled on foot, police said.

Long was caught in a back yard on Palm Grove Court, police said. Officers later spoke to residents of a Wells Drive home, who had reported a burglary.

The victims identified the television as theirs, and told police they'd been sleeping when someone pried the side door to their garage open and stole their TV and other items.

Long, who agreed to talk to police, said that he was given the television by an unnamed friend to settle a debt, an arrest report states. He said he ran from officers because he doesn't like police, the report says.

Police said Long's story didn't add up. He was arrested on several charges, including burglary of an occupied dwelling and felony theft, and jailed on $13,000 bail. He remained in custody Tuesday.

The stolen property was returned to the victims, police said, but the television � which the victims said they'd bought for $2,000 less than a week earlier � was broken beyond repair.

Entry #4,740

Grandfather, 70, and grandson to receive GED's together

Grandpa, grandson motivate each other to earn GED

 

Monday, May 30, 2011 4:15 pm

 

buy this photoRICK CHASE Robert Speed, left, and his grandson Daniel Johnson are both receiving their GED diplomas after attending Hawkeye Community College's Metro Center in Waterloo, Iowa. Pictured Monday, May 23, 2011. (RICK CHASE / Courier Staff Photographer)

WATERLOO --- Bob Speed is finally getting his GED, more than 50 years after dropping out of high school.

The 70-year-old Dunkerton man will be joined by his 21-year-old grandson, Danny Johnson, in receiving the GED diploma Thursday. They are among 154 people who have completed the program in the past year. Fifty-one others also are going through the graduation ceremony at Hawkeye Community College's Tama Hall. Two other family pairs have completed the GED in the past year, including a brother and sister and a mom and son.

Both men say the support of the other was necessary to get through their studies and pass the five General Educational Development tests required for the diploma. "I was the math teacher, he was the English teacher," Speed said, laughing. They also credited the help of long-time HCC Metro Center instructor Jeanie Steffey.

The two hatched the plan to earn GEDs after Johnson, a Minnesota native, moved in with his grandparents.

"Dan came to live with us in January," Speed said. "Grandma said, 'If you guys really aren't busy this winter, you should go down and get your GEDs.'"

Speed agreed, as long as Johnson joined him.

"I thought it would be a good opportunity for me and Grandpa to get it done," Johnson said.

The pair were so dedicated to their task from the time they started studying in February that their classmates called them "the twins."

"We went seven weeks and we went four hours a day, five days a week," Speed said. "We had a goal that we wanted to get done this year and make the graduation." Students had to pass the tests in math, science, history, reading and writing by May 10 to go through the ceremony.

Johnson said preparing for the tests was "a little nerve-wracking now and then. I struggled with the math part. I lost sleep over it, I'll tell you that."

"Reading and writing were my weakest points," Speed added. "It was a challenge to get it out, to get it on paper and do your best."

That didn't stop him from running a business for 35 years as a concrete contractor, which grew to 65 employees. "Whenever I wrote a letter for my business, I always had the secretary check it over to make sure the spelling was right," he said.

"Fifty-two years ago it was a lot easier without a GED than it is today," said Speed, who dropped out of Dunkerton High School. "You could pretty much get a job without a high school education at that time."

He got into the concrete business after five years of working at the Rath meat packing plant in Waterloo. Eventually, he relocated to Minneapolis, where his concrete business flourished for 30 years. Speed and his wife retired to Dunkerton in 2007.

Johnson knew he needed to make the time to get his GED.

"I've worked odd jobs, and I've found it's a lot easier to get your foot in the door with an education," he said.

Someday, Johnson hopes to train as a mechanic. For the time being, though, he's putting in applications for a job so he can start making money.

Speed said he felt a lot of self-satisfaction in completing his GED.

"I've always been kind of a self-motivated individual and I just finally got that part done," he said.

 

Entry #4,739

Putting a Crimp in the Hookah

Putting a Crimp in the Hookah

DOUGLAS QUENQUA

May 30, 2011

 

Kevin Shapiro, a 20-year-old math and physics major at the University of Pennsylvania, first tried a hookah at a campus party. He liked the exotic water pipe so much that he chipped in to buy one for his fraternity house, where he says it makes a useful social lubricant at parties.

Steve Kagan for The New York Times

Kevin Shapiro, 20, and his sister Allison, 18, on the deck of the family home in Chicago.

Stew Milne for The New York Times

Cassie Ramsey, a student, at a Providence, R.I., hookah bar. A boom in hookah use has led to new health efforts against them.

Like many other students who are embracing hookahs on campuses nationwide, Mr. Shapiro believes that hookah smoke is less dangerous than cigarette smoke because it “is filtered through water, so you get fewer solid particles.”

“Considering I don’t do it that often, once a month if that, I’m not really concerned with the health effects,” he added.

But in fact, hookahs are far from safe. And now, legislators, college administrators and health advocates are taking action against what many of them call the newest front in the ever-shifting war on tobacco. In California, Connecticut and Oregon, state lawmakers have introduced bills that would ban or limit hookah bars, and similar steps have been taken in cities in California and New York. Boston and Maine have already ended exemptions in their indoor-smoking laws that had allowed hookah bars to thrive.

The ornate glass and metal water pipes are used for smoking an aromatic blend of tobacco, molasses and fruit known as shisha. A 2008 study of 3,770 students at eight universities in North Carolina found more than 40 percent had smoked a hookah at least once, only slightly lower than the percentage who had tried a cigarette at least once.

But researchers say the notion that water filters all the harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke is a myth. So, too, they say, is the idea that because hookah smoking is an occasional activity, users are inhaling much less smoke than cigarette users.

Many young adults are misled by the sweet, aromatic and fruity quality of hookah smoke, which causes them to believe it is less harmful than hot, acrid cigarette smoke. In fact, because a typical hookah session can last up to an hour, with smokers typically taking long, deep breaths, the smoke inhaled can equal 100 cigarettes or more, according to a 2005 study by the World Health Organization.

That study also found that the water in hookahs filters out less than 5 percent of the nicotine. Moreover, hookah smoke contains tar, heavy metals and other cancer-causing chemicals. An additional hazard: the tobacco in hookahs is heated with charcoal, leading to dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide, even for people who spend time in hookah bars without actually smoking, according to a recent University of Florida study. No surprise, then, that several studies have linked hookah use to many of the same diseases associated with cigarette smoking, like lung, oral and bladder cancer, as well as clogged arteries, heart disease and adverse effects during pregnancy. And because hookahs are meant to be smoked communally — hoses attached to the pipe are passed from one smoker to the next — they have been linked with the spread of  tuberculosis, herpes and other infections.

“Teens and young adults are initiating tobacco use through these hookahs with the mistaken perception that the products are somehow safer or less harmful than cigarettes,” said Paul G. Billings, a vice president of the American Lung Association. “Clearly that’s not the case.”

Mr. Billings calls the emerging anti-hookah legislation a “top priority” for the lung association.

The organization is having some success, particularly at colleges where hookahs had become a fixture in dorms and fraternity houses. Louisiana State University, Baylor University, George Mason University, Lehigh University and others have expanded their antismoking policies to include hookahs in recent years.

Hookahs are a big part of the reason the University of Oregon will ban all tobacco products on campus as of next year, after years of complaints from students about secondhand smoke.

Students already are feeling the change. For Cassie Ramsey, arriving at college was a bit of a culture shock, because she had to leave behind her hookah pipe.

“I only smoke once, maybe twice a month now,” said Ms. Ramsey, a sophomore at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., where hookahs are not allowed in the dorms.

“It’s kind of depressing because over the summer I was a very avid hookah smoker,” she said, gathering at least once a day with friends for smoking sessions that would last up to two hours.

Local governments, too, are moving to stem rising interest in hookahs. Most of the anti-hookah laws now under consideration are intended to end exemptions in state indoor-smoking bans that allowed hookah bars to thrive. Such bans often contained exceptions for “tobacco specialty shops”; many hookah bars qualify as such by not serving food or alcohol. College towns in particular have reported a marked increase in hookah bars over the past five years.

“It was appalling to me when I first saw them springing up here in the Portland area,” Carolyn Tomei, an Oregon state representative, said of the more than 45 applications her state has received from hookah bars since its ban on indoor smoking went into effect in 2009. (Previously, there were five bars.)

These bars rely on theme nights and exotically flavored tobacco (passion fruit, “Sex on the Beach”) to market themselves to the college set, and many do not serve alcohol, making them an attractive destination for people under 21.

Ms. Tomei, a Milwaukie Democrat, sponsored a bill to limit new hookah bars in Oregon; it passed the State House of Representatives in April and awaits a vote in the Senate.

Hookah bars have long been a mainstay of Middle Eastern life, and they are popular in American cities with large Arab populations, including New York, where Councilman Vincent J. Gentile, a Brooklyn Democrat, has introduced a bill that would prevent new hookah bars from opening next year and beyond.

The backlash against the crackdown has already begun. On Facebook, there are dozens of hookah interest groups, some aimed at protesting bans on hookahs.

“Why don’t they ban cigarettes from CT first, then we can get into the rest,” one Facebook member wrote on a page for people who oppose the hookah legislation in Connecticut. “I think this is just people being very judgmental.”

Entry #4,738

Pleeze help: Writing challenged principal asking for support

Pleeze help: Writing-challenged Brooklyn principal Andrew Buck asking parents, teachers for support

Ben Chapman
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Tuesday, May 31st 2011, 4:00 AM

PTA President Paulette Brown (right) got a letter from principal Andrew Buck (left) asking for a 'brief letter of support' on May 16.
 
Ken Murray/News (right)
 
PTA President Paulette Brown (right) got a letter from principal Andrew Buck (left) asking for a 'brief letter of support' on May 16.
 

An infamous Brooklyn principal - exposed by the Daily News for letters riddled with grammatical errors - is up for tenure and brazenly asking parents and teachers for support.

Andrew Buck of the Middle School for Art and Philosophy made headlines in October by denying his students textbooks and then sending rambling, nonsensical letters about it to parents.

Fedup parents and teachers were stunned that Buck would formally ask them for praise - and that he'd use Department of Education letterhead to do it.

"He's trying to scare us into writing recommendations to help him get tenure," said PTA President Paulette Brown, who got a letter from Buck asking for a "brief letter of support" on May16.

"He's crazy - he shouldn't be principal of anything," said Brown, whose daughter, Samantha, is in eighth grade at the East Flatbush school.

Buck sent out memos to parents and teachers on official Department of Education stationery in the past two weeks, asking them for notes that will be reviewed by officials making tenure decisions.

He also asked a number of his staffers for letters of recommendation in person. Many are scared he will retaliate against them if they don't comply.

"They're concerned he'll do something if they don't write it," said a teacher who received a memo from Buck that lists specific things to mention, such as his "leadership decisions" and "academic rigor."

Buck, who earns $129,913 a year as head of the C-rated school, is wrapping up his third year as principal and was denied tenure last June.

The techniques he has employed in his attempt to gain tenure are highly unorthodox, according to a spokeswoman for the principals union.

"I'm unaware of principals soliciting written requests for recommendations to parents and teachers," said Chiara Coletti, communications director of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators.

An Education Department official said the matter has been referred to the special commissioner of investigation.

Buck drew criticism from parents and teachers this school year after sending out an error-filled email defending his policy of withholding textbooks.

The letter contained about 50 errors of logic and grammar and said textbooks weren't necessary in the learning process.

Angry parents printed it out and distributed it in front of the school before class one day.

Buck's more recent letters were far less offensive grammatically, featuring only one error. In one sentence, he used the word "your" instead of "you."

Voted the least-trustworthy principal in the city by the teachers union in 2008, Buck refused to comment on his latest controversy.

Entry #4,737

Sarah Palin gets it right

Baltimore Sun

Sarah Palin gets it right

Our view: Republicans may be fretting that the party isn't rallying behind a clear front-runner for 2012, but the former Alaska governor is right that competition will breed success

May 31, 2011

 

Just when you thought the Republican presidential field was getting set, up pops the most mischievous force in American politics, Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor — the real deal this time, not actress Julianne Moore channeling her for the filming in Maryland of the movie "Game Change" — dropped by Ft. McHenry on Monday in a non-campaign stop in her non-campaign bus on her (wink wink) non-campaign tour of the East Coast, which ends, in what must be pure coincidence, in the first primary state, New Hampshire.

While in Baltimore, according to a Los Angeles Times reporter who was able to keep up despite the lack of a public schedule, Ms. Palin read a manuscript of the "Star Spangled Banner;" hoisted a 36-pound cannon ball; briefly upbraided President Obama for referring to the U.S. Military during a Memorial Day observance as "one of the finest fighting forces in the world," as opposed to the finest; and in a particularly mavericky touch, paid a compliment to another non-candidate governor, Rick Perry of Texas.

All this action from the Fox News commentator, plus her recent purchase of a home in Arizona, which could be a perch in the Lower 48 from which to launch a presidential run, has delighted all ends of the political spectrum. In fact, it's hard to tell who's more excited, Governor Palin's many fans or the Democrats who think she'd be easy to beat.

But even before Ms. Palin's re-emergence on the national stage, Democrats seemed to be feeling pretty confident about the caliber of the Republican field. Once Govs. Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Haley Barbour of Mississippi, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and (let us not forget) Donald Trump announced they wouldn't run, the GOP appeared to be left with contenders or potential candidates who were all flawed or unable to unite the party's traditional constituencies.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is Mormon (which turns off some evangelical Christians) and has the distinction of having enacted a universal health care plan in the Bay State that looks an awful lot like Obamacare.

Rep. Ron Paul has a dedicated following, but his strict libertarianism (he favors, for example, legalizing heroin) takes him places many voters don't want to go.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has a tendency to say things he regrets (witness his criticism on Meet the Press of the Republican House budget plan, and then his backtracking shortly thereafter). Plus, there are the three wives, the affair with the third while he was pursuing impeachment of President Clinton, and, most recently, the $250,000-$500,000 charge account at Tiffany.

Former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain has been attracting tea party support, but he is a virtual unknown on the national stage and has never held public office.

Rep. Michelle Bachman, another tea party favorite, managed to annoy the GOP establishment by giving a rogue tea party response to the State of the Union address — and whiffed the opportunity besides by staring into the wrong camera.

Former Utah Gov. John Huntsman, who has recently been exploring a campaign, favored civil unions for gays and, worse from a Republican perspective, served as President Obama's ambassador to China.

With that field, some wise heads have recently been predicting that the party would begin to unite behind former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has no obvious flaws other than the fact that he's been polling somewhere in the vicinity of dead last.

But Democrats shouldn't get too excited, and Republicans can stop speed-dialing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or any of the other imagined saviors of the 2012 election. We're at the phase of an election in which it's easy to see all the reasons why someone can't possibly win but very difficult to see the reasons why they could. Twenty years ago, the Republican president was riding high in the polls after the first Persian Gulf War, and the Democrats were assembling their own field of flawed candidates, and none more flawed than a draft-dodging, pot-smoking (though not-inhaling), womanizing governor of a small Southern state. That turned out a bit better for the Democrats than they might have expected.

The Republicans have always been the party in which the establishment rallied behind a chosen candidate, and its understandable that some might be nervous that it isn't turning out that way this time. But it's time to stop fretting about who's in and who's out and to start listening to what these candidates have to say about where they would lead this country.

It's rare that we agree with something Ms. Palin says, but she had it absolutely right when she said at Ft. McHenry "Competition breeds success. I would hope there is gonna be vigorous debate and a lot of aggressive competition even in our primary so that our voters have a good choice." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Entry #4,736

Sports energy drinks may not be good for children

Healthy Difference: Sports, energy drinks may not be good for children

6:38 PM, May 30, 2011

Amanda Terrebonne

 

 

(KTHV) -- A lot of parents and children think energy and sports drinks are the same - and a good way to give kids a boost when they're playing soccer, baseball, softball, or football.

But the American Academy of Pediatrics says that's not the case.
Twins Emma and Connor Waldron are very active 10 years olds, so their mom lets them have a sports drink after a tough practice or game.

"My daughter trains for gymnastics. She's there for 3 and a half hours every evening so I let her have it after that and my son after a baseball game," says Meryle Waldron.

Sports drinks and energy drinks are increasingly popular with children and teens - but a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics says most kids who play recreational sports - don't need sports drinks.

"Sports drinks contain carbohydrates which can give you energy but they also give you calories and can contribute to obesity, being overweight and also dental erosion," says Dr. Alanna Levine, spokesperson for American Academy of Pediatrics.

The academy says energy drinks are even more harmful - and have no place in a kid's diet.

Energy drinks contain stimulants like caffeine and some of the energy drinks contain so much of them, it's the equivalent of drinking up to 14 cans of caffeinated soda.

Caffeine can affect the development of a child's nervous system and cardiovascular system. Pediatricians say the best way to keep young people hydrated - just plain water - before during and after practice.

Doctors say a sports drink may be okay if a child participates in repeated, heavy duty aerobic exercise.

"I feel like the kids can use the calories after they do their sports and they need the drink and it helps with their electrolytes and the calories aren't going to make a difference. They burn up so many calories," says Waldron.

But Emma and Connor are only allowed one sports drink a day. The rest of the time, they're happy to drink water.

LINK TO VIDEO:

Entry #4,735

Gil Scott-Heron, soul poet, dead at 62

Gil Scott-Heron, soul poet, dead at 62

Gil Scott-Heron, soul poet, dead at 62

10:44 p.m. CDT, May 27, 2011

Public Enemy’s Chuck D once said hip-hop was black America's CNN. If so, Gil Scott-Heron was the network’s first great anchorman, presaging hip-hop and infusing soul and jazz with poetry, humor and pointed political commentary.

Scott-Heron died Friday at the age of 62, according to his U.K. publisher. The Pitchfork Web site said the report was confirmed by a record-company publicist.

His songs, including “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” “The Bottle” and "Johannesburg," were hard-edged yet melodic, influencing subsequent generations of soul and hip-hop artists who revered him as a pioneer, including Common, Erykah Badu, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest and Kanye West.
 
Scott-Heron was born in 1949 in Chicago and spent most of his childhood in Tennessee and then New York.
Entry #4,732
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