Report: DJ AM's death not suicide

As reported on UPI.com:

NEW YORK, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Investigators are categorizing DJ AM's death in New York last week as an accidental drug overdose, not a suicide, law enforcement sources told TMZ.

DJ AM (real name Adam Goldstein), a celebrity disc jockey, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment Friday. He was 36.

An autopsy conducted the following day proved inconclusive. Officials said a cause of death will not be announced until toxicology and other tests are reviewed.

Sources told TMZ Goldstein, a recovering drug addict, developed a dependency on Xanax and other anxiety-relieving benzodiazepines after he and rock musician Travis Barker survived a Learjet crash that left four people dead last year.

Goldstein was taking the medication because he had developed a terrible fear of flying after the crash, but still needed to travel by air for work, the insiders told the Web site.

The prescriptions triggered a relapse, but Goldstein had not been abusing other drugs, namely crack cocaine, again long before his death, the sources said.

One insider emphasized the disc jockey's death had "absolutely nothing to do with his recent breakup" with a girlfriend as has been implied in some media reports.

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Newly Published Article: '5 Steps To Strengthen Your Community'

Read the full aricle here.

'Dancing With the Stars' Pairings Announced

Get up on the good foot!

ABC has just announced the celebrity/pro pairs for Season 9 of "Dancing With the Stars" (which premieres Sept. 21).

Here's a rundown of who'll be stepping with whom:
- Pop star Aaron Carter and Karina Smirnoff

- Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin and Season 1 champ Alec Mazo

- "Iron Chef" star Mark Dacasos and Lacey Schwimmer

- Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two-time champ Cheryl Burke (hey, it had to be someone, didn't it?)

- Singer Macy Gray and Jonathan Roberts

- Actor Ashley Hamilton and Edyta Sliwinska

- Actress Melissa Joan Hart and two-time champ Mark Ballas

- Model Kathy Ireland and Tony Dovolani

- NFL star Michael Irvin and last season's pro dancer competition champ, Anna Demidova

- Model Joanna Krupa and Derek Hough

- "Ultimate Fighting" champ Chuck Liddell and Anna Trebunskaya

- Actress Debi Mazar and Maksim Chmerkoviskiy 

- Singer Mya and Dmitry Chaplin

- Reality star Kelly Osbourne and Louis Van Amstel

- Singer Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson

- Pro snowboarder Louie Vito and Chelsie Hightower

Looking over the group, I think that Chris Carter may appear to have alot of promise, but I think his cockiness may over power his mombo.

Mya's dance background will give Emmy-nominated choreographer Dmitry some good material to work with.

One of the odd pairings is Kelly Osbourne and Louis Van Amstel— wonder if Louis' experience will combat her lumpy facade?

Can you tell that I love this show?
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Pete Rose: Sinner or Saint?

Synonymous with the game of baseball, Pete Rose's name will, for a long time to come, be etched into the minds and hearts of Cincinnatians.

Whether its due to his record breaking 1985 home run which marked 4,192, surpassing Ty Cobb to become baseball's career leader in hits or the fact that four years later, he was permanently ejected from the game which brought him so much fame; you either love the guy to death, or wish that he would crawl under a rock.

The latter sentiment is mostly due to fact that exactly 2o years ago today, on Aug. 23, 1989, Pete Rose signed an agreement banning him from baseball after a long investigation which came to the conclusion hat Rose made wagers on the outcome of baseball games, which to this day he denies.

In today's Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati Reds historian John Erardi speaks on whether Rose will be remembered for his on-the-field glory or his off-the-field shenanigans.

I say Pete should just "man up" and confess to the verdict.

It takes a lot of back room dealings and cover ups to be mistakenly accused of illegal gambling. Even if it is true that he never actually gambled on a game, he was too close to the action for it to be perceived otherwise.

Maybe if he came clean, the powers that be would show a little bit of mercy and let him return to being a part of the game of baseball. That's his best bet.

Sometimes I Feel This Stupid

Afghanistan Vote: Threats and Empty Polling Stations

The streets of Kabul were eerily quiet on Thursday, as polls for Afghanistan's second presidential election since the fall of the Taliban opened to little fanfare and even smaller crowds. Children, taking advantage of the trafficless streets, flew kites. Watermelon sellers languished in the shade of their carts waiting for a sale.

The only customers were police, who were stationed at every intersection to inspect the few vehicles that passed their way. Kabul residents had been spooked by Wednesday's curious lack of violence and were apprehensive that the Taliban had planned something big for voting day. They were right to worry. Not long after polls opened, reports of explosions across the capital drove even the most courageous voters indoors.

Two improvised bombs went off at polling stations, with another five at important intersections, and in two other districts, gunfire among rival factions prevented voting for the rest of the day.

Read the rest of the article here.

Announcing End of Summer Sale @ ION Consultants

Just wanted to give you a heads up about the "End of Summer" Sale going on at ION Consultants (http://ionconsultants.googlepages.com)

It has been said that there will be 50% off all professional writing services once it is announced later today through the end of the month.

Look for a larger announcement later today.
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5 steps to engaging your community

Today I attended a very informative conference put on by Cincinnati's People of Color Wellness Alliance (POCWA) who have a strategic plan to combat the problems that the Over-the-Rhine community faces.

Through out the day I learned some interesting things, specifically, the following 5 steps in creating a plan to combat some community's drug problem:

Step 1: Create an Assessment of your Community's Problems

Step 2: Analyze Your Individual Capacity to Address the Problem

Step 3: Create a Comprehensive Plan To Address the Problem

Step 4: Implement Plan

Step 5: Evaluate the Success of Implementation

Cincinnati Library Teaches Urban Gardening Tonight!

Main Library - Popular Library, 800 Vine Street · 513-369-6900
August 11, 2009 · 7:00–9:00 p.m.

Tonight at the Main Branch of the Cincinnati Public Library you can learn tips and techniques to help make city living more green!

It does not matter if you don't have a green thumb (Lord knows that I don't), you can still come and bring questions and pictures of your own space.

 Lisa Yunker of City Roots and David White of Outer Space Landscaping will jointly host the gardening talk.  Tonight's topic is "Harvest In the City: Enjoy your garden’s success and make the transition to colder months".

 This gardening seminar is free and open to the public and presented in partnership with the Downtown Residents' Council. For more information, call 369-6919.
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Cops Head To Court To Save Jobs

Its such a shame that we have to lay off police officers in the Queen City, but it's more of a shame that we further have to spend more funds, now that cops are going to court over these city mandated lay-offs.

Read about it in today's Enquirer.

NAMjA Rewind: Week In Review

8/4/09 - Cincinnati's Great Debate: The Street Car

8/5/09 - Being "Out" In Sports

8/6/09 - US Federal News Update

US Federal News Update (run down if you will)

Sotamayor is expected to pass Senate vote to become the 1st Hispanic American woman and only the 3rd woman appointed to the United States Supeme Court. Just like wth Obama's election, its been a long time coming.

In othe Senate news, "Cash 4 clunkers" is expected to pass for funding. Its sad the the government had to back this program, but its so much of a no brainer.

Former President Clinton gets thrown into the role of diplomat after his un-characteristic secure of two US reporters from the short grasp of North Korea. I wonder how Kim Jung I'll is spinning the former US Prez' un announed visit.

The Cincinnati Red won a game last night. Today should be a city holiday!

Being "Out" In Sports

Read my entirely published article here.

Sports have always been a hobby of mine. I was never been really interested in who received the most RBI’s for the season or which team managed to gain the most offensive yards rushing in one quarter. Statistics are what they are, just statistics.

I think the fascination with statistics come with the wanting for a measurable depiction of who is the ‘best team’ or who is the ‘greatest athlete’. Its amusing to me that statistics are such a big commodity in sports when most children are taught that being the best is not everything. It is the way that you play the game.

The competition is what draws me to sports, not who is the best. Even though the love of sports had driven me through high school and onto college intramural, I never had the drive to obtain more. One reason for this is my sexual orientation. Undoubtedly, there are hundreds of gay professional athletes in sports today.

They have been present for many years. Only until recently, did athletes start to come out of the closet to profess their love for the same sex. Even today, there is a handful for openly gay professional athletes in the worlds of sports. My love of the game and not the glory did not deter me from participating in high school sports.

It was only my size and physical prowess that stood in the way of obtaining the statistical majesty that so many pro-sporters long for. Not only was my size a hindrance, it was also the fact that I enjoyed the company of the same sex.

This, along with a number of other not so niceties that would not be appropriate in this forum, was one of the reason I had so much hassle in the locker room. My uncontrollable hormones kept me from participating in the homoerotic, yet subtly sensual after-practice shower shenanigans.

When on the football practice field, I refrained from the normal “slapping of the butts” because I felt embarrassed that my hand would linger a bit too long. My shying away from physical contact did not label me gay, but an outsider, incapable of becoming one of the ’in crowd’ and undeserving of approval.

Read my entirely published article here.

Cincinnati's Great Debate: The Street Car

The street-car issue has been splattered across the Cincinnati
blogosphere for some time now.

Again I have to reiterate that in my opinion, any city funds set aside
for this economic revitalization project is being spent on the street
car.

Thispast Sunday on News Makers, the host interviewed Mayor Mark
Mallory which is where he set some things straight about funding for
the street car.

1.        Without giving exact numbers, the Mayor informed us that
most of the funds that will be used for the street car development
will come from the Federal Stimulus which is already ear marked for
transportation development.  Meaning that if we don't decided how we
want to spend it, that money will go elsewhere.

2.        The Mayor also named a dozen of other metropolitan cities,
which are similar to Cincinnati, who have benefited from the street
car and transportation development, or are in the process of doing so.

3.        The Mayor gave a strong case for the choice of route.  In a
nutshell, it has been proven that by connecting the two largest
employment hubs in the city (in our case, the University Heights area
and the Downtown Business District) economic development with flourish
along the path between the two (in our case, it would be
Over-the-Rhine).

4.        One interesting fact came about, Cincinnati owns the Western
Southern rail line, and is leased to a railroad company.

What are your thoughts?  Still disagree?

The Color Purple: A Movie Review

Read my entire published review here.

The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg, chronicles the struggles of a black southern woman growing up in the early 1900’s in a world riddled with prejudice, sexism and poverty. Whoppie Goldberg, in her first leading role, commands a list of quality performers.

Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover and Maya Angelou are all members of this 1984 drama, making it one of the first feature films with the majority of its cast to be African American, to transcend the racial lines and be considered a film worthy of Academy recognition. This being said, though Goldberg clearly commanded this stellar cast of actors, she was only nominated as ‘Best SUPPORTING Actress’ for her role.

The movie starts out in a lovely field of purple, where two girls are playing. They are playing the stereotypical ‘patty-cake’ game as done by most young children. The bright sun and field of purple help give a since of playfulness and innocence, and as the faces of the children are the only things that are shown, the two run to a clearing where their bodies are exposed, as well as their innocence.. We see that one of the children, Celie is with child.

The innocence is immediately taken away, which a fitting seg-way into the next scene is with is dark and dreary, of her giving birth to her child, which is immediately taken away by her father. The shocking truths do not end there. It just gets worse from this moment on. In the next few things, the story of Celie unfolds.

We quickly find out that her child that she had given birth to was her father’s child and sold away to family that was not able to have children. A suitor visits the home, in hopes of marrying Nettie, Celie’s younger and prettier sister, but Celie’s father is non too plus in getting rid of Celie first, and gives his consent to have her married, to a man how did not love her.

Read my entire published review here.