South Carolina
“Educator” Calls Black Teacher “The Monkey Next Door”, Says She Didn’t Mean It In A Racist Way
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: ABC 15 News / ABC 15 News It is the year of our Lord, 2022, and folks are still out here pretending they don’t know the racist history of Black people being referred to as monkeys. And some of these folks have the nerve to call themselves educators. Shanda Wiggins, the mother of a student at the Oakbrook Middle School in Dorchester County, South Carolina, told ABC 15 News her eighth-grade son came home from school upset that his teacher allegedly referred to a Black teacher in a neighboring classroom as “the monkey next door.” During a meeting with administrators, the unidentified teacher admitted to calling the Black teacher a monkey, but she said she meant it in an endearing, totally-not-racist way. “I guess she feels that because that’s her friend she ...
SLANDER Pull the Plug on Inaugural Starbase Music Festival Due to COVID-19 Surge
The outer space-themed Starbase music festival has officially crashed to Earth. Starbase’s proprietors—electronic duo SLANDER—had revealed the Charleston festival back in June before unveiling a stellar lineup a month later featuring Alison Wonderland, NGHTMRE, and San Holo, among other dance music superstars. Now, Derek Andersen and Scott Land of SLANDER have taken to social media to share a statement announcing the cancellation of this year’s inaugural Starbase due to the impact of COVID-19. “Due to COVID-19 currently reaching peak levels in South Carolina, with new cases and hospitalizations at the highest level ever recorded, we have decided that now is not the time to have a music festival in the area,” the statement reads. “We have made this de...
SLANDER Announce Dates for Inaugural Starbase Music Festival
At long last, SLANDER have announced the dates of their first-ever curated music festival, Starbase. The famed electronic music duo first publicized their plans to launch Starbase back in June 2020, announcing that they were kicking the tires on an outer space-themed “Melodic Bass Festival.” Nearly one year later, they took time during their performance at Tampa’s Sunset Music Festival to announce Starbase ahead of its formal reveal today. “Starbase was an idea we had a few years back of creating a place where all our artist friends could come together, hang out, and play music for like-minded people,” SLANDER said in an announcement shared on Facebook. “A place where everyone is accepted and loved. A place where you can open your heart, let go...
Black Man Enslaved By White Restaurant Manager Owed Over $500K
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Horry County Sheriff’s Office / HCSO Although we’re some two decades into the 21st Century, slavery is seemingly alive in the United States of America. An imprisoned white restaurant manager enslaved a Black man with cognitive disabilities by making him work at his establishment five years straight without pay and a court is now saying the worker is owed over $500,000. The Washington Post shared details of the case involving Bobby Paul Edwards, 56, who is currently serving 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2019 to a forced labor charge. John Christopher Smith, now 43, worked at Edwards’ South Carolina restaurant, J&J Cafeteria, in the town of Conway for five years without pay. As part of Edwards’ sentencing, he was ordered by the court to pa...
US election: Republicans hold back Democrats, narrowing path to Senate control
The battle for power in the Senate tightened into Wednesday as Democrats picked up a seat in Colorado, but suffered a setback in Alabama, and Republicans held their own in high-profile races in South Carolina, Iowa, Texas and Kansas, dramatically narrowing the political map. Republicans fought to retain their Senate majority by turning back a surge of Democrats challenging allies of President Donald Trump, and the Democrats’ various paths to seizing control were growing more limited. With several contests still too early to call, and one Georgia race heading to a January runoff, the final verdict is expected to drag on. Democrats gained a seat when ex-Gov. John Hickenlooper ousted GOP Sen. Cory Gardner in Colorado, a must-win to flip the Senate, but couldn’t hold on in Alabama, where forme...
Sharon Jones is Getting a Music Amphitheater Named After Her
A music venue in South Carolina will be officially renamed after Sharon Jones, the soul legend who died in 2016 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. On Monday, the city council of North Augusta unanimously voted to rechristen their local Riverside Village Amphitheater as the Sharon Jones Amphitheater. Jones was born in Augusta, Georgia, but spent most of her early years just across the Savannah River in North Augusta. Even after she moved to New York, the iconic singer often returned to visit and reconnect with family members still in the area. “She could be herself here,” Jones’ sister, Willia Stringer, told Rolling Stone. “She would come back and go fishing. She found that relaxation here.” Stringer, who was present for the city council’s vote, said that Jones “would be flabbergast...
Gold rises on renewed US stimulus hope, dollar falls
Spot gold rose 0.3 percent to $1,910.56 an ounce at 3:37pm, New York time, after falling as much as 0.5 percent. Gold rose on renewed optimism for a preelection aid package in the U.S., while the dollar fell to a one-week low. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a bill for a compromise stimulus package is being written as she awaits a key phone call with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber would take up a comprehensive coronavirus package if an accord is struck. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index headed for the third straight decline. Pelosi said in a Bloomberg Television interview that while there are areas where more work is required to get a compromise, she was pleased with the Trump administration’s latest position on coronavirus testing ...
Sen. Lindsey Graham Says Black People Can Go Anywhere In South Carolina If They’re Conservative
Source: KEN CEDENO / Getty A hotly contested battle for a U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina is underway, with longtime Republican incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham set to square off against Democratic challenger Jamie Harrison. During a Friday night debate event, Sen. Graham said that Black residents and immigrants can “go anywhere” in the state as long as their political ideologies shift towards being conservative. Because Sen. Graham rejected Harrison’s request that he take a coronavirus test ahead of the debate. With Harrison refusing to be in the same place as his opponent, the format of the faceoff shifted to a forum style question and answer session instead and hosted by local outlet News 19 WLTX. While on location in Spartansburg, S.C., both Graham and Harrison were given 30 minut...
Nigerian doctor named one of TIME’s Most Influential People in the world
TIME named Nigerian physician Tunji Funsho to the 2020 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The full list and related tributes are available now at time.com/time100, and Mr Funsho’s TIME100 profile is available here. The list, now in its seventeenth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals. Mr Funsho, a cardiologist based in Lagos, Nigeria, is the first Rotary member to receive this honour for the organisation’s work to eradicate polio, having played an essential role in ensuring Africa’s certification as wild polio-free in August of 2020. “I’m honored to be recognized by TIME for my part in ensuring that no child in Africa will ever again be paralyzed by wild polio, a disease that once disabl...
Attorneys For Alleged Repeat Cheater Pastor John Gray Say He’s Victim Of Extortion Plot
Source: Robin L Marshall / Getty Pastor John Gray is once again dealing with claims of infidelity within his marriage, this after a woman only known as “Mary” exposed some of their private FaceTime chats. Attorneys for the clergyman say that Gray is the victim of an extortion plot and, by the woman’s own account, has never met with Gray. Local South Carolina outlet Greenville News reports that Gray, who leads Relentless Church in Greenville, S.C., has retained the services of attorneys Devon Puriefoy and Kimberly Thomason, and has issued a statement regarding the cheating allegations. “There are allegations that there were phone conversations between the two parties, and that’s essentially the extent of the allegations,” Puriefoy said. “When you take her own words, she says there was no af...
Rory McIlroy to play first three PGA Tour events when season resumes
World number one Rory McIlroy says he is planning to play in the PGA Tour’s first three tournaments when the season resumes next month after the COVID-19 disruption. The golf calendar has been severely impacted by the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has killed over 291,000 people around the world, with three of the sport’s four majors rescheduled and the British Open cancelled. The Tour’s schedule restarts with the Charles Schwab Challenge (June 11-14 in Fort Worth, Texas) followed by the RBC Heritage (June 18-21 in Hilton Head, South Carolina) and the Travelers Championship (June 25-28 in Cromwell, Connecticut). “Right now, I’m planning to play the first three events,” McIlroy, who is also set to play in a $3 million charity skins match on May 17, told reporters. “I miss the competition...
Pfizer, BioNTech dose U.S first participants of trial coronavirus vaccine
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE announced on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, that the first participants have been dosed in the U.S in the Phase 1/2 clinical trial for the BNT162 vaccine program to prevent COVID-19. The trial is part of a global development program, and the dosing of the first cohort in Germany was completed last week. The Phase 1/2 study is designed to determine the safety, immunogenicity and optimal dose level of four mRNA vaccine candidates evaluated in a single, continuous study. The dose level escalation portion (Stage 1) of the Phase 1/2 trial in the U.S will enrol up to 360 healthy subjects into two age cohorts (18-55 and 65-85 years of age). The first subjects immunized in Stage 1 of the study will be healthy adults 18-55 years of age. Older adults will only be immunized with ...
