Top 5 Live –WURD Tuesday March 10
1. Okla. University disowns ‘disgraceful’ fraternity after racist chant
Even with the national chapter shutting down the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house at Oklahoma University, the school president said the university’s affiliation with the fraternity is permanently done as a campus group called for the expulsion of several of the fraternity members.
The fraternity members have until midnight Tuesday to get their things out of the house, university President David Boren told a CNN affiliate.
A Saturday video showing party-bound fraternity members on a bus chanting a racial epithet found its way anonymously to the school newspaper and a campus organization.
2. Apple launches watch, gold MacBook, and HBO on iPhone
Make calls, read email, control music, manage Instagram photos, keep up with your workout, pay for groceries, open your hotel room door. CEO Tim Cook says you can do it all from your wrist with Apple Watch – for 18 hours a day. That’s how long the battery will last on an average day.
Pre-orders start April 10. The device costs $349 for a base model, while a luxury gold version will go for $10,000. Industry watchers are eager to see if Apple’s version will be the tipping point for the sluggish smartwatch market. There was similar skepticism when Apple released the iPad in 2010, yet the company has successfully sold millions and its popularity has shaken up the PC market.
The stakes are high for a company that just dislodged AT&T as one of the 30 stocks comprising the venerable Dow Jones industrial average. The watch is the first brand-new device Apple has launched without Steve Jobs.
3. Jury Finds ‘Black Madam’ Guilty on All Counts in Buttocks-Injection Murder
A Philadelphia jury found the woman known as the “Black Madam” guilty on all counts in the death of a dancer who got silicone injections at a hotel to enhance her buttocks.
The jury found Padge-Victoria Windslowe guilty on four counts including third-degree murder. Windslowe said she performed thousands of the procedures despite a lack of formal medical training.
The 45-year-old describes herself as a former madam and hip-hop performer. Authorities said Windslowe fled after a botched injection killed 20-year-old London dancer Claudia Aderotimi in 2011.
Two other women testified they became seriously ill after the low-grade silicone spread to their lungs.
4. Pa. Supreme Court to take up Kane’s challenge to special prosecutor
Is Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane trying to put herself beyond the reach of the law?
Or is it a special prosecutor who is operating in illegal territory?
That’s the issue Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court will take up Wednesday as it hears oral arguments in Kane’s challenge to the special prosecutor who wants her arrested for allegedly violating grand-jury secrecy laws.
The five justices – two of the court’s seats are currently vacant – will hear from lawyers for Kane and special prosecutor Thomas E. Carluccio in a case crucial to Kane’s personal and political future.
After a seven-month investigation that included testimony from Kane and many of her top aides, a grand jury led by Carluccio concluded in December the attorney general had illegally leaked confidential information to embarrass a political foe and then lied about it to the jury.
5. Three more arrests said to loom in sting case
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams will announce three more arrests today in the corruption case Pennsylvania’s attorney general said was “not prosecutable.”
A grand jury has recommended charges against State Reps. Louise Williams Bishop and Michelle Brownlee and a former state representative, Harold James, all Philadelphia Democrats, sources said.
They were among five elected officials in Philadelphia who The Inquirer reported last year had taken cash or, in one case, a $2,000 Tiffany bracelet from a lobbyist working as an undercover operative. With the expected action today, all five will have been arrested. One has pleaded guilty.
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Solomon Jones is an Essence bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He is the creator and editor of Solomonjones.com and morning host on 900 am WURD radio. Click here to learn more about Solomon
