Author: chicagoinquirer

NEW YORK  — The philanthropist, sports franchise executive and co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, Sheila Johnson, has a memoir scheduled for September. “Walk Through Fire” will document her rise from suburban Chicago to becoming a pioneering billionaire as a Black woman, and how she endured her troubled marriage to fellow BET founder Robert L. Johnson. “After so many years, I’m thrilled to finally tell my story,” Johnson said in a statement issued Monday by her publisher, Simon & Schuster. “I hope that by sharing my own experiences, I can help others going through the kinds of obstacles I faced in…

AP-AF-Harris-Africa, 1st Ld-Writethru Mar 28, 2023 1:19 AM – 324 words By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press Eds: UPDATES: Fixes bytitle and dateline. Adds more photos.; With AP Photos.; AP Video. by Chris Megerian ACCRA, Ghana  — Vice President Kamala Harris will pledge a new era of partnership with Africa on Tuesday when she speaks from Black Star Gate, which commemorates Ghana’s independence from colonialism. The speech on her second full day in Ghana is part of a weeklong trip that will include visits to Tanzania and Zambia. Harris is the most high-profile member of President Joe Biden’s administration to visit…

by Jonathan Landrum LOS ANGELES  — Whitney Houston’s brother remembers when his young sister listened to their mother during gospel rehearsals before she mimicked every tune that was sung. As Houston rose to pop superstardom, her exceptionally talented vocals were rooted in gospel music. And now, her family — led by her sister-in-law Pat and brother Gary Houston — wants the foundation of her musical legacy to continue to live on through her new posthumous gospel album and documentary under the same name, “ I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston. ” “Gospel was in her…

by Michael Goldberg BRANDON, Miss. — Several deputies from a Mississippi sheriff’s department being investigated by the Justice Department for possible civil rights violations have been involved in at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries, an Associated Press investigation found. Two of the men allege that Rankin County sheriff’s deputies shoved guns into their mouths during separate encounters. In one case, the deputy pulled the trigger, leaving the man with wounds that required parts of his tongue to be sewn back together. In one of the two fatal…

by Chris Megerian and Sam Mednick ACCRA, Ghana  — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will meet Monday with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, a show of support for the West African leader who is facing rising discontent over inflation and fresh concerns about regional security. Harris is just beginning a weeklong trip to the continent that will also take her to Tanzania and Zambia, part of a concerted effort to broaden U.S. outreach at a time when China and Russia have entrenched interests of their own in Africa. Akufo-Addo oversaw one of the world’s fast-growing economies before the COVID-19 pandemic. However,…

NEW YORK  — North Carolina-based First Citizens will buy Silicon Valley Bank, the tech industry-focused financial institution that collapsed earlier this month, rattling the banking industry and sending shockwaves around the world. The sale involves the sale of all deposits and loans of SVB to First-Citizens Bank and Trust Co., the FDIC said in a statement late Sunday. Customers of SVB automatically will become customers of First Citizens, which is headquartered in Raleigh. The 17 former branches of SVB will open as First Citizens branches Monday. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 prompted the FDIC and other…

by Greg Beacham LOS ANGELES  — LeBron James scored 19 points off the bench in his return from a monthlong injury absence, but Zach LaVine scored 32 points to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 118-108 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. DeMar DeRozan added 17 points for the Bulls, who easily overcame James’ return with an impressive performance in their seventh win in nine games. LaVine hit 11 of his first 14 shots to lead an offensive effort that snapped the Lakers’ three-game winning streak despite the return of the NBA’s career scoring leader. James sat out…

by Sara Burnett CHICAGO — Ken Kunz used to know everyone in the North Side Chicago neighborhood where he’s lived for more than 40 years. But crossing paths with old friends is rare these days because longtime residents have been pushed out by new development and soaring property taxes. When they do meet, the 64-year-old says, they exchange the same greeting: “I’m so glad you’re still here.” Chicago has grown unaffordable for many working- and middle-class people like Kunz who have been “run over by development,” as he put it. That’s why he voted both in the February mayoral election…

by Chris Megerian ACCRA, Ghana  — Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted by schoolchildren, dancers and drummers as she arrived Sunday in Ghana for the start of a weeklong visit to Africa intended to deepen U.S. relationships amid global competition over the continent’s future. “We are looking forward to this trip as a further statement of the long and enduring very important relationship and friendship between the people of the United States and those who live on this continent,” Harris said. The children cheered and waved Ghanaian and American flags as she stepped off her plane after an overnight flight.…

by Michael Tarm and Alanna Durkin Richer CHICAGO  — Rejon Taylor hoped the election of Joe Biden, the first U.S. president to campaign on a pledge to end the death penalty, would mean a more sympathetic look at his claims that racial bias and other trial errors landed him on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana. But two years on, Justice Department attorneys under Biden are fighting the Black man’s efforts to reverse his 2008 death sentence for killing a white restaurateur as hard as they did under Donald Trump, who oversaw 13 executions in his presidency’s final months.…