Never told they were innocent, and unlikely to be released
Some 6
0-odd some men in North Carolina have been serving federal sentences for not breaking federal gun possession law, according to a lengthy USA Today report. Oh, and the men are not likely to be released, even though they’re legally innocent. Confused? So are the state of North Carolina and the Department of Justice.
This is 16-year-old Phylicia Simone Barnes. Phylicia will be 17 in four days. She’s 5’8″ and weighs 120lbs. She’s a straight-A student. And no one has seen her since December 28.
And the cops in Baltimore are just now realizing that mainstream media doesn’t give missing Black girls the same attention as their Caucasian counterparts.
Authorities in Maryland are stepping up efforts to locate Phylicia Barnes, a 16-year-old North Carolina girl who disappeared while visiting relatives in Baltimore. But a local police official said the national media need to take note of the case.
“We are doing everything we can,” Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told AOL News, noting that more than 35 detectives are working on the case, as well as two teams from the FBI.
“We would really like the national outlets to help us out here, so if somebody sees her in Missouri, they are able to alert authorities quickly,” Guglielmi continued. “It has been incredibly frustrating for me. We’ve been pitching this since the 29th [and] have not gotten any traction. This case is no different than the Natalee Holloway case. The only difference is Phylicia is from North Carolina, she went missing in Baltimore and she is African-American.”
Guglielmi added, “I just think if we could get America just to see her picture — that is all we are asking — maybe that will lead detectives to a break and save this young lady’s life.”
Phylicia lives in Monroe, N.C., but was visiting relatives in Baltimore. She was last seen around 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 28, when she left the apartment of her 27-year-old half-sister, Deena Barnes. According to relatives, Phylicia told her sister she was going shopping.
What happened to the teenager next remains a mystery, police said.
“Time is working against us,” Guglielmi said. “She has been missing 10 days. … This is not a runaway. We suspect some type of foul play. The question is, What kind of foul play?”
Family members have described Phylicia as a straight-A student who was to graduate early from Union Academy in Monroe and planned to go to Towson University in Maryland. Her father, Russell Barnes, has said it is out of character for her to take off without notifying someone.
There has been no activity on any of Phylicia’s social-networking accounts, and police say her cell phone has been turned off since the day of her disappearance.
Authorities are looking at two possible scenarios in the case, Guglielmi said. The first is that someone in the Baltimore area did “something terrible to her.” The second is that she was abducted and taken elsewhere, he said.
Elizabeth Edwards, 61, dies after long struggle with cancer
(CNN) — Elizabeth Edwards, the estranged wife of 2004 vice presidential candidate and former North Carolina senator John Edwards, died Tuesday after a lengthy battle with cancer. She was 61.
She died at the family home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, according to a statement released by the family.
“Today we have lost the comfort of Elizabeth’s presence but she remains the heart of this family,” the statement said. “We love her and will never know anyone more inspiring or full of life.”
Edwards was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after her husband lost his bid for vice president in November 2004. John Edwards, a one-term Democratic senator, was Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s running mate.
It was later revealed that she knew before the election she might have cancer, but shielded her husband from the news during the campaign. She immediately underwent treatment, and the cancer was believed to be in remission.
In March 2007 — at the start her husband’s 2008 presidential campaign — Edwards learned that the cancer had returned and spread.
Dr. Lisa Carey, the oncologist treating Edwards, categorized the cancer as metastatic stage four cancer, largely confined to the bones.
The cancer was diagnosed treatable but not curable, Edwards said.
Despite the diagnosis, Edwards said she was ready to go forward with her husband’s bid for the White House.
“Either you push forward with the things that you were doing yesterday or you start dying,” she said. “If I had given up everything that my life was about … I’d let cancer win before it needed to.”
“Maybe eventually it will win,” she said. “But I’d let it win before I needed to.”
John Edwards, unable to compete with the attention focused on then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, withdrew from the presidential race in January 2008.
Several months later, he admitted that tabloid claims about an extramarital affair with former campaign videographer Rielle Hunter were true. Eventually, he also admitted to fathering a child with Hunter — an allegation he initially vociferously denied even after conceding the affair.
John Edwards said the affair happened in 2006 while his wife’s cancer was in remission. He claimed he informed his wife at the time and asked for her forgiveness.
The couple was criticized by some activists for not revealing the affair prior to his presidential bid, as the news could have damaged Democratic chances if it became publicly known during a general election campaign in which John Edwards was the party’s standard bearer.
“This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well,” Elizabeth Edwards said.
The affair appeared to end any future political ambitions the former senator may have had. It also led to the couple’s separation.
Elizabeth Edwards was born Mary Elizabeth Anania on July 3, 1949, in Jacksonville, Florida. Her father was a Navy pilot, and in her early years, she attended school in Japan.
She attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and met her future husband while studying at UNC’s law school.
They spent their first date dancing at a local Holiday Inn, and it ended with John kissing Elizabeth on the forehead.
“It was just really sweet,” she said of the kiss. “I wasn’t used to men being sweet.”
The couple was married July 30, 1977, the Saturday after they took their state bar exams. They had four children: Wade, Cate, Emma Claire, and Jack. Wade Edwards was killed in a car accident in 1996.
Mrs. Edwards worked as a clerk for U.S. District Judge Calvitt Clarke Jr. in Norfolk, Virginia, and was a bankruptcy lawyer in Raleigh.
In 2006, after her initial cancer diagnosis, she wrote “Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers,” which chronicled the aftermath of her son’s death and her battle with the disease.
Fantasia meets up with the man who got her head over heels in love with him, willing to put her life on the line for this brother. This is during the taping of her VH1 Reality show Fantasia For Real, Fantasia are you for real. Hopefully she plan on breaking it off with this dude she still probably will get sued, but at least she will be free of his lies and betrayal.
Singer Fantasia Barrino’s family frantically thrust her into a shower to revive her after she attempted suicide by swallowing pills.
In a panicked 911 call, the singer’s manager told the operator that they plunged the “American Idol” star into running water to wake her up after she swallowed a bottle of aspirin in her North Carolina home.
“Her family put her in the the shower to try to keep her awake,” manager Brian Dickens said. “She is slowly losing consciousness.”
The operator urged Dickens to tell Barrino’s family to take the 26-year-old singer out of the shower until help arrived.
Paramedics later found Barrino slumped in a closet, reported local television station, WBTV.
Barrino’s father, Joseph, said Wednesday that his daughter was “doing fine,” and was set to be released from the hospital soon.
The stunning suicide attempt Monday came in the wake of reports that Barrino had an affair with a married man and broke up his marriage.
Dickens said the singer’s paramour, Antwaun Cook, whom she met in 2009 at a T-Mobile store where he worked, had lied about his relationship with his wife, Paula.
“She believed him when he told her he and Mrs. Cook separated,” Dickens said.”Fantasia fell in love with Mr. Cook and believed that he loved her.”
Sordid details of the affair — including allegations that the pair had filmed several sex tapes — emerged when Paula Cook field for child custody last week.
Barrino won “American Idol” in 2004. Her first single, “I Believe” when to number and she has been nominated for seven Grammy awards.
She also had a successful run on Broadway in the Oprah Winfrey-produced stage version of “The Color Purple.”
She has a new album, “Back to Me.” Daily News Music Critic Jim Farber gave it four stars.
“The album’s lyrics retain a tight focus, stressing Fantasia’s connection to emotionally-reluctant men, while making sure to explain how she’s no longer the kind that loves them,” Farber wrote.
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