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Blogger and Radio Host Kevin Ross to debut “America’s Court With Judge Ross” this fall

Shawn Williams — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:12:09 +0000

(From 3 Baas Media)

Fellow Blogger and Blog Talk Radio Host Kevin Ross is moving up, getting ready to hit televisions this fall in a new courtroom show. Congrats to my friend and brother Kevin. I look to support Kevin and his show any way that I can and can’t wait to see what he has in store for us.

Entertainment Studios will premiere America’s Court With Judge Ross on broadcast and cable this fall, having cleared the legal strip in 75% of the country.

Kevin Ross

“We are pleased to have greatly expanded our company’s nationwide clearance of America’s Court with Judge Ross,” said Andrew Temple, President of Domestic Television Distribution for Entertainment Studios.

Created by multihyphenate Byron Allen, Entertainment Studios is set to produce and deliver a minimum of 26 weeks of original episodes of America’s Court in high definition as well as 26 weeks of repeats. The show joins weekly E/I program The Young Icons, which also has been cleared for a 2010 launch under the Entertainment Studios banner, and Career Day, recently picked up by the Sinclair Broadcast Group for 2011.

In entering the daytime syndication arena, Allen assumes his place among a select group of African Americans (think Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry) who are successfully producing content they own, control and distribute to increasingly diverse audiences looking for quality programming.

As America’s Court continues to generate strong buzz, television stations are still being offered the one-hour block as two half-hour episodes.

Groups who have already signed on include Weigel, Scripps, Media General, Acme, Cox, Raycom, Barrington, Ellis, Journal, Belo, Bonton, LIN, New Age and Sinclair.

Scheduled to film in Los Angeles, ‘Court’ joins The Nate Berkus Show (Harpo/Sony) and Swift Justice with Nancy Grace (CTD) as one of three freshman daytime skeins confirmed to debut in 2010.

Byron Allen

And according to tvnewscheck.com, America’s Court will also run on one of Entertainment Studios six high-definition cable networks that were launched on Verizon’s FiOS broadband systems last September.

America’s Court with Judge Ross shows litigants unique ways in which they can responsibly deal with their unlawful or wrongful acts, and also forces wrongdoers to reflect on the consequences of their transgressions.

Judge Kevin A. Ross, 46, has been a judge, prosecutor and media personality in Southern California. He is also president and CEO of 3BAAS Media Group, which will serve as a producer on the show.

Dallas South News Post of the Day - January 4, 2009

Shawn Williams — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:02:09 +0000

By Shawn Williams – DSN Editor

Here are some of the happenings about town that we’ll be watching in 2010.

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge

Driving west on Woodall Rodgers you can see the future Trinity River crossing taking shape. By this time next year we should start to have an idea of just how the first “signature bridge” will alter the Dallas skyline. The bridge to West Dallas is starting to come into focus.

Dallas Black Dance Theater at Wyly Theater

The Dallas Black Dance Theater has already broken in their new home with their Winter Series and looking forward to “Boundless”. The intimate configuration of Wyly Theater suited the DBDT troupe just fine in their inaugural performance last month. Dallas’ oldest continuously running dance ensemble has waited a long time, but their change has come.

Texas House 100 Race

Terri Hodge

Political newcomer Eric Johnson has gotten off to a strong start in his bid to represent Texas House District 100. He has raised lots of money and garnered favorable press. But his opponent, incumbent State Representative Terri Hodge, looks to shake off legal troubles that have dogged her for months. She’s launched a campaign website and the Democratic and Black political establishments are starting to line up behind her. It’s worth watching whether or not Johnson can break through where a group of young city council hopefuls (who didn’t raise near the money he has) could not.

Search for Dallas Police Chief

There is a quite campaign going on to promote First Assistant police Chief David Brown to serve as the next Dallas Police Chief. African-American leaders -both elected and not- would love to see Brown have a chance to succeed where Terrell Bolton could not. Brown is well respected at City Hall where he served as interim assistant city manager. If anyone currently in the Dallas Police Department gets the job, it should be David Brown.

Continued Main Street resurrgence

Have you been down to Main Street on a warm Saturday night? I have to say it’s a happening place. Folks lined up into the streets waiting to get into night spots. Ladies and gents sitting on a corner eating pizza by the slice. There’s lots to do and plenty to see in a place most consider to be dead after 5 p.m on Friday. With a new park on the east end of the block count on more daytime foot traffic as well. It’s far from a real downtown, but not the dead zone we knew at the beginning of the last decade either.

511 Akard

At the end of the year, Central Dallas Ministries saw their dream of turning a once vacant downtown high rise into low-income housing become a reality. CityWalk@Akard, a mixed use development with office, residential, and retail space opened for business. A number of units are reserved specifically for those who were formerly homeless. CDM will also move some of their office functions into the building.

Victory Park

Is the the year that Victory Park finally delivers or will it continue to be a hit or miss kind of development? New tenants continue to move in, but the foot traffic that was imagined for the area just isn’t there yet. A course correction by new ownership should help turn Victory from high end flop to recession friendly destination.

Empty Southern Dallas Promises

Speaking of Victory, weren’t voters told that the AAC and surrounding development would provide jobs to Southern Dallas residents? What up with that? Every voter supported initiative promises Southern Dallas jobs. We hear the same with talk of the DART extension, inland port, Trinity River project, et. al. It would be nice of at some point those job promises were quantified in some meaningful way. I’m just saying.

Oak Cliff Streetcars

A number of Oak Cliff residents (and of course the Oak Cliff Transit Authority) have visions of grandeur as it relates to going back to the future with streetcar service. It’s a novel idea and one that is gaining steam. Now known as the Trinity Lakes Streetcar Loop, Oak Cliff’s route includes West Dallas and looks to be part of the Dallas Streetcar Transit Plan. The 4.75 mile loop would tie into downtown and may be eligible for federal transportation funds recently designated for local trolley and streetcar systems. This is more of a long term watch, but a watch nonetheless.

Local Media Moves

Darla Miles is gone to New York. Sometimes it’s just like that. I still promise to turn on WFAA 8 other than Sunday Mornings at 9. There should be plenty to keep our attention on local radio, TV, print, and (of course) online offerings.

Pegasus News has a new look, as does the Dallas Weekly online. The Dallas Morning News is trying a “business/news integration” approach. And then there’s that new Southern Dallas Nonprofit Start Up. Anyone who made it through 2009 still standing should at least be even money to do the same for 2010. It can’t get much worse (at least I hope not).

Video: Shawn P on CNN’s Bloggers Bunch

Shawn Williams — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:01:17 +0000

Didn’t have a lot of time today as I got the call from CNN this morning to discuss Town Hall behavior. I was already working on a Rant for Inside Texas Politics so it was an easy transition. For once I’m happy with the light and the setup and feel decent about how I was able to get my point across.

I think this was my 3rd of 4th time to be on with Lenny, and I like his points, but I couldn’t believe he said that the Obama administration was considering raising taxes on the middle class. Anyway, let me know what you think.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. releases statement through Charles Ogletree

Shawn Williams — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:18:54 +0000

Here is a statement released by Charles Olgletree who has been retained by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. after he was arrested at his Cambridge Massachusettes home. This information was posted at theroot.com and distributed.

Statement on Behalf of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. — by Charles Ogletree

This brief statement is being submitted on behalf of my client, friend, and colleague, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This is a statement concerning the arrest of Professor Gates. On July 16th, 2009, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 58, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor of Harvard University, was headed from Logan airport to his home [in] Cambridge after spending a week in China, where he was filming his new PBS documentary entitled “Faces of America”.

Professor Gates was driven to his home by a driver for a local car company. Professor Gates attempted to enter his front door, but the door was damaged. Professor Gates then entered his rear door with his key, turned off his alarm, and again attempted to open the front door. With the help of his driver they were able to force the front door open, and then the driver carried Professor Gates’s luggage into his home.

Professor Gates immediately called the Harvard Real Estate office to report the damage to his door and requested that it be repaired immediately. As he was talking to the Harvard Real Estate office on his portable phone in his house, he observed a uniformed officer on his front porch. When Professor Gates opened the door, the officer immediately asked him to step outside. Professor Gates remained inside his home and asked the officer why he was there.

The officer indicated that he was responding to a 911 call about a breaking and entering in progress at this address. Professor Gates informed the officer that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard University. The officer then asked Professor Gates whether he could prove that he lived there and taught at Harvard.

Professor Gates said that he could, and turned to walk into his kitchen, where he had left his wallet. The officer followed him. Professor Gates handed both his Harvard University identification and his valid Massachusetts driver’s license to the officer. Both include Professor Gates’s photograph, and the license includes his address.

Professor Gates then asked the police officer if he would give him his name and his badge number. He made this request several times. The officer did not produce any identification nor did he respond to Professor Gates’s request for this information. After an additional request by Professor Gates for the officer’s name and badge number, the officer then turned and left the kitchen of Professor Gates’s home without ever acknowledging who he was or if there were charges against Professor Gates.

As Professor Gates followed the officer to his own front door, he was astonished to see several police officers gathered on his front porch. Professor Gates asked the officer’s colleagues for his name and badge number. As Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,” and then placed Professor Gates under arrest. He was handcuffed on his own front porch.

Professor Gates was taken to the Cambridge Police Station where he remained for approximately 4 hours before being released that evening. Professor Gates’s counsel has been cooperating with the Middlesex District Attorneys Office, and the City of Cambridge, and is hopeful that this matter will be resolved promptly. Professor Gates will not be making any other statements concerning this matter at this time.

Great Blogging While Brown Recap Video

Shawn Williams — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:00:38 +0000

Here’s a cool video which was recently posted on the Blogging While Brown website that recaps some of the presentations and panels that took place. I’m not just promoting it because I have a cameo at the beginning, there’s some good info here. Hopefully this will inspire some folks to attend next year who weren’t able to make it to Chicago.

Howard Witt leaves Chicago Tribune after quarter century of reporting

Shawn Williams — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:00:34 +0000

Award winning journalist Howard Witt announced that he has left the Chicago Tribune. Witt came to national prominence for his reporting of race related stories in Paris, Texas and Jena, Louisiana in 2007.

The Pulitzer Prize nominated Witt says that he is moving in a new direction. ”After a quarter-century run at the Chicago Tribune as a reporter, correspondent and editor,” Witt says, “I recently left the paper to take up a new challenge as the Senior Managing Editor at Stars and Stripes, the editorially-independent newspaper serving America’s military men and women and their families overseas.”

I have developed a good working relationship with Mr. Witt over the years after he became one of the first newspaper reporters to bring national attention to African-American activism online. My family and I even met Howard out for dinner last fall.

His reporting of ShaQuanda Cotton and the Jena 6 made the entire media industry reevaluate the way they were covering people of color. He maintained a relationship with the black blogosphere after those stories, a lesson that black media members and outlets could learn from.

I’m sure Howard will do well in his future endeavors. I pray that all goes well for he and his family in this transition.

Video: Shawn P. and CNN Bloggers Bunch discuss passing of Michael Jackson

Shawn Williams — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:00:37 +0000

It was sad discussing the passing of Michael Jackson on CNNcom/Live today, but it was made easier by seeing two friendly faces on the screen with me. Those were Carmen D. of All About Race, and Lola Adesioye from TheGriot.com.

Here’s the 15 or so minutes that we discussed our thoughts on the King of Pop, what his music meant to the world, and how the discussion has played out since his death.

Eddie Griffin’s thoughts on Shawn Williams’ thoughts on Juneteenth

Shawn Williams — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:00:40 +0000

BY EDDIE GRIFFIN of Eddie Griffin BASG Blog

Black Bourgeoisie?

I found it interesting that Shawn P. Williams writes in

“Why” Part Two: Why I celebrate Juneteenth:

In my adult years as I began to rub elbows with the black bourgeoisies, many of them scoffed at the June 19th holiday. “Why would you celebrate slaves in Texas spending an extra 2 ½ years in bondage?” they would ask. I have to admit, it’s a pretty good question… As we’ve gotten more and more educated, we get further and further away from the wisdom born out of the struggle of our people.

Eddie Griffin Commentary-

I don’t know what “black bourgeoisie” means anymore. Back in the day, it meant something negative like that of a black person whose thinking was whitewashed, or someone going through an identity crisis, or someone who thought themselves to be more educated and elite than the common everyday Negro. We used to think that they acted and thought themselves to be better than the rest of us… maybe so.

Ignoring the French historiography and Marxist class categorizations that give meaning to the name of this group of people, I want to go straight to the psycho-sociological aspect of the issue… that self-contradictory, mismatch phenomenon of being sociologically black and psychologically alienated from an appreciation of black heritage.
“Why would you celebrate slaves in Texas spending an extra 2 ½ years in bondage?” they asked blogger Shawn Williams. Notwithstanding the writer’s thoughts, note how the question was formulated in their minds. True to its characteristic, the so-called black bourgeoisie sees the cup half empty, instead of half full.

To them, Juneteenth is not a celebration of Freedom, but rather a “black thing” to be disdained, because the very thought of slavery turns them off. After all, there are many whites who would rather not think about it, along with the guilt and shame of it. And also, how many non-Jewish Germans memorialize the holocaust? The so-called black bourgeoisie are escapists who would rather inculcate more pleasant thoughts.

It may not have ever dawned on them that Juneteenth is a celebration of Freedom, like the Fourth of July. What say, in celebrating the Passover, are Jewish people celebrating 400 years of Egyptian bondage, or the blessing of Emancipation?
The so-called black bourgeoisie sees only what it wishes to see, thinks only what it wishes to think, and choses to see no more and know no more than they already see and know. Therefore, black is an inappropriate descriptive for this bourgeoisie- thinking people. Being bourgeois is what it is… a colorless attitude of people who thinks of themselves as more highly favored than their peers and contemporaries, and thereby different, even better than they, and a little more holier than thou.
Juneteenth, with them, will probably never find merit, because they will remember only what they have been taught about it in integrated schools by teachers who were uneducated and unappreciative of black history. Hence, they will never seek to know otherwise. They even avoid contact with any knowledge that would burst the bubble of their brainwashing.

They are alienated from their common identity and estranged from their heritage… like a cow with the head of a goat. (eddiegriffin)

“We, the colored soldiers, have fairly won our rights by loyalty and bravery — shall we obtain them? If we are refused now, we shall demand them.” Sgt. Maj. William McCeslin, 29th U.S.C.T. (Source: Appomattox Court House National Historical Park)

Maynard Institute/Richard Prince: Johnson Publishing Co. Called “Under Siege”

Shawn Williams — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:00:18 +0000

The news regarding Johnson Publishing gets worse everytime you see them mentioned. Hat Tip to Kevin Ross of Three Brothers and a Sister who passed along an article by Richard Prince of the Maynard Instituted titled Johnson Publishing Co. Called “Under Siege.” 3 Brothers and a Sister also reports Ebony Magazine has only 1 photographer and is considering going down to six issues.

It’s a sad state for one of the greatest African-American institutions left in this country. The fate of media in general is struggling, but black media is headed towards the abyss.

Prince’s Maynard article highlights the financial troubles faced by Johnson, including mortgaging their building and liens from contractors. He also talks references comments made by Eric Easter -head of Ebony/Jet Digital- made at the Blogging While Brown Conference. Here are some of the highlights from Prince:

Also see Eric Easter of Ebony/Jet’s panel as mentioned in Prince’s article

“Ebony owner Johnson Publishing Co. is under siege, battered by sharp drops in advertising and circulation amid the most severe downturn in its 67-year history. In the past three months, Johnson has been hit with contractors’ liens claiming the company failed to pay for work worth nearly $500,000,” Eddie Baeb and Ann Saphir wrote Monday in Crain’s Chicago Business.

“In May, Johnson mortgaged its South Michigan Avenue headquarters building and parking garage to its printer, R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co. Loan documents say the deal secured previous debts to Donnelley totaling $12.7 million — another sign of financial distress for the nation’s largest black-owned publishing company.

“Johnson’s troubles, while not that different from other publishing companies’, fall on the shoulders of Chairman and CEO Linda Johnson Rice, daughter of founder John Johnson. Ms. Rice, 50, must remake her organization amid a downturn that is hitting African-American media especially hard. The slump compounds the challenge she faces in revitalizing magazines many still associate with the civil rights era.

At a panel at a “Blogging While Brown” conference in Chicago over the weekend, (Eric) Easter mentioned a deal that Johnson Publishing made last year with Google to transform the archives of Ebony, Jet, Black World and Ebony Jr. magazines into digital, searchable formats. He said that only magazines after 1960 were used, because transforming them requires a process that destroys the original copies.

2009 Blogging While Brown Recap by Dallas South

Shawn Williams — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:44:30 +0000

Everyone keeps asking me, “How was the Blogging While Brown Conference” and I either answer “great” or “excellent. I then think that this may sound vain in some way because I was responsible for helping to put the program together.

In actuality, I didn’t feel much different from last year when I enthusiastically sat on the front row of the inaugural conference (with Electronic Village, All About Race, and Pam’s House Blend). This year I set up shop at the very back of the room. The major difference was deciding to wear a jacket and slacks in Chicago rather than jeans and a T-Shirt in the ATL.

Shawn P. And Lola Adesioye of TheGrio.com

Even having spoken with all the presenters and panelists via email or on the phone, I wasn’t prepared for all of the wonderful information that was shared at this year’s conference. From Talkshoe to Justin.tv; MindMeister to Gravatars; Buddy Press to Outliers, there was just so much to learn.

John Davis and I interviewed by Carlos in D.C.

The presentation that gained the most attention (check Twitter #bwb) was Hajj Flemings’ session on Branding. Besides introducing up to the concept of Grustling (Grinding + Hustling = Grustling), he spit out a number of memorable one liners that have been making their way around the web today including:

“If you’re the smartest person in your group, then you’re in the wrong group.”

“Create quality content that is credible & creating quality contacts is paramount.”

“The best time to start something was a year ago. The next best time is right now.”

I appreciate the executive committee a.k.a. Gina McCauley for the small part that she allowed me to play, mostly trying to keep the schedule running on time. For some reason, I didn’t imagine myself saying much at the conference, but who wouldn’t want to have a few words in front of such a distinguished gruop. Other than that, I was able to kick back and allow these talented individuals to do their thing.

But I also want to thank Gina for her initiative. It’s easy to think that if Gina had not stepped up last year to create a blogging meet up for bloggers of color, then someone would have, but I don’t believe that’s the case. So many times in the African-American Community we can talk about a good idea or identify a need and then not act upon it.

Gina has created a venue that will always go on my calendar ahead of Netroots Nation, SXSW Interactive, NABJ, or an of the other wonderful conferences that are held each year. The benefits that I’ve gained in the last year from folks I met at the 2008 Conference are too many to count. I would expect to find the same thing to be true between now and next year.

I love this conference because it’s grassroots at it’s best, and we are trying to ensure that we are not left behind in the digital age. AT&T and other conference sponsors did their part towards that end, as AT&T sponsored scholarships paid the registration fee for a number of attendees.

And last but not least, next year my spades partner Deborah Smalls and I will be giving spades lessons since we won the first BWB Spades tournament hosted by the wonderful ladies of the 5 and a Possible blog. Picture us rollin’

BWB 2009 Attendees