Carlina White Kidnapped, Reunited With Family After 23 Years

Imagine if you were Carlina White. 23 years ago, she was a 19-day-old infant who was kidnapped from a New York City hospital after being admitted their for a fever. Now, after a frantic search by her mother, Carlina White has been reunited with her.

That's right: 23 years later.

Carlina White was at Harlem Hospital at the time of her kidnapping, according to New York Daily News. She was taken on this blogger's birthday, August 4, 1987. Ouch.

Now, in Atlanta, and named Nejdra Nance, she was spotted by a woman who thought she thought was Ms. White, and told her she knew the woman who is her mother.

Soon, all were reunited.

What's not explained in any of the reports on this story, is just what was going on at Harlem Hospital to allow a baby to be stolen?

Or who kidnapped her. One clue rests in these sentences from the NY Daily News:

A Bridgeport woman named Mary Pettway confirmed that her daughter, Cassandra, had raised Carlina. She refused to discuss the relationship further.


Cassandra Pettway lives in Georgia, and Mary Pettway said she and Carlina were with her at Christmas.


Reached by The News on her cell phone, Cassandra declined to discuss the family history.

"Are you serious?" she snapped. "What do you think my relationship is with her? Mother? No, that's why I won't talk to the media. They have it all wrong."

Clearing Decks On The Story,

The Huffington Post version of the story is wrong as of this writing.  It has Nejdra Nance as two people, rather than the new name of Carlina White.  The NY Daily News is the originator of the story.

What happened was that Carlina White started to realize her mother wasn't really her mother around her 16th birthday.  When she asked, Cassandra told her that she wasn't her mother.  It's not clear how she became Carlina's mother, and she's not talking.  In the New York Daily News story, Carlina refers to her as "the lady."

At that point, Carlina started a search for her Mom, and found the 1987 missing persons report online. She then contacted authorities, who helped her track down her Mom.


Sad, wild, and it's over.

Greta Gerwig On David Letterman Talks Of Harassing Laurence Fishburne

This is one segment I didn't like: Actress Greta Gerwig was just on David Letterman and talking about not just the movie she's in No Strings Attached, but what odd jobs she had in college.

Like bothering Actor Laurence Fishburne.

The jobs were about what you'd expect, until she got to the one where she said she was paid to go to bars and start trouble. Greta Gerwig says she was playing a lesbian in these situations. Letterman asked her if any famous people were involved in this, and she said her co-worker and she got into a fight with Laurence Fishburne.

Uncomfortable laughs from the audience.

Gerwig went on to explain that her co-worker sat down at Fishburne's table and drank right from his bottle, then looked at him as if to say "Yeah, I did that. What are you going to do?"

I'm watching this and thinking "Why did they pick on him?" I also thought that it's a safe bet Laurence Fishburne was one of the few black men in this establishment in Manhattan. Would they have bothered a white actor, someone they were attracted to?

I'd bet not.

Yeah, they're supposed to be Lesbian, but that's an insult to Lesbians. You know? In fact, it's an insult. It's saying that only someone Lesbian would do something like what Greta Gerwig and her co-worker did.

By the time she finished, I was waiting for the interview to end. Thankfully, it did.

Greta Gerwig owes Laurence Fishburne an appology.

Natalie Portman In Your Highness: Jen Friel Says It's #Amazeballs

According to Jen Friel, Natalie Portman was on Conan tonight talking about her latest project, called Your Highness. Jen being Jen, she was just totally not excited about it:

OOOHHH MYYY!! I'm watching Ms. Portman on Conan, and dude, she described her next project as a mix between The Princess Bride and Pineapple Express. I shit you not. Enjoy!

With that, this blogger actually looked at the trailer, and Jen's right, it is #Amazeballs. (More on that below.)



The movie stars Portman, Danny McBride, James Franco and Justin Theroux, and is a "play" on fantasy films like Conan the Barbarian and Krull. Some of the scenes are totally funny, like when Natalie Portman beats the crap out of Danny McBride, who's assigned to protect her.

Yeah, right.

The humor is really R-rated. There's one scene where James Franco suffers a poisonous cut on the high end of his inner thigh. McBride says someone has to suck the poison out of it, and of course, it's hard to get any takers. So he says "I need someone to suck it!"

You get the idea.

Your Highness opens April 8th.

Who's Jen Friel?

I met Jen via my friend Marla Shulmann at the press lounge at CES 2011 in Las Vegas. She's a delightful video blogger who lives in LA, and has a new TV show to be announced in the fall but could not talk to much about. Still, she was kind enough to do this vlog interview:




As for the whole #Amazeballs deal, according to The Urban Dictionary, #Amazeballs is a term and Twitter hashtag that Blogger Perez Hilton started using and has tried to get others to use as well. It appears he's succeeded.

#Amazeballs

China State Dinner President Obama White House

This is the historic dinner that Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee attended this evening. As well as The President and First Lady, and China's President Hu Jintao, the dinner featured President Carter, President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and many, many other dignitaries.

The group toasted the people of China and The United States of America.

Steve Tyler Will Personally Work That Into Something Good

Wow. Steve Tyler's first "Go" as a judge on American Idol is making waves and causing him to be a Twitter Trend as this blog post is written. He's the counterpoint to the softy that is Jennifer Lopez; a guy who can say "no" to most New Jersey Idol contestants.

But one contestant had him saying more than "yes," and exclaiming "I will personally work that into something good!"

The "that" is a woman who's musical approach didn't hit with Randy Jackson, Idol's 10 year veteran, but she so wanted to go to Hollywood, and was so energetic and enthusiastic she willed her way into getting the votes she needed and from Tyler and Lopez.

That was when Tyler made the exclamation that made this blogger howl.

But that Steve Tyler's got to watch his comments there, I think.

About 16-year old Victoria, who's Southern accent, pink dress, and pixy way dazzled the judges, Tyler points and says said "Yeah. Just showing the right amount of leg." To which I'm thinking and Randy Jackson's thinking "Dude, what's up with that."

Wow.

Let's hope Tyler's not trying to "work that into something good."

Stay tuned.

Sen. Joe Lieberman Retires Today - YIPPEE!

Sen. Joe Lieberman announced his retirement today, and after a long career of public service as Connecticut's senior Senator. All this blogger can say is "YIPPEE!"

Look, Senator Lieberman will not be forgotten for endorsing Senator John McCain over Senator Barack Obama for President in 2008. Just thinking about that again brings up bad memories for many Democrats.

In 2008, Lieberman took Obama to task for his words putting the blame for the rise of Iran on America's fighting the Iraq War, which Obama has long said was the wrong war.

Rather than siding with Obama, Lieberman went against him even though he was warned not to do so. In one of the dumbest political moves since Nixon and Watergate, Joe was so sure Obama was going to lose, and probably because he thought America would not vote for a black person for President, he openly went against him.

Today, Joe smartly looked around and figured he would have a hard time getting money and help, especially from Dems.

Now Connecticut can vote for a real Democrat for Senator.

Catwoman: Anne Hathaway Should Put On Some Muscle

Anne Hathaway has been selected to play "Catwoman" in Christopher Nolan's newest planned installment of his Batman movie series, The Dark Knight Rises, set for release in 2012.


Great.

But then I considered Anne's slim body.

It's perfect for Vera Wang, but not for Catwoman.

And when I thought about it, Catwoman was, at least in the comics, more in build like Scarlett Johansson as "Black Widow" in Iron Man II.

That means, Anne's going to have to put on some muscle for the Catwoman. She's a bit too skinny right now. Her look is fine for roles like in The Devil Wears Prada, but for The Dark Knight Rises?

She needs muscle - 20 pounds of it, at least.

That is unless Nolan has an idea for a "different" take on Catwoman. I hope it's along the line of the modern Catwoman as created by Mindy Newell (from Frank Miller's 1986 take), which has her as a prostitute working just to survive, becomes a martial arts expert, and turns burglar then elects to remain in a cat suit after a confrontation with Batman.

Anne's got to get buffed for that.

Stay tuned.

Oakland Raiders Al Davis / Hue Jackson Press Conference (Video)

Raiders Manager Of The General Partner Al Davis could not resist hiring Hue Jackson as the new Head Coach of The Oakland Raiders without giving another informative and memorable press conference.

An Aside

As an aside, Coach Jackson is someone I've pushed for NFL Offensive Coordinator or NFL Head Coach since 2006, as my friend and former Oakland Raiders Running Back Michael Dotterer reminded me the other day.

Moreover, I bluntly told Raiders fans that the Raiders should fire then-offensive coordinator Tom Walsh and bring in Hue Jackson and that was in the 2006 NFL Preseason. Walsh went on to be a total failure and arguably cost Art Shell his job as the head guy of The Raiders.  And that was at a time when the Green Bay Packers hired a then-green Mike McCarthy and let him grow into the role of Packers Head Coach; an opportunity enjoyed only by perhaps one other black head coach in the NFL, Lovie Smith of The Chicago Bears.

Coach Jackson is one of the giants of the modern passing game.  He just needs the canvas to show it; now he's got it.

Back to The Video

Davis, obviously in less-than-good health and under-going treatments, was none-the-less sharp as a tack, recounting juicy details, and even giving Oakland Tribune Columnist Monte Poole a well-deserved kudos, even though Davis could have mentioned his name.

Here's the entire press conference on video thanks to The Raider Nation Podcast on YouTube:

Part One:



Part Two:



Part Three:



Part Four:



Part Five:



Part Six:



Part Seven:



Part Eight:




Hue Jackson will bring a Super Bowl Trophy to Oakland.  Mark that.

Bank on it.

Jersey Shore Season 3 Episode 3

It seems as though Sammi has redeemed herself by apologizing to Snooki for the way she acted. It is unclear whether or not Sammi and Ronnie are still together - it was going back and forth a bit and there are scenes of the two fighting followed by scenes of them just talking - followed by hearing, "I'm Done!"

Deena really wants to have sex with The Situation...REALLY badly. This is really funny, because he wanted a threesome with Snooki, but when Snooki left he described it as having chicken with salt and pepper - but then having the chicken taken away. That's great. She wants to have sex with him so bad, and he has done it with some grenades - but Deena apparently isn't good enough for him. Does Mike actually have standards?

Snooki is a lush. Snooki drinks and drinks and drinks. Is this for publicity or is this real? Because this is not okay.

JWOWW flirting it up with an ex, but then she is upset to find out that the ex may be dating someone else.

Oh, Jersey Shore.

Bentley: Christians are 'Brothers and Sisters'

Fox News reported that Alabama Governor, (Republican) Robert Bentley, who has only been in office three days, is facing a lot of criticism for a remark that he made to a crowd at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. Bentley remarked that if they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior then they are not his brother or his sister.

The Southeast regional director of the Anti-Defamation League told Fox that Bentley should understand the impact of his remarks.

Alabama Images

Fox includes:

Bentley was sworn in shortly before he spoke at the church where the late civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was once a pastor. According to The Birmingham News, during his speech he said it was important for Alabamians to ''love and care for each other." He also told the crowd he is color blind. But just minutes later, he went on to say if they don’t have the same ‘daddy’ then they are not brothers and sisters.

"There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit," Bentley said during his speech. ''But if you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister."

Bentley's director of communications, Rebekah Manson got in touch with Fox on behalf of Bentley and explained that he had no intention of offending anyone by his remarks.

The First Amendment gives him the right to express himself, but that doesn't mean that people don't have the right to be offended by what he says. Freedom of speech doesn't remove freedom of thought.

Gene Policinski is the executive director of the First Amendment Center and he says that Bentley needs to keep in mind that his office represents all faith. Fox quotes:

“When a politician might reveal his beliefs, it is creating an impression,” Policinski said. “Religion is a part of many peoples’ lives, but there is an implication when a particular faith receives favorable or disfavorable treatment. It is a very difficult line to draw, but it is one any politician has to be aware of.”

Rick Sloan of U-Cubed to Guest on Jobless Talk This Friday

Rick Sloan, Acting Executive Director of U-Cubed, will guest appear on Jobless Talk This Friday - January 21, 2011. Sloan will be discussing the exciting U-Cubed plans for 2011, transforming the Union of the Unemployed into a major player in the fight to resolve the “jobless-related issues” plaguing America today.

Key topics for the show are: the UCubed elections, 112th Congress, FDR's Second Bill of Rights, Redistricting and relief for 99ers. Rick Sloan will be taking calls from listeners so bring all your questions Friday at Noon Pacific time. **Call-in Number: (347) 857-2884**

Rick Sloan is the Acting Executive Director of U-Cubed, Union of Unemployed, and has been the IAM Communications Director since 2000. Before joining the Machinists Union, he ran Challenge America, Inc., a union-focused public affairs firm, for fifteen years. Sloan has served as the Administrative Assistant to Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI) and the late Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-OH). His book, The Gift of Strategy, and his blogs on Huffington Post have prodded Democrats to fight harder for blue collar worker and the unemployed.

Don’t miss this opportunity to speak directly to the man who can answer any questions you may have about U-Cubed and if you havent done so already, please consider checking out this important group of unemployment advocates! There is strength, unity and progress in numbers.

U-Cubed on:

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/ucubed
TWITTER: @U_Cubed
WEBSITE: http://www.unionofunemployed.com


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