May 1, 2006 Immigration March in downtown Chicago (Photo courtesy of Susan Yunan, LSNA Program Director)

CHICAGO -- Over 26,000 immigrants have been deported after the SB 1070 law went into effect, and although it's only in Arizona for now, Illinoisans are concerned. Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) is reminding Illinoisans about the deportation threat in a free movie screening of "Immigrant Nation!: The Battle for the Dream" at 6 p.m., Sun., Aug. 22, at 2840 W. Logan Boulevard at Central Hispanic Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Click here for more info on the movie screening.

Click here to find out info on citizenship courses in the Chicago area.

 

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich returns to his Chicago home after speaking in Springfield at his impeachment trial. (Tribune photo by Phil Velasquez / January 29, 2009)

I followed the trial. I listened to Blagojevich on numerous talk shows. I heard the tapes. And although I thought he was going to be found guilty, I raised an eyebrow when he was only found guilty of 1 out of 24 counts. But after all the drama of the case, I simply don't want him to be retried again. Enough is enough.

While the juror who refused to find Blagojevich is still silent about her decision, other jurors are on Chicago news stations explaining their views. I was not in the courtroom and don't know what made certain jurors think he was not guilty on certain charges. I do think he was trying to sell the Senate seat, but the trial is over and should be over for good.

 

Photo courtesy of Gilda Squire Media Relations

Comedian and actor Damon Wayans is back on the literary trail with his new book "Red Hats: A Novel" 11 years after his New York Times best-selling book "Bootleg." While his first book was comedic, the "In Living Color" and "My Wife and Kids" star took a different route with his May 2010 novel.

During his book tour, he took time out to speak with AC Arts & Entertainment Contributor Shamontiel to discuss his mid-life crisis, comedy, acting, The Red Hat Society and family life.

Shamontiel: Your first book was "Bootleg" in 1999.

Damon Wayans: "Bootleg" was me doing stand-up. I knew it was going to be funny because I was on stage with the material and then I transcribed it, put it in book form. "Red Hats" was different because this was storytelling, and it's writing something which was new to me. It's not just women. I was writing about a 64-year-old woman.

 

There's a plethora of talent in Chicago, but it's not a secret that Chicago artists tend to go on the East Coast or West Coast to further their careers. R&B singer Donell Jones, who is  most popular for songs like "Shorty Got Her Eyes on Me" and "U Know What's Up" featuring the late TLC member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, has cut ties with La Face record label after four CDs and gone independent with his label, Candyman Music Inc.

On December 9, 2009, Donell Jones released "The Lost Files," which were unreleased tracks made during the making of his first four CDs--"My Heart" (1996), "Where I Wanna Be" (1999), "Life Goes On" (2002) and "Journey of a Gemini" (2006). Now he's back in the studio working on his untitled 2010 CD. Although in his beginning years he had to travel to Washington D.C. for a radio conference to get his career going because "if you wasn't making music like R. Kelly, nobody was really checking for you" and loves his current home in Atlanta, which he's nicknamed "The Baby New York," when asked if he's from Chicago, he proudly boasts "Oh, no doubt!"

From the tilted hat, crease in his pants on his Twitter page, laid-back and sultry performances to his friendly demeanor during the interview with Shamontiel, Donell Jones is so Chicago.

By now you should've gotten all of your W-2s and 1099s, and you're preparing for tax season before the deadline date of April 15, 2010. For some people, it's a time to roll in the dough and get some much needed dinero. You're dancing around your home like you're Swizz Beatz and saying, "Somebody bring me back some money please," but don't let Uncle Sam switch up the chorus on you. For others, like me who usually end up with an underpayment and have to pay the state, tax season can be a frustrating time. Even worse, I completed my taxes this weekend and owe the Feds and the state.

Here is the downside of being a freelance writer and an independent contractor. Although you do get more money up front for projects and are paid in full, you are held responsible for paying your own taxes. This could end up being pretty expensive come January for any contracted job that pays you $600 or more. But with the right recordkeeping, you can make doing your taxes a little less painful.

Do you have a Google Alert set up for your content?

Every Monday I get two Google alerts sent to me to monitor certain content. One of the reasons I started doing this was because of my regular contact with the Library of Congress as the Assistant Copyeditor of Kaplan Financial (before it moved to Wisconsin). I would regularly register books and content to prevent plagiarism, and reading through those contracts taught me quite a bit about fair use versus publishing violations.

There was also the matter of being employed with two other companies as the Web Editor, where I regularly went to other Web sites to notify them when they were taking content from my employers' Web sites. These other sites would put my employers' articles on their sites without contacting me or the reporters and finance managers. What bothered me was not that I had to constantly look for these legal issues but how often it would happen. Even worse was when it was constantly happening to me.

 

3/20/2010 Update: Click here to read about the Atlanta finale.1/24/2010: When I heard about the Sprite Step Off from FoxBrownFox and Commonground, I was sold from the beginning. But when SpriteStepOff.com advertised that it would be the largest step show in history, I was wondering how true that'd be. However, on Saturday night (Jan. 23) when I drove up to the Regal Theater and saw cars backed down the block of 1645 E. 79th St., and the line to get into the Regal around the corner, I knew this was going to be something serious. And the Regal completely sold out of tickets. Largest step show in history? Looked like it. But would it be the livest step show I'd ever seen? That was the test. I've seen many throughout my college years (Lincoln University alumni!), plus the numerous step shows I've seen all over the world even after I graduated.

Well, this Sprite Step Off was not playing around. Hands down the Sprite Step Off is definitely my all-time favorite step show, and it was definitely the livest!

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Updated 1/25/2010

The original winners announced at the Sprite StepOff on Sat., Jan. 23, were the following:

Sororities: $21,500 Alpha Kappa Alpha (first place); $16,000 Zeta Phi Beta (second place); $11,000 Alpha Theta Omega (third place)

Fraternities: $21,500 Alpha Phi Alpha (Central State University, first place);  $16,000 Phi Beta Sigma (second place); $11,000 Alpha Phi Alpha (St. Louis citywide chapter, third place)

 

However, 360i and FoxBrownFox PR were notified on Mon., Jan. 25, that there was a voting discrepancy for the sororities during Saturday night's event. According to the Sprite Facebook page, "In the spirit of sportsmanship, we also advised the other two teams who were originally announced as the second and third place winners (now third and fourth place winners), that we wanted them to keep the prize money they had been awarded." So here are the updated sorority winners with corrected prize amounts. 

Sororities: $21,500 Alpha Kappa Alpha (first place); $16,000 Sigma Gamma Rho (second place) and $16,000 Zeta Phi Beta (third place); $11,000 Alpha Theta Omega (fourth place)  

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But just telling you who the winners are doesn't do them any justice. You need proof, right? Check out some of the photos and a video of Greek strolling in the crowd that I took at the Sprite Step Off on Saturday, Jan. 23.

 

 

 

Permission to use from The RBG Environmental Restoration Agency

If you're living or visiting the Chicago area and want to donate funds to victims from Haiti's earthquake, the Chicago Haitian Initiative (C.H.I.) will be having a fundraiser at The Shrine nightclub this coming Monday. Performers in attendance will include J. Ivy, GLC, Phenom, Yaw, Khari Lemuel, Mikkey Halsted and DJ Lee Farmer. Frontline Magazine editor Marcus Kline and Zarakyah Ben Ahmadiel of The RBG Environmental Restoration Agency will also be there to speak and educate about the current state of Haiti. The event will be from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., on Jan. 25, at 2109 S. Wabash Avenue. Click here for details.

 

If you're not really the nightclub person but still want to help out, there will be a second event earlier Monday with The RBG Environmental Restoration Agency in Winnie Mandela Intergenerational Alternative School at 2:30 p.m., called Feeding Haiti.

 

Haiti's musician Wyclef Jean, left, arrives at the airport in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, the day after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit his country. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

I read "The Smoking Gun" report "Wyclef Jean Charity's Funny Money" in full, and although the tax issues need to be dealt with, I strongly stand by Wyclef Jean. CNN Money stated, "Experts say that lackadaisical accounting is common among non-profits and is not necessarily a red flag for suspicious behavior." The worst thing the Yele Foundation did was turn tax papers in late, but these accusations that Wyclef was trying to get over on the money end are preposterous to me.

 

I had a discussion on Facebook earlier today with an FB friend about the costs that go into concerts, travel, management, administrative work, etc. That money just doesn't fly out of thin air, and if someone is donating to the cause, they're donating to all of that. And just being realistic here, how much did you hear about donations to Haiti from any other artist or even news programs before last week outside of Wyclef? When selfish people like Bill Maher could've cared as much about Haiti before the earthquake as he does now, Wyclef Jean was still spending time improving the economic situation in Haiti. Even the music artists who are donating now weren't thinking about Haiti before it became the "in" event to donate to while Wyclef was.