Tag: General Criminals

President Obama To Give 12,000 Prison Inmates Pell Grants For College Study

President Obama is trying to end his term on a positive note by promising 12,000 Pell Grants to inmates for college study according to Washington Post:

As many as 12,000 prison inmates will be able to use federal Pell grants to finance college classes next month, despite a 22-year congressional ban on providing financial aid to prisoners.

The Obama administration selected 67 colleges and universities Thursday for the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program, an experiment to help prisoners earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree while incarcerated. The schools will work with more than 100 federal and state penitentiaries to enroll inmates who qualify for Pell, a form of federal aid that covers tuition, books and fees for college students with financial need. Prisoners must be eligible for release within five years of enrolling in coursework.

Although the ban remains firmly in place, the Obama administration is using its authority to create limited experiments in the deployment of federal student aid. Other recent experiments include extending Pell grants to high school students enrolled in college course and people participating in computer coding bootcamps.

“We all agree that crime must have consequences, but the men and women who have done their time and paid their debt deserve the opportunity to break with the past and forge new lives in their homes, workplaces and communities,” Education Secretary John B. King Jr. said on a call with reporters Thursday. “This belief in second chances is fundamental to who we are as Americans.”

King said the administration will provide approximately $30 million in Pell grants to inmates in 27 states. He said the funding is less than 0.1 percent of the overall $30 billion Pell program, and the pilot won’t affect funding to eligible Pell recipients who are not incarcerated.

Rumor Control: Rapper Drama Wasn’t Gonna Blow Up Phaedra Parks With A Bomb, His Mixtape Is “Bomb And ‘Bout To Blow Up”

In today’s “what’s going on here” news…

TMZ is reporting the real on exactly what happened when rapper Drama was arrested for allegedly threatening to blow up “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Phaedra Parks’ Atlanta office with a bomb…

Phaedra tells TMZ she considers Drama a good friend, and knew he was going to come by her office last week to drop off his new CD. The ‘Real Housewives’ star says things started going south though when Drama went to the wrong floor.

According to Phaedra … Drama demanded to see her, and when the receptionist asked him to leave — because he wasn’t in Phaedra’s office — he refused, and she called security. Here’s where it really gets messy.

We spoke to Drama’s mother, who says her son told the guard, “I have a bomb CD. It’s about to blow up.” She says the security guard followed up by asking if he had anything else about to blow up — and Drama replied, “I got that bomb ass CD in the car” … referring to a package full of CDs in his vehicle.

Bossip adds:

Phaedra says Drama was racially profiled by someone in the office who saw a black man wearing a white tee and gold teeth and got SHOOK!

Drama’s mother insists he was just speaking in his colloquial fashion and the “ignorant person” he was speaking to just didn’t understand what he meant.

The rapper was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats and his being held without bail. Phaedra is reportedly doing her best to help him out.

Something is definitely shady about this story. Sounds like “Shady Phae Phae” (as Kenya Moore calls her) is looking to build another story line or something? I guess we’ll have to wait and see….

via Rumor Control: Drama Wasn’t Gonna Blow Up Phaedra Parks With A Bomb, His Mixtape Is “Bomb And ‘Bout To Blow Up” — Bossip

Witnesses Reveal New Details In The Tragic Shooting Deaths Of Reality Star Toya Wright’s Two Brothers

More details are emerging about the tragic shooting deaths of reality TV star Toya Wright’s two brothers, Rudy and Josh Johnson.

According to The Advocate:

The shooting that left two brothers of reality TV star Toya Wright dead over the weekend was preceded by a heated disturbance on a 7th Ward street, according to one neighbor.

John Kemper, 55, said the voices he heard across the street from his residence in the 2800 block of Pauger Street just after midnight Sunday morning were so loud that he peered through the window to see what was happening.

When he looked out, he said, he saw several residents of a group of brick apartment buildings on the upriver side of the street, yelling at the occupants of a black SUV.

“They were yelling down, looking at the car,” Kemper said. “There was a commotion going on.”

He said such disturbances are so common on the block that he went back into a rear room of his apartment. From inside the apartment, he then heard nine shots, he said.

Witnesses claim the murders may have been drug related…

Police have given no indication about who they think may have killed the Johnson brothers or why. But Kemper and several other neighbors said they suspected a connection to drug dealing near the brick apartment buildings.

“It be like they’re selling sno-balls over there,” one said.

That resident, like most on the block, declined to be quoted by name, citing fear of the purported drug dealers.

Kemper said he was comfortable speaking in part because he was leaving New Orleans for Chicago. He was stuffing his belongings into a minivan as he spoke Monday afternoon.