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So who is the lady with Usher?

So yall tryna tell me that the woman in the first two pictures is Def Jam executive Grace Miguel, the same woman in the last picture? Tameka Raymond said the lady in the first two pictures worked for Justin's. They don't look alike to me *shrugs*, but I don't bit mo' care. I just felt like I needed to say that I wasn't 100% convinced. *** If you missed Mrs. Raymond getting in that @$$ on a fellow blogger, click here to see the details at MrsGrapevine.com.

Is Atlanta's housing market headed down the same street as Detroit's auto industry?

With the news that GM and Chrysler are both in the process of filing for financial restructuring through the bankruptcy process, I figured it would be a good idea to discuss exactly what the big deal really is. Having just returned from The Motor City, I have an even better understanding on the importance of the legacy that is the American auto industry.

My father owned three vehicles in my lifetime. He owned two Ford Econoline vans, vehicles large enought for us five kids (and we always brought friends along). Finally after much joneing from us, bribery from friends of his, and the sweetest deal possible from his sports agent best friend, he finally bought a Cadillac Escalade. Old heads explain it best. As far as many of them are concerned, Americans should have never become enticed by the foreign car markets. The automobile is an American invention, and I guess this industry is a clear case of the student surpassing the teacher in a way and an example of a refusal to change with the times. We built the cars, but foreign markets perfected them and projected the vision of their future.

Once burgeoning cities like Detroit, (MI), Cleveland (OH), Gary (IN), and Pittsburgh (PA) are now abandoned, dilapidated, and struggling to maintain their populations. The city of Detroit for example once boasted a population of four million, but now, barely has 800,000. Detroit was to the 1970s what Atlanta became in the 1990’s. People could move to Detroit with little or no education, get hired at any one of their numerous plants, earn upwards of $20- $30 an hour (in the 70’s and 80’s), purchase homes, cars that they helped to build, send their children to college, and go back to their home towns in rural Georgia, Alabama, and Florida as the home town hero who moved to the big city and made it big.

Although Atlanta is nowhere close to the situation in which Detroit finds itself, I absolutely liken one to the other. Just 10-15 years ago, people could move to Atlanta with little education, obtain their real estate, mortgage broker, appraisal, or inspections certifications or handymen could do what they did best and fix up the dilapidated homes that were being gentrified in Grant Park or any zip code beginning with 303. No so much today. So many people in real estate, who were doing so well just a few years ago, are struggling today. These aren’t even the people who made the crooked deals and whom we blame for the housing market crash. These people worked by the books, but as a result of the grimeyness of others, have felt the trickle down effect of scanlessnes, much like the Detroit autoworkers.

Now please do not misunderstand me. Yes most of the city of Detroit is in shambles, but there is a limited, select few who have continued to prosper and thrive. This select few, in large, does NOT consist of African Americans. Yes, people still go to the hockey games & make huge jerseys to clothe statues. Yes they enjoy concerts at Chene Park where the biggest acts from Frankie Beverly & Maze to T.I. to Joe and even Souljaboytellem, who just this weekend killed the Summer Jam! They still pull their boats up to enjoy a concert series or boat up to a Riverfront restaraunt just to enjoy lunch or dinner with a significant other. Daughters and sons are still being married at the historic, illustrious, and pricey Roostertail and parents are still having birthday and anniversary parties there.

The point is that life in Detroit is nowhere near what it used to be twenty or thirty years ago, and one may have never imagined that. It was Motor City. It housed Motown and musical every hit came from there, just like Atlanta today. Truth be told, Atlanta is changing so rapidly even as we speak. The nightlife scene is completely revamped, joblessness is on the rise, property values have rapidly declined, and people are losing their homes by the droves. On the other hand, Phipps Plaza and Pano's & Paul's are still in business. Hopefullt Atlanta will learn from it's big sister and not ignore the signs of the times and the changes in pace and product. Otherwise, it could possibly be left behind.

Americans being Held in Asia

The Swine Flu hype has died down, but apparantly measures are still being taken to prevent it's deadly spread. One of the latest victims of H1N1 was on a plane to SHanghai with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, his wife Seletha, and a bodyguard. They were there for a 10 day conference on economic development, and after reports that a person who sat near them was being treated for the virus, the Chinese government began detaining passengers of that flight. We are told that their temperatures are being taken twice daily and they are being closely monitored. The mayor, his wife, and bodyguard are reported to be fine, and said they are being treated with "utmost courtesy by Chinese officials."

Source

On an even more serious note, Laura Ling, a journalist and the sister of news correspondent Lisa Ling, was just sentenced to 12 years of hard labor at a North Korean camp. She and her friend and fellow journalist, Euna Lee, were in China as journalists and mistakenly wandered across the border to North Korea.

Excerpt Via CNN.com

The families of two U.S. journalists sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea pleaded for clemency, urging the communist government to "show compassion" and release them.

Demonstrators in South Korea last week call for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested in March and sentenced after a closed-door trial for what the state-run North Korean news agency KCNA called the "grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing." They are reporters for California-based Current TV, a media venture of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

In a joint statement Monday, their families said they were "shocked and devastated" by the trial and sentence, and urged Pyongyang "to show compassion and grant Laura and Euna clemency and allow them to return home to their families."

"Laura and Euna are journalists who went to the China-North Korea border to do a job," they said. "We don't know what really happened on March 17, but if they wandered across the border without permission, we apologize on their behalf and we are certain that they have also apologized."

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters the United States is seeking the immediate release of the two journalists on humanitarian grounds.

"Obviously, we are deeply concerned about the length of the sentences and the fact that this trial was conducted totally in secret with no observers," she said. "And we are engaged in all possible ways, through every possible channel, to secure their release."

The families said Ling suffers from an unspecified "serious medical condition," and Lee has a 4-year-old daughter "who is displaying signs of anguish over the absence of her mother."

Click the link above to read the entire article at CNN.com.