By Denene Millner

Sweet baby Jesus, it just gets worse: turns out the tiny load seen in a video surveillance tape spinning in an active washing machine was put in the Laundromat tub not by his parents but the baby sitter and her boyfriend. And… wait for it… the toddler’s mother didn’t know her child was the one in the washing machine until she saw her kid tumbling in the YouTube video viewed by millions.

Camden prosecutors say that during questioning, the pair in the video told them that the boyfriend was playing peek-a-boo when he got the bright idea to put the baby in the washing machine as a prank. He apparently did not know the machine would lock and wash when the door closed, and the babysitter apparently didn’t know she was dating a guy dumb enough to even attempt such a thing, let alone “play” like that. So prosecutors have written it off as a stupid but charge-less offense, instead referring the case to child welfare services.

Sakia says the baby sitter gave her the baby back with bruises and cuts, talmbout he fell down two stairs and, after a quick visit to the hospital, checked out okay. She says she took the baby sitter’s word for it—until she saw the video. “That’s my baby,” Sakia recalls saying when she watched. The babysitter denied it when Sakia confronted her, but when police showed up to Sakia’s door, she knew for sure that it was little Saimeir tumbling in the machine.

Sakia says she plans to file charges against the two. ”I left my child in in her custody. She sat there and watched him put my baby in the washer. So it’s both of their fault,” she told Today’s Ann Curry, adding that she wants them “punished and sentenced.”

Here’s my thing: if I put my child in your care, at the very top of my list of expectations is that you a) take good care of my kid and b) you don’t have my kid around a bunch of random people. Boyfriend or no, that man had no business around Sakia’s child while his mother wasn’t around. Period. And that man had no right to put his hands on that child. Period.

This whole mess of an incident reminds me of when we hired our first babysitter ever, just before I went back to work after having my first daughter, Mari. The lady seemed nice—came with great recommendations, had experience, yadda, yadda, yadda. I was comforted knowing that she would be watching my kid at my house and Nick, who was working from home at the time, would be just a room away. But alarms, low and steady, started ringing when the woman started telling me all her personal business—her ex was a married man, the wife worked at a bank just down the street, they didn’t get along (obviously), she still loved the ex. I didn’t really want to hear all of that coming in from work; what I wanted to hear was that my baby, who’d been breastfeeding exclusively for six months, was off her bottle strike and actually ate while I was gone, and that after she stopped crying for me that she played and was taken for a walk in the park and was read to and rocked while she listened to her favorite music and that she napped without interruption.

The day the babysitter sat me down, girlfriend-to-girlfriend style and told me she took my kid for a walk down to the bank to confront her ex’s wife (!!!) was the last day she worked for me. I was too much of a punk to fire her myself; Nick did it. But it got done. And Nick had to care for our daughter alone, while trying to get his freelance and book writing career off the ground, until I found someone else to watch our child. Thank God he was there. Otherwise, I would have had to leave my kid in that woman’s hands until I tracked down another babysitter—not an easy feat in a town where everyone, whether they worked or not, had nannies.

That’s all to say that I get it: when you are a young mother and desperate for help with your baby while you go to work, you have to hire a baby sitter and, every time, you have to put your faith and trust not only in the person who’s charged with watching your kid, but your instincts as a mother. Sometimes, the need trumps the instincts, and you have to work with what you got. Who knew that in addition to feeding schedules, play instructions and emergency contact information, young mothers now have to hand over explicit instructions to new babysitters telling them to make sure their boyfriends don’t put the baby in the washing machine? Thank God, the toddler is okay. But every time I watch that YouTube video of that baby spinning in that Laundromat machine, I see only the horror—and feel that mother’s pain.

Since The Release of Dear Summer a lot of Fast money has slowed up for a lot of people. Brooklyn Boss A.B. Da Don has been home for only a few months and has the Internet in a frenzy with the release of his mix tape. The streets are hyped with the -release and in only a couple of hours 10,000 copies have been sold just in his hometown of Brooklyn! The Track list itself portrays The Gangster’s Paradise and Oath to his streets.. To support the release of the mix tape A.B. Da Don is working closely with newcomer videographer Chevon Mcyintre to shoot his first video “Where The Cash At”, shot primarily in the streets of Brooklyn and Harlem. A.B. Da Don is married to the streets, so therefore his lyrics are gritty & rough, its a concrete jungle so just sit and watch as this Brooklyn Artist takes over and snatches the Crown, it’s only a matter of time!

The Mix tape “Dear Summer- Return of the Don” is supported by a national media campaign with the support of the bloggers and online radio shows. The mixtape is full of hits and A.B. Da Don plans to shoot 2 more videos for the hot tracks “Filthy Rich” featuring Max B and “Cop House” featuring Stone Gang. Filthy Rich will have unreleased footage of Max B and A.B. Da Don. (Max B is currently serving a 75 year sentence) Cop House will be shot in the South and will be exclusively viewed on his websitewww.abdadon.com. The trailer for “Where The Cash At” is available to be viewed on You Tubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au9f98PQFqw and the Official Full Version of the Video will be Released Tuesday August 31, 2010 at 12 am. “Dear Summer – Return of The Don” is available now onwww.Datpiff.comhttp://www.datpiff.com/CUTMASTER_C_DAME_GREASE_AB_DA_DON_STONEGANG.m140800.html. Physical copies of the mix tape can be retrieved at a few local music stores in the Metropoltan Area of New York, New Jersey Philly and soon Boston.

The Hustle and Grind of a Brooklyn Artist is to be Respected as he plans to go back to the studios to record his first studio album and release a second mixtape . A.B. plans to get some heavy hitter productions on deck as he states it’s just a matter of time when you will know the name.

Follow A.B. Da Don on twitter as he will be giving away a few prizes www.twitter.com/abdadonwww.twitter.com/donproent

Dear Summer – Return of The Don Tracklist:
http://www.datpiff.com/CUTMASTER_C_DAME_GREASE_AB_DA_DON_STONEGANG.m140800.html

01 – Intro
02 – Where The Cash At Faudi Rob
03 – Filthy Rich Fmax B
04 – Cop House F Stonegang
05 – Sting Ray F Stonegang
06 – Lets Talk About It F Stonegang
07 – Buying Out The Bar F Audi Rob
08 – Heat
09 – Expand
10 – Dear Blood
11 – My Time
12 – Skit
13 – Real Niggaz
14 – Gangsta Oath F M-Dot
15 – In The Street Nigga F Ugle
16 – Ny State Of Grind
17 – What U C Is What You Get
18 – Just Do It
19 – Big Dream F Uncle Murda
20 – Return Of The Don
21 – Dear Summer

Conference provides connections with local, regional and national procurement deal-makers

Tuskegee, AL (BlackNews.com) — Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension Program will host the 15th Annual Booker T. Washington Economic Development Development Summit on September 15-17, 2010. Held at the TU Kellogg Conference Center the conference theme is: “Revitalizing Entrepreneurship and Procurement Opportunities in Small Towns and Rural Communities”.

Key speakers include: George Curry, Renowned Speaker, Author and Moderator and Maggie Anderson, CEO, The Empowerment Experiment (www.EEforTomorrow.com)

The conference is designed to promote economic development through private enterprise with emphasis upon procurement opportunities for business owners, contractors, community-based organizations, small business development programs and HBCU’s involved with community development.

Procurement officers will be on hand to actively engage and verbally exchange with conference attendees in areas that revolve around the creation of business initiatives with their respective corporate entity. Corporate organizations that have confirmed to have procurement representatives include: Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, Johnson Controls, Gunter AFB Small Business Programs, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Veterans Administration Tuskegee AL, Tuskegee Utilities Board, South Region Minority Supplier Development Council, Small Business Administration 8A Development.

“My family is honored that the Cooperative Extension Program has enabled us to share our journey living off Black business with the Tuskegee University family. The Booker T. Washington Economic Development Summit is a homecoming for The Empowerment Experiment. Our stand is a testament to his messages of pride, honor, faith, intelligence and accountability,” said Maggie Anderson, CEO and Founder, The Empowerment Experiment

The conference will highlight success stories of businesses, business programs and legislative initiatives that have been necessary for successful economic development.

Workshops in the area of business technical training will be available along with sessions that instruct attendees on how to pursue and engage funding opportunities. The BTW Entrepreneurial and Leadership Awards Banquet and the public policy breakfast are also key highlights. The conference is designed to inform, inspire and empower each small business and individual who attends.

“We believe that the BTW Economic Summit at Tuskegee University is an excellent venue to equip, enlighten, empower, and energize MBEs to position themselves to provide greater savings and higher quality goods and services to major corporations, educational institutions and governmental agencies,” said Gloria Vail, Interim President/Certification Director, South Region Minority Supplier Minority Supplier Council.

Networking sessions facilitated by Visions TV Host Cedric Varner are designed to be interactive and build winning relationships which lead to new contacts and new contracts. “This conference will be exciting because it will provide one-on-one dialogue with decision makers to help our businesses. It is important what you know and who you know but also who knows you,” said Varner

Visions Television is a media partner with the conference and is a business and community affairs program airing on WSFA-TV NBC 12.2 whose station is based in Montgomery, AL.

Conference cost: $50
Registration: www.tuskegee.edu/btwsummit
Phone: 334-725-8496
Lodging: Tuskegee University Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center
Hotel Phone: 334-727-3000

“The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of race.” — Booker T. Washington

Nineteen Ninety Now is more than a collaboration of great minds with impeccable taste; it’s also the long awaited debut album from Celph Titled, who already has gained a huge underground following as a core member of Jedi Mind Tricks’ Army of the Pharaohs crew, his own trademark Demigodz releases and his involvement in Mike Shinoda’s

Revisiting the classic SP-1200 and Akai-S950 sound that reigned supreme in Hip-Hop’s “Golden Era,” the beats on Nineteen Ninety Now were originally produced by Buckwild between the years of 1994-1995–but never recorded to. Buckwild fondly recalls what it was like to dig back into those crates “although I’ve stayed ahead of the times as a producer, it was a lot of fun to load up these old disks. Joints I forgot I even had, stuff I haven’t heard in 15-years. It was definitely a welcomed experiment that turned out amazing. Further, he comments on the concept he and Celph embarked on and its possibilities in the future “essentially this is a concept album that’s a first of its kind. I wanted to be able to resurrect a 90′s sound that once was and combine it with 2010 rhymes. I consider this album to be monumental because it could literally not only change the game, but change the way people feel. Dudes complain about the game but they ain’t doing anything. Nobody has done this concept before us. I wouldn’t be surprised if this creates a demand for other MC’s and producers who were around in the 90′s to get together and dig through shoeboxes of floppy disks to feed the fans more of the lost sound they still crave for and I’m all for it.”

While Celph has enjoyed success with his Demigodz crew and all of his endeavors, it may surprise some that Nineteen Ninety Now is his true debut and the importance of this project was not lost on him, as he laments on how meticulous the recording process was for this project “We took three-years to construct this album. This is the project I’ve always wanted to do. To have my debut solo-album produced entirely by a legend like Buckwild can’t be topped in my mind. My first album is always going to be looked at as a masterpiece to all my fans.”

Celph also comments on why harkening back into this very specific time period of Hip-Hop is moving forward and not backward “It’s actually refreshing to hear authentic beats produced in the 90′s finally unveiled. It reminds you of all the dope production methods and sounds that are no longer used today. Nineteen Ninety Now takes you right back to that feeling–even if it’s just for one album.”

Celph Titled and Buckwild will release Nineteen Ninety Now on 10-26-2010 on No Sleep Recordings.

Tracklisting and credits for Celph Titled & Buckwild’s Nineteen Ninety Now LP:

2.) Out To Lunch f/Treach of Naughty By Nature

3.) Eraserheads f/Vinnie Paz of Jedi Mind Tricks

4.) F*ckmaster Sex

5.) Swashbuckling f/Apathy, Ryu & Esoteric

6.) I Could Write A Rhyme

7.) Hardcore Data

8.) Mad Ammo f/F.T. & R.A. The Rugged Man

9.) Tingin’

10.) There Will Be Blood f/Sadat X, Grand Puba, A.G., O.C. & Diamond D

11.) Miss Those Days

12.) Step Correctly

13.) Wack Juice

14.) Styles Ain’t Raw f/Apathy &

15.) Where I Are

16.) Time Travels On f/Majik Most & Dutchmassive