Usher's stepson declared brain dead after being hit by Jet Ski

Officials are currently investigating the cause of the horrific crash, which injured a 15-year-old girl, along with Kyle Glover, 11, son of Usher's wife, Tameka Foster.

GAAS/AP

Usher and former wife Tameka Raymond pose for photos with their children, including Kyle Glover, third from the left.

Usher's celebrity pals showed an outpouring of support on Twitter following the singer's terrible tragedy this past weekend.

The singer's 11-year-old stepson Kyle Glover has been declared brain dead after he and a 15-year-old gal pal were admitted to a hospital following a boating accident Friday, TMZ reports.

The pair were floating on inner tubes in Georgia's Lake Lanier Friday when a Jet Ski struck the two youngsters.

Glover, whose mother is Usher's ex-wife Tameka Foster, was reportedly struck in the head and was knocked unconscious, according to Department of Natural Resources Sergeant Mike Burgamy.

The girl also suffered serious injuries.

Both children were immediately airlifted to Children's Healthcare at Egelston Hospital in Atlanta.

"Everyone PLEASE pray for Usher and Tameka's son! This is the time they really need your prayers," singer Fantasia tweeted Saturday.

"Praying that Usher and Tameka's son is ok..." Russell Simmons added.

The cause of the horrific incident is still under investigation, which could take months to complete, according to TMZ.

So far, officials have ruled out alcohol as a factor in the accident, but Robin Hill, a rep for the Department of Natural Resources (Wildlife Resources Division) tells the site that they will recreate the accident using special computer programs to determine the details.

Based on the results, Usher could choose to press charges over the accident.

TMZ reports that despite their ongoing bitter divorce battle, Usher hired a private jet to bring Foster to her injured son.

The former couple have two children together - Usher Raymond V, 4, and Naviyd, 3.

jchen@nydailynews.com

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President Obama calls on Congress to renew middle class tax cuts in populist campaign gambit Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election-2012/president-obama-calls-congress-renew-middle-class-tax-cuts-populist-campaign-gambit-article-1.1110590#ixzz20A25coyp

Republican rival Mitt Romney insists Obama wants to raise taxes for most Americans

SUSAN WALSH/AP

President Obama calls on Congress Monday to pass a temporary, one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for people who make less than $250,000 a year.

WASHINGTON - Hurling the populist gauntlet once more against Mitt Romney and wealthy Republicans, President Obama agreed Monday to extend his predecessor's tax cuts until the end of next year - but only for wage earners making less than a quarter-million dollars a year.

"It's time to let tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, folks like myself, to expire," Obama said, surrounded by middle-class taxpayers and small-business owners in the East Room.

"We don't need more top-down economics, we've tried that theory," Obama added, referring to GOP claims that lower taxes on the wealthy will stimulate hiring, reduce huge budget deficits and bring prosperity to all taxpayers.

ROMNEY CRUSHES OBAMA WITH $106.1 MILLION IN FUNDRAISING IN JUNE

'The money we're spending on these tax cuts for the wealthy are a major driver of our deficit," he argued in 12-minute remarks. "We can't afford to keep that up, not right now."

Obama said his proposal would cut taxes on 98% of all American workers and 97% of small business owners, who Republicans argue create most of the new jobs in the economy.

"So this isn't about tax job creators, this is about helping job creators," he argued, anticipating Republican talking points.

Even before the President spoke, the Romney campaign issued a blistering comeback, denouncing Obama's proposal as another "job-killing tax increase" punishing small business owners critical to turning the struggling economy around.

"President Obama's response to even more bad economic news is a massive tax increase," Romney campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul said in a pre-buttal statement. "It just proves again that the President doesn't have a clue how to get America working again and help the middle class.

"The President's latest bad idea is to raise taxes on families, job creators, and small businesses. Almost half a million fewer Americans are working today than the day Barack Obama took office, and we've just come through the worst job creation quarter in two years.

"Unlike President Obama, Gov. Romney understands that the last thing we need to do in this economy is raise taxes on anyone," Saul added.

In 2009, Obama reluctantly agreed to extend President George W. Bush's tax cuts until the end of this year as part of a budget and debt-reduction deal with Republican congressional leaders.

Both sides conceded Monday this new proposal isn't going anywhere - at least for now. Because of the weak economic recovery, political insiders believe Bush's tax cuts must be extended for at least another year to avoid producing a recession.

But both sides will wait until after the November election to decide how to proceed; it's widely assumed some compromise will be hammered out by a lame-duck session of Congress before Obama or Romney is sworn in on Jan. 20, 2013.

Meanwhile, strategists for both combatants contend they can leverage Obama's latest middle-class idea to their advantage.

Obama strategists believe they can reinforce the image of Romney and the Republicans as out-of-touch fatcats hostile to the average American. "Most Americans may aspire to be rich some day, but they also believe in basic fairness for everyone, not just the big guys," a Democratic strategist said.

Romney agents, however, maintain they can paint Obama's some-but-not-all tax cut idea as an ill-timed class-warfare ploy that will cripple an already-limping recovery and throw even more Americans out of work. They also say it will underscore a major GOP attack line - that Obama never met a tax increase he didn't loved.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election-2012/president-obama-calls-congress-renew-middle-class-tax-cuts-populist-campaign-gambit-article-1.1110590#ixzz20A2AJEum

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Tom Cruise Divorce?

Katie Holmes could no longer keep the charade up in marriage with Tom Cruise 

For months, the actress been spotted with daughter Suri at the FAO Schwartz toy store or on the sidewalk near her apartment in bland clothing, unsmiling

ANGEL FERNANDEZ/AP

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise before a Champions League soccer match in Dec. 2009.

It must have gotten really bad for Katie Holmes.

She didn’t even wait for “Rock of Ages” to get out of the theaters before she filed for divorce from Tom Cruise in New York Thursday — and in Hollywood marriages, promotion is everything.

Katie has been blinking out hostage messages for some time. For months, the 33-year-old actress been spotted with daughter Suri at the FAO Schwartz toy store or on the sidewalk near her apartment in bland clothing, unsmiling. Holmesgirl almost never smiles more than a Mona Lisa closemouthed curve — go ahead and Google her.

PHOTOS: A LOOK BACK AT TOM CRUISE AND KATIE HOLMES' ROMANCE

Suri is 6 years old, the exact age Connor Cruise was when reports of religious differences surfaced between his father and Nicole Kidman over how he and his sister Isabella would be raised.

“I’m a Catholic girl,” Kidman said at the time. “It will always stay with you.”

Holmes attended an all-girl Catholic school in Ohio for 12 years. Perhaps Cruise objected to some of her beliefs; perhaps she did not want Suri studying L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology tenet that says 75 million years ago galactic dictator Xenu brought aliens to earth.

GIULIO NAPOLITANO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Tom Cruise (R) and his fiancee Katie Holmes holding their daughter Suri arrive at a restaurant in central Rome, 16 November 2006.

Unless Holmes nobly refuses to sign a gag order and goes on to write her memoir — as she has said she’s wanted to do in the past — we may never know exactly what went wrong.

TOM CRUISE "SADDENED" BY SPLIT 

Katie may have actually been in love with Tom when they married in a lavish ceremony in Italy in 2006. Or, she may have been in love with his $275 million. Or the “Mission Impossible” star’s unmatched Hollywood power.

But the marriage didn’t help her career at all. In 2005, she made $1 million for playing Rachel Dawes in “Batman Begins.”

Holmes and Cruise attend a screening of 'The Romantics' in New York in 2010. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

By the next year, she had become Mrs. Tom Cruise and the biggest role she’s landed since was as Jackie Kennedy in a quickly cancelled TV series. She wasn’t even invited back to do the next Batman, “The Dark Knight,” released in 2008.

To outsiders, their union felt stilted, arranged. The couple’s body language told a story of a pair of actors posing.

Nicole lasted 11 years with the enigmatic actor, who’ll turn 50 on Tuesday. Katie didn’t last half that.

Maybe Katie just couldn’t take the Cruise control.

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killing his girlfriend

New York gal-pal slay suspect busted - at dinner with his lawyer and mom- arraignment due today 

Jason Bohn is accused of killing his gal pal, Danielle Thomas, whose lifeless body was found in a bathtub filled with bags of ice in her Astoria apartment Tuesday night.

NY1

Jason Bohn, 33, a law school grad accused of killing his gal pal, Danielle Thomas, 27, was arrested Friday.

The man wanted for killing his girlfriend in their Queens apartment was collared by police after they spotted him dining with his lawyer and his mother, authorities said Saturday.

Jason Bohn, 33 — a law school grad accused of killing his gal pal, Danielle Thomas, 27 — was eating dinner with his lawyer at a restaurant in White Plains when cops cuffed him about 8:00 p.m. Friday, the sources said.

He was later charged with murder, criminal contempt and tampering with evidence. He was waiting to be arraigned Saturday afternoon.

Police found Thomas’s body in a bathtub filled with bags of ice in her Astoria apartment Tuesday night, sources said. The gruesome discovery came after Bohn called police to report an accident at the home, sources said.

An autopsy found that Thomas had been choked and beaten.

Investigators found two handwritten notes inside the apartment.

“It was an accident,” one of the notes read. “I had been drinking and I was drunk when I got home...I woke up and there was fighting between us. When I woke up again she was unconscious.”

Bohn — who attended Columbia Law School and has a law degree from the University of Florida — was arrested in early June for assaulting Thomas. He allegedly knocked Thomas out during an argument in their 33rd St. home.

While Thomas was reporting the attack at the 114th Precinct stationhouse, Bohn called her and threatened her, sources said.

Police listened to Bohn on speaker phone as he told her, “I’ll dedicate my life to hunting you down like a dog,” the sources said.

He was later released without bail and an order of protection was issued.

RParascandola@nydailynews.com

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charged with assaulting Michigan boy

Anthony Bennett, 20, was charged Friday with assaulting 4-year-old Carnel Chamberlain weeks earlier. Bennett is not charged in Chamberlain's death, though the charges come a day after the boy was found dead underneath the porch of his home.

HOLLY MAHAFFEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photos of 4-year-old Carnel Chamberlain, from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, hang at the tribal operations building Friday, June 22, 2012. Chamberlain was found dead under the porch of his home Thursday.

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — A man was charged Friday with assaulting a 4-year-old boy weeks earlier, a day after the missing child’s body was found under the porch at the youngster’s home on a mid-Michigan Indian reservation.

Anthony Bennett, 20, was charged in a federal criminal complaint in Bay City, where he was expected to appear in court. He is not charged in the death of Carnel Chamberlain, but the complaint details the reported physical abuse of the child.

Bennett reportedly had consulted with an attorney after Carnel was reported missing, but no lawyer is on record in the case.

Carnel was reported missing on June 21 while in the care of Bennett on the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe reservation, near Mount Pleasant. Carnel’s mother was at work.

For days, investigators searched woods, ponds and the tribe’s wastewater treatment areas to no avail. Carnel’s body was discovered on Thursday under a wood porch or deck at his single-story home, said Kevin Chamberlain, who is a cousin of Carnel’s mother, Jaimee Chamberlain.

According to the criminal complaint, Carnel’s mother told investigators that in late May or early June, she saw her son with a bruised and swollen face as well as a cut lip. She told authorities that her son said he was struck by Bennett.

A few days later, according to the complaint, she told authorities she saw Bennett pick up her son by the neck and drop him before dragging him into a room by his foot.

Friday’s charge against Bennett is assault resulting in substantial bodily harm.

“Nothing this monumentally horrific has ever happened in our community,” said the spokesman, who grew up on the reservation and served as tribal chief from 1997 to 1999.

“Right now, it’s a very somber place with a lot of broken hearts,” he told The Associated Press on Friday.

He said he didn’t know why investigators went back to the house, which had been sealed off by tribal police days earlier.

On Friday morning, a tribal police car sat outside the family’s house, less than a mile from tribal police headquarters and the offices of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe. Just beyond the offices is the gleaming Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, which attracts gamblers from around the state and is the tribe’s financial lifeblood.

Judy Klein, 68, of Mount Pleasant, drove to the boy’s home about 70 miles north of Lansing on Friday morning to leave some hydrangeas she had grown in her garden.

She said she was “sick about it” when she learned of the child’s death.

“I’m a mother. I lost a child,” she said, trying to hold back tears. “She was 26 and died in her sleep. I know the grief.”

The tribe offered thanks Friday for those who searched for Carnel as well as condolences to his family.

At a vigil for Carnel on Thursday night near Mount Pleasant, which was attended by Jaimee Chamberlain and other relatives, participants sang, played drums and spoke urging love and healing in the face of tragedy.

Carnel “didn’t have time to grow up and enjoy life,” tribal chief Dennis Kequom told the gathering. “He’ll always be with us in our hearts.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-charged-assaulting-michigan-boy-found-dead-article-1.1104851#ixzz1zDTjchW6

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Girl, 15, died of tuberculosis after being misdiagnosed with 'lovesickness,' father says

NEWSTEAM/ANITA MARIC / NEWSTEAM.CO.UK / N

An inquest is being held into Alina Sarag’s death from tuberculosis, following concerns that the family sought help from multiple key healthcare providers across Birmingham and no one was able to make the diagnosis.

A 15-year-old girl died of tuberculosis after her general practitioner allegedly dismissed her symptoms as “lovesickness,” her father said.

An inquest in Birmingham, England, is investigating why multiple doctors failed to properly diagnose Alina Sarag with the curable disease.

The teen had been treated for tuberculosis in 2009, but fell ill again in July 2010 after returning from a trip to Pakistan. She was treated at four hospitals between August and October 2010, after experiencing vomiting and sudden weight loss, but a sputum test for TB was not carried out at any point, the BBC reported.

Doctors who saw Alina misdiagnosed her with “travelers’ diarrhea,” a chest infection and a viral infection, Sky News reported.

The girl's father claims that one general practitioner, Dr. Sharad Shripadrao Pandit, said her symptoms were the result of mental health problems.

NEWSTEAM/ANITA MARIC / NEWSTEAM.CO.UK / N

Alina Sarag’s parents, Sulton Sarag and Farhat Mahmooda

"She found it very distressing he was suggesting she was lovesick for a boy," the girl's father, Sultan Sarag, 43, told Birmingham Coroner's Court Monday, according to the Telegraph newspaper. "He said all the problems were in her head and she should see a psychiatrist or spiritual healer."

RELATED: AFTER FATAL MISDIAGNOSIS, DAD TURNS SON'S DEATH INTO CRUSADE FOR CHANGE

Sarag told the inquest that his daughter was vomiting up to 10 times a day and was so weak she had to be carried into bed, the Telegraph reported.

But Pandit was so confident that the girl's problems were psychological he refused to test her for TB, her father claimed. Instead, the doctor allegedly said Alina was just faking sickness to force her dad to stay home and take care of her.

NEWSTEAM/ANITA MARIC / NEWSTEAM.CO.UK / N

An inquest is being held into Alina Sarag’s death from tuberculosis, following concerns that the family sought help from multiple key healthcare providers across Birmingham and no one was able to make the diagnosis.

Doctors at Birmingham Children's Hospital also allegedly dismissed Alina's symptoms as “a psychological issue,” Metro UK reported.

Alina developed trouble breathing and died of cardiac arrest on Jan. 6, 2011. A pathologist told the inquest that Alina's lungs were found to be severely diseased after her death, and called it one of the worst cases of TB he had ever seen, according to Sky News.

The inquest is ongoing this week and is expected to call 20 witnesses.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/girl-15-died-tuberculosis-misdiagnosed-lovesickness-father-article-1.1079211#ixzz1yTKiHJPi

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47-year-old was discovered by his fiancé early Sunday

MATT SAYLES/AP

Rodney King in April. He was found dead in a pool on Sunday, according to a report. 

Rodney King, whose beating by police led to massive rioting in Los Angeles in 1992, was found dead at the bottom of a pool at his California home on Sunday. He was 47. 

King's fiance, Cynthia Kelley, found him in the pool at his home in Rialto, about 55 miles east of Los Angeles, and called police at 5:25 a.m., according to TMZ. 

Police pulled King's lifeless body from the pool and attempted to revive him, CNN reported. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 6:11 a.m. 

Investigators said it appeared King drowned, and there were no early signs of foul play. 

Details about the death were still murky, but sources told TMZ that Kelley said King spent Saturday at the house drinking and smoking marijuana, and that she went to bed without him at 2:00 a.m.  

PHOTOS: LA RIOTS, 20 YEARS LATER

King became an icon of police brutality 20 years ago after he was brutally beaten by a group of LAPD officers after a freeway chase through the San Fernando Valley. 

Amateur video of the incident caught the officers raining more than 50 baton blows on King’s crumpled, unarmed body.

Four LAPD officers were acquitted of assault on April 29, 1992, sparking a riot that killed 54 people, led to widespread looting and arson and caused more than $1 billion in damage. 

This 1992 photo shows a shopping center engulfed in flames during the riots in Los Angeles. (Reed Saxon/AP)

On the third day of the carnage, King gave a press conference in front of his lawyer's office and made his famous plea, "I just want to say, can we all get along?" 

King eventually won $3.8 million from the city after a federal civil right trial that found two officers guilty, but he was broke after blowing it all on houses, a construction business and a record label, he told the Daily News in an April interview.

RODNEY KING DEAD: KEY FIGURES OF 1992 L.A. RIOTS

His life since the beating was checkered by run-ins with the law -- including drunk driving, domestic abuse and hit-and-run charges --  and he publicly battled alcohol and drug addiction on the reality shows "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" and "Sober House." 

In 2010, he became engaged to Cynthia Kelley, who sat on the jury of his civil case against the city. 

King made headlines again this spring as a commentator on the Trayvon Martin case and released a book in April, "The Riot Within: My Journey From Redemption To Rebellion."

In the April interview, King reflected on the 20 years since the riots and struck a hopeful tone. 

"I still suffer from headaches to this day and walk with a limp, but after the beating with me, a lot of things changed," he told The News. "People looked at civil rights and my situation and said it was time for a change. Now we have a black president."

WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO

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88-year-old woman found bludgeoned to death in her home, her body surrounded with groceries

NORMAN/NORMAN Y. LONO

An 88-year-old woman was found bludgeoned to death in her apartment.

An 88-year-old Bronx woman who covered herself in gold jewelry was found bludgeoned to death inside her apartment Saturday — her bloody body surrounded by fresh groceries, cops said.

Investigators believe Evelyn Shapiro might have been the victim of a violent push-in robbery.

Shapiro’s daughter discovered her body inside her fifth-floor apartment in the Pelham Parkway housing project about 9:55 a.m. and dialed 911.

Shapiro’s front door was open and unlocked, a police source said.

The senior, who suffered severe trauma to the head, was pronounced dead on the scene.

So much blood poured from her body that cops originally thought she had been shot, a source said.

“That is monstrous to kill an old lady like that,” said Maria Lopez Cayon, of Long Island, whose 82-year-old mother lives one floor above Shapiro.

NORMAN/NORMAN Y. LONO

An 88-year-old woman was found bludgeoned to death in her apartment.

Cops were hunting for Shapiro’s killer, who they believe might have followed her into her apartment.

“We’ll find where she bought the groceries and retrace her steps,” a police source said.

“It looks like someone followed her in.”

Shaken neighbors speculated that Shapiro was targeted because of her penchant for wearing gold necklaces and rings.

“She wore an insane amunt of jewelry,” said Lisa Velez, 48. “I asked her why . . . She said she was afraid to leave it in her apartment.”

The gruesome murder stunned her neighbors.

“We’re in shock,” said neighbor Marilyn Delgado, 49. “She was a nice lady. Who could be so stupid to do this?”

“You’re going to kill a lady?” added Delgado. “It could be your grandma. That’s sad.”

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. described Shapiro as a “well-known pillar of her community.”

“I call on anyone with information about this murder to come forward, so that we can put this savage behind bars,” Diaz Jr. added.

“Anyone who could so brutally take the life of an 88-year-old woman is a monster, has no place in our society, and the sooner they are off of our streets the better.”

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Woman shot dead by Brooklyn detective after trying to flee chaotic accident scene

The woman had blown three red lights, hit a minivan and then tried to escape

JOE MARINO FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Police investigate the scene after 23-year-old Shantel Davis, who was driving a stolen Toyota Camry, was shot to death at the corner of Church Ave. and E. 38th St. in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.

A Brooklyn detective shot and killed an unarmed woman in a stolen car after she blew through three red lights, hit a minivan and tried to escape by driving in reverse, police said.

The incident unfolded about 5:40 p.m. in East Flatbush when two plainclothes narcotics cops spotted Shantel Davis, 23, at the wheel of a gray Toyota Camry she allegedly carjacked at gunpoint on June 5.

Davis — who had eight arrests on her rap sheet, sources said — ran a series of red lights along Church Ave. and crossed a double yellow line to pass cars at E. 38th St., where she smacked into the minivan, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

As the two cops approached the Camry, they saw Davis slide over to the passenger side, where the seat had been stripped out, and try to open the door.

One officer, who has been on the force six years, got hit by the door and was thrown backward, Browne said. Davis then got back in the driver’s seat, put the car in reverse and hit the gas, police said.

Simultaneously, another cop, identifed by sources as Detective Phillip Atkins, 44, was entering the driver’s side of the Camry, with his gun in hand.

“He’s attempting with the other hand to shift the gear into park,” Browne said.

“When she’s hitting the gas, a single round was discharged from his firearm, striking the woman in the chest.”

Browne said it was too soon to say whether the detective, who has 12 years on the force, meant to pull the trigger or if it was an accident.

JOE MARINO FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Onlookers weep at Church Ave. and E. 38th St. in Brooklyn Thursday evening after a woman driving a stolen car erratically was shot and killed on the street.

Witnesses described a scene of chaos before the shooting.

Dave McKenzie said he heard the cops yelling: “Get out! Get out!”

“They try to pull her out of the car, and she fights them,” McKenzie said, recalling the woman screaming, “Let me go! Let me go!”

“ ‘I don't want to be killed! Don’t kill me!’ ” the woman yelled, McKenzie added.

Lorraine Preddie, 61, said that after she heard the crash, she saw the detective in a blue NYPD T-shirt with a shield around his neck.

“The next thing I saw was the police officer took his gun out and fired a shot,” she said.

ROBERT MECEA FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Agitated woman protests to police Thursday night after the unarmed woman was killed in East Flatbush.

Witnesses said it was instantly clear the woman was gravely wounded.“She was bleeding, and then she just dropped. She fell on the floor facedown. She was shaking and the blood was just going out of her,” said one woman who works at a nearby laundermat.

“She was in the street,” Preddie said. “They started giving her chest compressions and took her in the ambulance.”

Davis died at Kings County Hospital. Councilman Jumaane Williams broke the news to her family.

Police said the owner of the Camry confirmed that Davis swiped the vehicle.

Davis, who was identified by family members, was due in court Friday on a kidnapping and attempted murder case stemming from a May 2011 attack.

ROBERT MECEA FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A woman lights a candle at a small memorial for Shantel Davis at the scene of the melee. 'She had her whole life in front of her,' said her cousin.

“This is like a bad dream,” said cousin Stephanie Gilmer, 40, who called Davis a “sweetie pie.”

“She was only 23. She had her whole life in front of her.”

Despite Davis’ criminal record, Assemblyman Nick Perry said he was concerned about the circumstances of her death “because the investigation I have seems to suggest this woman was not a threat.”

Mike Palladino, head of NYPD detectives union, backed Atkins, who had never fired his gun in the line of duty.

“Based on the facts and the circumstances, I’m confident that our detective’s actions were appropriate and justified,” Palladino said.

rparascandola@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/woman-clinging-life-shot-cops-brooklyn-article-1.1095976#ixzz1xs92czSl

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Chris Brown injured after getting into NYC bar brawl

The singer later tweeted a photo of a gash on his chin after the altercation

@CHRISBROWN/VIA TWITTER

Chris Brown (r.) tweeted a photo of a gash on his chin after getting into a bar fight with Drake and his entourage.

Volatile R&B star Chris Brown suffered a gash to his chin in a bottle-throwing brawl over Rihanna that erupted between his entourage and rapper Drake’s posse at a Manhattan nightclub, police sources said.

The wild fight, which left five people with lacerations, started about 4 a.m. Thursday at Club W.I.P. in the West Village — and was reportedly sparked by a comment about Rihanna, Brown’s ex-girlfriend.

According to a police source, a round of drinks with a note about the sultry singer was sent between the two groups before the fight began.

Brown — who famously assaulted Rihanna in 2009, leaving her bruised and bloody — posted a picture of his injury on his Twitter account, TMZ.com reported.

Brown added a message to the photo: “How u party with rich n------ that hate? Lol ... Throwing bottles like girls? #shameonya!”

The picture and the tweet were later taken down.

Police received a 911 call about a disorderly group at the basement club on Vandam St., but both Drake and Brown were gone by the time cops arrived.

Four of the people taken to local hospital were innocent bystanders, while the fifth was believed to be involved in the fight, police sources said.

Brown, in addition to taking a bottle to his chin, was also reportedly punched in the face by Drake’s forces, police sources said.

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USADA brings formal doping charges against Lance Armstrong; could strip 7 Tour de France titles

Armstrong confirms he received letter from agency accusing him of doping

Lance Armstrong confirms he receives a letter from U.S. Anti-Doping Agency accusing him of doping.

Lance Armstrong confirmed Wednesday afternoon that he received a letter from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency accusing him of doping and banning him from future competitions, beginning a formal process that could strip the cycling legend of his seven Tour de France titles.

Armstrong received the letter from USADA Tuesday notifying him that blood samples the organization collected from him in 2009 and 2010 were “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions,” the Washington Post first reported on its website.

Armstrong, who took up competitive triathlon after retiring from cycling in 2011, has consistently denied doping despite a growing mountain of circumstantial evidence that he used banned drugs and methods.

“I have been notified that USADA, an organization largely funded by taxpayer dollars but governed only by self-written rules, intends to again dredge up discredited allegations dating back more than 16 years to prevent me from competing as a triathlete and try and strip me of the seven Tour de France victories I earned,” Armstrong said in a statement. “These charges are baseless, motivated by spite and advanced through testimony bought and paid for by promises of anonymity and immunity.”

The action comes just months after a federal grand jury investigation overseen by prosecutors in the Central District of California was unexpectedly suspended without charges. The government gathered sworn testimony in that case linking the legendary cyclist to doping conspiracies.

USADA, a Colorado-based organization that monitors Olympic sports for doping, has been known to cooperate with federal agents in criminal litigation, including the litigation springing from the BALCO doping conspiracy. In the Armstrong case, USADA conducted its own investigation parallel to the federal one.

PETER DEJONG/AP

Travis Tygart, the group's CEO and president, issued a statement Wednesday in response to Armstrong’s statement, saying that “USADA only initiates matters supported by the evidence. We do not choose whether or not we do our job based on outside pressures, intimidation or for any reason other than the evidence.

“Our duty on behalf of clean athletes and those that value the integrity of sport is to fairly and thoroughly evaluate all the evidence available and when there is credible evidence of doping, take action under the established rules,” he continued.

Armstrong can elect to ask for a hearing on the charges, which would be heard by an independent panel of arbitrators, not USADA officials, who will then determine if the violations occurred.

USADA Lance Armstrong Charging Letter 06-12-2012

"Our hearts go out to Lance and his family as they face what can only be a very frustrating and difficult time as a result of USADA's actions," said Doug Ulman, the president and CEO of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the cyclist's nonprofit cancer awareness organization.

The news broke on the same day that a federal jury was deliberating over whether Armstrong's fellow Texan, Roger Clemens, lied to Congress in 2008 when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs. That case also saw close cooperation between federal agents with subpoena power and a non-governmental investigator.

In the Clemens case, former Senator George Mitchell was granted access to government witnesses.

Armstrong said in his statement Wednesday that USADA is repurposing the “very same charges and the same witnesses that the Justice Department chose not to pursue after a two-year investigation. ... Although USADA alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy extended over more than 16 years, I am the only athlete it has chosen to charge. USADA’s malice, its methods, its star-chamber practices, and its decision to punish first and adjudicate later all are at odds with our ideals of fairness and fair play.”

Armstrong continued, saying he has never doped, a constant refrain over his long career.

“I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one,” he said. “That USADA ignores this fundamental distinction and charges me instead of the admitted dopers says far more about USADA, its lack of fairness and this vendetta than it does about my guilt or innocence.”

USADA Lance Armstrong Charging Letter 06-12-2012

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High school senior wins $1,000 a week for life from New York Lottery

Brooklyn teen is the youngest winner ever of 'Win $1,000 a Week for Life' lottery game

TODD MAISEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Robert Salo, 18, of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, won the “Win $1,000 A Week for Life” scratch-off game from the New York Lottery. He plans to go to college with the money. Salo posed for a photo Tuesday with lottery spokeswoman Gretchen Dizer.

A senior at Horndog High got lucky — for the rest of his life.

Robert Salo, who is just 18, got the graduation gift that keeps on giving when he

won the “Win $1,000 a Week for Life” scratch off game.

That means Salo, who came forward Tuesday, could collect more than $3 million before taxes if he lives to be 80 — the average life expectancy in the city.

“This is the first thing I’ve ever won,” said a grinning Salo, who is graduating this month from James Madison High School, a school infamous for its trysting teachers. “It’s a good way to start out life.”

Is it ever.

It’s also a big reversal of fortune for his single mom, who was wondering how to make her son’s college dreams come true: “We were kind of worried about paying for college,” Salo’s mom, Rabia, said. “I said if I had to work two jobs I would do it, but he’s going to the school he wants.”

Now neither son nor mother have to worry about that. But first, Salo’s getting some wheels.

“I’m definitely going to use it for college,” said Salo, who plans to go “out of state” but wouldn’t say where. “I’m going to invest in myself.”

Then, joking, he added, “Hopefully a nice car — something in my price range.”

Salo — who lives in Sheepshead Bay with his mom, a sibling and an uncle — was on the way to collect another set of wheels when he struck it rich May 15.

The family’s 2001 Volkswagen Jetta had been stolen and they were heading to the pound to pick it up, he said.

Salo said when they stopped at the BP station at the corner of Avenue T and Coney Island Avenue for gas, he bought a ticket.

“When I scratched it, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I thought it was a fake ticket. I had to ask them to pull over — I couldn’t drive and show them at the same time.”

Salo said the whole experience of winning so much money was surreal.

“It felt like I was in a dream,” he said. “Even after a couple of days it felt like a dream. I couldn’t sleep. I was just walking around at home. I wasn’t hungry or anything.”

Rabia Salo admits she’s biased, but she believes fortune couldn’t have smiled on a better young man.

“I’m excited for him,” the happy mom said. “He deserves it. He’s a good kid.”

Word of Salo’s good luck electrified James Madison High, which up till now was best known as the school where two female teachers were once found naked cavorting in a classroom — and where earlier this month a tattoed English teacher was accused of seducing a student.

Salo’s classmate Charles Coleman laughingly said he was a bit miffed his buddy was holding out on him.

“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me,” said Coleman, 17. “This is the first time I’m hearing about it. I need to call him up for a loan.”

Kidding aside, Coleman said “it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”

Another senior, Anthony Drew, 17, said a grand a week in New York City isn’t all that much, “but better to win when you’re 18 than when you’re 95.”

Salo appears to be the youngest person to win the Lottery’s grand a week for life contest. In May, 21-year-old Pedro Pablo Martinez Jr. won the prize.

With Matthew Lysiak

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