The managed to keep this to themselves for almost two weeks since the papers were signed at the beginning of December. NBA all-star Kobe Bryant and wife Vanessa Bryant have confirmed the end of their 10-year marriage. Vanessa filed for divorce due to “irreconcilable differences” Friday in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, CA, and according to the couple’s joint statement the terms of the split have already been reached.

“The Bryants have resolved all issues incident to their divorce privately with the assistance of counsel and a Judgment dissolving their marital status will be entered in 2012,” the statement reads. “We ask that in the interest of our young children and in light of the upcoming holiday season the public respect our privacy during this difficult time.”

A Colorado woman took matters into her own hands when her bike was stolen from outside of a Boulder sports bar. She tracked down her stolen bike on Craigslist, pretended to be an interested buyer and stole back her own bike. Kathryn Lucas, 25, parked her bike outside of a bar where she went to watch a University of Colorado football game on the night of Oct. 4.

On Sunday, Lucas went to the man’s apartment complex and asked if she could test ride the bike.
“I started riding it and knew it was my bike, so I just kept riding it,” Lucas told KMGH. “I rode it to my car and then threw it it in my car and then drove away.”
Lucas said she had not been planning on getting the bike back that way, but took advantage of an opportunity and made a spur-of-the-moment decision.
“They were a lot bigger than I thought they were,” Lucas said. “I thought it’d be like a little person that stole bikes and I’d be like, ‘Hey, I called the police and that’s my bike and you’re trying to sell it to me,’ but I just took it for a ride and went with it.”

After she had recovered her bike, Lucas called the police and gave them the thief’s address. “Lance Robinson” turned out to be 18-year-old Denzel O’Neal Crawford, who did not have a prior police record.
Crawford was arrested, confessed to stealing the bike and was released on bond. Police also told Lucas that, though her recovery mission was successful, it was not a tactic they recommend, according to KMGH.

LOL, smart girl!!!

Colorado Woman Spots Stolen Bike on Craigslist, Steals it Back | ABC News Blogs – Yahoo!

Wow Fantasia:

Fantasia Barrino is pregnant by her married boyfriend and even worse, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned the American Idol winner is planning her baby shower for the same day as Antwaun Cook’s wedding anniversary with his estranged wife!

“Fantasia is really taking every opportunity she can to stick it to Antwaun’s ex,” a source close to the situation told RadarOnline.com.

“She’s planning her baby shower for October 1, which is Antwaun’s wedding anniversary with Paula. It’s the low of lows.”

As RadarOnline.com first reported, Fantasia is due to have her baby on December 27 with Antwaun, who is still married to his estranged wife, Paula Cook — who claims the two started their relationship long before she’d officially separated from Antwaun.
“By planning her baby shower for that day, both Antwaun and Fantasia are showing complete disregard for Paula,” the source said.

“She’s already been through enough with everything that’s went down.”

This will be Fantasia’s first child with Antwaun, but it’s not the first time she was pregnant by him.

Last November, RadarOnline.com obtained exclusive audio of Fantasia testifying during a separation hearing between Antwaun and Paula, in which she states she had previously been pregnant by him and had an abortion.

Lord, this drama makes no sense to me…
Source

I would pass out:

It sounds like an urban legend: giant mutant-looking rats roaming a city housing project.

Only there’s a picture.

A photo making the rounds shows Housing Authority worker Jose Rivera minutes after he speared the humongous rodent with a pitchfork at the Marcy Houses.

It’s covered in white fur and looks well-fed. It appears to be about three feet long, including its hideously dangling tail.

And Rivera, 48, says it’s not the only one. He insists that while he was filling a rat hole last week, three came running out – but he was only able to nail one.

“I hit it one time and it was still moving,” Rivera said. “I hit it another time and that’s when it died. I’m not scared of rats but I was scared of being bitten.”

Naomi Colon, head of the Marcy Houses Tenant Association, said there have been sightings of the outsize rat for at least six years.

“The residents have told me that they’ve seen it running around with other rats. She lived with them. She ran into the same hole they ran in.” Animal experts who viewed the picture identified the animal as a Gambian pouched rat, which is a fairly common pet rat. They’re nocturnal, can grow to three feet and four pounds or more, and live seven or eight years.

Gross, glad they got it. SMH at this thing making cats scared.

Giant rat killed by pitchfork in Marcy Houses is believed to be Gambian pouched rat

Maybe by researching this they can understand what is going on and try to reverse it:

An overlooked corner of the dropout problem became more visible Thursday when state officials for the first time released the dropout rate for eighth-graders.

Statewide, about 3.5% of eighth-graders — 17,257 in all — left school and didn’t return for ninth grade, according to the state count now available with a system for tracking students individually.

The California Department of Education released the new dropout and graduation rates, the first such report based on unique identification numbers for every public school student. It looked at eighth-graders in the 2008-09 academic year and students who started high school in 2006 and should have graduated four years later.

Overall, 74.4% of California high school students graduated in four years, according to state data; 18.2% dropped out. The remainder were still in school (6.6%), were in non-diploma programs for disabled students (0.5%) or left high school by taking the General Educational Development (GED) Test (0.4%).

We have to emphasize education. That is the only way…

The I-Team has learned that after the initial lawsuits were filed, Centino Kemp came forward with similar allegations of sexual misconduct against Bishop Long. Our sources say he became involved in the settlement talks. He was the mystery man. Though his name was never made public, the I-Team has learned he may have played a significant role in the mediation.

Our source says Kemp has been taking part in countless $100 an hour sessions in Atlanta recording studios for the past two months.  Some are profanity-laced, sexually-charged stories of angry, jilted lovers, like Kemp’s song titled Pornography.  According to various social media posts, Centino Kemp is 22 years old, single, tattooed, and always sporting different looks. He tweets openly of gay rights, and dreams of taking the recording world by storm. 

One source says Centino Kemp, who was raised in the Bahamas, met Bishop Eddie Long years ago during a visit to New Birth while he was a teenage student in a Florida college. The relationship meant enough for him to tattoo Eddie Long’s name on his wrist, followed by the words, “Never a Mistake, Always a Lesson.” Sources say Kemp joined in the settlement talks after he heard about the other young men’s lawsuits and though he never sued, he became a part of the final settlement.

One lawyer familiar with the case confirmed Kemp was involved and was “different from the other young men,” “one piece of the puzzle that never fit,” and he made the case “more difficult.”  Bishop Eddie Long had no comment about Centino Kemp. And Centino Kemp had nothing to say about the bishop. After walking away from our question, he later sprinted to an awaiting stretch limousine. The secret accuser in the Bishop Long sex scandal, drove off, still a mystery, still dreaming of stardom.

Wow, well what happens in the dark will always come to light. It this young man money and fame hungry… Sure. However, I bet that didn’t stop the married pastor from having sex with him. GROSS!

Fox 5 Atlanta 

Damn, I missed out:

You know the old saying — if a deal is too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true.

That’s what happened to a major retailer’s online shoppers Friday afternoon.

Sears.com inadvertently advertised Apple’s 16GB iPad 2 for $69, much less than the regular advertised price of $744.99. 

That low price got the attention of web shoppers and the deal went viral on Twitter and other social media websites.

Many people took advantage of the unbelievable deal, though a Sears spokesperson couldn’t give an exact number.

Friday night, Sears posted a statement online telling customers the error was made by a third-party vendor and the deal will not be honored.

“We want you to know that, unfortunately, today one of the Marketplace third party sellers told us that they mistakenly posted incorrect pricing information on two Apple iPad models on the Marketplace portion of the website. If you purchased either of these products recently, your order has been cancelled and your account will be credited,” the statement said.

Somebody got fired, that’s for sure.  Sears will NOT honor the mistake, and of course, people are pissed.

Sears.com accidentally prices iPad at $69 – CNN.com

So Odd Future is this bazaar rap group where they do and say things just for shock value- with little artistic substance to go behind them.  They played at the “T in the music park festival” and the crowd starting throwing bottles at the group:

The controversial hip-hop collective performed on the NME/Radio 1 Stage this afternoon, but were met a torrent of missiles from a worked-up crowd.

Having broken his foot, Tyler, The Creator walked onstage on crutches.

The first bottle was thrown just before ‘French!’, and after an initial torrent, Left Brain retaliated by opening up water bottles on the stage and throwing them back into the crowd. One of them hit a boom arm camera in the lens.

After one bottle from the audience hit a cameraman in the face, Syd Tha Kid high-fived the perpetrator. Then, when Odd Future’s tour manager was told to make the band stop retaliating, he at first shrugged, before minutes later removing all full water bottles from the stage.

The chaotic show came to an end 20 minutes before its allotted time with ‘Radical’, during which a clearly angry Left Brain shouted: “We ain’t playing your motherfucking game.”

Perfect example of dishing it out, but not being able to take it. Grand opening…Grand closing

NME

This is interesting:

In the documents — obtained by TMZ — Mathew Knowles claims Live Nation Entertainment wanted desperately to sink its fangs into Beyonce’s 2011 world tour. According to the docs, Mathew claims Live Nation told Beyonce that Mathew “had stolen money from Beyonce on her most recent tour or otherwise taken funds that [he] was not entitled to.” 

Mathew claims Live Nation was effective, because Beyonce had her law firm conduct an audit, and the law firm concluded Mathew had indeed pilfered money from her. Beyonce then fired him.

Mathew claims after he was canned, Beyonce hired a manager who had worked as a former exec at Live Nation and maintained a relationship with the company.

Mathew insists the theft accusations by Live Nation are false, and he wants the judge to give him the right to take depositions of various people at Live Nation, to determine just how they concluded he was a thief.

Matthew has denied all claims, but the truth will eventually come out…

TMZ