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Posted Nov 25th 2008 8:53PM by Karu F. Daniels Filed under: Entertainment Newswire, Entertainment

By Karu F. Daniels, BlackVoices.com

Is a real "change" in politics really happening.

Is George W. Bush planning to go out with a bang? It appears so. Among his list of presidential pardons – released publicly yesterday -- the 43rd President of the United States commuted the sentence of rapper/producer John Forte, who has been in prison for the past few years for transporting drugs.

Forte, whose real name is John Edward Forte, was arrested at Newark International Airport in 2000 for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to distribute. Police discovered the Fugees-cohort with two briefcases filled with liquid cocaine, which they estimated were worth $1.4 million.

Academy and Grammy Award winning singer Carly Simon and her son, Ben Taylor, who attended the upper crust boarding school Exeter Academy with Forte, were vocal advocates for Forte's release and reportedly paid for his legal expenses.

The rapper/producer, who co-wrote two songs on the Fugees' 1996 breakthrough, 'The Score' and was also signed to Columbia Records, was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 14 years and was serving time in Fort Dix, New Jersey.

"I allowed elements to be near me -- not drugs but people," he told 'Rolling Stone' in 2002. "That's what caught me up. I was too accessible. I was too here, I was too there. The price the government wants me to pay for that is fourteen years."

Luckily for Forte, he will be released December 22 after serving just over seven years. According to published reports, he must serve five years of supervised probation.

A native of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, Forte attended New York University before dropping out to work at Rawkus Entertainment, a New York City based music company whose roster included Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Pharaoh Monch. A chance meeting with Lauryn Hill led him to join The Fugees' Refugee Camp Crew. He released his solo debut album, 'Poly-Sci' in 1998.

By RASHA MADKOUR The Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida college student killed himself by overdosing on drugs in front of a live online audience as some computer users egged him on, some debated his method, and others tried to talk him out of it.

Abraham Biggs, 19, of Pembroke Pines, died Wednesday at his home from a toxic combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, a drug used to treat insomnia and depression, said Wendy Crane, an investigator with the Broward County medical examiner's office.

Authorities say the Broward Community College student is not the first person to commit suicide with a webcam rolling.

It's unclear how many people were watching through the Web site bodybuilding.com. Someone finally notified a site moderator, who pinpointed Biggs' location and called police, but they arrived too late to save him, Crane said.

Biggs, who used the screen name "CandyJunkie" on the bodybuilding Web site, started blogging about plans to kill himself 12 hours before he was found lying dead on his bed. He posted a link from bodybuilding.com to Justin.tv, a site that allows users to broadcast live videos from their webcams.

Some users who read the blog told investigators they did not take him seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before.

But Biggs' family was infuriated that neither viewers nor the site acted sooner to save him.

"When (police) came in, the webfeed stopped. So that's 12 hours of watching," said his sister, Rosalind Biggs, who said her brother struggled with bipolar disorder. "They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours."

Rosalind Biggs described her brother as a friendly, social, outgoing person who struck up conversations with Starbucks baristas and enjoyed taking his young nieces to Chuck E. Cheese.

"It boggles the mind," she said. "We don't understand."

Authorities could not immediately verify the authenticity of a video posted online that shows a gun-wielding officer entering a bedroom where a man is lying on a bed, facing away from the camera. The officer peers over to look at the man, then begins to examine him as the camera lens is covered. The video matches Crane's description of events.

Condolences poured in to Biggs' MySpace page, where the mostly unsmiling teen is seen posing in a series of pictures with various young women. On justin.tv, his alias was "feels_like_ecstacy."

In a statement, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said: "We regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time."

The Web site declined to release information on how many people were watching the broadcast. The entire site had 672,000 unique visitors in October.

Messages left with the bodybuilding Web site were not immediately returned Friday.

A spokesman for the Pembroke Pines police said they were investigating but declined further comment.

Crane said she knows of at least one other case in which a South Florida man shot himself in the head in front of an online audience, although she didn't know how much viewers saw. In Britain last year, a man hanged himself while chatting online.

Obama promises to 'recommit' US anti-AIDS strategy

CHICAGO (AFP) — President-elect Barack Obama on World AIDS Day Monday promised to "recommit" US efforts against the deadly disease through a national strategy of education, prevention, treatment and "a strong health care system."

Obama extolled progress made since international health authorities began observing World Aids Day 20 years ago, when "widespread ignorance and fear" hampered efforts to educate people about AIDS' devastating impact on families and communities.

Thanks to the work of official, non-official and faith-based institutions, he said, "women in Kenya who were widowed by the disease and once shunned by society, have banded together to support and empower each other.

"Scientists around the world are discovering and engineering new medicines to give people with HIV/AIDS another chance at life ... And world governments are coming together to address the humanitarian crisis the pandemic has left in its wake.

Speaking before the Saddleback Church Civil Forum on AIDS, Obama thanked outgoing US President George W. Bush "for his leadership in crafting a plan for AIDS relief in Africa" and providing funding to prevent the spread of the disease.

Bush on Monday announced that his President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief had already met its goal of helping to treat two million people living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2008.

Obama said the administration he will be leading when he takes over the White House on January 20 "will continue this critical work," but would go one step further.

"We must also recommit ourselves to addressing the AIDS crisis here in the United States with a strong national strategy of education, prevention and treatment, focusing on those communities at greatest risk.

"This strategy must be based on the best available science and built on the foundation of a strong health care system," he added.

Obama admitted, however, that "in the end, this epidemic can't be stopped by government alone, and money alone is not the answer either."

He asked all Americans to "do our part," and urged people to take inspiration from this year's World Aids Day slogan "Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise."

About two-thirds of the world's HIV-positive cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. At least one person in 10 lives with HIV in nations such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia, the IFRC said in a June report.