AC MILAN PLAYERS WALK OFF FIELD BECAUSE OF RACIST CHANTS AGAINST THEIR PLAYERS IN A FRIENDLY SOCCER MATCH IN ITALY

Ghana midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng who plays for AC Milan targeted by racist chants.

A friendly match between AC Milan and lower division club Pro Patria was abandoned Thursday after Milan's players walked off the pitch because of racist chants, the latest incident of racial abuse blighting the sport in Europe.
After repeated chants directed his way, Ghana midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng picked up the ball and kicked it at a section of the crowd in the 26th minute of the first half.
Boateng then took off his shirt and walked off with his Milan teammates. Urby Emanuelson, Sulley Muntari and M'Baye Niang were also targeted by the chants.

"Walking off was the right choice when faced with something like this," Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said. "We need to stop these uncivil gestures. Italy needs to improve and become better educated and more intelligent.""Let's learn from this experience," Allegri added.

The match, which was scoreless at the time, was not resumed. The game was played in Busto Arsizio, a town located north of Milan. Pro Patria plays in Italy's fourth-tier division.

"Shame that these things still happen... (hash)StopRacismforever," Boateng said on Twitter.

Pro Patria defender Devis Nossa said about a dozen fans were involved in the chanting.

"When we tried to reason with them and went under the stands they didn't even consider it," he said. "They certainly weren't our usual fans."

Milan said on its website that the insults came from a small group of Pro Patria fans, adding that the rest of the supporters disassociated themselves from the chants.
The Italian football federation (FIGC) announced an immediate inquiry, but said "no sanction or penalty can erase the disdain for an unjustifiable and intolerable episode."
"We need to react with strength and without silence to isolate the few delinquents that transformed a friendly match into a mess that offends all of Italian football," the FIGC said in a statement.
Milan, returning from its holiday break, is preparing to play Siena on Sunday.
Despite the incident, Milan captain Massimo Ambrosini promised the squad would return to Busto Arsizio.
Italian players' association president Damiano Tommasi applauded Milan's decision to walk off.
"It was a nice signal, even if a sporting event should never be placed in doubt by acts like these," Tommasi said.
Incidents of racism in football have occurred across Europe in recent months. In England, there have been several arrests among fans for at Premier League matches, while Liverpool striker Luis Suarez and Chelsea captain John Terry have served bans for racially abusing opponents.
In October, Serbian fans directed monkey chants at black England players in a European under-21 match that ended in a brawl between players and coaches from both teams.
Last month, fans of Russian champion Zenit St. Petersburg issued a petition calling for non-white and gay players to be excluded from the team.

SNOOP DOGG FT. THE DOGG POUND - THAT MY WORK

NYC'S FIRST MURDER VICTIM OF 2013 FATALLY SHOT BY DAUGHTER'S BOYFRIEND IN THE PROJECTS

Elzina Brown: Slain in front of shot daughter

A Bronx school-crossing guard became New York’s first murder victim of 2013 yesterday when she and her daughter were allegedly shot by her daughter’s boyfriend, law-enforcement sources said.

Raymond Mayrant, 25, confronted his girlfriend, Diamond Dunn, in an apartment in the Monroe Houses project on Story Avenue in The Bronx just before 1 p.m, sources said.

“Why’d ya do me like that?” Mayrant demanded of Dunn, 22, who has a child with him, sources said.

He then allegedly shot Dunn in the nose, and shot her mother, Elzina “Zina” Brown, 59, at least once in the chest, sources said. Mayrant then fled. Brown was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her daughter was taken to Jacobi Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Cops were hunting for Mayrant this morning. He has prior arrests for assault, grand larceny, possession of stolen property and resisting arrest.

Brown’s brother Robert fumed, “I’m ready to kill the boy. I hope I don’t catch him.”
New York City had 418 reported murders in 2012, a record low.

SOUTH DAKOTA INMATE'S DEATH SENTENCE OVERTURNED BY SUPREME COURT

The South Dakota Supreme Court has overturned a state prison inmate's death sentence for the killing of a prison guard nearly two years ago.
In an opinion released Thursday, the justices said Rodney Berget, 50, must get a new sentencing hearing because the circuit judge who sentenced him to die improperly considered a statement Berget made to a psychiatrist.
The high court said it could not conclude that the use of the statement, in which Berget said he deserves the death penalty for taking Ronald "R.J." Johnson's life and destroying a family, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
Lynette Johnson, the correctional officer's widow, told KSFY television that she is "devastated" by the ruling and feels that the original case was properly presented.
Berget's lawyer, Jeff Larson, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The high court had weighed 12 issues raised by Larson and ruled in the state's favor in 11 of them, including determining that Berget knowingly and intelligently waived his right to be sentenced by a jury. But it ruled in Berget's favor on the use of the psychiatrist's statement and sent the case back to the trial court for a new sentencing hearing.
Despite that, state Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a statement that the court's ruling affirms the "appropriateness of a death sentence for Berget's crime."
The state presented substantial evidence demonstrating the heinousness of the crime and Berget's extensive criminal history, little chance of rehabilitation and multiple escape attempts, Jackley said.
"I am pleased that the Supreme Court has affirmed the overwhelming majority of the evidence was appropriately considered," Jackley said. "The single remaining issue surrounding psychological evaluation may be conducted on the existing record without causing excessive delay."

T-REX TEARS UP SHADE 45 WITH DJ KAY SLAY

POLICE IN INDIA ARREST 5, CHARGED WITH THE RAPE AND MURDER OF 23 YEAR OLD WOMAN IN NEW DELHI

Indian police have filed rape and murder charges against five men accused in the gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus last month.
Police say they plan to push for the death penalty in the case.
A sixth suspect is believed to be a juvenile and is expected to be tried in juvenile court.
The five were charged Thursday with raping the 23-year-old woman for hours and beating her companion as the bus drove through the capital. The woman died Saturday in a hospital in Singapore from massive internal injuries.
The case has sparked outrage and protests across the country demanding greater protection for women.
The men — the bus driver, his brother and four of their friends — are residents of a south Delhi slum near the site of the attack. One of the attackers said he was a juvenile and authorities were conducting medical tests on him to determine whether to try him with the others or send him to juvenile court.
"Strict, strict, strict punishment should be given to them," said Ashima Sharma, an 18-year-old student attending a protest Thursday. "A very strict punishment … that all men of India should be aware that they are not going to treat the women like the way they treated her."
Indian Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said the accused should be tried swiftly, but cautioned that they needed to be given a fair trial and not subjected to mob justice.
"Let us not lose sight of the fact that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty," he told reporters Wednesday, while inaugurating the new fast-track court. "Let us balance things. Let us not get carried away. Provide justice in a fair but swift manner so that faith of people is once again restored that the judiciary is there behind the common man."
The government is to set up four other such courts in the capital to hold timely trials in sexual assault cases, which often get bogged down for years in India's notoriously sluggish court system.
The new courts will work to provide justice as swiftly as possible "so that the message is sent to all and sundry that these matters are going to be dealt with seriously," Kabir said.
Many cases never even get to court in a country where there is intense social pressure against families reporting sexual assaults and where women are often blamed for the attacks they suffer. When women do report rapes, police often refuse to file charges and pressure the victims to reach a compromise with their attackers.
In a sign that attitudes toward such behavior might be changing, and that even powerful men are being held accountable for their actions, police in the northeastern state of Assam arrested a leader of the ruling Congress party Thursday on accusations he raped a woman in a village in the early hours of the morning.

Footage on Indian television showed the extraordinary scene of local women surrounding the man, ripping off his shirt and repeatedly slapping him across the face.

Indian women offer prayers for a gang rape victim at Mahatma Gandhi memorial in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Police said the man, Bikram Singh Brahma, was visiting the village of Santipur on the Bhutan border when he entered a woman's house and raped her at about 2 a.m. Amid the screams, villagers ran to the home and captured the man, said G.P. Singh, a senior police officer in the area.
"We are taking this issue very seriously," Singh said.
Women's activists hope that the rape and killing of the university student last month will mark a turning point in India's behavior toward women. The victim, whose name has not been revealed, was attacked after boarding a bus with a male companion after watching an evening showing of the movie "Life of Pi" at an upscale mall. The vehicle was a charter bus that illegally picked up the two passengers, authorities said.
The pair were attacked for hours as the bus drove through the city, even passing through police checkpoints during the assault. They were eventually dumped naked on the side of the road. The woman, who was assaulted with an iron bar, suffered severe internal injuries that eventually caused her to die Saturday at a hospital in Singapore.
Media reports say police have gathered 30 witnesses, and the charges have been detailed in a document running more than 1,000 pages. Police also detained the owner of the bus used in the crime on accusations that he used false documents to obtain permits to run the private bus service.
The Bar Association said its lawyers would not defend the six suspects because of the nature of the crime, but the court is expected to appoint attorneys to defend them.
Since the attack, women have held near-daily protests and candle-light vigils in New Delhi, demanding action be taken to stop the daily harassment they face, from groping to even more violent attacks.
Also Thursday, the Supreme Court was expected to hear a petition demanding Indian lawmakers facing sexual assault charges be suspended from office.
Six state lawmakers are facing rape prosecutions and two national parliamentarians are facing charges of crimes against women that fall short of rape, said Jagdeep S. Chhokar, an official with the Association for Democratic Reforms, which tracks political candidates' criminal records.
The petition from retired government administrator Promilla Shanker also asks the court to force the national government to fast-track thousands of rape cases across the country.

EX-EAGLE JEREMIAH TROTTER BLASTS ANDY REID'S IN GAME COACHING SKILLS

Andy Reid currently is out of a job after being fired by the Philadelphia Eagles, though all indications are that he's close to becoming the next head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Suffice to say, if former Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter was advising the Chiefs (and why would he?), Kansas City might want to reconsider.
Here's what Trotter, who played seven seasons under Reid in Philadelphia, had to say during a roundtable on 97.5 FM The Fanatic radio station, via philly.com: "If it came down to both teams were even, talent-wise, I think the opponent's team would win if it came down to coaching. Andy Reid got out-coached in a lot of games, man, a lot of big games. Time outs, running the football, you know."

Trotter wasn't done there, either.

He added that Reid's in-game coaching decisions also indirectly affected games -- as in how it messed with the psyche of the defense and defensive coaches.

"As a defense, we understood we passed the ball too much," Trotter said. "You know, there's times we're sitting over there like, 'Man, listen. Just get us a couple of first downs so we can get a break.' And I'm sure it frustrated Jim Johnson also."
Trotter also rated Reid's coaching abilities on a scale of one to 10.
"On a scale of one to 10, 10 being great," Trotter said, "I give (Reid) a seven-and-a-half or eight as a coach."
In that case, never mind the Chiefs reconsidering. They definitely could use a "seven-and-a-half or eight" after the 2-14 season they just experienced.

[VIDEO] DRAKE LAUGHS OFF PAPARAZZI'S CHRIS BROWN & RIHANNA QUESTIONS

SUPERMODEL NAOMI CAMPBELL VIOLENTLY ATTACKED AND ROBBED IN PARIS

Naomi Campbell suffered a leg injury when she was violently attacked and robbed on a Paris street. The supermodel was set upon by thugs as she tried to hail a cab and was “knocked over and robbed,” we’re told. She suffered a torn ligament, and reported the incident to French cops.
One source said, “It was terrifying. Naomi believes the assailant had been watching her, casing her out, and waited for a moment to strike when she was alone. She was attacked in the street as she hailed a cab, and robbed.

“Her leg was injured as she was violently pushed to the ground. She was understandably very upset and shaken up,” the source said. It is not known what the thugs stole from her, but it’s believed they were targeting expensive jewelry she may have been wearing.

The beauty’s billionaire boyfriend, Vladimir Doronin, immediately flew her by private jet to Vail, Colo., where she was treated by J. Richard Steadman, one of the top orthopedic surgeons in the world and the founder of the Steadman Clinic, which has treated many athletes, including Alex Rodriguez.
Naomi, 42, has been using a wheelchair and crutches to get around following the attack, which happened over a month ago.
Our source added she has not spoken publicly about the assault nor told friends, at the request of French police who are hunting down the thugs.
We are also told Doronin has upped security around Naomi, as a precaution.
The model’s spokesman and agent declined to comment. When reached by phone, the Naomi said, “I am sorry, I do not talk to press, but I am fine.”
Naomi has remained positive since the attack. She has been tweeting inspiring messages and threw a New Year’s Eve bash at her house on Miami’s Star Island. She’s now resting in Miami and preparing for next month’s launch of her TV show “The Face.”

THREE NYPD OFFICERS SHOT IN TWO SEPERATE INCIDENTS IN JUST OVER AN HOUR

It was a nightmare hour of bloodshed for the NYPD.
In barely more than 60 minutes last night, three city cops were shot in two separate incidents.
In the first, off-duty cop Juan Pichardo, 34, was shot in the leg as he stopped armed bandits from robbing his used-car dealership in The Bronx, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
A short time later, plainclothes Transit cops Michael Levay, 27, and Lukasz Kozicki, 32, were struck by bullets fired by a gun-toting thug whom they had spotted walking between subway cars in Brooklyn, Kelly added. Officers respond after a fellow officer was shot in The Bronx Thursday.

The subway gunman, who had a lengthy rap sheet, was shot dead.

The three wounded officers are expected to survive.

“In recent weeks, we’ve heard some people say that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Mayor Bloomberg said last night. “But sometimes the good guys get shot – and sometimes, they are killed.”
“Tonight, thank God, three good guys – three New York City police officers, who acted heroically – are going to make it.”
The violence began at 6:30 p.m., when Pichardo fought back as two men held up the Boston Road Auto Mall in Bronxwood, which is owned by his family.
“He was trying to sell the people a car and they try to stick him up,” said a co-worker who gave his name as Brian. “For the new year to start like this, it’s not right. Nobody deserves this.”
The two perps barged into the dealership as it was closing after feigning interest in buying a red Altima on the lot, sources said.
They used plastic handcuffs to tie Pichardo and a coworker, sources added.
While waving a Bryco .380 handgun in Pichardo’s face, the thugs forced him and the other employee to the floor of a small back office, demanded the combination to the dealership safe and took cash from the cop, sources added.
Somehow, Pichardo managed to grab hold of one perp and began struggling with him. The man then shot Pichardo in the right thigh.
“I was in the bathroom when I heard a shot. I thought it was a car tire burst. It sounded so loud,” said Alicia Edwards, an 18-year-old student who lives nearby.

Officers Juan Pichardo, Lukasz Kozicki and Michael Levay were wounded by gunfire Thursday.

Despite his wound, Pichardo wrestled the gunman to the ground and handcuffed him with help from his colleague, sources said. He also disarmed the thug.
The accomplice ran off and hopped into a getaway car occupied by two other suspects. The vehicle, a white Impala with Oregon license plates, was stopped nearby and the trio was placed under arrest, police said.
Pichardo, a nine-year veteran and married father of three, was reported in stable condition at Jacobi Medical Center.
In Brooklyn, violence broke out at 7:32 p.m., when Levay and Kozicki, assigned to an anti-crime unit, were shot on a Manhattan-bound N train.
The cops had seen a man illegally walking between cars and attempted to stop him as the train arrived at Fort Hamilton Parkway in Bay Ridge, police added.
They asked for his ID and thought the man was going for his wallet — but instead he whipped a 9mm Taurus gun from his waistband and started blasting, police said.
Scared straphangers scattered as the perp and cops traded bullets, according to witness Jonathan Michael, 31.
“People were running out. It was loud,” he said. “The whole train was screaming.”
A passenger on the car sustained a graze wound to the leg during the shootout.
The gunman was killed by Levay’s return fire, police said, and left dead on the platform.
Kozicki was hit in each of his upper thighs and once in the groin. Levay was hit in his lower back, which was protected by his bulletproof vest.
A witness said that the assailant saw the officer’s vest and intentionally aimed low, police added.
Both cops were treated at Lutheran Hospital.
The dead gunman had prior arrests in New York, for assault and a stabbing, and was once caught with a knife while jumping a turnstile, sources said.
He also has a rap sheet in California, sources added.

[AUDIO] LIL WAYNE Ft. 2 CHAINZ – RICH AS FUCK

[VIDEO] ALL ROLLS EVERYTHING (TRINIDAD JAMES PARODY)

SANDY HOOK CHILDREN RETURN TO CLASS TODAY AT ANOTHER SCHOOL

The new school is equipped with a security system, and police officers will patrol the grounds.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Hundreds of children who had escaped a harrowing attack on their elementary school in Newtown, Conn., last month, headed back to classes Thursday for the first time since a gunman had barged into their school and killed 20 of their schoolmates and six staff members.
Across Newtown's sprawling Sandy Hook neighborhood, home to the elementary school where the Dec. 14 attack took place, children bundled in heavy winter coats boarded buses decked in green and white ribbons, their school colors, for the seven-mile journey to their new school building.
Chalk Hill Middle School, a disused school in the neighboring town of Monroe, was refurbished specifically for the students from Newtown, and now bears a new but familiar name — Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Anca Roberto, 35, put her five-year-old daughter, a kindergartner, on the bus not far from the old Sandy Hook school, which remains a bullet-riddled crime scene closed to anyone but police.
Roberto said she'd been nervous about the return to school until Wednesday, when she and her daughter attended an open house at the new location. Her daughter was thrilled to find her cubby intact, moved from the old school, and she "screeched" when she saw her friends.
The students "hugged, and they played and they were just children," Roberto said. "The teachers were just amazing."
With safety foremost on parents' and officials' minds in the wake of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, the school has been outfitted with a new security system. Monroe Police Department officers were patrolling the grounds, and all outside doorways and sidewalks are under surveillance.
"I think right now, we have to make this the safest school in America," Monroe Police Lieutenant Keith White said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Asked if she was nervous about her daughter's safety, Roberto said: "I was until yesterday. There's just so much supervision. They're in the safest place."
Parents wishing to remain with their children, age five to 10, from kindergarten through fourth grade, would be allowed to accompany them to their classrooms, and could wait in the school's "lecture room" for as long as they wished, according to a memo to parents on the school's website. Counseling would be available for students and parents at the new premises.
Erin Milgram, parent of a first-grader and a fourth-grader, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she planned to drive behind the school bus and stay with her seven-year-old daughter Lauren, whose teacher Kaitlin Roig had hidden her first-grade class in a closet during the attack.
"I haven't gotten to that part yet about not being with them; I just need to stay with them for a while," Milgram said, fighting back tears.
As the students return Thursday, they will find all of their familiar belongings from their school in Sandy Hook, including desks that were left behind nearly three weeks ago, when Adam Lanza burst through the school doors and opened fire.
Their new school building has been decked out as a "Winter Wonderland," with the help of thousands of children from around the world.
"This does not look like the other elementary school," Newtown School Superintendent Janet Robinson said emphatically.

In the meantime, no new details have emerged to explain why the 20-year-old Lanza, armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle, two other firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, targeted the school. State police investigators have said it could be months before they complete their report.
Described by family friends as having Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their home about five miles from the school, before driving to Sandy Hook and embarking on the massacre, police said. He then took his own life as police arrived at the school, which had an enrollment of 456.
The massacre in Newtown, a rural New England town of 27,000 residents about 70 miles northeast of New York City, which President Barack Obama described as the worst day of his presidency, stunned the nation and reignited a highly charged debate over gun control. Obama has tasked Vice President Joe Biden with assembling a package of gun-control proposals to submit to Congress over the next several weeks.
The National Rifle Association, the most powerful gun-rights lobby in the United States, has rebuffed calls for more stringent firearm restrictions and, instead, called for armed guards to patrol every public school in the country. 

JADEVEON CLOWNEY WITH A HUGE SHOT ON MICHIGAN RBI

BRADLEY COOPER AND ZOE SALDANA HAVE BROKEN UP ONCE AGAIN!!!

TWO LOVEBIRDS IN HAPPIER TIMES

Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana seem to have the approximate shelf life of a jar of mayo. Three months after reigniting their fizzled flame, the genetically gifted (if snooze-inducing) pair have once again called it quits, reports the New York Post. Split No. 2 supposedly happened shortly before the end of the year.
"Zoe had planned to spend the holidays with Bradley and his family in Europe," shares a source. "They all were going to Paris, but things didn't work out between them. Zoe spent New Year's Eve with friends in Miami."

The actress, 34, didn't appear overly bothered by her latest breakup with the former Sexiest Man Alive. "If Zoe was upset over the split with Bradley, she didn't show it," notes a spy.
The couple's second shot at love lasted the same length of time as their first: three months. The "Words" co-stars were initially linked at the dawn of 2012, when they were spied locking lips at a New Year's Eve party. Saldana quickly bonded with Cooper's mom, Gloria, but it wasn't enough to keep them together. By March, the romance was kaput.
Mrs. Cooper, however, apparently wasn't ready to give up on Zoe, who was said to be the first girlfriend of her son's that she'd liked since his two-year relationship with Renee Zellweger flatlined in March 2011.

Rumor has it, she urged the actor, 37, to reconsider his breakup with Saldana, whose decade-long romance with fiancé Keith Britton ended in November 2011.
"Gloria told Bradley he should win her back because there were obviously still feelings there," an insider told Radar Online in September, "and he did just what she said."
The National Enquirer recently claimed that, with a push from his mom, Cooper had popped the question to Zoe, and she accepted. Insiders, however, scoffed at the report.
According to the Post, things petered out this time around because Bradley has been wrapped up in the promotion of his buzz-heavy drama, "Silver Linings Playbook."

HIGH SCHOOL DUNK : 10TH GRADER VICTOR DUKES POSTERIZED

SALTWATER CANALS GROW BIGGER AND WASH AWAY AND DESTROY LOUISIANA CEMETERY

Cutting and dredging of canals in Louisiana marshes have allowed saltwater to intrude where it had never been, causing high ground that held cemeteries to sink or erode and caskets to wash away.

LEEVILLE, La. — As a young adult, Kathleen Cheramie visited her grandmother's grave in a tree-lined cemetery where white concrete crosses dotted a plot of lush green grass just off Louisiana Highway 1.
Now, the cemetery in Leeville is a skeleton of its former self. The few trees still standing have been killed by saltwater intruding from the Gulf. Their leafless branches are suspended above marsh grass left brown and soggy from saltwater creeping up from beneath the graves.
"It was a beautiful place to visit," said Cheramie, 67, who lives in nearby Golden Meadow. "It hurts to see it now."

Cheramie's small family graveyard is among at least two dozen cemeteries across the southeast Louisiana coast that are rapidly sinking or washing away because of erosion and subsidence accelerated by the tropical punch of storms such as Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, Lee and Isaac.
Local residents say 11 cemeteries in Jefferson Parish have repeatedly flooded since Hurricane Katrina. In Lafourche, Terrebonne and Plaquemines parishes, more than a dozen others have succumbed to tidal surge. Some have more than 300 gravesites.
Officials say not much can be done to save the cemeteries or the sinking communities that surround them, though some towns have tried pouring concrete slabs to build up the burial sites and hold headstones in place. They've also anchored above-ground caskets to the slabs to keep them from floating off.
"When I was a kid, you didn't see graves floating away and going under water," said Timothy Kerner, 53, mayor of the fishing town of Jean Lafitte, where schools, restaurants and homes have flooded at least four times in the past seven years.
Kerner said all 11 cemeteries in the area were under water during Hurricane Isaac, which struck Louisiana in August. Although many caskets had been anchored to concrete slabs, dozens still floated away, finding new resting places under and between houses.
In some cases, human remains became separated from the caskets.
"It's horrible," said Kerner, shaking his head as he flipped through photographs taken as officials recovered the caskets and remains. "It's sad, and it would be sad in any circumstance, but in this case you have families that have been here for 300 years, for generation after generation."
Kerner said his community has about 1,500 gravesites — some dating back to the early 1800s, when the town's namesake, pirate Jean Lafitte, used the bayous for smuggling.
Along the Louisiana coast, towns like Jean Lafitte watch the Gulf march closer each day, threatening wildlife habitats and a way of life.


Coastal Louisiana has lost about 1,900 square miles of land since the 1930s as canals dug for oil exploration allowed salty water to intrude into marshes and a succession of powerful hurricanes sucked marsh muck that protects populated areas out into the Gulf.Archie Chaisson, coastal zone manager for Lafourche Parish, said about 90 percent of one Leeville cemetery dating to the 1800s has been swallowed by a wide bayou that empties into the Gulf, and two other burial sites have been submerged in recent years.
What's left of the bayou-side cemetery is accessible only by boat. Some headstones are barely visible above the water, and waves lap at the bricks and concrete surrounding caskets.
Chaisson said that as recently as 1920, the cemetery was several feet above sea level, surrounded by orange groves, cotton fields and cattle farms. Much of the ground has subsided to barely sea level, and during Isaac, about seven feet of land washed away in the tidal surge, he said.
"The bodies just lay abandoned because there's nothing we can do for them now," he said.
South Lafourche Levee District General Manager Windell Curole, who also serves on the state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said saltwater from the Gulf is causing a crippling subsidence problem.
"We did not bury people in marshes," Curole said. "We buried them on high ground. This was high ground, and now it's subsided to the point of being wetlands and open water."
Curole said Louisiana's coastal erosion problems started with the cutting and dredging of canals for oil and gas exploration, which allowed saltwater to work its way into freshwater marshes. The damming of the Mississippi River in the early 1900s also prevented the river from re-depositing freshwater sediment.
"We created the problem, and now we have to be smart about fixing the problem," Curole said.
In Lafourche Parish, some of the earthen levees are as high as 16 feet to protect the communities within, and the parish is creating "apron marsh" by pumping sediment from inside the levee out to the broken marshes just beyond it for added buffer from the Gulf.
Curole said there isn't much that can be done to save communities like Leeville, which sits beyond the levee system and today is about two-thirds open water.
"It's so strange to not see any trees," Cheramie said, adding that she rarely makes the short drive from her home inside the levee system to the family cemetery just beyond it. Her grandmother's gravesite today is surrounded by saltwater-soggy ground and patches of dead marsh grass, with open water nearby. "It makes me feel sad."
Cheramie said that about 10 years ago, a concrete slab was poured to try to raise the ground and hold the cemetery's crosses in place, but with repeated hits from storms since 2005, sand and mud from the marsh have begun taking over the slab.
"It's just disappearing," she said. "It's a shame to say, but you stay away because it's too much. It's too hard. We're losing so much so fast, and it's out of our control."

[MIXTAPE] 9TH WONDER "BLACK AMERICAN GANGSTER"

For the new year 9th Wonder remixes Jay-Z's 2007 album American Gangster with music from the 1970s.

Track List:
01. Pray (For Me)
02. American Dreamin
03. Hello Brooklyn (Still Politics) Feat. Lil Wayne & The Stylistics
04. No Hook Feat. Curtis Mayfield
05. Sweet Feat. The Love Unlimited Orchestra
06. I Know (What You Like) Feat. Pharrell & The Jackson 5
07. Party Life Feat. Kool & The Gang
08. Ignorant Shit Feat. Beanie Sigel
09. Say Hello Feat. Barry White & The Love Unlimited Orchestra
10. Success Feat. Nas
11. Fallin'
12. Blue Magic Feat. Curtis Mayfield
13. Black American Gangster
14. Blue Magic Revisited Feat. Gwen McCrae

Download Here

[VIDEO] TYGA FEAT. THE GAME "SWITCH LANES" (BEHIND THE SCENES)

[VIDEO] KENDRICK LAMAR "BACKSEAT FREESTLYE"

[VIDEO] PROJECT PAT "EXTRA"

TRINIDAD JEROME - ALL GOLD EVERYTHING [REMIX]