‘Behind the Music’: Brandy Breaks Down over Fatal Car Crash
Brandy opens up about the single darkest episode in her life on tonight’s episode of “Behind the Music,” which aired on April 25, at 9 p.m. EST.
“I would hear what people would say, and still to this day they know that that’s a button,” Brandy says through tears. “They know that they can call me a murderer or call me someone that killed someone. They know that is a button for me. A murderer is someone who premeditates it. I didn’t wake up that day to be involved in a fatal car crash. I didn’t plan for that. And if I could take it back, I would.”
In December 2006, the singer was involved in a fatal car accident in California resulting in the death of Awatif Aboudihaj. The Los Angeles city attorney’s office ultimately concluded that there was “insufficient evidence” to convict Brandy of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter after a series of investigations and being hit with a $50 million lawsuit.
Brandy expands on dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy on “Behind the Music” I just wanted people to know that this wasn’t news. It’s not something that should be talked about like it’s gossip. You don’t like me? Fine. But don’t use this situation to try to hurt me, because the guilt of being involved is enough. It’s something that I’ll never truly, truly get over. Ever,” she explains
J-Hud Leaves Court to Avoid Graphic Photos of Nephew
Jennifer Hudson left a Chicago courtroom today for the second day in a row, too distraught to look at graphic photos showing the gunshot wounds that took the life of her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King.
The boy was found dead in an SUV three days after police discovered the bodies of Hudson’s mother and brother in 2008. Hudson’s former brother-in-law, William Balfour, stands accused of the triple-homicide — a crime prosecutors say was a vicious act of retribution against Hudson’s sister.
Hudson’s fiance, David Otunga, remained in the courtroom and took notes as Cook County Deputy Medical Examiner Mitra Kalekar explained that King had been shot twice in the head, The Chicago Tribune reports.
The Grammy- and Oscar-winning singer-actress was the first witness called to testify after opening statements on Monday, where she said of Balfour: “None of us wanted her to marry him. We did not like how he treated her.”
Rihanna Could ‘Give a ^***’ about Coachella Weed Pic Haters
Rihanna has used Twitter to strike back at critics of her pics from the Coachella Music Festival in which she appears to roll a marijuana blunt, using the bald head of her bodyguard as a table while she sat on his shoulders.
“Yikes. @Rihanna’s marijuana photos from Coachella spark controversy,” MTV wrote on its Twitter account on Thursday afternoon, posting shots from the singer’s Instagram feed and drawing a barbed response from Rihanna herself.
“@MTV Yikes… @rihanna ran out of ^***s to give,” she tweeted back.
MTV has since deleted its tweet, though the story remains posted.
“I’m crazy, and I don’t pretend to be anything else,” Rihanna tweeted yesterday, in response to fans concerned by the photos.
MTV
Peter Jackson unveils new Hobbit footage
Director Peter Jackson has unveiled 10 minutes of footage of The Hobbit to a mixed reaction at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas.
The prequel to his Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, starring British actor Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, is due out in cinemas in December.
The new film has been shot at a rate of 48 frames per second, compared with the industry standard of 24 frames.
However some attendees claimed the scenes looked like low-budget TV.
In a video introduction, Jackson told the audience that using 48 frames per second produced a smoother image.
"The movement feels more real - it's much more gentle on the eyes," he said.
The footage included scenes featuring Bilbo Baggins lost in Gollum's cave, trolls engaged in battle and Sir Ian McKellen and Orlando Bloom reprising their roles as Gandalf and Legolas.
'Too accurate'
Jackson said the new approach would take time to adjust to and some attendees agreed, branding the footage as a failure in digital technology.
The Los Angeles Times said the footage was "hyper-realistic": "An opening aerial shot of dramatic rocky mountains appeared clearer than the images in most nature documentaries.
"But the effect was different when applied to scenes with actors dressed in period costume, whose every move - and pore - was crystal clear," it added.
One projectionist told the newspaper it "looked like a made-for-TV movie".
"It was too accurate - too clear. The contrast ratio isn't there yet - everything looked either too bright or black," they said.
However the Associated Press reported the footage was "vivid, with grass blades, facial lines and soaring mountains appearing luminous and pronounced. The actors looked almost touchable, as if they were performing live on stage".
Other digital pioneers are making the same push for higher film speeds.
Avatar creator James Cameron has promised to shoot the sequel to his science-fiction blockbuster at 48 or 60 frames per second.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first chapter in Jackson's two-part adaptation of JRR Tolkien's fantasy classic.
The two films were shot back-to-back in 3D, with the second part, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, due in cinemas in December 2013.
Battleship stays afloat in UK box office chart
Battleship has topped the UK and Ireland box office chart for a second consecutive week.
The film, which stars Liam Neeson and Rihanna in her first major acting role, took £1.28m.
Despite a 66% drop in box office takings from last week, it was enough to hold off new entry Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, which opened with £1.17m.
Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas star in the adaptation of Paul Torday's novel.
The Hunger Games climbed back up one spot to three in its fifth week of release, bringing its total box office haul to £21.3m.
Horror film Cabin In The Woods fell one place to four.
Salmon Fishing In The Yemen's new entry has meant independent distributor Lionsgate has achieved the rare feat of having three films in the top five.
The 3D re-release of James Cameron's Titanic was at five, taking just under £926,000.
In a week where takings on current releases were all down, there were two other new entries in the chart.
Guy Pearce thriller Lockout opened at seven, while Amanda Seyfried's Gone scraped in at 10, taking £275,000 from 253 cinemas.
Meanwhile Kevin Macdonald's music documentary Marley, about Bob Marley, opened at 11 taking £164,000 across 64 screens.
UK & IRELAND BOX OFFICE
- 1. Battleship - £1.28m
- 2. Salmon Fishing In The Yemen - £1.17m
- 3. The Hunger Games - £1.07m
- 4. Cabin In The Woods - £1.03m
- 5. Titanic 3D - £925,740
Source: Rentrak
DIGICEL TCI CEO E. JAY SAUNDERS, TELLS LATIN AMERICAN OPERATORS WHY THEY ARE BETTER POSITIONED TO BENEFIT FROM 4G LTE
E. Jay Saunders, CEO of Digicel TCI returned home late last week from the LTE Latin America 2012 Conference, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 17-18 April 2012. At the conference, E. Jay spoke on the topic of “Leveraging the Need for Internet Connection: How are operators preparing their customers to want all the traffic growth that LTE will bring” and he was also part of a CEO Panel discussing the topic “How Will the Operator Business Model Be Transformed with the Introduction of LTE.”
During his presentation, E. Jay stated that since Latin American operators are not constrained by the same issues facing USA operators they are better positioned to financially benefit from LTE. E. Jay highlighted this fact with examples of value added services with high customer experience levels that Latin American and Caribbean operators can roll out in conjunction with LTE that will generate new revenue streams and greater ARPU’s – a win win situation for both the operator and the customer. According to E. Jay, when it comes to LTE, business model innovation is going to be critically important due to its large capital requirements, with some USA operators expecting to spend up to US$20 billion dollars to rollout their LTE services.
“At LTE Latin America 2012 in Brazil, E. Jay Saunders gave an insightful speech, raising important issues regarding the new technology. Regulators should be more opened to discuss the excellent points raised by Saunders.” stated Marceli Passoni, research analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, the company that hosted the conference. Informa estimates that in 2016 LTE will account for 42 million users in Latin America, representing 5% of total subscribers. According to Informa, “LTE is the next mobile change-out which will enable mobile operators to better and more cost-effectively transport the rapidly growing data traffic on their networks. LTE will help Latin American operators to deliver new applications and value-added services, boosting data revenues.”
E. Jay, who is scheduled to speak next at the LTE World Summit 2012 being held in Barcelona, Spain at the end of May, stated that “…there are companies that are currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars, and in some cases billions of dollars to rollout LTE, and they are not going to make back their investments with the old voice centric business models. With data traffic growing at a faster rate than voice traffic, operators are now experiencing higher costs to support mobile data than the revenues that they are making from it. This trend is not sustainable, and the only way they can reverse it is by innovating on the business model side.”
Some of the other speakers at the 2 day conference were:
Ajay Joseph, CTO, iBasis;
Anderson André, Latin America Service Provider Director, CISCO Systems;
Chris King Sr, Director, Oracle;
Daniel Borras, Director Business Development, Samsung;
Daniel Locklear, Sr. Director Business Development, Alcatel-Lucent;
Emmanuel Coelho Alves, Wireless Product Line Senior Manager, Huawei;
Hanna Maurer Sibley, Product Manager LTE, ERICSSON, Sweden;
Philippe Leon, Worldwide OSS Director, HP;
José Geraldo de Marco, Latin America Technical Marketing, MOTOROLA MOBILITY;
Marcelo Gonçalves, Portfolio Planning Manager Latam, NOKIA MOBILE.
FortisTCI Submits Annual Regulatory Filing For The Year Ended December 2011
In March 2012, FortisTCI and AEP Limited submitted their Annual Regulatory Filings for the year ended December 31, 2011 to the Electricity Commissioner including corresponding audited financial statements. FortisTCI and AEP Limited (the “Company” or “FortisTCI”) are required to submit their Annual Regulatory Filings and audited financial statements each year.
Reflecting continued economic weakness of the local economy, on a consolidated basis FortisTCI had marginal overall growth of 0.3% in energy demand for the year ending December 31, 2011.
The Company registered year-over-year growth only during the months of November and December 2011, with overall annual sales remaining relatively
flat at 170.4 GwH in 2011 compared with sales of 170.1 GwH in 2010.
All sectors showed a year-over-year decline in electricity sales except for commercial and small hotels, driven primarily by a strong 2011 tourist season.
Electricity sales for large hotels decreased by 1% mainly due to extended closures for restoration following the passage of Hurricane Irene in the third quarter, while residential sales decreased by 2% as residents increased energy conservation efforts.
The Company continues to manage its controllable expenses well. Although the company reported a 4% increase in operating expenses against prior year, this was
partially offset by decreased energy costs, lower maintenance expenses, and decreased wages and compensation expenses resulting from improved engine heat
rate and efficiency at the generating plant. Other influences were, upgraded preventative maintenance procedures, the results of the Company’s 3-year salary
freeze and improved unit man-hour productivity.
The Company’s continued capital investments combined with the current period of low sales growth and no increase in customers’ basic tariff rates, resulted in a lower Return on Rate Base (RORB) and an increase in aggregated Rate Base to $165.7 million, up by 17% from 2010. For year ended December 31, 2011, RORB was 7.5% with an average return over the last 5 years of 9.7%. The Company earned profits of $8.7 million for 2011.
FortisTCI Capital Investments totalled $26.37 million in 2011, which incorporated the commissioning of its second Wartsila engine that contributed to improved generating efficiency, reduced maintenance costs, and improved reliability. Other major projects included completion of the corporate headquarters and customer service centre, and the construction of a state-of–art 800,000 gallon fuel storage facility which significantly increased on-site storage capacity and improved fuel supply security. In addition, the Company invested in a comprehensive Groundwork Management System, the first of its kind in the Turks and Caicos Islands. One of the primary purposes of the Groundwork Management System is to mitigate the amount of water, in a severe rain event, entering Leeward Highway from the Company’s site, a problem that persists up and down Leeward Highway.
“Although we had an extremely busy year, the Company and its employees rose to the challenge. Major headwinds included the continuing global recession and the impact of Hurricane Irene which resulted in the temporary closure of some of our commercial customers. Our employees did a magnificent job at restoring service in the aftermath of the hurricane and our annual Average System Availability Index (ASAI) remained above 99.9%. Despite the economic recession, we continued to be a significant investor which provided much needed buoyancy to the local economy. Our investments in both physical and human assets are part of the Company’s long term strategy to ensure that the TCI has one of the best electricity systems in the world.” stated Eddinton Powell, CEO.
Mr. Powell added that “the current spike in fuel prices, which has driven up the cost of electricity to our customers, remains one of our biggest challenges. Nevertheless, we have been able to reduce the number of gallons we consumed in the generation of electricity from 12,917,651 gallons to 12,666,431 gallons, year-over-year, through efficiency improvements up and down our system value chain. We are committed to increasing fuel efficiency even further”.
TCHTA’s Members and Community Partner for Earth Day to make TCI SHINE!
Members of the Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association (TCHTA) and the community across Providenciales, came out on Saturday 21 April 2012 to make “TCI SHINE” in commemoration of Earth Day, which is recognized to as a day to raise awareness of issues that affect the earth.
TCHTA’s 4th annual cleanup campaign, “TCI Shines”, attracted the participation of approximately 240 persons, who came out with one objective, to clean up the highways and byways of Providenciales, and to bring an awareness to Earth Day and keeping Mother Earth litter free. The initiative, spearheaded by the Association and its Project Committee, focused on involving the community at large. Some groups where amazed at how much trash was being collected, quotes like; “I will now think twice before tossing anything from my car”, and “I now know the beer of choice in TCI”, due to the amount of bottles collected.
Association Executive Stacy Cox noted, “This year’s objective was to involve the wider community through various organizations, like Churches, Schools and Civic Groups, or just to have people clean up around their homes on this day”. The event for us is always bittersweet and we are happy to clean up our communities but disappointed that we are still collecting so many bags of garbage, after hosting “TCI Shines” twice a year for the past three years. We collected approximately 750 bags of garbage in addition to microwaves, golf clubs, drums and shopping carts.
Cox added, “For this cleanup we focused on awareness and outreach in the community, as the more people involved in a cleanup campaign the more people will begin to think twice about littering”
Special thanks to the members of the TCHTA, BEST Institute, Enid Capron Primary School, Mills Institute, TCI Middle School, TCI Youth Department, Gods Gem, Power 92.5 FM and 102.5 KISS FM, Harvest Bible Church, The Church of God of Prophecy and members of The Filipino Community for doing their part to help TCI Shine.
POLICE NAME DIVING VICTIM
POLICE have today named a teenage American tourist who died following a diving accident off Grand Turk, earlier this month.
Bhavish Zinzuwadia, 17, a passenger on the cruise ship, Carnival Pride, lost consciousness in the water during a Carnival Cruise Lines-sponsored SCUBA diving excursion on April 4.
He was treated at the scene by diving instructors before being rushed to the Cockburn Town Medical Centre.
The victim was then transferred to a hospital in South Florida where he died on April 8.
The incident is currently under investigation.
POLICE ENTER THE WORLD OF SOCIAL MEDIA
RTCI Police has unveiled a new tool in the fight against crime.
Officers are turning to social media networks in a bid to catch criminals and engage with local residents.
The police have set up Facebook and Twitter accounts and have appointed a specialist social media officer, PC Kevin Clarke.
PC Clarke, who has just returned from an intensive training course and conference in Canada, said the initiative could save lives.
He explained: “This is a major step forward for the RTCI Police and one we are very excited about. The power of social media is immense, with millions using it every minute of the day.
“Facebook and Twitter not only helps us to communicate instantly with local residents, but it also assists in solving crimes and tracking down criminals.
“It can be used in so many ways and its value in police terms has been proven time and time again.
“Say for instance a young child goes missing. Within minutes we can issue a photograph via social media and instantly we have an army of people on the lookout for that child.
“Social media, coupled with the ongoing support of the Press and the co-operation of the general public, is a huge asset and it can ultimately save people’s lives.”
He added: “Law agencies all over the world are achieving successes with social media tools in areas and we are delighted to be at the forefront of this technology here in the Turks and Caicos Islands.”
Supporting the initiative is communications giant, LIME.
The company has donated two Galaxy tablet computers to the RTCI Police to enable officers to update information to social media sites from crime scenes and other locations.
LIME’s Delleriece Hall said: “Here at LIME we put the community first and we fully support this latest police initiative. Social media is hugely popular and certainly the way forward.
“We endorse anything that improves the quality and safety of people’s lives here in the TCI and we are delighted to assist by donating two tablet computers to the force.”
Meanwhile PC Clarke, who is responsible for implementing the force’s social marketing presence, today urged people to follow the RTCI Police online.
“It’s so easy”, he added. “Facebook users just need to like our page while Twitter users simple have to follow us.
“It’s a great service with traffic updates, crime prevention tips and all sorts of other useful information available.
“But it’s a two-way process and therefore we are absolutely dependent on comments, feedback, information and suggestions from the public.”
You can follow the RTCI Police at www.facebook.com/RTCIPF and on Twitter @royaltcipolice.
ENDS