A new report is claiming that Michelle Obama once dated Treasury Department Inspector General J. Russell George at Harvard Law School.  George is at the center of the IRS scandal regarding whether or not the agency targeted conservative groups to be audited.   Republicans are trying to link the scandal to President Obama, but we doubt that this is the angle they were seeking.

The revelation came during a long interview that George did with the National Journal shortly after the scandal was revealed.   George was one of the IRS leaders who testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday.   The testimony is seen by many experts as a Right Wing distraction, and not something that could derail the Obama presidency.

Mrs. Obama has not revealed much information about her dating life before she met Barack.   The two met at a Chicago law firm where they were both young associates.   Mrs. Obama, then Michelle Robinson, graduated from Harvard Law School with Mr. George in 1988.   George revealed that they were both active in the Black Law Students Association.

But Virginia Republican Rep Tom Davis is digging  into the relationship, stating that it was more than just a friendly acquaintance.

“I think he actually dated Michelle at one point,” Davis told National Journal.

When George was asked about whether or not the two dated, he says that this conclusion is “overstating it.”

“Michelle was a lovely person, and down to earth,” he said.

He said that students in the organization would “go out for pizza together.”   He also said “don’t get me into trouble” when asked about the relationship.

George was appointed by President George W. Bush as inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service.   He was then promoted by Bush to his current post.

Taxes are the biggest curse of nearly all celebrities in America.  You fall a little bit behind, and before you know it, you’re in a seriously bad situation.  Lauryn Hill just agreed to go to prison for her tax problems and now another diva is in trouble.

Mary J. Blige just go a tax lien from the IRS worth $3.4 million dollars.  She has made millions through the years and sold a lot of albums, but this might be the kind of mess that even she is unable to overcome.   It is reported that  Blige owes the IRS $574,904 from 2009, $2.2 million from 2010 and $647,604 from 2011.

In addition to her financial problems with the IRS, Blige also defaulted on her loan from Signature Bank.   She owes another $901,760 to the state of New Jersey and was also sued by Bank of America for not repaying a half-million dollar loan.

Blige may able to sell enough records and go on tour enough to deal with the debt, but when you have this much financial trouble, the courts get heavily involved.   We hope that she only has to deal with the civil courts, but criminal prosecution is not out of the realm of possibility.  It’s hard to go on tour while you’re in prison and leaving for that long can hurt your career.

Good luck to Mary J. Blige.

A Georgia girl is showing everyone around her that if you believe in yourself and work hard enough, then anything is possible.  Chelesa Fearce, a senior at Charles Drew High School, was homeless for most of her high school career.  She had to live in her  mother’s car at times, and is just now revealing this to the public.

“I just told myself to keep working, because the future will not be like this anymore,” Fearce said. “You’re worried about your home life and then worried at school. Worry about being a little hungry sometimes, go hungry sometimes. You just have to deal with is. You eat what you can, when you can.”

Chelsea was part of a family of five.  They would sometimes have a place to live, but this was not always the case.   Her mother did all she could to help the family, but it sometimes wasn’t enough.  She too often found herself a victim of the black joblessness crisis that is affecting millions of families nation-wide.

“Ended up back in another shelter because I got laid off from my job maybe about four or five times,” Fearce’s mother, Reenita Shephard said. “I just did what I had to do,” Fearce said.

Despite her obstacles, the little girl worked her behind off.  She  earned a 4.466 GPA and took college classes.  She did well enough to gain admission into Spelman on a full scholarship and will be going to college starting off as a junior.   She also pulled off an SAT score of 1900, making her a superstar at her high school.  Even beyond this, her sister is graduating as the salutatorian from George Washington Carver High School in Atlanta.

“I read to them a lot. Everything was a learning experience,”the girls’ mother said.

Chelsea has one lesson from this that she would like to share with those who are down and out.

“Don’t give up. Do what you have to do right now so that you can have the future that you want,” Fearce said.

Just when you thought you might be able to catch a ghost spooking your house while you’re away, you find that you’ve been spooked by another kind of evil spirit. A man in Australia was obsessed with finding ghosts in his house, so he did what he’d seen on movies:  He put a camera in the house to see what evidence he could find that ghosts were violating his home.

Instead, the man caught his teenage son violating his girlfriend, with the boy sleeping with her while he was gone.  Maybe he was so focused on the ghosts that his girlfriend found other ways to fill up her free time.

The man took off his ghost busters uniform and busted his girlfriend for sleeping with a minor.  The 28-year old woman was booked and pleaded guilty to five counts of inter-course with a minor.

Crown Prosecutor Jackie Hartnett said that the woman went into her stepson’s room to talk about driving lessons.   That’s when a bit of tickling led to some kissing and the rest was history.   That was the day before her boyfriend set up the camera to catch ghosts, catching his girlfriend with his son.   He allegedly forgot to turn the camera off; otherwise he might not have been able to catch the two in the act.

The man only saw the two kissing and cuddling, and the girlfriend said that it was nothing.  But the son broke down and confessed that the two had slept together three times.  That’s when the man called police and the woman confessed to what she did, while knowing he was just 16-years old.

Even more amazingly, the woman had gone with the boy to another part of the state where they continued the fling.   Defense attorney Steve Chopping said that the couple has broken up over the incident and that she feels terrible for what she did.  She also thought that 16 was the age of consent.

“She accepts this is not a relationship which can or will continue,” he told the court.

We’ve all known about Janet Jackson since she played Penny from the TV show, “Good Times.”  She was adorable back then and then turned into a teen beauty on “Different Strokes.”  No one knew at that time that Janet would go on to become one of the most popular and highest-grossing performers in the world, but that’s just what happened.  She also made a ton of money in the process.

Janet Jackson has joined the exclusive billionaires club thanks to her mega-successful albums, tours and acting roles, Variety reports.  She is now 47-years old with the looks of a 25-year old, newly married and still performing.

According to the publication, Jackson has raked in a total of $260 million in album sales thanks to her hit albums Control (1986), Janet (1993) and Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989), and another $81 million off music and publishing fees. Her sold-out world tours have earned her another $458 million, with an additional $81.5 million coming from tour sponsorships and licensing fees.

And let’s not forget that Jackson is an actress too — her roles in The Nutty Professor, The Klumps, Poetic Justice and For Colored Girls has banked her a whopping $304 million.

Though Jackson of course isn’t the only billionaire in her marriage — her husband, retail entrepreneur Wissam Al Mana (whom she married last year in a private ceremony), is a billionaire all on his own.

Jackson joins the exclusive list of celebrity billionaires which includes Madonna, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey.

Beautiful, Talented and Rich….what a combination!

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

Every day, I hear people complaining about black men.  Those who are upset are typically women talking about fatherless homes or “trifling” men who don’t seem to want to take responsibility.  I hear these discussions and I don’t entirely disagree, since there are quite a few men who have never learned the principles and responsibilities of manhood.  If a man had not stepped in to take over where my biological father wasn’t present, I would no be the man who is speaking with you today.

One theory that some have grabbed onto is the odd idea that black men don’t love their kids as much as other people do, which most of us know is absurd.  Rather than presuming that black men are sub-human, it makes sense to consider alternative explanations for this crisis.

When we see what’s happening with young men not taking responsibility for their children, we need to look 40 years back at the War on Drugs and the Vietnam War. A lot of would-be fathers were killed, incarcerated or hooked on drugs, leading their sons to grow up without male role models.  This doesn’t even include the loss of jobs in black communities, and the reduced investment in education.  Thus, you had a spike in single parent households with 1 – 2 generations of boys being raised without an in-house guide to manhood.  The fact is that men were being taken away from the black community and many of them lacked the resources to be able to take financial responsibility for a group of people (ie. their own families).

The result is that we now have millions of young black men who don’t know what manhood is all about. Forgive me for being politically incorrect, but a boy learns manhood from another man; he can rarely learn manhood from his mama.

If you are a single mother, make sure your child’s father has a chance to be directly involved in his life. If that’s not an option, then find someone who can interact with him on a regular basis. It’s hard for a woman to teach the subtleties of manhood just like I could never teach my daughters how to be women.

As a last resort, I have created a downloadable lecture series called “The 8 Principles of Black Male Empowerment,” which you can get at this link. I told them to keep the price super low to make it affordable. It includes the 8 things every man needs to know in order to avoid the traps that destroy millions of black men and keep them from reaching their potential…..at least these ideas saved my own life and I believe every black boy should know these principles like the back of his hand.

The point is that manhood is not something that comes to you naturally.  Manhood is a form of socialization that MUST-BE-TAUGHT.  If parents are not teaching their sons how to be men, then how in the h-ell are they ever going to learn?  If you don’t turn your son into a man, then he will always be your little boy.  This means that he will forever disappoint the women who are looking for him to be a husband or father.  Let’s break the cycle.

Dr. Boyce Watkins co-stars in the Janks Morton Film “Hoodwinked,” starring Dr. Steve Perry, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu and Dr. Ivory Toldson. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

A fan of vibrant and comfortable socks, Burress, 35, has spent the last two years designing a collection that reflects his taste in fashion and provides great-fitting socks to those who consider them hard to find.

“I’ve always been crazy about my socks, my socks have always been loud,” Palxico said at his launch event on Friday.

“It’s all about comfort and style, I want to wear a sock that’s comfortable for me because I have a size 12 shoe, I put on a lot of these socks on and the heel box doesn’t even go over my heel,” Plaxico admits.

As a result, Burress took it upon himself to craft a line that provides these necessities for men. I gotta admit I am a sucker for a man in a great suit with fabulous socks!!!

Check out the new line!

http://www.plaxicoburresscollection.com/index.html

The volatility in the relationship between Kordell and Porsha Stewart is starting to become the stuff of legend.  This week, it’s been reported that Porsha was put out into the street by her beloved husband.  TMZ is reporting that Kordell has made it plain for his wife, by putting her out and changing the locks, at least that’s what Porsha told them.

New divorce documents filed by Ms. Porsha state that her husband isn’t playing fair and is disrespecting their relationship with his behavior.  She had to have her attorney beg Kordell for a key to the house and Kordel hasn’t done it.

Porsha also says that during a mediation session, Kordell was not helpful at all and just wasted everyone’s time.   The Real Housewives of Atlanta star says that her husband should either let her back into the house or give her enough money so she can find a suitable place to live.  She is currently bunking it up with her mother.

It sounds like this divorce is going to just keep getting uglier.  The only ones who are going to win on this one are going to be  VH-1 and the divorce attorneys.

Prince was honored at this year’s Billboard Awards Ceremony as an icon and The Purple One did not disappoint. In Paisley Park fashion, Prince graced the stage donning a 1970s afro and bell bottoms. Always strapped with his guitar in hand, Prince showed cats, young and old, just how he became a living legend, doing songs like, “Let’s Go Crazy” and “FixYourLifeUp”.

The 54 year old star, was never one to put his business out in the street, unless it was about his music and that type of discreetness is what makes people keep knocking at his door, time after time to work with him. It is what keeps fans coming back for more, because instead of concentrating on who Prince is dating, fan are able to focus solely on his musical genius.

His list of hits and timeless masterpieces stem all the way back to the 1970s, with songs like “I Feel For You” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover”.  Prince’s timeless hit, “Purple Rain” still sends people into nostalgia.

Prince has managed to sustain himself in the industry by not only building a royal musical empire but by creating and launching the successful careers of others like, Sheila E, Vanity, Carmen Electra, and The Time. He was inducted into the Rock and Role Hall of Fame in 2004, the very first year that he was eligible. It takes many rockers a lifetime to be inducted.

Prince is a pioneer for artists worldwide. The singer, writer and producer stood up to those in the industry, who tried to back him into a corner, when others did not know how to, by changing his name to a symbol, in order to take control over his career. He taught others how to stand in the face of adversity and he is still the prototype for successful musicians everywhere. At 54, he does not look a day over 30 and leaves women in awe. More than the “it” factor, Prince just “is”.

Asa Lovechild is an accomplished actress and singer out of New York City and a supporter of  One Billion Rising

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Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks, of Chicago, made major moves during a time when most African-Americans were being harshly discriminated against. Brooks, a respected poet, was the first African-American woman to become a poetry consultant for the Library of Congress in the 1980s. Prior to making that major achievement, Brooks published a number of poetry books.

In 1945, she published a book titled “A Street in Bronzeville,” which brought her national acclaim. She was named one of the Ten Young Women of the Year in Mademoiselle magazine. In 1950, her second book, “Annie Allen,” was published and earned her the Pulitzer Prize. She was the first African-American poet to receive the coveted award. Brooks’ accolades didn’t stop there. In 1989, she received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts. And in 1994, she was named a Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the highest honor bestowed by the federal government for work in the humanities.

Brooks tried to encourage young students – particularly those who were African American – to write, to be passionate about their lives, to stay in school and to be proud of who they were and who they could become in all of her works. She was fortunate because her family encouraged her to read books and write prolifically. They took her to meet fellow Kansan Langston Hughes, who was one of the nation’s most important writers in the Harlem Renaissance, a movement that celebrated African-American life and culture. She would say, “I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker.” She began writing at age 11. By 13, her first poem, “Eventide,” was published in “American Childhood.”

She lived a long, prosperous life and died in Chicago at the age of 83 on December 3, 2000.