IN JAMAICA (POWERFUL STORY) : A stout-hearted 5-year-old.... No tears from Rusheka Goodhall despite losing a leg to rare cancer at 3 y-o. Please SHARE

BY JEDIAEL CARTER Sunday Observer staff reporter carterj@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, February 07, 2016 
You would think that having lost a leg to cancer when she was just three years old, Rusheka Goodhall would be disconsolate.
Quite the opposite.
She moves around the Jamaica Observer boardroom as most children would, and elicits laughter with her unsolicited interjections during a discussion at last week’s Observer Monday Exchange.
For instance, when her mother, Shecker Anderson, began explaining how Rusheka’s leg started swelling after she hit it while playing at home two years ago, the now five-year-old cancer survivor held both arms apart, obviously exaggerating the size of the swelling, and looked around the room of adults with a broad grin. “It started to swell, she started to walk with a limp, so I took her to the doctor the next day,” the mother explained. “When she went to the doctor, she did an X-ray and it showed a fracture and they put on a cast. When the cast came off, it was swollen and they ordered her to do an MRI. She did a biopsy, a lot of things,” Anderson said, then broke down in tears.
Rusheka, seeing her mother’s pain, leaned over and hugged her. A touching moment.
It was that blow to the leg that led to Rusheka being diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the muscle, in which a tumour attaches itself to the bone, either in the head, neck, urogenital track, arms, or legs.
The tests revealed that little Rusheka had stage 3 cancer, meaning it had spread to an organ.
“At the time when her cancer was discovered she also had some evidence that it had just spread to the abdomen,” Dr Michelle Reece Mills, paediatric oncologist at the University Hospital of the West Indies, told the Monday Exchange.
Five-year-old cancer survivor Rusheka Goodhall walks
about the Jamaica Observer boardroom last Monday.
The discussion was focused on cancer in children, given that Rusheka and other children across the island afflicted with the disease, as well as the Black River Hospital Paediatric Unit and the Jamaica Cancer Society will be the beneficiaries of this year’s Sigma Run.
Sagicor, organisers of the annual 5K scheduled for February 21 in Kingston, hope to raise $50 million to contribute to the three causes. The effort was praised by Dr Reece Mills and Jamaica Cancer Society Executive Director Yulit Gordon.
Dr Reece Mills was particularly thankful, having treated other children with cancer and witnessing first-hand the toll it takes on parents.
For instance, the doctor recalled how difficult it was for Rusheka’s mother when amputation was recommended to aggressively fight the cancer and limit its spread.
“One of the important things for some cancers is what we call local control, so in order to prevent the risk of it actually coming back, her local control was amputation. In some other instances you can do radiation to the area,” Dr Reece Mills explained. more

IN JAMAICA: Party operatives said to be behind plot to kill former Spanish Town mayor Dr Raymoth Notice....information emerged that elements from the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) were involved in the attempt.

BY SUNDAY OBSERVER INVESTIGATOR  Sunday, February 07, 2016 
The plot to kill former Mayor of Spanish Town Dr Raymoth Notice took on another dimension last night when information emerged that elements from the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) were involved in the attempt.
Notice was hospitalised last December after he was shot three times by three men at his home in Bog Walk, St Catherine, in a brazen, early morning attack. He has since been released from hospital.
Members of the police high command refused to comment on allegations that a member of the JLP was behind the attack, which has so far resulted in the arrest of two men, one of whom is known by Notice. Word reaching the Jamaica Observer is that the fingerprints of one of the accused men was matched by police to those found at Notice’s house.
However, one senior police source who asked that his name is not mentioned said that a probe was already underway into determining whether or not the JLP man was the brain behind the attack. 
“The matter is a delicate one and we don’t wish to speak about it at this time,” one senior police officer assigned to the St Catherine North Division told the Sunday Observer yesterday. “In any case, I don’t know who I am talking to, because anybody can call and say he is calling from the Observer,” the senior officer said.
Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment-Brown said she would not comment on whether or not a report had been sent to her about the suggestion that a senior JLP man had a hand in the attack.
Notice has also stated publicly that there was a plot to assassinate him, after he reported to the JLP that certain things were amiss within the party machinery in sections of St Catherine.
In a dramatic twist last night, it emerged also that a gun that was used in the attack on Notice has been traced to a well-known activist in the People’s National Party who is based in a rural Jamaica parish. The St Catherine police refused to confirm or deny the allegation.
01
Former Mayor of Spanish Town Dr Raymoth Notice
Notice, who at one time was assigned to the Department Correctional Services as a medical doctor, has served as councillor for the Bog Walk Division of the St Catherine Parish Council. He also ran, unsuccessfully, against retired Member of Parliament KD Knight in St Catherine North Central. Knight was replaced by present Cabinet minister Natalie Neita Headley.
The shooting incident involving the outspoken Notice shocked Jamaica and triggered an outpouring of sympathy from both the PNP and the JLP hierarchy, with the PNP urging the victim to tell all that he knew about the incident to the police. The suggestion was that something untoward had occurred and that Notice had knowledge of more things than met the eye at the time. more

DRAMA: Wife crashes her own funeral, horrifying her husband, who had paid to have her killed...."Surprise! I'm Still Alive!" (VIDEO)

Lifestyle

Wife crashes her own funeral, horrifying her husband, who had paid to have her killed

Washington Post Fri, Feb 5 12:31 AM PST 

BEYONCE - "Formation" ....Beyoncé Is Back And Unapologetically Black In New Music Video...."Formation" is basically #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackGirlMagic rolled into one powerful music video.


View image on Twitter
                                                                    Beyonce's daughter
 It's official: Beyoncé is back, she's "got hot sauce in her bag" and she's as unapologetically black as ever. 
Queen B surprised us all on Saturday by dropping "Formation," a new song and accompanying music video -- and, needless to say, both are incredible. 
Beyonce
The song, which runs nearly five minutes and was released the night before the singer's scheduled Super Bowl performance, is fierce, funky and freaking phenomenal. But what separates the video from most of her other mainstream work is its messages relating to race, identity and black culture. 

6:30 pm ET START FOR SUPER BOWL 50 on Sunday, Feb 7, 2016 : What time does Super Bowl 50 start tonight, what TV channel is it on and how can Carolina Panthers be stopped?


Super Bowl 50 will be hosted on February 7, 2016 at 3:25PM in the City of Santa Clara at the state-of-the-art Levi’s® Stadium, which is the greenest and most technologically advanced professional football stadium in the United States. 
Super Bowl 50Leading up to Super Bowl 50, there is a weeklong series of public events held throughout the region. including the NFL Experience and the Super Bowl City fan village, featuring activities for all ages that celebrate the game of football, as well as all that the San Francisco Bay Area has to offer from arts and culture to live entertainment, and food and drink.
The Super Bowl 50 Host Committee is focused on creating a Super Bowl that not only brings people together, but also gives back in a meaningful way and leaves a lasting impact in the Bay Area. The Host Committee seeks to make Super Bowl 50 the most giving ever, and is investing in Bay Area community initiatives and high-performing nonprofits through the 50 Fund, its signature philanthropic fund.

 

ST.MARY, JAMAICA (SAD NEWS) : 37 y-o mother, Charla Thompson-Young and children die from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning

BY RENAE DIXON Observer staff reporter dixonr@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, February 05, 2016    
RESIDENTS of Three Hills in St Mary were left in shock yesterday after a mother and her two children were found dead at their home in a suspected case of carbon monoxide poisoning.

A family photo of Charla Thompson-Young along with her
 husband and children.
The bodies of 37-year-old Charla Thompson-Young, her 12-year-old son Brandon Young and her daughter Leslie-Ann Young, age four, were found at approximately 6:00 am by one of their relatives.
Residents told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that the family had resorted to using a generator after the electricity tripped out for several hours.
Relatives and neighbours who gathered at the home — where a strong smell of the fumes was still present — rued not having found out earlier that something was wrong at the house. Young’s sister-in-law, Phoenia Young, was especially sad — having aborted a plan to get something done at the Thompson-Young’s house at about 11:00 pm on Wednesday night.
“I have to live with that,” she said yesterday, noting that she was concerned about Thompson-Young’s husband of 12 years who was working overseas. He was expected to return to the island last night.

The generator which was left on in the family's house.
She said Thompson-Young and her children returned to the island last month after spending their Christmas vacation overseas.
“She was very quiet. She nuh trouble nobody. She was a family person, genuine,” said Young of her sister-in-law.
She said the children were very loving. Brandon was in grade seven at the St Mary High School, while his sister attended a basic school in the community.
According to Young, it was not the first time Thompson-Young was using the generator, but that it was normally placed outside.
“Maybe it was too heavy so she couldn’t move it,” Young theorised.
Other people said the woman probably thought it was safe to keep it indoors as it was in an area far from their rooms.more

DAVID RODIGAN, British radio personality calls for Reggae Museum....The veteran broadcaster was speaking at Reggae Wednesday, the first mass event for Reggae Month held at Mandela Park in Half-Way-Tree.

BY RICHArD JOHNSON Observer senior writer johnsonr@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, February 05, 2016  
YET another call has come for a museum dedicated to reggae music in Jamaica.
This time it is from British radio personality David Rodigan. He is calling on those in authority to create a permanent space for Jamaican pop music.
A section of the audience at Reggae Wednesday in
Mandela Park, Half-Way Tree.
“There is a need for a reggae museum to be here in Jamaica to reflect the history of this music that you have created and is revered all over the world. The powers that be need to act sooner rather than later, in a bid to protect the music for future generations,” said Rodigan. “You have the instruments of people like Lloyd Parkes and the work of other artistes and players of instruments which must be protected and preserved. Jamaicans are unaware of how popular reggae music is all over the world. I have played across the globe, from Tokyo to California, thanks to reggae,” said Rodigan
The veteran broadcaster was speaking at Reggae Wednesday, the first mass event for Reggae Month. It was held at Mandela Park in Half-Way-Tree Wednesday evening. Rodigan, along with other disc jockeys from the BBC 1 Xtra radio station, Toddla T and Seani B, are in Jamaica to gather material for broadcast on their shows in the UK. They were special guests at the event where they presented a one-hour set of vintage reggae.
Last year, brothers Ian and Roger Lewis, members of the Inner Circle band, made a similar call for a reggae museum.
They suggested that the facility should include a hall of fame and be sited in the tourist belt to tap into that lucrative market.
                                              David Rodigan
“It would have to be somewhere scenic like Ocho Rios (in St Ann). It could be a place where people learn about the history of the music... learn ‘bout wicked singers, like Brent Dowe from The Melodians who was a innovator,” Ian Lewis told the
Jamaica Observer.
The organisers of the four-year-old International Reggae Poster Competition also see the need for a museum in Kingston and hold that, as well as ongoing support for the Alpha Boy’s School, as their vision.
Rodigan also expressed concern at the lack of support for a show like Reggae Wednesday.
“What is happening? What are we not doing?” he asked in an interview with Splash.
“This is Kingston, Jamaica. We are in Half-Way Tree and it’s a show for Reggae Month with the likes of major acts Leroy Sibbles, Daddy U-Roy, Big Youth and Half Pint. You look out there and there is barely 1,000 people in the house... Furthermore, it is free. What is happening?” 

BYE, FLAT BRIDGE On MONDAY : JAMAICANS now have a “real” alternative to the Bog Walk Gorge and the feared and ill-fated Flat Bridge which spans the Rio Cobre.

 Friday, February 05, 2016 
JAMAICANS now have a “real” alternative to the Bog Walk Gorge and the feared and ill-fated Flat Bridge which spans the Rio Cobre.
Come Monday, motorists will be able to bypass the gorge when the Angels to Linstead leg of the north-south link of Highway 2000 is opened to the public.
Yesterday Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller helped to cut the ribbon at the Angels Toll Plaza to officially open the link.
Motorists will be able to use the new section of the highway for a month without having to pay a toll. Simpson Miller, in an address at the opening, said the construction of the highway was an indication of Government’s commitment to modernise Jamaica.
She said the entire north-south highway project, built by China Harbour Engineering Company, will “trigger massive investments” in housing and business along the route.
Omar Davies, the minister of transport, works and housing, said the new leg of the highway will have an immediate impact on the travelling public. “Not only will it radically reduce the travel time between Angels and Moneague [in St Ann], but it will make obsolete the challenges which have come to typify travel through the Bog Walk Gorge,” Davies said.
“Never again will flooding of the Bog Walk Gorge be the cause of delays and danger for the travelling public,” the minister added, in reference to lives lost and motorists trapped in the gorge during flooding.
Davies said that travel time between Caymanas, off the Mandela Highway in St Catherine, and Mammee Bay, in Ocho Rios, St Ann, will be 45 minutes or less when the other stretches of the North-South Highway are formally opened in a few weeks.
Mike Henry, the Opposition spokesman on transport, lauded the opening of the new highway leg, and again promised that trains will run again in Jamaica if his Jamaica Labour Party forms the next Government.
— Paul Henry

LAPD SOLVED MURDERS of TUPAC & BIGGY On $1 Million Contract: Documentary Claims Sean "Diddy" Combs Was Behind Tupac's Murder.... A former LAPD investigator alleges that Suge Knight then retaliated by having Biggie Smalls killed. (VIDEO)

 02/03/2016 01:30 pm ET
The Los Angeles Police Department has solved the murders of rappers Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace and Tupac Shakur, according to a documentary featuring retired LAPD detective Greg Kading, who once led a special task force that investigated those two-decade-old shootings.
ANDREW SAVULICH/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE VIA GETTY IMAGES
This is not the first time the finger has been pointed at Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Based on his three years working the cases, Kading claims that Sean "Diddy" Combs hired Crips gang member Duane Keith "Keffe D" Davis to kill Shakur and his manager, Marion Hugh "Suge" Knight, for $1 million. He alleges that on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Keffe D's nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, pulled the trigger. Only Shakur was killed.
Kading alleges that in retaliation, Knight hired Blood gang member Wardell "Poochie" Fouse to kill Biggie Smalls for $13,000. Biggie Smalls was shot to death on March 9, 1997, just six months after Shakur died.
Over the course of investigating, Kading says that he essentially trapped Keffe D into a situation where he had to give a verifiable confession about the events that led to Shakur's murder or else face severe charges for another crime.
"If his intention was to just get away with it, so to speak," Kading told HuffPost, "it would have been very easy for him to not include all the details that he did."
These extra details, according to the documentary, include the allegation that Combs hired Keffe D for the crime.
The documentary, titled "Murder Rap," originally premiered in 2015. Based on Kading's 2011 book of the same name, it's available on iTunes now and will debut on Netflix in the spring.
The LAPD assigned Kading to reinvestigate the rappers' murders in 2006, soon after Biggie Smalls' mother, Voletta Wallace, sued the department in federal court. Wallace's wrongful death lawsuit centered on a popular conspiracy theory that the police covered up an officer's involvement in her son's murder. The civil suitestimated losses at $500 million based on Biggie Smalls' earning potential. It was Kading's task to disprove the theory posited in the suit, along with many others swirling around. more

JAMAICANS to vote on February 25, 2016. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller made the announcement....#JaVotes2016:

Sunday, January 31, 2016 | 10:21 PM  
ST ANDREW, Jamaica — Jamaicans will go to the polls on February 25, 2016.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller made the announcement a short while ago at a People’s National Party (PNP) mass rally in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew.
Nomination day is set for Tuesday, February 9.
This will be the country’s 17th general election since Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944 and the PNP leader’s second time making the announcement. Seeking her own mandate, Simpson Miller in 2007 sent Jamaicans to the polls on August 27. The PNP went on to lose to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) having secured 27 of the 60 seats in Parliament.
Four years on, Simpson Miller is seeking to make this election the PNP’s 10th win.
The JLP has won elections seven times....DEVELOPING.

CLINTON FEELS THE BERN:CLOSING ARGUMENTS: Riled Up By Economic Indignation!… Channels Sanders' Outraged Rhetoric… Fineman: Defender Of Realism... Soros Pours In $8 Million... HUFFPOLLSTER: Neck-And-Neck... The Final Pitch... Democrats Dual on Final Day Before Caucuses In final Iowa blitz, an outraged Hillary Clinton is channeling rival Bernie Sanders' economic anger.

BY LISA LERER and KEN THOMAS, Associated Press
AMES, Iowa (AP) — Seeking victory in Iowa, Hillary Clinton has begun channeling the economic indignation of her rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose unapologetically liberal campaign has tightened the race ahead of Monday's caucuses and given him a lead in the New Hampshire contest that follows.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016.
Hillary Clinton on the campaign
Making her closing argument to Iowa caucus-goers, Clinton now cloaks her detailed policy plans in Sanders' outraged rhetoric. Pharmaceutical pricing "burns" her up. Companies that take advantage of the tax loopholes get her "pretty riled up." And she promises to "rail away" at any industry that flouts the law.
"I'm going after all of them" she declared in Davenport, her tone escalating to a shout. "When I talk about going after those companies, those businesses, those special interests, I have a much broader target list than my opponents." The former secretary of state's fiery new tone underscores a strategic decision to co-opt some of the political style from the insurgent candidate who has galvanized the Democratic party and put her long-held lead in jeopardy. It comes as a new poll released Saturday night by the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg News showed the two candidates locked in a neck-and-neck race.
Though Clinton remains likely to win the nomination, a loss in Iowa would complicate her path and heighten Democratic concerns about her campaign. Already some Democrats have voiced concerns about her message and campaign management, worries that will only grow if she faces dual losses in the first two primary states.
While Clinton's effort is aimed at winning the primary, her strategists are also trying to figure out how to tap into the deep vein of national frustration that's driving Republican Donald Trump's rise in Republican primary polls. Should she capture the Democratic nomination, Clinton will need to find a way to mobilize Sanders supporters to fuel a White House victory.
Sanders casts the contest as a clash between establishment politics and his promise to bring forth political revolution, asking Iowa voters to send a message to the rest of the nation. He will need a large turnout among college students, independents and first-time caucus-goers to upset Clinton. more

ST.ANN, JAMAICA (TRAGIC) : Hundreds mourn St Ann couple who died days apart after 41 years of marriage.... Just as they were inseperable in life Bishop Lawford Bolt and his wife Phyllis were equally inseparable in death

By Renae Dixon Observer staff reporter dixonr@jamaicaobserver.com  Monday, February 01, 2016 
01
Mourners observe the bodies
Just as they were inseperable in life Bishop Lawford Bolt and his wife Phyllis were equally inseparable in death as the matching coffins bearing their bodies were a testament of two people who did almost everything together.
The massive crowd started descending on the small rural community of Lime Tree Garden in St Ann from as early as 6:00 am two Saturdays ago to bid farewell to the couple who had been married for 41 years.
Hundreds turned out to bid farewell at the Thanksgiving
Service for Bishop Lawford Bolt and wife Phyllis Bolt who
 died days apart after 41 years of marriage. The service was
 held at their hometown in Lime Tree Garden, St Ann.
The huge tent pitched on the grounds of Lime Tree Garden Primary School to accommodate the crowd was bursting at the seams as hundreds from across Jamaica and overseas file inside to pay their last respects to a loving couple who had positively impacted the lives of many.
Mrs Bolt died tragically on Sunday, December 13 while on her way from visiting her husband who had been admitted to the hospital for an ailment. The car being driven by the 62-year old teacher was hit by another vehicle whose driver allegedly fell asleep at the wheel along the Llandovery main road in the parish. Her daughter and another resident who were travelling in the car were injured. The family held off telling the husband about her death for as long as they could, however, when he did not see his wife who routinely visited him in hospital he knew something was terribly wrong. A little over a week later the heartbroken widower who was refusing to continue to live without his wife passed away peacefully on December 24.

General Overseer of the Triumphant Church of God Bishop Eric McLeod said the 67-year-old Bolt was not enthused about going home after he was eventually informed of the tragic passing of his wife.
Church Full Up
“He said my life is gone; whom should I go home to,” said Bishop McLeod as he recalled his final conversation with Bolt. “He loved his wife.”
Mrs Bolt was remembered as a woman who loved her husband dearly and would do nothing to displease him. The couple grew up together in the Lime Tree Garden community, got baptised at the same time and have been inseparable since marriage.
In fact the two were described as “a couple second to none”, and one who influenced the lives of not only family and friends but whomever they came in contact with. more