Jaguar unveiled its Jaguar C-X17 sports crossover concept, the latest aim to innovate the brand, during a press conference at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in Germany.

Drawing comparisons to the Jaguar Range Rover family, the C-X17, Jaguar’s first ever five-door-crossover, uniquely combines an exciting sports car heritage with flexibility, usability, and space,” said a Jaguar spokesmen during the press conference.

The car will be built upon an all-new advanced aluminum unibody architecture, initiating the basis on which future Jaguar vehicles will be built. This will enable flexible high-volume production, the first product will be a mid-size premium sedan on sale in 2015.

As a sports crossover, the car’s exterior Cesium Blue paint finish lends the car a darker, sportier look without compromising luxury building upon Jaguar’s promise to reinvent itself as a sharper and edgier brand. The interior contains Jaguar’s new Panoramic sculpted roof, will seat four passengers in individual bucket seats and a rotary dial gearshift allows drivers to toggle between driving modes such as Road, Sport or All-Road. An Interactive Surface Console will run the length of the car’s center tunnel, which will contain multi-passenger interactivity via a in-car secure Wi-fi. The 12-speaker Meridian™ speaker systen allows for a multi-sensory infotainment experience.

“This new philosophy will bring technology from our luxury products into an accessible price segment, and when combined with our new ultra-efficient engines, we will set a global standard,” says Adrian Hallmark, Global brand director of Jaguar.

The car will be powered by a range of engines with differing capacities and power outputs, including new high-output and efficient 4-cylinder gas and diesel engines enabling top speeds of over 186mph, to be built at Jaguar Land Rover’s new engine manufacturing facility in the UK.

Although an official production date is not available, Jaguar is eyeing a 2015 roll-out.

So the folks that run the Springsboro school board meetings in Ohio have apparently lost their minds. In the past few months, their meetings have covered controversial issues including creationism, race in America and separation of church and state. Last Thursday, they invited conservative historian Larry Schweikart to speak and he said, “As a conservative, I reject teaching the concepts of race, class and gender. I just don’t buy it.” I’m sorry, what?!

First of all, the title ‘conservative historian’ should never exist. Personally, I believe historians need to be as objective as possible to give an accurate portrayal of history. Of course everyone has their own personal leanings, but to outright state that you’re going to give a skewed perception of history means that you shouldn’t even be given that title.

Secondly, my brain cannot even wrap itself around the concept that someone can choose whether or not they want to teach concepts of race, class and gender. They are very real and tangible aspects of society. How in the world can you purport to teach history and just skip over those parts? So did slavery just not happen? Are poor people simply a figment of the imagination? Did women never fight for their rights? How in the hell do you explain the Civil War which was nothing but an entanglement of racial and class issues? WHERE DO THESE PEOPLE COME FROM?!

Of course, after that statement, school board president Kelly Kohls stopped the Q&A and tried to move on. I don’t know why she bothered. Clearly she doesn’t have that much problem with ignorance and bigotry since there’s been a rich history of both in these meetings recently. Did I mention she’s the president of the Warren County Tea Party? Yeah.

My question is to the people who have children within the Springboro school district–are you guys cool with this? Like, are you in the least bit worried about your child having a ridiculously incomplete view of history, or nah? I mean, they tried to have summer classes on the Constitution taught by religious groups…seriously.

Somebody please save those children.

A clip of Jesse L. Martin as Marvin Gaye in Sexual Healing, the tentative title for a biopic about the legendary crooner, has surfaced.

The film focuses on Gaye’s life, music, decline into substance use, record label struggles, and death in the eighties. In the clip, we get a bit of S. Epatha Merkerson as Alberta Gaye, Brendan Gleeson as Freddy Couseart, Clarke Peters as Harvey Fuqua, Dwight Henry as Marvin Gaye Sr., Elarica Gallacher as Janis Gaye, Rowena King as Marilyn, and Vicky Krieps as Eugenie Vis.

A release date has not been announced for the film. Financing issues, as well as litigation from the Gaye family, reportedly suspended production.

Lenny Kravitz, who was originally supposed to play Gaye, reportedly dropped out of the production when his childhood friend Marvin Gaye III said the production was “shameful.”

“[They’re] trying to do a film about the low period in his life,” Marvin Gaye III told TMZ.

Recently the Gaye family has been in court over Robin Thicke’s hit “Blurred Lines,” which they say copies Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.”

Courtesy of Hello Beautiful

We can’t believe it’s been two decades since we first met and fell in love with Khadijah, Synclaire, Regine, Max, Overton, and Kyle — better known as the cast of the hit ’90s show “Living Single”! This year marks the 20th anniversary of the beloved sitcom and the show’s biggest success, Queen Latifah revealed to Essence that a reunion show with her old cast members may be in the works!

Keep reading …

Courtesy of The Root

I had just gotten in from cheerleading practice when I got the call. On the other end, a chipper girl I’d met for the first time the night before gave me the good news: The sisters of Delta Gamma wanted me to be one of them. I’d made it past the first round and had been all but guaranteed a bid for membership.

Exhausted from rah-rahing, I croaked my gratitude before offering my regrets. I’d gone to the “rush event” at Columbia University as a favor to an upperclassman, another Black girl, on the cheerleading squad. The young women I chatted with over cheese and crackers had been sweet and sincere, but I’d had my heart set on another Delta — Delta Sigma Theta — before I ever stepped foot on campus. So I said a polite “Thanks, but no thanks” and pulled out my dog-eared copy of In Search of Sisterhood.

Keep reading …

[Image: Shutterstock]

Courtesy of EURWeb

Idris Elba will be featured on the October 2013 issue of GQ magazine.

His cover story will include instructions on how a man should wear a three piece suit or look. But trust us, it gets real, real deep when Elba discusses his former marriage and the drama of dealing with a woman who lied to him about a son who wasn’t really his.

Keep reading …

Courtesy of The Associated Press

A shooting that injured a 3-year-old boy and 12 others in Chicago occurred just outside a section of the city that police have flooded with officers, reigniting outrage over the toll of the community’s gun violence and the inability of stepped-up police action to stop it.

Residents had gathered in a neighborhood park Thursday to watch a late-night basketball game when assailants armed with an assault rifle indiscriminately sprayed the crowd with bullets.

On Friday, residents decried the perpetrators’ disregard for those caught in the crossfire, the invasion of drugs into their communities and a lack of local leaders to stand up for them. A prominent rap artist, meanwhile, said more must be done to understand the city’s youth, and a frustrated police chief again called for tougher gun laws.

“We can do a lot of really good policing. … We can reduce crime, like we’re doing, but we’re not going to have success occur as long as these guns keep flowing into our community,” police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said during a news conference.

“Illegal guns, illegal guns, illegal guns drive violence,” he said as he called on lawmakers to toughen the nation’s gun laws.

Continue here…

NEW YORK CITY — Celebrities attend Romeo and Juliet Broadway opening night after party at The Edison Ballroom on Thursday (Sept. 19). Check out the arrivals after the jump!

CONDOLA RASHAD & ORLANDO BLOOM

Photos courtesy of Getty Images

Related: All Eyes On: Condola Rashad

PHYLICIA RASHAD & CONDOLA RASHAD

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS

DEBORAH COX

AHMAD RASHAD

KIMBERLY & TYSON CHANDLER

DULÉ HILL

DEBORAH ROBERTS & AL ROKER

CAROLYN MICHELLE SMITH

LUPITA NYONG’O

ROSLYN RUFF

DANIELLE BROOKS

UZO ADUBA

Courtesy of Reuters

Militant gunmen stormed a shopping mall in Nairobi on Saturday killing at least 25 people, including children, and sending scores fleeing in panic from shops and restaurants onto the streets, according to witnesses and the Red Cross.

Shooting continued hours after the initial assault as troops surrounded the Westgate mall and police and soldiers combed the building, hunting down the attackers shop by shop. A police officer inside the building said the gunmen were barricaded inside the Nakumatt supermarket, one of Kenya’s biggest chains.

“We got three bodies from this shop,” he said, standing a dozen meters from the supermarket entrance and pointing to a children’s shoe shop where blood lay in pools.

He turned to a nearby hamburger bar where piped music still played and food lay abandoned in a similar bloody scene. “And a couple of bodies here.”

The Westgate mall attack was the single biggest since al Qaeda’s east Africa cell bombed the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, in 1998 killing more than two hundred people. In 2002, the same militant cell attacked an Israeli-owned hotel and tried to shoot down an Israeli jet in a coordinated attack.

Tiles were smeared with blood, bullet casings were strewn on the floor and shop windows were shattered. A policeman dragged the corpse of a young girl across the floor and lay her on a stretcher. Two plainclothes policemen lay on the floor with guns trained on the Nakumatt supermarket entrance.

Continue here…

Forget a doctor’s note, President Obama is scribbling signatures to get kids out of school.

On Thursday, five-year-old Alanah Poullard lived out every kid’s dream to skip class and chop it up with the POTUS at the White House. The adorable kindergartner was in attendance at an event for wounded service members with her father. To prove she wasn’t playing hooky to avoid a rudimentary math lesson, the young girl asked Obama for a note to show her teacher.

White House photographer Pete Souza tweeted the image, with the caption: “Pres Obama writes school excuse note for Alanah Poullard, 5, daughter of wounded warrior in East Room today.”

Talk about an item for Show & Tell.

Courtesy of The Grio

Olivia Pope always wins big, but Scandal star Kerry Washington could outdo her alter ego at the Emmy Awards this weekend with a feat that upstages most pseudo-political crises.

On Sunday, the 36-year-old star stands to make history as the first African-American actress ever to receive an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in the popular ABC show.

She is the first black actress since Cicely Tyson in 1995 to earn a nomination.

According to experts, Washington is a frontrunner for the award along with Homeland star Claire Danes, and a strong candidate based on both the gravity and significance of her work.

And she did it all without the help of her gladiators.

“For Kerry, it’s time,” Cori Murray, Entertainment Director for Essence tells theGrio. “It’s a very natural evolution in her career. What I love about it, there’s that fever in the audience over Scandal. Not just black audiences, but all audiences, white people, Latinos. Everybody is really in love with the show.”

Along with Washington’s talent, Murray believes her off-camera work over the past year has been compelling and adds to awards momentum.

Coupled with social relevance, she sees the actress as having an almost clear shot for the prize, and a chance to make history for black stars.

Continue here…

Think Like A Man stars Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy and Regina Hall are on double duty as far as romantic comedies with the upcoming film About Last Night, also featuring Joy Bryant. The remake takes from the 1986 original starring Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, James Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins.

The original synopsis states:

“Danny and Bernie are two single men living their lives on the wild side. But when Danny meets Debbie at a bar and the two start a relationship with a one night stand, Danny’s life takes a different turn. How does this passionate night become a full affair and what effect will this relationship have on both people and their friendship with their best mates?”

About Last Night hits theaters Feb. 14, 2014. Check out the official trailer below!

Last week I read the most ridiculously sad, confusing, and alarming story I’ve read in years. A young man murdered an older man over a comment he left on a picture of the younger guy’s girlfriend. Twenty-year-old Antwion Courtez Martin went to the apartment of 48-year-old Edmond James Tyree and shot him to death after reading a comment, “Damm” [sic], Tyree left on a picture of Martin’s girlfriend, 21-year-old Sharda Perkins.

Yes, that’s how real the internet has become in 2013.

Although we will never know what Tyree really meant by his comment, or if he had any type of relationship with Perkins, but Martin definitely exhibited the same corny characteristics many men and women are guilty of when it comes to cheating: Focusing their rage on the other person.

One person posts a racier-than-usual photo on Facebook, and their partner gets mad at the people who comment, instead of their significant other who posted it. One person flirts with strangers at the club, and their partner tries to step to the stranger, instead of checking their significant other for acting out -of-pocket. One person cheats with a complete stranger, and their partner decides to attack the stranger while barely addressing their significant other. This behavior is the height of stupidity.

[Photo Credit: Facebook]

If you catch your partner cheating and/or disrespecting you with another person, it’s pointless to get mad at the other person, unless it’s a friend or family member. If that person is a complete stranger, please understand that they owe you nothing.

Their actions may be frowsy as hell, but they never made a pact to honor and uplift you, like when you enter into a monogamous relationship. In fact, if that person wants to take a run at your man/woman, the only thing that should be stopping them is your man/woman.

Why the hell would you flex your muscles to protect someone who actually wants to disrespect you and your union?

It’s your place to step to a stranger when your significant other has made it clear that they aren’t interested, yet the other person persists in bothering them. But if you think accosting the person your partner is cheating with makes you tough or honorable, you are completely wrong.

Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs daily on his site ThisIsYourConscience.com, he’s an author of the book “You’re Not A Victim, You’re A Volunteer” and a weekly contributor for UPTOWN Magazine. He can be reached via Twitter @lincolnablades and on Facebook at This Is Your Conscience.

“Kim Kardashian parties with Oprah” is a headline I never imagined I’d write, but a photo can’t tell a lie.

While her sisters, Kourtney Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian-Odom, were enjoying the vibes at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas, Kim was partying with entertainment titans Oprah Winfrey, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jimmy Iovine, and her boyfriend Kanye West at a star-studded birthday bash for Iovine’s girlfriend, 34-year-old model Liberty Ross.

Kim, who has traded in her luscious brunette locks for blonde tresses, wrote the caption, “Oh no big deal,” for the photo that was posted to Instagram.

However, this isn’t the first time Kim K has sat down with the media queen.  Oprah interviewed the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan last year on “Oprah’s Next Chapter.”

[Image: Instagram]

Photography Hannan Saleh//Written by Anthonia Akitunde

Hannan Saleh’s home practically ripples with frenetic, artistic energy. It may have something to do with all the artists under one roof — Saleh is a photographer whose work has appeared in a number of print and online fashion magazines; her husband, scenic artist Calvin Batts.

But something tells us it has a little more to do with the three other residents in their Philadelphia home: their sons, Tesfay (11), Ayo (7), and Idris (5) Saleh-Batts.

“It’s a little tough” being the only woman in the house, Saleh says with a laugh. “There’s a lot of whining happening. But for the most part, they love and care about each other. Tesfay likes to be the good kid at school, but at home he’s very competitive with his brothers. Ayo’s like Mr. Congeniality. He’s just the cutie pie that everybody knows at school. Idris is a little bit more of an introvert, and he’s the one who likes to dance all the time. He wants to be a pop singer!”

Idris isn’t the only one in the family with big plans. Saleh, who may be best known for her fashion spreads and street style shots in Essence and Essence.com, is starting to consider where she wants to take her career to next. The family plans on moving to New York City in the coming months as there isn’t much work for Saleh and her husband in Philly; the couple both take turns traveling to New York for assignments — Fashion Week for her, building movie sets for him.

“I’m working on redoing my book, my website, and redefining my vision,” Saleh says animatedly. “I want to see my work not just in black magazines, [but] all across the board. I want to see my work alongside a lot of other working professionals, not just women of color. I would love to work for W [Magazine] or something like that. I just want to be one of the top fashion photographers, along with all [the other] high rollers.”

Read more at mater mea …

A 10-year-old Northern California girl and her family mistook her gunshot wound for the start of her first menstrual period.

Last Thursday, the sleeping girl was shot in the buttocks during a drive by shooting. She awoke in pain with blood in her underwear and assumed that it was her period. Her parents called the family doctor at 2 a.m. and were told that the bleeding seemed consistent with menstruation.

However, when the girl awoke the next morning she was still in pain and her parents searched her bed and found bullet holes. A thorough inspection of her body then revealed the entry wound, which prompted them to immediately dial 911.

Investigators later spoke with doctors who say that the entry wound was “rather small” and could have easily been overlooked if there was reason to believe that she may be starting her period.

No motive has been determined for the shooting and investigators say the family may have been accidentally targeted.

Whilst Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel was boasting of the $17 million for school construction projects, Alderman Nicholas Sposato was collecting toilet paper for schools in his ward.

They couldn’t spare a couple hundred of that 17 mil to allow these poor kids to wipe themselves?!

According to ABC Chicago 7 Local:

“Schools’ budgets were cut drastically and I wanted to help out. So instead of school supplies, we figured toilet paper,” Sposato said.

Sposato said about $3 million was cut from elementary schools and a high school in his ward.

Well, it’s certainly a creative idea. If given the choice between a free notebook and access to toilet paper while in class, I’m certainly picking the latter. Sposato now has about a year’s worth of generic and name brand toilet paper in his office. I’m sure Charmin will be a welcome change from the flimsy, rough paper they normally have in schools, so this is kind of an epic win in an extremely sad way.

To thank the community for their efforts, Sposato’s office hosted a BBQ. No word on whether or not they had to dip into the TP stash for the event.

Chicago–please prioritize. Make sure students have their bathroom needs met before building any more schools.

A Hartford, Conn. school is reviewing complaints over a field trip in which students were terrorized during a slavery re-enactment.

James and Sandra Baker, filed a human rights complaint in March against the Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy after their daughter told them about her experience, reports Hartford’s WFSB.

According to the Baker family, parents were not informed that a slavery re-enactment exercise would be conducted. The field trip, which took place over four days last fall, was part of a field trip to Nature’s Classroom in Charlton, Mass.

The “exercise” aimed to assist the students in having a greater appreciation for slavery by having them act like escaped slaves.

Sandra Baker said her daughter and fellow students were terrorized during the field trip, which included students being chased through the woods by “white masters” played by white instructors, picking cotton, and being cramped in a dark room to demonstrate the Middle Passage.

Some of the language used on students during an exercise included, “Dumb dark-skinned negro person how dare you look at me,” Baker testified.

John Santos, the executive director of Nature’s Classroom, told The Huffington Post that, while he regrets that the Baker’s child had such a negative experience, “we are not in the business of creating harm, physically, or emotionally but the legitimacy of the activity needs to be judged by individual participants at all grade levels.”

The slavery re-enactment is an “activity that has validity, it’s an historical event, it’s a simulation,” Santos said Thursday.

Other school districts have brought similar concerns about the Nature’s Classroom exercise to their school heads. Those schools have removed the program from their curriculum.

[Image: Shutterstock]

Everyone has a family member or knows someone who knows someone who can use support to lose weight, for more than just appearance reasons, but because their health is at stake.

The Campaign to End Obesity is a great place to start. The organization lists statistical data, research studies, campaign events, and all things related to the fight of childhood obesity. A big focus of its effort to handle childhood obesity is to advertise in schools. Michelle Obama and Beyoncé started this idea with the “Let’s Move” campaign back in 2011, but since then, more focus has been on schools.

Eric Cohen of the ‘nPLAY Foundation expressed in an article that schools shouldn’t advertise just any food brand, especially ones that fall outside USDA nutrition guidelines. He thinks schools should focus on healthy food brands, active lifestyle brands, and positive image branding for kids. Cohen maintains that if the right messages are presented to children during the eight-hour school day, like healthy foods and active lifestyles instead of junk foods, then their lifestyles and health will improve.

And I couldn’t agree with him more.

[Image: Shutterstock]

By Derryck “Nes” Johnson

When you have two highly competitive individuals in one room, on one field or one court…the level of intensity and the thirst for winning at any cost usually comes into play rather quickly!  What happens when 2-time NY Giants Superbowl champ Aaron Ross test his skills against 4-time Olympic Gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross?  You have a super power Black couple as teammates in business and life as each other’s support system ready to take on the world.  I recently had the great opportunity to chat with Aaron & Sanya about their reality show on the WEtv  network titled “Sanya’s Glam & Gold” and how they both use their natural competitive and athletic instincts to survive in the business world and life in general as husband and wife.

How did you two both originally meet?

Aaron: Ladies go first, so I’ll let Sanya tell you (laughs).

Sanya: Well, we met on campus at the University of Texas and we were both freshman.  He stepped into the cafeteria and I was like “dang! Alright, he’s fine” (laughs).  We introduced ourselves, started talking then began dating shortly after that.

Both of you achieved and accomplished many feats throughout your amazing college and respective professional careers.  Who do you feel is more competitive?

Aaron: I think I am.

Sanya: No, I think I am (laughs).  I think I’m more competitive with everything.  I think Aaron can turn his off and on, but I think I’m more competitive.

Aaron: Nah…I beg to differ.  I think I’m a quiet competitor, while Sanya’s more of a vocal competitor.

Sanya: So I win! (Both laughs).

Aaron: I think we compete in just about everything, since both of us are very competitive.  We have no choice but to be that way, especially being professional athletes.  We have a lot of fun competing with one another.

When you look at all the other “reality” shows, what do you feel makes your show different?

Sanya: What I feel makes our show different is my family being Jamaican.  Being born & raised in Jamaica gives the viewers a little taste of our Jamaican attitudes, the accent and what it’s like being raised a Jamaican.  Hopefully, you’ll get to see more of that in season 2.  I also think we try to have a positive outlook on life, what I think Aaron and I do anyway but it’s a real positive show.  You get to see young black love and our hard work and dedication applied in everything we do.  Aaron and I are both go getters, so hopefully the show is a form of inspiration as well.  Of course, you have your situations and drama too.  The transition of exposing our personal lives to the public wasn’t as difficult as we thought it might’ve been.  We had a really great crew and they really made us feel comfortable to be ourselves, so it wasn’t that hard.  We’ve gotten a really great response, so hopefully we can get season 2 started and work on some more episodes.

Did your athletic approach help to better prepare you both in running a business and brand being a young black power couple in the public eye?

Aaron: Being an athlete, you can relate to dealing with life’s obstacles daily.  The mindset we both possess gives you that extra edge and advantage.

Sanya: I agree with Aaron.  As a professional athlete, you learn to set goals and execute on them.  It’s definitely prepared us both for the business world.  I think the window is so small so you have to plan and take full advantage of building your brand early.  I think Aaron and I work very hard to keep our footing in solid so we can maintain our lifestyle and create opportunities for our children to have better.  This stems from what we accomplished in sports over to the business world as well.

Aaron: You see why I have this woman on my team! (Laughs).

What advice do you have for other couples in regards to keeping the relationship strong?

Aaron: I think we don’t compete in everything.  More than ever, I strongly believe we support one another.

Sanya: Absolutely! In order to be successful, you have to support your spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend and allow them to grow.  I think relationships suffer and sometimes don’t work out because they’re competing on who’s more famous, who makes more money and these examples can bring real negative energy to a relationship.  So I feel when I allow Ross to be the best football player he can, entrepreneur, husband and vise versa where fine.  It’s about supporting each other in your endeavors.  The hardest thing is that our jobs keep us apart a lot, so the time we do have together, we make it the best.  It’s a challenge, but it’s all worth it when you have someone you can call your soul mate & better half when you put that work into it.