Rapper Polo G watches during the second half of an NBA basketball game between the Miami Heat and the Brooklyn Nets in Miami in April. | AP
Jail records show the rapper, whose name is Taurus Bartlett, was booked into jail early Saturday on five charges and released on bond hours later.
MIAMI — Rapper Polo G was arrested Saturday on charges including battery on a police officer, resisting arrest with violence and criminal mischief.
Jail records show the rapper, whose name is Taurus Bartlett, was booked into jail early Saturday on five charges and released on bond hours later.
The Miami Police Department released arrest affidavits in which officers stated Bartlett, 22, and others were pulled over early Saturday, and the rapper ended up in a struggle on the ground with officers. One of the documents says an officer who was trying to handcuff Bartlett was struck multiple times.
The documents say Bartlett was aggressive as he resisted arrest in downtown Miami. One of the officers said he had ordered him and all the passengers in the car he was traveling in to get out of the vehicle to pat them down for firearms, saying he suspected they carried weapons because they heard a passenger claim the vehicle was bulletproof.
The police department said it was reviewing the incident that would include examining all camera footage, saying the arrest was captured on several body-worn cameras. Police spokesman Michael Vega said it also was investigating several threats received against personnel and facilities in response to the rapper’s arrest.
The Chicago-based artist had just released his newest album “Hall of Fame” on Friday. His single “Rapstar” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April. His mother and manager said on Instagram that Polo G and his younger brother were riding in a car with security after an album release party.
The mother, Stacia Mac, posted a message on Facebook saying she had bonded out Polo G and other people who were arrested in the same traffic stop. Jail records did not list an attorney for the rapper.
Paris Jackson appears at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California, in 2019. Jackson reveals she suffers long-term anxiety and trauma from enduring countless camera clicks from paparazzi since she was a child. | Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
“I experience auditory hallucinations sometimes with camera clicks and severe paranoia and have been going to therapy for a lot of things but that included,” Jackson says.
NEW YORK — Paris Jackson, stopping by “Red Table Talk” for a frank discussion about living under the media glare, reveals she suffers long-term anxiety and trauma from enduring countless camera clicks by paparazzi since she was a child.
“I experience auditory hallucinations sometimes with camera clicks and severe paranoia and have been going to therapy for a lot of things but that included,” Jackson says. “I’ll hear a trash bag rustling and flinch in panic.” She adds: “I think it’s standard PTSD.”
Jackson, the daughter of Michael Jackson, has a one-on-one discussion with fellow paparazzi target and friend Willow Smith on the Wednesday’s edition of the online talk show that airs at 11 a.m. on Facebook Watch.
During the show’s introduction, Smith says she met Jackson on the set of mom Jada Pinkett Smith’s TV show “Hawthorne.” Smith and Jackson soon forged a bond over growing up with parents in the spotlight, and over love of music, modeling, and issues like mental health, sexuality and body image. One way Jackson says she keeps some privacy is by asking people in her home to sign non-disclosure agreements.
Jackson, who has dated men and women, tells Smith that while there is tension with some of her family members over her sexuality, she has leaned on her brothers — Prince and Prince Michael II — and longtime family friend Omer Bhatti.
“They’ve always been super-supportive,” she says, noting that to better connect with his sister, Prince Jackson in high school joined a student-run club that unites LGBTQ+ and allied youth. “Not a lot of people can say they have siblings that support them like that.”
In 2020, Paris Jackson and then-boyfriend Gabriel Glenn — who formed the acoustic duo The Soundflowers — had a docu-series on Facebook Watch called “Unfiltered,” which provided a glimpse into her private life. Jackson revealed self-harm and suicide attempts in her testimonials, and said music was a way to channel her pain. She released her debut solo album “Wilted” in November.
“Red Table Talk” has recently made headlines with interviews with Olivia Jade Gianulli, Kelly Osbourne, and when Pinkett Smith and her husband, Will Smith, discussed their marriage.
If you’ve ever watched someone you love struggle through a cruel illness and eventually succumb, you know that some days it can be hard to find any lightness under the crushing weight of grief. So it’s beyond inspiring that Michelle Zauner, the solo artist behind Japanese Breakfast, made not one but two dreamy indie-pop albums exploring the complex emotions she went through while caring for her mother as she underwent cancer treatment (2016’s Psychopomp) and then healing after she passed away in 2014 (2017’s Soft Sounds From Another Planet).…Read More
Kuwaiti conceptual artist and composer Fatima Al Qadiri merges traditional Arabic poetry and futuristic electronics on her new album.
Music can instantly transport us to another time and place, but some artists sidestep the space-time continuum entirely—their work builds new worlds that straddle reality and imagination.…Read More
Fireworks explode as Chicago police work the scene where a 20-year-old woman was shot in 4700 block of South California Ave, in Brighton Park neighborhood, Friday, June 11, 2021. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Early Saturday morning, two males approached a group standing on the sidewalk in the 7500 block of South Prairie Avenue and opened fire, fatally striking a 29-year-old woman and wounding nine others.
At least three people have been killed and 43 others wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday night, including a mass shooting Saturday morning in Chatham that left one dead and nine others hurt.
A 29-year-old woman was struck in the leg and abdomen and transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, police said.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified her as Kimfier Miles of South Shore.
Nine more victims, ranging in age from 23 to 49 years old were transported to area hospitals all in fair or good condition, according to police. There is no one in custody.
About 1:20 p.m., the man was parked on the street in the 600 block of South Wells Street when someone in a passing vehicle fired shots, police said.
He was struck multiple times and taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. The medical examiner’s office identified him as Dearl Butler Jr.
Fhee Hernandez-Castillo was sitting in a vehicle with her boyfriend about 8:50 p.m. when a gunman approached them while yelling gang slogans in the 4700 block of South Rockwell Street, Chicago police and the medical examiner’s office said.
Hernandez-Castillo was sitting in the passenger seat when she was struck in the neck and hand, police said.
After the shooting, her boyfriend drove off and pulled over at a Shell gas station, 4658 S California Ave., where Chicago Fire Department paramedics arrived.
Hernandez-Castilo was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital and later pronounced dead, police said.
— The man and the teen were outside in the 3900 block of West 13th Street when they were shot about 11:20 p.m., police said. The teen suffered three gunshot wounds and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, police said. The man was struck in the buttocks and lower back and taken to the same hospital in serious condition, police said. Witnesses told officers they saw a male fleeing the scene of the shooting, according to police.
— The teen boy was playing with his friends on the sidewalk about 6:45 p.m. when someone opened fire in the 6500 block of South Champlain Avenue, police said. He suffered a graze wound on the neck and was transported to Comer Children’s Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.
Two more teens were hurt in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Little Village on the Southwest Side.
— The boys, both 17, were in the alley about 3:25 p.m. when a light-colored vehicle drove past them and someone from inside fired shots in the 3500 block of West Cermak Road, police said. One boy was shot in the shoulder and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition, police said. The other suffered a graze wound to the arm and was taken in good condition to the same hospital.
In the weekend’s first reported shooting, two men were wounded in an attack in South Shore.
— They were on the sidewalk about 6:50 p.m. Friday when someone fired shots in the 7500 block of South Kingston Avenue, police said. The 33-year-old was struck in the arm and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said. The other, 29, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was taken to the same hospital in good condition.
At least 27 more people were hurt in shootings since 5 p.m. Friday.
The pair have asked a Cook County judge to appoint a receiver to “wind down” their shared business interests, essentially a third party to oversee their financial divorce.
Their once jovial relationship has become a fiery crash, with debris strewn across courtrooms and cable television, and now the two personalities who made “Windy City Rehab” a hit have agreed to seek an unbiased observer to sift through and sort out the wreckage.
An attorney representing Donovan Eckhardt filed an emergency motion in Cook County court last week asking a judge to allow a third party to take control of and provide a full accounting of the limited liability companies that he and Alison Victoria — whose real name is Alison Victoria Gramenos — created to purchase and renovate homes featured on the HGTV show. The two rehabbed at least 11 homes in the first season of the show and partnered on several more before their relationship went bust.
And the motion contains an admission: the splashy, remodeled homes weren’t big money makers.
“Ultimately, each of the renovation projects at the properties went over budget,” it reads. “The projected profits did not materialize once the properties began to sell.”
According to the motion, Victoria is on board with the request and agrees a receiver is needed because their relationship “has deteriorated” and “the two are currently unable to effectively communicate or cooperatively manage” their shared interests.
“Ms. Gramenos seeks to wind down her business entanglement with Mr. Eckhardt in a professional manner. The motion for receiver is a cooperative effort between Ms. Gramenos and Mr. Eckhardt towards that end,” her attorney, Daniel Lynch, said in an email sent Friday.
The latest legal maneuver was in response to a lawsuit brought by a north suburban man and his family who invested $3 million in the pair’s reality TV venture and are now seeking to claw back funds. They accused Victoria and Eckhardt of gross mismanagement that resulted in “bungling” nearly every home flipping project they took on.
Both have denied the allegations in the suit but say they need a neutral party to help them split up.
“Mr. Eckhardt is moving on from his previous business relationship, and both he and Ms. Gramenos are in agreement that the appointment of a receiver is the most appropriate and professional means to wrap up their business,” Eckhardt’s attorney, James Skyles, said in an email.
Legal move ‘a joke,’ opposing attorney says
The lawsuit was filed last summer by Michael Ward Jr. — a Lake County resident and onetime friend of Eckhardt — his brother Thomas Ward, also of Lake County, and their father, Michael Ward Sr., a Cook County resident.
“I think it’s a joke,” attorney John F. Kennedy, who represents the Wards, said of the emergency motion.
“I think the fact that Ms. Gramenos and Mr. Eckhardt are seeking a receiver for an accounting over the very company they control is a sham and a pretext to hide their misconduct. It’s shameful and designed to hide their own breaches of fiduciary duties they owe to the Ward family.”
Kennedy said the real “question is, what did Gramenos and Eckhardt do with the $3 million the Wards provided to them for the rehab projects? Will they voluntarily turn over their financial records to a receiver and account for the money[?]” His suspicion: not until “hell freezes over.”
Victoria’s attorney fired back, calling the accusations “head spinning.”
“The Wards’ accusation that Ms. Gramenos has withheld financial records that pertain to the Donovan Eckhardt projects from them is simply false,” Lynch said in an email. “Even before their baseless claims against her were filed, Ms. Gramenos willingly produced hundreds of pages of financial records on those projects; she has no more, and hell is still hot.”
Should a receiver be allowed to take over the two one-time “Windy City Rehab” co-hosts’ business affairs, the motion requests that he or she be charged with hiring a new attorney to defend their limited liability companies because their previous attorney quit.
Despite agreeing the two need a neutral third party to resolve their differences, Victoria has not changed her tune on Eckhardt.
During episodes of Season Two, Victoria labeled Eckhardt an untrustworthy villain, an unreliable builder and a cheat who pocketed construction funds.
“Ms. Gramenos stands by the truthfulness of her statements made on the air in WCR Season 2. The fact that these truthful statements make Mr. Eckhardt uncomfortable is reflective of what he knows about his own conduct,” Lynch said Friday.
For his part, Eckhardt has denied the allegations; he filed a separate defamation lawsuit against the show’s producers that seeks $2.2 million. He has since parted ways with the show.
Jason Heyward, being greeted by Javy Baez after scoring Saturday, said he hasn’t been vaccinated for COVID-19. | David Banks/Getty Images
Neither Heyward nor Anthony Rizzo, who said Friday that he isn’t vaccinated, considered themselves anti-vaccine. But both think receiving the shot is an individual choice.
Jason Heyward became the second Cubs player to reveal publicly that he hasn’t received a COVID-19 vaccination. On Friday, Anthony Rizzo said on ESPN 1000 that he hasn’t been vaccinated.
Heyward told reporters Sunday that, with the state of Illinois allowing full capacity at Wrigley Field, fans are at greater risk of contracting the virus than players, who are tested multiple times per week. He also said enforcement of protocols for fans was lacking from the start.
“To me, it feels like a lot of wasted concern on a group of people that is pretty much checked off on almost every single day,” Heyward said.
Neither Heyward nor Rizzo considered themselves anti-vaccine, but both think receiving the shot is an individual choice.
“It’s just taking more time to see the data on all of it,” Rizzo said after the game Friday. “There’s definitely personal reasons, as well, but it’s just one of those things where as we continue to get more data, I’ll continue to be more educated on it.”
The Cubs are one of eight major-league teams that remains below the 85% threshold to ease restrictions, including wearing masks in the dugout and limiting mobility on road trips. Team president Jed Hoyer has expressed pessimism about the Cubs reaching the mark.
“I believe the science was clearly behind [the vaccine], but obviously not everyone agrees with that,” Hoyer said. “If everyone did agree, we’d be well above 85%.”
There’s a possible competitive disadvantage to staying below the vaccination threshold, and Rizzo said his choice was a very tough one.
“This is bigger than baseball,” Rizzo said. “This is a life decision, this isn’t a career decision, and it definitely weighed hard.”
Though the players are maintaining a united front, there clearly are chasms in the Cubs’ clubhouse. Before the game Friday, Javy Baez said he received a vaccination to protect his children. He added that while other vaccinated players respect their teammates’ choices, they have discussed the matter in the clubhouse.
“If you want to call it, we argued about it,” Baez said. “But at the end of the day, we are all men here. We respect each other.”
