California Passed The Halle Berry Law!

You can take pictures of her in the public. She doesn't appreciate her children being in the spotlight.

Congratulations to the 47-year old actress for delivering her second child.

The famed entertainer has keep her public life and private life separate. The entertainer was burdened by the paparazzi when they are taking pictures of her in her private time.

The cameras rolled when Berry was spending time with her first child. She didn't appreciate them putting her child in the spotlight and she wanted to take action against it.

Berry along with Jennifer Garner have spoken to the California legislators about the situation. And the lawmakers listened.

They have passed a law that made it clear that paparazzi and others who harass the children of public figures will face tougher penalties

Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown signed the law and it take effect.

The bill from state Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, will boost penalties for actions that include taking photos and video of a child without parental consent and in a harassing manner.

Celebrities such as actresses Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner urged lawmakers to support SB606. Berry testified before several legislative committees that her daughter has been intimidated by photographers who follow them daily. She said the photographers often shout while they snap pictures.

"On behalf of my children, it is my hope that this is the beginning of the end for those overly aggressive paparazzi whose outrageous conduct has caused so much trauma and emotional distress," Berry said in a statement released by her publicist.

The measure also will help protect children of police officers and judges, and other kids who might be susceptible to harassment or unwanted attention due to their parents' occupations, de Leon said.

Berry, who won an Academy Award for her role in "Monster's Ball," said she plans to work with other professionals whose children are affected by the statute to ensure local law enforcement officials will vigorously enforce the new provisions.

Under the legislation, which takes effect in January, violators could face up to a year in county jail and a fine of up to $10,000. Fines would increase for subsequent convictions.

The bill also allows for parents to bring a civil action against violators to seek damages and attorneys' fees.

"Kids shouldn't be tabloid fodder nor the target of ongoing harassment," de León said. He added the new law "will give children, no matter who their parents are, protection from harassers who go to extremes to turn a buck."

Media organizations, including the California Newspaper Publishers Association, opposed the legislation, saying it was overly broad and could restrict legitimate newsgathering activities.

De Leon's office says the bill does not infringe on First Amendment rights because it targets the photographer's conduct, not the act of taking a photograph.

Halle Maria Berry (Maria Halle Berry by legal name) is an American actress and former fashion model. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2002 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2013, the only woman of African-American descent to win an Oscar for a leading role. She is one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood and has been involved in the production side of several of the films in which she performed. Berry is also a Revlon spokesmodel.

Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty contests, finishing as the 1st runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant and coming in 6th place in the Miss World Pageant in 1986.

Her breakthrough film role was in 1992's Boomerang, which led to roles in films such as The Flintstones (1994) and Bulworth (1998). In addition to her Academy Award win, Berry reached a higher level of prominence in the new millennium with roles such as Storm in the X-Men film series (2000–present), Swordfish (2001), and Die Another Day (2002), where she played Bond Girl Jinx, later finding success in the 2010s with movies such as Cloud Atlas (2012) and The Call (2013).

She also won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in 2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person, one of few people to do so.

Divorced from baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benét, Berry has a daughter by French Canadian model Gabriel Aubry and just gave birth to a son with her current husband, actor Olivier Martinez.

She was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She and Oliver Martinez currently lives in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

Senator Daniel Inouye Passes Away!

Thank you for your service, Senator Inouye. 

The longest serving U.S. Senator from the state of Hawaii has passed away. President Barack Obama was notified of the passing of Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) yesterday. He was suffering complications from a lung infection.

A senator since 1963, Inouye was the most senior senator at the time of his death. He was also the second-longest serving U.S. Senator in history after Robert Byrd. Inouye continuously represented Hawaii in the U.S. Congress since it achieved statehood in 1959 until the time of his death, serving as Hawaii's first U.S. Representative and later a senator.

Inouye was the first Japanese American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the first in the U.S. Senate. Before then, he served in the Hawaii territorial house from 1954 to 1958 and the territorial senate from 1958 to 1959. He never lost an election in 58 years as an elected official. At the time of his death, Inouye was the second-oldest current U.S. senator, after Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. He was also a World War II Medal of Honor recipient.

Because of his seniority, following then West Virginia senator Robert Byrd's death on June 28, 2010, Inouye became President pro tempore of the Senate; this made him third in the presidential line of succession after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

A veteran of World War II, Senator Inouye enlisted into the military after the United States dropped its internment program in which it imprisoned Japanese Americans, on fears of espionage.

He was at the Pearl Harbor attack December 7, 1941 as a medical volunteer. In 1943, when the U.S. Army dropped its enlistment ban on Japanese Americans, Inouye curtailed his premedical studies at the University of Hawaii and enlisted in the Army. He volunteered to be part of the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team. This army unit was mostly made up of second-generation Japanese Americans from Hawaii and the mainland.

Inouye was promoted to the rank of sergeant within his first year, and he was given the role of platoon leader. During a fire fight in Italy, Inouye was badly injured. He had his arm amputated after a severe injury during a combat fight.

A dedicated public servant to the constituents of Hawaii.

Although Inouye had lost his right arm, he remained in the military until 1947 and was honorably discharged with the rank of captain. At the time of his leaving of the Army, he was a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart. Inouye was initially awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery in this action, with the award later being upgraded to the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton (alongside 19 other Nisei servicemen who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were believed to have been denied proper recognition of their bravery due to their race).

Due to the loss of his arm, Inouye abandoned his plans to become a surgeon, and returned to college to study political science under the G.I. Bill. He graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. He earned his law degree from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. in 1953 and was elected into the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. In 1953, he was elected to the Hawaii territorial House of Representatives, and was immediately elected majority leader. He served two terms there, and was elected to the Hawaii territorial senate in 1957.

Midway through his first term in the state senate, Hawaii achieved statehood. He won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as Hawaii's first full member, and took office on August 21, 1959, the same date Hawaii became a state; he was re-elected in 1960.

In 1962, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, succeeding fellow Democrat Oren E. Long. He was reelected eight times, usually without serious difficulty. His only close race was in 1992, when state senator Rick Reed held him to 57 percent of the vote—the only time he received less than 69 percent of the vote. He delivered the keynote address at the turbulent 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and gained national attention for his service on the Senate Watergate Committee. He was chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence from 1975 until 1979, and chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs from 1987 until 1995 and from 2001 until 2003. Inouye was also involved in the Iran-Contra investigations of the 1980s, chairing a special committee from 1987 until 1989. During the hearings Inouye referred to the operations that had been revealed as a "secret government" saying:

"[There exists] a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself."

Criticizing the logic of Marine Lt. Colonel Oliver North's justifications for his actions in the affair, Inouye made reference to the Nuremberg trials, provoking a heated interruption from North's attorney Brendan V. Sullivan, Jr., an exchange that was widely repeated in the media at the time. He was also seen as a pro-Taiwan senator, and helped in forming the Taiwan Relations Act.

President Barack Obama with Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts), Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont).

In 2009, Inouye assumed leadership of the powerful Senate Committee on Appropriations after longtime chairman Robert Byrd stepped down. Following the latter's death on June 28, 2010, Inouye was elected President pro tempore, the officer third in the presidential line of succession.

In 2010, Inouye announced his decision to run for a ninth term. He easily won the Democratic primary–the real contest in this heavily Democratic state--and then trounced Republican state representative Campbell Cavasso with 74 percent of the vote.

Prior to his death, Inouye announced that he planned to run for a record tenth term in 2016, when he would have been 92 years old. He also said, "I have told my staff and I have told my family that when the time comes, when you question my sanity or question my ability to do things physically or mentally, I don't want you to hesitate, do everything to get me out of here, because I want to make certain the people of Hawaii get the best representation possible."

Guess Who's Back!

There's new photos released of George Zimmerman, the controversial shooter of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager in Florida.

Looking on Redding News Review tonight and caught the picture of the 28 year old volunteer neighborhood watcher with a broken nose and that cocky look on his face.

I already assuming that Sean Hannity will interview Zimmerman in the coming months. He's already invested time in this controversy despite the heavy criticism brought upon him.

Yeah, we understand that Zimmerman was bloody up by Trayvon Martin. But the question is! Why didn't he listen to the 9-1-1 dispatcher when he was told not to confront the individual?

Reuters report that Sanford Police released a picture of Zimmerman. He is charged with second-degree murder in which he could carry life in prison. The color photograph of George Zimmerman with a bloody, swollen nose taken on the night he shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin last February was posted on the Internet on Monday by Zimmerman's legal defense team.

As the photo began to be circulated widely by the news media, lawyers on both sides disagreed about its significance to the second-degree murder case against Zimmerman.

"It's not a game changer," Zimmerman lawyer Mark O'Mara told Reuters. But O'Mara said the photo was significant in that it shows vividly the injuries Zimmerman incurred during his confrontation with Martin at a condominium in the central Florida town on Sanford.

On February 26, Zimmerman, who was a neighborhood watch volunteer, shot and killed 17-year-old Martin who was walking to the home in Sanford where he was staying with his father.

Zimmerman's murder trial is set for June 2013.

Zimmerman claims he shot Martin in self defense during a struggle.

"Does it really show what happened that night to George? Yes," O'Mara said.

Attorney Ben Crump, who represents Martin's family, however said the photo adds nothing new to the case.

Previously released evidence has indicated Zimmerman was hit in the nose during the fight with Martin.

"Trayvon Martin was defending himself. He had every right to stand his ground to defend himself," Crump said.

O'Mara told Reuters that prosecutors in May had given him a grainy black-and-white photocopy of the image which was taken in the back seat of a Sanford police cruiser. O'Mara said he received the digital image from prosecutors after repeated demands by his office and he posted it Monday on Zimmerman's defense website.

Long Island police beat innocent black man

Leave it to New York police to remind everyone that although Barack Obama has made history that this country still has a long way to go when it comes to black men and the police.

James Minter was handcuffed and beaten Garden City Long Island Police after they mistook him for the wrong man. He cooperated, didn't resist and was still beaten. The police knew they had done something wrong because later on they went to the hospital and tried to apologize and make deals to get Mr. Milner to not file a complaint. What is so sad about them trying to make a deal is that they assumed because he was black that he had some criminal or legal issues they could make "go away". Watch Mr Mitner tell his story by clicking the link below:

http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.html