• This guy says he’s sorry for implying that if you wear saggy pants you’re gay. [DV]

• The NAACP joined 50 former Eli Lilly workers in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company. []

• Two NJ black coaches say racist parents were responsible for their firing. [WCBSTV]

• A couple of Yale students try to school their ignorant peers on the history of blackface. We’ll see if it hit home next year around this time. [YDN]

• Don Imus’ radio deal is official. [Reuters]

Al Sharpton has to get more racist emails than the average black public figure, but a series of hateful messages from someone posing as a manager for Merrill Lynch probably stood out. As it turns out, the imposter was sending racist emails — full of n-words and “nappy-headed hoes” to Sharpton and several black Merrill Lynch brokers.

Since it’s not really the sort of thing to take lying down in these litigious times, Merrill Lynch is suing the email-sender for trademark infringement. Of course Al Sharpton was .

CONTINUED »

• The NAACP in Myrtle Beach says a local Friendly’s restaurant closed its building and served a limited menu from the sidewalk during black biker week, but stayed open during a bike event attended by mostly whites. [ABC2]

• A minority coalition in Georgia hopes to encourage 100,000 blacks, Hispanics and Asians to register to vote in the coming election. [AJC]

• The Justice Dept.’s voting rights chief has officially apologized for making the claim that voting laws that affect old people can’t also affect minorities, since they die before they get old. It’s a paraphrase, but I’m really not exaggerating. [MH]

• Black women with breast cancer are more likely to relapse. [UPI]

• Fifteen of the plaintiffs in the Morgan Stanley lawsuit are quite unhappy with their settlement. [PR]

• A Beyonce show in Turkey was canceled, not because of wardrobe like her Malaysia gig, but because of Kurdish rebel attacks. Bummer for the fans in Istanbul. [DS]

• Joe Biden in race trouble again? [DI]

• Nooses, the Internet, Jews, Bigotry, Hate, etc… [ND]

• Dr. Dre recorded some Detroit city employees without their knowledge and now he’s getting sued. [Freep]

• Don’t worry, Arnold. Most people I know don’t consider it a drug either. [IHT]

Roy L. Pearson, the maniac DC judge who represented himself in a $54 million lawsuit against a Mom and Pop dry cleaner that lost his pants, will probably lose his job. I mean, you weep on the stand about some messed up dry cleaning you think is somehow worth $54 million, you lose a little bit of credibility as an administrative law judge.

If he doesn’t get reappointed to his current position, the litigious Pearson, who has already asked an appellate court to overturn the negative ruling in his pants suit (ha, get it?), will likely appeal. Meanwhile, the Chungs, who owned the embattled dry cleaning business, had to close shop because of the high cost of the law suit. I hope Pearson’s happy. Considering his sanity level, probably not.

[WP]

• Oh, if only having your bodyguards smack the papers you just got served to the ground would make the lawsuit actually go away… [TMZ]

• Forbes‘ list of the top 10 highest earning comedians does not include one single black performer. Dave Chappelle goes all “conscious” on us, and now we’ve got no one making the big bucks. Seriously, Larry the Cable Guy made more than Chris Rock last year. [Forbes]

• Alicia Keys claims she can “understand” the lesbian rumors. If that’s true, then why did she say this? [SP]

• Is James Watson working for the New Jersey Department of Education? [NJ]

• For all of you critics who think black people always want to blame white people and never work to solve problems in the community. []

As much as it sucks, even though you are a major celebrity, you still have to pay for some things. Especially when there’s a chance you’ll get sued for $1 million.

In a lawsuit filed yesterday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Ian Lewis claims that Prince, named as a defendant (along with his record label and fan club website), took 12 AVID IS SCSI Shuttle Drives worth $12,000, alleging that Prince and his people never had any intention of returning them or paying for them.

In addition, Lewis claims that a $25,000 computer, which was also loaned to Prince, was returned by his people “in a broken and un-fixable condition.” Computer blue!

From what I know of Prince, “broken and un-fixable condition” probably means the computer was painted purple.

[TMZ]

A judge ordered the infamous Goldman family to return a Rolex confiscated from O.J. Simpson as part of his wrongful-death judgment after it was proven that the watch was actually a Fauxlex worth $100. That’s $25 less than Simpson claimed he paid for it.

“It was made by the finest craftsmen in China,” Goldman attorney David Cook, who had expressed hope that the Rolex Submariner—James Bond’s model of choice in the early films—could be worth as much as $22,000, told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a people’s Rolex.”

…The wrongful-death judgment excludes jewelry worth less than $6,075, so the fake had to go back. If Rosenberg had allowed Cook to sell the watch for its pop culture value, Slate said, then it might prompt the Goldmans to go after more of Simpson’s possessions no matter how low their actual monetary value.

I’m pretty sure Simpson has some cubic zirconium cuff links just ripe for the taking. Too bad they cost less than $6 grand.

[]

Fred Goldman continues his emotionally fruitless quest for “monetary justice.” A judge ordered O.J. Simpson to hand over his Rolex watch, royalties from a video game he appears in, and the any of the “memorabilia” involved in his Las Vegas sting op that he can prove is his. I’ve already explained that I think Goldman needs to both trim the ’stache and give this monetary justice thing a rest, but going after the man’s timepiece is really over the edge.

Especially considering this:

CONTINUED »

Anucha Browne Sanders, the former Knick’s executive who claimed she was fired because she complained about touchy-feely, verbally abusive head coach Isiah Thomas, is disgruntled no longer. A jury ruled today that she was entitled to punitive damages from the Knicks, although Isiah Thomas will not have to pay her any damages directly.

Today’s verdicts are the latest embarrassment for the Knicks, who have floundered in recent years. The team has had six head coaches since 2001, has only made the playoffs once and has signed numerous expensive players who have flopped.

During the trial, testimony by witnesses made the inner workings of the Garden appear dysfunctional, hostile and lewd. The Knick’s star guard, Stephon Marbury, testified that he had sex with a team intern in the trunk of his car after a group outing to a strip club in 2005.

Aren’t sexual harassment lawsuits a bitch?

[]