http://cache.jezebel.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jezebel.com.png http://jezebel.com/tag/memphis http://jezebel.com/tag/memphis

Kids usually don't think before they steal, but you can bet 13-year-old Natia Wade never thought she'd end up standing on the corner of a busy intersection holding up a hand-written sign that read, "I steal from my family." Wade, who lives in Memphis, ended up there after she racked up a record of taking things—mostly small, inconsequential things—without asking her mom. Apparently the final straw was when she took her mom's debit card and used it to reactivate her cell phone, which he mom had taken away. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5885559&view=rss&microfeed=true

This morning, Today informed 12-year-old Deidra Shores—live, via satellite—that she made the finals in the show's "Kid Reporter" contest. Deidra exploded with joy, and then got real about why she wants to work in broadcast journalism. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5391765&view=rss&microfeed=true

The U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate of the world's 23 richest nations, and within the country, black babies die at three times the rate of white babies. On Friday, the 20/20 report "Babyland" focused on Memphis, the city with the highest infant death rate. Dr. Sheldon Korones, seen in the clip above, was spurred by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. to found a neo-natal unit in Memphis's inner city. He describes the city's high rate of premature births and infant deaths as the result of years of social inadequacies. "There is so much else in that picture, ranging all the way from the proper lifestyle and diet, to the proper education and life itself," he says. "In this community, when a premature baby is born, society has failed." More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5041353&view=rss&microfeed=true

A British woman was arrested in Norway after the police discovered coke under her wig. It seems the Norwegian police have learned to check hair for drugs after that whole Amy WInehouse debacle. • Conservative Virginians are nervous about the popularity of gay marriage, because if it can happen in a conservative stronghold like CA, it can happen anywhere! • Aw, Michelle Obama was "touched" by Laura Bush's defense of her reportedly "anti-American" remarks. • Wonderbra is looking for 1,000 big-breasted British babes to pose for an ad, and their "casting call" ad uses some confusing imagery for boobies. • China translates the names of popular dishes for restaurants to their "American" names during the Olympics, but what if I really wanted "Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman"? • Just throwing this out there, but, fighting a PC battle against a ubiquitous adjective like "crazy" is probably a lost cause. • A trans woman was held down and beaten by two Memphis cops after she objected to being called a "faggot" by one of the cops. One of the cops was fired and the other was suspended. • The US Post Office has released stamps honoring Charles and Ray Eames (you know, those chairs that are always drooled over at Apartment Therapy) the husband-and-wife design team. Dodai notes that Ray Eames was also a filmmaker! • A wedding-crazed couple plans on having five weddings over the space of nine months so their entire family can see them getting married! • Elda Beguinua is being tried for fraud after she pretended to have a $500 million fortune as a Philippine contessa and tried to trick people out of loaning her money. One man was tipped off when he was asked to be her "world ambassador." More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5017719&view=rss&microfeed=true

40 years ago today, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis. (The picture here was taken the day before his assassination.) Dr. King was in Memphis to speak about poverty, and, in yesterday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, King's son, Martin Luther King III, wrote an op-ed piece urging presidential candidates to create a cabinet-level position to deal specifically with poverty, saying, "The U.S. Census Bureau reports the current poverty rate is just over 12 percent, as it was in 1968, while the number of people living in poverty has grown from 25 million to more than 36 million, including 12 million children. Even worse, a family of four with two children and an annual income of $21,027 is not even considered poor by our government's reporting standards. Many people have become immune to these statistics, but we cannot wait for another Katrina to truly grasp that America is awash in poverty." The piece is worth reading, today of all days. [AJC] More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=376063&view=rss&microfeed=true