James scores 29, Heat rally past Thunder 91-85

Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) looks to pass against Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook (0) during the second half at Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Sunday, June 17, 2012, in Miami.

 

 

MIAMI — Halfway to a title, and LeBron James shows no sign of letting this one get away.

James had 29 points and 14 rebounds, and the Miami Heat took a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals with a 91-85 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night.

Dwyane Wade had 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Heat, who were in this same position through three games last year, then didn’t win again against the Dallas Mavericks.

James’ poor performance was part of the problem then, but he seems on top of his game this time. His 3-pointer sent the Heat to the fourth quarter with the lead, and he scored five straight Miami points when the Heat were building just enough cushion to hold off another late flurry by the Thunder.

Game 4 is Tuesday night.

Kevin Durant had 25 points for the Thunder, but picked up his fourth foul in the third quarter and had to go to the bench when they had seemed to have control of the game. Russell Westbrook finished with 19 points Source

 

Rodney King, whose videotaped beating in LA in 1991 sparked a riot, dead at 47

 

Rodney King, whose beating by Los Angeles police in 1991 was caught on videotape and sparked riots after the acquittal of the four officers involved, was found dead on Sunday. He was 47.

King was found at the bottom of his a swimming pool at his LA home.

Authorities said King’s fiancée called 911 at 5:25 a.m. after finding Kings in the pool. He was rushed to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

In 1991, King’s beating after a high-speed car chase in LA, which was videotaped by a witness, led to the arrest of the officers involved and forever changed the city’s police department.

After the officers were acquitted a year later, riots erupted in LA. At a press conference to calm tempers in LA, King uttered the famous words: “Can we all get along?… Can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids?”

The King beating had a powerful impact on America: The event sparked a dialogue on race across the United States; it also gave rise to the era of news events being captured on video by regular people.

At the time of the beating, King, 25, was on parole after a robbery conviction in April 1991.

In an interview in 2011 with CNN, he recalled he had been drinking and was headed home from a friend’s house when he saw a police car following him and panicked, thinking he would be sent back to prison.

King attempted to flee at speeds reaching 100 mph.

“I had a job to go to that Monday, and I knew I was on parole, and I knew I wasn’t supposed to be drinking, and I’m like ‘Oh, my God,'” he told CNN.

When he was finally stopped, the video captured the officers beating a defenseless King with clubs, who was on the ground.

The video and community outcry prompted the officers to be arrested and tried, but on April 29, 1992, when a jury acquitted all four, thousands of people in the Los Angeles area rioted over six days.

More than 50 people were killed in one of the country’s deadliest riots which cost more than $1 billion in damages.

In April, King had been in the news as the 20th anniversary of the LA riots were observed.  Source

 

Mother of Heat star Chris Bosh’s kid puts kabosh on London trip

Miami Heat star Chris Bosh’s request to take his 3-year-old daughter to London this summer to watch him play in the Olympics has been denied by an Orlando judge.

Happy Father’s Day, right?

But if you believe baby mama Allison Matthis’ attorney, Jane E. Carey, there’s a good reason for it.

“He wants to take his daughter across the world for a photo op,” Carey said. “It’s just for a photo op. He doesn’t care. He hasn’t been decent to my client and his daughter.”

Carey talked publicly about the case for the first time Saturday because, she says, she’s tired of Bosh’s behavior.

For two years Bosh, who got married last year and has an infant boy with his wife, has been battling Matthis in courts in Orange County, Calif., and Texas on anything from child support to banning her appearance from VH-1’s Basketball Wives to how much time he spends with the child.

Things changed recently when Matthis lost her job. Believe it or not, Bosh pays her $2,600 a month in child support, Carey said. According to state guidelines, someone whose yearly salary is in the $18 million range should be paying about $30,000 a month.

“My client just lost her job [as secretary for a construction company] and she has applied for food stamps for her and Mr. Bosh’s daughter. The $2,600 a month in child support doesn’t even cover her mortgage. She’s about to get foreclosed on, he won’t help her and all he wants to do is go to London with his daughter. Are you kidding?”

Bosh requested to take 3-year-old Trinity to London a few weeks ago but Matthis objected, saying that terrorism poses a real threat to their daughter’s safety.

Two lawyers in Orlando who represent Bosh did not return calls and emails requesting commen  Source

 

Music & Club Promoter Gunned Down Outside Palmetto Bay Home

Family and friends clean blood off Frederick Duberry’s driveway after he was shot and killed

PALMETTO BAY (CBSMiami) – Miami-Dade police are investigating a murder mystery in Palmetto Bay after a well-known club promoter was killed outside his own home.

CBS4 News has learned the house is owned by Frederick Duberry, a music and club promoter who ran his own business.

Neighbors reported hearing gunfire around 3:00 a.m. in the area of SW 176th Street and 92nd Avenue.

At the home Saturday afternoon, someone quietly washed away blood on the driveway of the home where Duberry was shot and killed. Those who knew Duberry closely are still in shock and unwilling to talk about what happened to him before the sun came up Saturday.  Neighbors, however, did talk about what they saw and heard.  “I heard six shots. There was three, then a hesitation and then three more,” said neighbor Richie Roberts. “I saw a car skid right in front of my house with a guy jumping in the back and then they were gone.”

Those same neighbors said they didn’t know much about Duberry except that he was a good neighbor.

“I used to see him, he always took care of his yard he was a great neighbor really nice guy I’m really sorry to hear that,” said neighbor Kate Howell.

“This is a tragedy, just horrible. It’s really bad,” said a third neighbor.

Neighbors said Duberry had a wife and children.

Police have not released an official statement or any information about the investigation.

If you know anything about the shooting, you are urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS.  Source

 

Happy Father’s Day

A Father’s Day card seen in a local story observed that the celebration came about because about a month after Mother’s Day, somebody smacked his forehead, exclaimed “Doh!” and asked, “Isn’t Dad upset he doesn’t have a special day, too?”

That’s not really how it came about that we observe this day dedicated to our dads. We know it’s because they deserve it.

As with Mother’s Day, West Virginia played a role in the early history of Father’s Day.

According to history.com, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers on July 5, 1908, a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Co. mines in Monongah. It was a one-time commemoration and not an annual holiday.

The next year, a Spokane, Wash., woman, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. History.com says she went to local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials to drum up support for her idea, and she was successful: Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on July 19, 1910.

Slowly, the holiday spread.

But History.com goes on to say that in the 1920s and 1930s, a movement arose to scrap Mother’s Day and Father’s Day altogether in favor of a single holiday, Parents’ Day. Paradoxically, however, the Depression derailed the effort as struggling retailers and advertisers redoubled their efforts to make Father’s Day a “second Christmas” for men.

When World War II began, advertisers began to argue that celebrating Father’s Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort. By the end of the war, Father’s Day may not have been a federal holiday, but it was a national institution.

In 1972, in the middle of a hard-fought presidential re-election campaign, Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday at last.

There is no doubt about it — we love our dads. Today, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts.

While heaping gifts on your male parent is a nice gesture, what might be even better — and perhaps more appreciated by him — is the opportunity to spend some quality time with him.

Take time today to sit down with your dad, or give him a call if you don’t live nearby. Reminisce, ask his advice, tell him you love him.

Those whose fathers have passed on will tell you to cherish these times with your dad, not just today, but every day. They would give much to spend just another few minutes with the man who held them when they skinned their knee, taught them how to drive or worked killer hours just to make sure they had the necessities of life — and perhaps a few luxuries as well.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy, to those still here and those who live on in our memories.  Source

 

Heat Know What To Expect From Thunder In Game 3

LeBron James #6 and Dwyane Wade #3 of the Miami Heat attend NBA Finals Media Availability on June 16, 2012 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. Copyright 2012 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Gett

MIAMI (AP) — At this point a year ago, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were using words like urgency and desperation.

And that’s exactly what the Miami Heat expect the Oklahoma City Thunder to bring into Game 3 of this year’s NBA Finals.

So far, this championship series has followed the same script as a year ago, with the home team winning the opening matchup, then falling in Game 2 to lose the home-court edge. Miami took the sting of that into Dallas last year and used it as fuel to win Game 3 — and the Heat will look to ensure that trend doesn’t repeat itself when the title matchup resumes on their home floor Sunday night.   “You’ve got the two best teams in the league right now going against each other,” Wade said Saturday, when practices resumed after a day off for both clubs. “So it’s going to be a very tough game, but we have to find a way to win it. And it’s about taking, like I said, one possession at a time, one second, one minute at a time to make sure we reach our goal — and that’s to win the game.”

GALLERY: HEAT FACE MEDIA STORM BEFORE THUNDER

A Game 3 victory assures nothing, a lesson the Heat learned the hard way last year. That win in Dallas was Miami’s final victory of the season.

But there are certain truths that will come from the outcome Sunday night. The winner will have home-court advantage. The winner will be two games away from a championship. And the losing club will see what appears to be an already razor-thin margin for error in this series become even more precarious.

“We have no other choice,” said Thunder star Kevin Durant, the league’s scoring champion. “We lost at home. Tough loss. We’ve got to get over it, get ready for a tough Game 3. You know, the series is going to be tough. We know that. We know that. You’ve just got to be ready. It’s going to be a fun one.”

By now, the Heat aren’t shy to say they’re completely exhausted about dissecting what went wrong in last year’s finals. Still, they know the importance of not letting one loss turn into another — because when that happened against the Mavericks a year ago, there was a parade in Dallas not long afterward.

“I don’t know if we were any more motivated in Game 2,” Erik Spoelstra said. “What we were was angry about our performance in Game 1. … You want to throw your best punches out there, and may the best team win. We didn’t throw our best punches in Game 1.   Add up the numbers from the first two games of the series, and it turns into something close to a statistical dead heat.

Both teams are shooting 47 percent. Both have made 14 tries from 3-point range (though Miami is shooting a better percentage). The Thunder have grabbed four more rebounds, the Heat whistled for two more fouls. The Thunder outscored Miami by 16 points in the paint during their Game 1 win; the Heat outscored the Thunder by 16 points in the paint during their victory in Game 2.

Of course, the only stat that really matters is the one that’s identical: one win each, headed into Sunday.

And if the young Thunder were supposed to be rattled by losing the home-court edge, no one told them.

“We have all the right pieces, from the best scorer in the league, most athletic point guard in the league to the best shot blocker to the best post defender, best wing defender and our bench is one of the best,” James Harden said. “This is a perfect team. We are young guns. We get it done. It has to start in Game 3.”

Even their young-looking coach doesn’t sound worried about the stakes the Thunder will face.

“I’ve seen all year long a group that’s always committed, that always sticks by one another, that believes in the work that we put in,” Scott Brooks said. “And that’s who they are. It’s not going to change. They’ve always had great ability to bounce back after a tough loss and we expect the guys to come back (Sunday) night with better effort, better play and for 48 minutes.”

The Heat expect the same.

It’s no secret that falling short last year has been a source of inspiration throughout this season for James and the Heat, and that continues even now.

And for James, one trend from last year is gone. In Game 2, he did what he was criticized for not doing against the Mavs — he closed the game, coming through twice in a one-possession situation. His bank shot with 1:26 left pushed Miami’s lead to five, and his two free throws with 7.1 seconds remaining sealed Miami’s 100-96 win.

“I’m enjoying it,” James said. “I’m having fun with these first two games. I mean, this is a great opportunity for myself and for our team, for both teams. It’s a lot of fun being out there and competing at a high level, you know, the intense moment where every possession counts. That’s what it’s all about. As a competitor you have to enjoy these moments and you love these moments.  Source

 

Crew scurries as stage collapses before Radiohead concert, killing 1

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Several crew were on stage when the top part of the stage came crashing down
NEW: Most fled unharmed, but 4 were injured — including 1 pinned under the structure
NEW: The trapped man was extricated and pronounced dead at the scene
Radiohead was set to perform a sold-out concert in the Toronto park Saturday evening
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Several crew were on stage when the top part of the stage came crashing down
NEW: Most fled unharmed, but 4 were injured — including 1 pinned under the structure
NEW: The trapped man was extricated and pronounced dead at the scene
Radiohead was set to perform a sold-out concert in the Toronto park Saturday evening

(CNN) — Crew members ran for their lives when overhanging metalwork crashed onto a stage in a Toronto park Saturday afternoon, pinning and killing one man, authorities said.

The collapse happened around 4 p.m., one hour before spectators were set to begin streaming in for a concert by the alternative rock group Radiohead.

Several people were on the stage at the time, preparing for the show, when scaffolding-like material towering about 50 feet above collapsed.

“Unfortunately, four people were hurt,” Toronto police Constable Tony Vella said. “The remainder of the people, when they heard the stage coming (down), ran from the area.”

Firefighters arrived to find one man “trapped under the structure,” said Toronto fire Platoon Chief Tony Bellavance. They helped to extricate the man, then moved away from what was then still considered an “unstable structure,” Bellavance added.

Paramedics, who happened to be at the scene in preparation for the concert, “immediately rendered aid,” according to on-site Toronto Emergency Medical Services commander Peter Rotolo. The victim — who has not been identified, amid efforts to contact his next of kin — was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said he was in his 30s.

Another man who suffered serious injuries due to the collapse was transported to Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital, Ian McClelland of the city’s EMS department said. The 45-year-old man suffered a head injury that isn’t considered life-threatening, according to Toronto police.

Two other men with minor injuries were assessed and released, McClelland said.

Aerial footage afterward showed that some metal framing — some of it covered in a blue material — crumpled on the stage, which was in front of a large grassy area. Some of the scaffolding-like material remained standing, reaching about 50 feet in the sky.

The stage was being set up especially for the Radiohead concert, Vella said. At the time it came down, the weather was good with no storm rolling through or significant winds, added fellow police Constable Harrison Ford.

“The big question is how” this happened, Vella said. “And that’s something we will be working closely with the Ministry of Labor to determine (the cause) exactly, to prevent any future cases.”

Reports: Indiana State Fair stage where 7 died was inadequate

The gates were scheduled to open at 5 p.m., allowing fans onto the concert grounds for the sold-out concert, according to CNN affiliate CBC.

The show was canceled due to what the production company Live Nation Entertainment described as “unforeseen circumstances.”

“Radiohead concert canceled. There has been an incident, more details forthcoming,” said a post on Downsview Park’s official Facebook page.

The band was to be joined by the Canadian musician known as Caribou.

The Toronto incident comes 10 months after metal scaffolding supporting stage lights fell onto a crowd of fans and workers as a storm swept through at the Indiana State Fair right before the band Sugarland was to perform.

Seven died and more than 40 were injured. In February, the Indiana Department of Labor announced penalties totaling $80,800 following a worker safety investigation into the collapse  Source