A 27-year veteran of the Howard County Police Department has been named its new leader. Lisa Myers will officially become the county's new police chief on Feb. 1.
County Executive Calvin Ball announced that Myers would lead the department after Police Chief Gary Gardner retired Dec. 31, 2018. She will be the first female police chief in the department's history and its first African-American chief.
“I have dedicated my career to the Howard County Police Department and I look forward to leading the agency with transparency and accountability,” said incoming Chief Myers in a statement on Tuesday, Jan. 8.
Myers has worked as a civilian staffer and as a sworn officer in the Howard County Police Department. She started in 1990 as a crime lab technician and entered the police academy in 1994, holding roles including chief of staff, watch commander, public information officer and youth services supervisor.
To head up the police department as its 13th chief, she is returning to the force after retiring in January 2018 as the commander of the human resources bureau. In that position, she oversaw employment services and education and training, according to Howard County government.
From one of America's most inspiring political leaders, a book about the core truths that unite us, and the long struggle to discern what those truths are and how best to act upon them, in her own life and across the life of our country.
Senator Kamala Harris's commitment to speaking truth is informed by her upbringing. The daughter of immigrants, she was raised in an Oakland, California community that cared deeply about social justice; her parents--an esteemed economist from Jamaica and an admired cancer researcher from India--met as activists in the civil rights movement when they were graduate students at Berkeley. Growing up, Harris herself never hid her passion for justice, and when she became a prosecutor out of law school, a deputy district attorney, she quickly established herself as one of the most innovative change agents in American law enforcement. She progressed rapidly to become the elected District Attorney for San Francisco, and then the chief law enforcement officer of the state of California as a whole. Known for bringing a voice to the voiceless, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis, winning a historic settlement for California's working families. Her hallmarks were applying a holistic, data-driven approach to many of California's thorniest issues, always eschewing stale "tough on crime" rhetoric as presenting a series of false choices. Neither "tough" nor "soft" but smart on crime became her mantra. Being smart means learning the truths that can make us better as a community, and supporting those truths with all our might. That has been the pole star that guided Harris to a transformational career as the top law enforcement official in California, and it is guiding her now as a transformational United States Senator, grappling with an array of complex issues that affect her state, our country, and the world, from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality.
By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in THE TRUTHS WE HOLD a master class in problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values. In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come.
R. Kelly could be facing an investigation in Georgia after the airing of a Lifetime documentary series that chronicled allegations of abuse, predatory behavior and pedophilia against the singer.
Gerald Griggs, an attorney for the family of Joycelyn Savage, one of the women featured in "Surviving R. Kelly," said the Fulton County District Attorney reached out to Griggs a few days ago, after the show aired.
Griggs said the Fulton County DA is conducting an investigation into Kelly.
Chris Hopper, the public information officer for the Fulton County DA, said he had "no comment" after being asked if there was an open investigation of Kelly in Georgia.
Griggs said he was asked to provide a list of witnesses in regards to events that allegedly took place in Kelly's house in the northern Atlanta suburb of Johns Creek in 2017.
A Chicago prosecutor said on Tuesday that her office has been in touch with two families related to allegations against Kelly since the series aired.
Cook County State's Attorney Kimberly Foxx urged potential victims or witnesses to speak to police.
"Please come forward. There is nothing that can be done to investigate these allegations without the cooperation of victims and witnesses," Foxx said in a news conference. "We cannot seek justice without you."
Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D)called out President Trump on the floor of the House Tuesday over the partial government shutdown. The freshman congresswoman accused the president of bringing "dishonor" to the Oval Office. Watch that video below:
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 7, 2019 – Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller, and the supernatural, today announced the upcoming premiere of its first original documentary feature, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Based on the acclaimed book of the same name by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, Horror Noire takes a critical look at a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and embraced both black filmmakers and black audiences.
The film features in-depth interviews with noted directors, writers, and actors, including Ernest Dickerson (Bones), Rusty Cundieff (Tales from the Hood), Jordan Peele (Us), Tina Mabry (Mississippi Damned), Tony Todd (Candyman), Paula Jai Parker (Tales from the Hood), Tananarive Due (My Soul to Keep), and Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman. Horror Noire will premiere exclusively on Shudder on Thursday, February 7, after special screening events in New York and Los Angeles earlier in the month.
“After I saw Oscar winner Jordan Peele’s Get Out, I created a UCLA class around Black Horror called The Sunken Place,” said executive producer Tananarive Due. “The text I recommended was Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman’s Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to the Present. So I was so thrilled to help bring this story to life on the screen. Horror Noire is about the history of black horror films, but it’s also a testament to the power of representation and how horror is such a visceral way to fight racial trauma: our real pain and fear, but from a safer distance – while we get stronger.”
“The horror genre is daring, unflinching pedagogy. It is like a syllabus of our social, political, and racial world,” said executive producer Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman. “The horror film is fascinating if for no other reason than that it prides itself on snuggling up next to the taboo, while confounding our sense of good and evil, the monstrous and divine, and the sacred and profane. It is one of the most intrepid of entertainment forms in its scrutiny of our humanity and our foibles. It is my sincere hope that Horror Noire will spark fierce debate and trigger even more exacting, nuanced explorations into the power of horror.”
Beginning with the silent film era, Horror Noire explores the often overlooked and downplayed history of Black Americans in Hollywood: the emergence of black leading men in genre cinema in the late ‘60s with Night of the Living Dead and into the ‘70s with Blacula and films of the blaxploitation era; Candyman and the growing popularity of urban horror in the 1990s; up to the genre’s recent resurgence with movies like the Oscar-winning, critical and commercial hit Get Out.
“There are messages of humanity and survival that Black storytellers and performers have been expressing in horror since the genre’s beginning,” said Ashlee Blackwell, a producer and co-writer of Horror Noire as well as the founder and managing editor of Graveyard Shift Sisters, a website dedicated to the topic of Black women in horror. “It’s been an exciting journey to work with a team to bring this once hidden history to life and out of the shadows.”
Horror Noire is adapted from Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman’s landmark influential 2011 book, Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present, a comprehensive chronological survey of the genre. Both book and film provide a unique social history of blacks in America as seen through their changing images in horror films.
Horror Noire features interviews with filmmakers and scholars, showcasing a who’s who of black horror cinema, from those who survived the genre’s past trends to those shaping its future.
Ernest Dickerson Director, Bones, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
Jordan Peele Writer/ Director, Get Out, Us
Keith David Actor, The Thing
Kelly Jo Minter Actor, The People Under the Stairs
Ken Foree Actor, Dawn of the Dead
Ken Sagoes Actor, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Loretta Devine Actor, Urban Legend
Mark H. Harris Creator, BlackHorrorMovies.com
Meosha Bean Filmmaker
Miguel A. Nuñez Actor, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
Monica Suriyage Filmmaker
Paula Jai Parker Actor, Tales from the Hood
Rachel True Actor, The Craft
Richard Lawson Actor, Scream Blacula Scream
Robin R. Means Coleman, PhD Author/ Educator
Rusty Cundieff Co-Writer/ Director, Tales from the Hood
Tananarive Due Author/ Educator
Tina Mabry Writer/ Director, Mississippi Damned
Tony Todd Actor, Candyman
William Crain Director, Blacula
Horror Noire is directed by Xavier Burgin, executive produced by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, Tananarive Due, Fangoria Editor-in-Chief Phil Nobile Jr and Kelly Ryan of Stage 3 Productions, and is produced and co-written by Ashlee Blackwell and Danielle Burrows.
“Horror Noire is an important and timely documentary that explores an overlooked part of the horror genre that’s only just beginning to get the attention it deserves,” said Shudder’s general manager, Craig Engler. “We’re honored and thrilled to help bring this project to life and share it with the world.”
Ahead of its Shudder debut on February 7, Horror Noire will have its world premiere Friday, February 1, in collaboration with Beyond Fest and the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, CA, headlining two days of screenings with special guests in celebration of black horror. More information and tickets will be available soon at americancinemathequecalendar.com.
Then on Monday, February 4, Horror Noire will have its east coast premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, followed by a panel conversation featuring executive producer Tananarive Due, writer/producer Ashlee Blackwell, filmmaker R. Shanea Williams, and comics writer Greg Anderson Elysee. The film will screen on a double bill with Rusty Cundieff’s 1995 classic, Tales from the Hood. Tickets for this special event will be on sale Monday, January 7 at BAM.org.
WATCH THE TRAILER
ABOUT SHUDDER
AMC Networks’ SHUDDER is a premium streaming video service, super-serving fans of all degrees with the best selection in genre entertainment, covering thrillers, suspense, and horror. SHUDDER’s expanding library of film, TV series, and originals is available in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, and Germany on most streaming devices for 4.99/month or 49.99/year. To experience SHUDDER commitment-free for 7 days, visit www.shudder.com.
