George Zimmerman took the witness stand during his bail hearing Friday morning and apologized to Trayvon Martin’s parents for killing their son. The Associated Press reports that Zimmerman stated that he was “sorry for the loss of your son” and didn’t know that Martin was unarmed during their fatal confrontation in Sanford, Florgia on February 26. Zimmerman has claimed self-defense, saying that Martin assaulted him. Zimmerman’s bail on the second-degree murder charge has been set at $150,000.
There were some habeas corpus issues in Brambleman, but this is real. Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens is taking a look at the actions of Cumming Mayor Ford Gravitt after he threw a local activist with a video camera out of a city council meeting Tuesday night. Nydia Tisdale, who runs the AboutForsyth.com blog (“Investigating Corruption in Forsyth County, GA”), has ruffled some feathers up there, and apparently she was up there doing some more ruffling the other night. She was there to record discussion about a water contract with Forsyth County; the mayor decided that she shouldn’t. He commanded the police chief to remove the camera (and her with it) from council chambers. You can see her Youtube posting of the incident…
The Daily Beast is reporting on the Trayvon Martin case. Specifically, what got George Zimmerman arrested and what—supposedly—were the fatally wounded teen’s last words: “You got it.” Zimmerman used hollow-point bullets in his gun, by the way. Here’s The Daily Beast’s account of Trayvon’s last moments alive and the short time following: As has been reported, Zimmerman told police officials that he lost sight of Martin and went around a townhouse to see where he was. Then he claimed Martin confronted him and punched him, knocking him down. According to The Daily Beast’s source, Zimmerman told police that when he was on the ground, Martin straddled him, striking him, and then tried to smother him. Zimmerman claimed that he yelled for help,…
One book reviewer has cleared out room on her list for Brambleman. She explains. My Thoughts: I’m African American; and I grew up in the South. The Lord has blessed me to have not experienced racism first hand. I normally only read YA and paranormal books for this blog. Yet in the light of the Trayvon Martin incident, books like this intrigue me. So when I received the review request from the author, I accepted. I received my paperback copy recently, so look out for my review within the next month or two. Katrina blogs as Kindred Dreamheart. Visit her blog and check out the post.
The Brambleman giveaway at Goodreads has concluded. More than 900 readers entered the contest, and the five lucky people won copies (at least I think they’re lucky). I’ll be mailing out their copies today. Congratulations! If you didn’t win, don’t despair! We’re still running a giveaway of Chain Gang Elmentary at Goodreads. Also, if you’re a member at LibraryThing, I’ve got an even bigger giveaway going on for both papterback and eBook versions of Brambleman and Chain Gang Elementary. 100 eBook versions of Brambleman and 50 e-copies of Chain Gang Elementary are up for grabs. If you’re a member of Goodreads or LibraryThing, register to win a book today. If not, why don’t you sign up? It’s free!
I didn’t know NeNe Leakes lived in Forsyth County. (For that matter, I didn’t know NeNe Leakes.) In any case, she does—or at least, she did—and now the “Real Wives of Atlanta” star is divorced from Gregg Leakes, according to court officials in Cumming. Ms. Leakes is reportedly the highest-paid cast member of the “Reality” show, pulling in an estimated $1 million a year. The matter of her marital status had been the subject of rumors. However, the celebrity filed for divorce nearly two years ago and the divorced was finalized on September 29, 2011, according to a report filed by Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Rodney Ho. Here’s his scoop.
