Rescue groups can apply to handle placement of Vick dogs

By Zinie Chen Sampson, Associated Press Writer

RICHMOND, Va. — Rescue groups can start applying to find homes for pit bulls seized from NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s dogfighting operation.

Rebecca J. Huss, an animal law expert and the dogs’ court-appointed guardian, made an application form available Friday as the latest step in the process of overseeing the placement or euthanasia of 48 dogs from Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels operation.

Huss, appointed by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, started her evaluation of the dogs last week. The animals have been held in shelters in Virginia since April, when they were seized in a raid on Vick’s property in Surry County.

“Some of the dogs that showed no signs of aggression or threat are now with experienced foster families to allow further evaluation of the dogs,” Huss said in a news release from Valparaiso University School of Law, where she is a professor.

Only established rescue groups will be eligible to take custody of the dogs, according to a court order in the case. It’s possible that a dog classified as able to be placed may need to be euthanized if further evaluation shows that it is a danger to humans or other animals, or if officials can’t find a proper setting, Huss said.

The applications must be returned to Huss no later than Nov. 12 so that U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors can inspect the sites where the dogs would be housed. “If everything goes according to schedule, the dogs could be transferred to the rescue organizations before the end of the year,” Huss said in the news release.

Vick and three co-defendants pleaded guilty to a federal dogfighting charge and are to be sentenced before the end of the year. In a separate but related case, another man pleaded guilty Wednesday to the same charge and will be sentenced in January. They each face up to five years in prison.

Hudson earlier this month ordered one of 49 pit bulls seized to be euthanized after the dog displayed too much aggression to allow animal behavior experts to examine it. The order said experts determined the other 48 dogs have placement potential.

Vick and his co-defendants still face state charges.

In an effort to further gray the area separating free speech and censorship, Brooklyn assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries is demanding that the New York Comptroller withdraw an $84 million state pension fund invested in Universal Music Group and its parent company Vivendi unless Nas changes the title his new album Nigger. “[They are] profiting from a racial slur that has been used to dehumanize people of color for centuries,” Jeffries said. “It is time for Nas and other hip-hop artists to clean up their act and stop flooding the airwaves with the N-word.” According to the Comptroller’s office, he’s intending to the music company and “urge them not to release the album” under that moniker. Universal had no comment.

Rolling Stone’s Evan Serpick recently spoke to Nas regarding the controversy surrounding the new album. While the MC was reluctant to discuss the album’s specifics (”It’s not ready for me to talk about. The album is done, basically, but … it’s a piece of art”), Nas spoke openly about his, and the record label’s, decision to stick with the name. His last album, Hip Hop Is Dead, was supposed to don the title, but “the climate wasn’t right, and Hip Hop Is Dead is also what I was feeling. That went first, and now I’ve got to get this one off my chest,” he explains, turning to speak about the rash of hate crimes involving nooses around the country. “It’s the new act of hate, and probably because of Barack Obama, people’s ignorance and fear and jealousy is creating an outrage throughout the country, and people are reacting by putting nooses up. It’s been a really serious year,” the rapper explained.

So what of all the controversy? “It’s like talking to your child about sex. It’s hard, but it’s important,” he says. “It’s probably going to make people uncomfortable. I don’t expect a lot of people to sell a record called Nigger. Hopefully, people can open their minds up and lose some of their fear and deal with it. It’s just an album. It’s one piece of the many things I do, and this will be one of my favorite pieces.” And his label is firmly behind him, “It will be certain record stores that will be scared to deal with it. The record label is gung ho, and it’s ready to go.”

Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. aka the Chi town born hip hop conscious rap artist is set to release a 15 track compilation album titiled “thisisme then: the best of common” on Nov. 27^th. The 15 track compilation covers the hip hop artists early years from 1992-1997 and includes all of the hip hop artist’s solo hits from that period alongside collaborations with many hip hop notables such as Lauryn Hill (”Retrospect For Life”), Chantay Savage [”Reminding Me (Of Sef)”], Erykah Badu (”All Night Long”), Cee-Lo [”G.O.D. (Gaining One’s Definition”], Q-Tip (”Stolen Moments Pt. III”), and more.  Earlier this year, Common’s most recent album, “Finding Forever” (produced mostly by Kanye West) debuted at #1 the Billboard Top 200 Album chart - the artist’s first #1 debut. In the school of hip-hop noted by the positivism of such literate (and often jazz-influenced) hip hop artists as De La Soul, Digable Planets, the Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, Pharcyde, Jurassic 5, Gang Starr, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and others - Common has staked out his own unique and important position. With music as his artistic foundation, Common has followed in the footsteps of other rappers (such as Ludacris and Mos Def) into film Common is a multi talented hip hop artist who seems to be comfortable in many areas and has made his mark far beyond the hip hop community. Be sure to check out “thisisme then: the best of common” on Nov. 27^th on Legacy Recordings  

Web site: http://www.legacyrecordings.com/

More British workers are using social networking sites for work-related tasks - but they’re not happy with employers surfing them to dig for dirt, a survey finds.

Forty-three per cent of respondents said they’d feel outraged if an employer used the sites to seek information about them, and 56 per cent said they considered such actions unethical, according to the survey by Manpower UK.

Still, they find them useful: 17 per cent said they use the sites to research potential employers, 17 per cent use them for other work-related reasons and 10 per cent go on to network, the survey found.