#Dianne Houston

[protagonistspub]

Firewall by DiAnn Mills

Firewall by DiAnn Mills is the first book in the FBI Houston series. It was an impulse pick-up from the library, my first book from the author, and is Christian romantic suspense. The series is currently available on Kindle Unlimited and Audible Plus, as of the publication of this entry. DiAnn Mills is one of those authors that is under-read in the Christian romantic suspense genre in my…

[negrolicity]

Thelma Houston and The Sisters Of Glory - Oh Happy Day (Vaticano 1994)

[killed-by-choice]

Nichole Williams, 22 (USA 1997)

Nichole Williams already had a 1-year-old, a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old when she found out that she was pregnant with her fourth child. The 22-year-old mother underwent an abortion in 1997.

The abortionist was Robert Crist, who had a history of killing his clients. He was the killer of 19-year-old Dianne Boyd, a disabled sexual assault victim who was forced into abortion. He was also linked to another teenage girl’s death (Latachie Veal) by abortion in Houston in 1991.

Nichole’s abortion was done in five minutes, indicating that not enough time was taken to lower the risk of severe injury. Seconds before the abortion was done, Nichole struggled to breathe. She was dying on the operating table.

The ambulance arrived 15 minutes later. Despite the attempts of the paramedics and the emergency room where Nichole was taken, she was pronounced dead at 3:12, only one hour and twelve minutes after the abortion began.

Nichole’s funeral was held at the New North Side Baptist Church shortly after her death. Her three surviving children were left without their mother and their youngest sibling.

Planned Parenthood of St. Louis owned the abortion facility, making Nichole another Planned Parenthood death.

(Newspaper transcript attached in link)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Tuesday, April 29, 1997

[madamlaydebug]

Savion Glover

Born: November 19, 1973

Birthplace: Newark, NJ

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer.

Glover was born to a white father who left the family before he was born and a black mother. Glover's great grandfather on his mother's side, Dick Lundy, was a shortstop in the Negro Leagues. He managed eleven Negro League baseball teams, including the Newark Eagles. His grandfather, Bill Lewis, was a big band pianist and vocalist. His grandmother, Anna Lundy Lewis, was the minister of music at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, NJ. She played for Whitney Houston when she was singing in the gospel choir, and was the one who first noticed Savion's musical talent. She once held him and hummed some rhythms to him, and he smiled and joined along. Glover graduated from Newark Arts High School in 1991.

Glover stated that his style is "young and funk." When asked to describe what funk is, he says it is the bass line. "Funk is anything that gets one's head on beat. It is riding with the rhythm. It is a pulse that keeps one rolling with the beat." Gregory Hines, a tap legend, was one of Glover's tap teachers. Hines stated that "Savion is possibly the best tap dancer that ever lived." Glover liked to start his pieces with some old school moves from famous tappers and then work his way into his own style. Hines said it’s like paying homage to those he respects. When Honi Coles died, Savion performed at his memorial service. He finished his dance with a famous Coles move, a backflip into a split from standing position, then getting up without using one's hands. Glover rarely does this move because it wasn't his style, but he did it because it was Coles' style that he wanted to keep alive. "I feel like it's one of my responsibilities to keep the style." Henry LeTang called Glover "the Sponge" because he learned very quickly with everything thrown at him. LeTang taught the Hines brothers back in the 1950s and taught Glover for a little while before having him work for "Black and Blue," a tap revue in Paris in 1987. Many legendary tappers taught Glover such as LeTang, the Hines brothers, Jimmy Slyde, Dianne Walker, Chuck Green, Lon Chaney (Isaiah Chaneyfield), Honi Coles, Sammy Davis Jr., Buster Brown, Howard Sims, and Arthur Duncan.

He has been teaching tap since he was 14 years old. Glover created Real Tap Skills, and started HooFeRz Club School for Tap in Newark, New Jersey. Wanting to bring back the real essence of tap, Glover claimed that he is on a mission to reclaim the rhythm that was lost when tap dancing was recycled after many generations. At age seven, Glover drummed in a group called Three Plus One. In the group, he demanded that he dance while he played the drum. Glover has a heavy foot for tap. He dances hard and loud in every step, and teaches his mentees that one must learn how to "hit," a term related to one's ability to express oneself, complete a tap sequence, or say something.

Thank you, Black American page

[playvod-cameroun]

L’Ile des cœurs tourmentés, un film dramatique en VOD

Retrouvez Lorraine Toussaint et Leon Thomas dans le film L’Ile des cœurs tourmentés sur PlayVOD Cameroun. Disponible en streaming, ce long-métrage dramatique a été réalisé par Dianne Houston.

L’Ile des cœurs tourmentés en VOD

[lboogie1906]

Congressman Wesley Parish Hunt (November 13, 1981) a Republican member of Congress from Texas, was born in Houston to Willie L. Hunt, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, and Dianne Johnson Hunt.

He accepted an appointment to West Point, thus receiving a BS in leadership and management with a Field of Study in Mechanical Engineering was commissioned in the Army. He served in the Army as an Aviation Branch Officer and AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter pilot until he was honorably discharged at the rank of captain. He was deployed once to Iraq and twice to Saudi Arabia as a Diplomatic Liaison Officer.

He earned a MPA an MBA, and MS in Industrial Relations from Cornell University. Remaining at Cornell.

In 2020, he vied for Texas’s 7th Congressional District. The incumbent Democrat gained 50.8%. In 2022, he won in the general election. He became the first congressman in the history of that Congressional District.

He emphasizes defending the infrastructure of the oil and gas industry in Houston, calling the city an energy hub and the world’s energy capital. He continues to investigate the immigration crisis along the Texas border, describing it as a present danger to US sovereignty and security.

He is married to Emily Hunt, a pediatric nurse practitioner. They are the parents of two daughters and a son. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[therealimintobooks]

Facing The Enemy by DiAnn Mills @diannmills @partnersincr1me #giveaway

Facing The Enemy by DiAnn Mills September 4 – 29, 2023 Virtual Book Tour Synopsis: For the past five years, FBI Special Agent Risa Jacobs has worked in the violent crimes against children division of the Houston FBI. She’s never had reason to believe there’s a target on her back . . . until now. When the long-awaited reunion between Risa and her brother, Trenton, ends in tragedy, Risa is…

[irreflexion]

"An Unlikely Trio: Dianne Feinstein, Whitney Houston, and the Disney Stock Saga"

Once upon a time, Dianne Feinstein, a prominent politician, found herself engrossed in the world of finance. She had always been intrigued by the stock market and decided to invest in Disney stock. Little did she know that her investment would lead her to an unexpected encounter. As the stock soared, Dianne attended a glamorous event where she crossed paths with the legendary Whitney Houston.…

[assetmoo]

Dianne Houston

http://dlvr.it/SqdWdh

[fatehbaz]

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Hundreds of bats have been rescued by Austin Bat Refuge this week after a record-setting winter freeze earlier this month left some of the critters trapped in ice, injured, cold-stunned or dead.

Lee Mackenzie and Dianne Odegard, [...] who run Austin Bat Refuge, have picked up as many as roughly 600 bats, dead and alive, every day since Monday [22 February 2021] from multiple Central Texas bridges. "It's just horrific," Mackenzie said. Mackenzie and Odegard are working to rehydrate surviving bats and feed them before releasing them back to their roosts under the bridges. [...] Even before a half-foot of snow blanketed the Austin area, callers to the refuge were reporting bats stuck in ice at their homes. The refuge, which never lost power during the freeze, received calls every day about found bats. [...] Once snow and ice began to melt, bats were brought to the refuge in boxes and bags and Odegard and Mackenzie started to check bridges for the animals.

The pair said a lot of the bats are traumatized and stressed. "You can just see the look in their eyes and see they're shocked by this like many of us were," Mackenzie said. [...]

Although many bats in Texas migrate south to Mexico and Central America during the winter months, as many as 100,000 bats can linger year-round in the Austin area. Roosts under the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge have helped keep bats warm when temperatures start to drop. The spaces are 16 inches deep and 1 inch wide and can retain heat for the bats.

In the past three to five years, the Mexican free-tailed bats in the world’s largest urban bat colony next to the American-Statesman building also have been extending their stay in town because Austin’s average temperatures have gotten warmer or because the animals are sick, said Sarah Whitson, a former wildlife officer for Austin Animal Protection.

Cold weather works as a trigger to leave for bats, who like temperatures in the 70s, 80s and 90s, Whitson told the Statesman in 2019. [...] February temperatures in Austin this year [2021] hit a high of 85 degrees — less than 10 days before the record freeze, according to the National Weather Service — and Wednesday’s [24 February 2021] high was 86. [...]

Bat fatalities are also being reported across the state. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials have received reports of bats being found dead under bridges. The department is tracking bat deaths and the deaths of other animals due to the freeze online.

A bat colony under a bridge at Waugh Drive in Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston was hit by the freeze, and about 2,000 Mexican free-tailed bats who live under the Houston bridge were killed by the freezing temperatures, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Mackenzie and Odegard have only picked up a handful of bats each day from around Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge. It's possible that some of the 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats who live under bridge may have fallen into the lake. Mackenzie said that during daily checks, he has yelled out to kayakers on the water if they saw bats swimming or on pilings. Other bats living under a bridge on Dittmar Road may have been washed away when ice started to melt, Mackenzie said. [...]

Mackenzie and Odegard said they've released 400 or 500 bats over the last few days to roosts under Interstate 35 at Wells Branch Parkway and Howard Lane.

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Headline and text published by: Kelsey Bradshaw. “’It’s just horrific’: Hundreds of bats found dead, injured near roosts after Texas freeze.” Austin American-Statesman. 26 February 2021. Images and captions published by: Jay Janner “Austin refuge keeps Mexican free-tailed bats warm after Texas freeze.” Austin American-Statesman. 26 February 2021.

[96thdayofrage]

The fact that the gunman responsible for this week’s massacre in Uvalde, Texas, was able to buy two AR-15s days after his 18th birthday highlights how much easier it is for Americans to purchase rifles than handguns.

Under federal law, Americans buying handguns from licensed dealers must be at least 21, which would have precluded Salvador Ramos from buying that type of weapon. That trumps Texas law, which only requires buyers of any type of firearm to be 18 or older.

Following Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary School, which killed 19 children and two adults, a growing number of lawmakers in Texas and beyond are calling for the minimum age to purchase assault rifles to be raised to 21 from 18. Doing so would require undoing nearly two centuries of more permissive regulations on so-called long guns.

“It’s something that could happen at either the state or federal level, but I don’t see movement on either front,” said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a criminal law professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

Only six states — Florida, Washington, Vermont, California, Illinois and Hawaii — have increased the minimum purchase age for long guns to 21, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The majority did so following the 2018 massacre in Parkland, Florida, where a then-19-year-old assailant killed 17 people at a high school.

Several states have since faced legal challenges.

The National Rifle Association sought to repeal the Florida law.

“The ban infringes the right of all 18-to-20-year-olds to purchase firearms for the exercise of their Second Amendment rights, even for self-defense in the home,” the NRA argued in a court filing, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “The ban does not just limit the right, it obliterates it.”

Government attorneys, however, argued that because “18-to-20-year-olds are uniquely likely to engage in impulsive, emotional, and risky behaviors that offer immediate or short-term rewards, drawing the line for legal purchase of firearms at 21 is a reasonable method of addressing the Legislature’s public safety concerns.”

A federal judge upheld the law last year; the NRA is appealing.

A U.S. Court of Appeals recently ruled that California’s version of the law was unconstitutional, though it did uphold a provision that requires adults under 21 to obtain a hunting license before buying a rifle or shotgun.

After the shooting in Uvalde this week, lawmakers in New York and Utah also called on their states to raise the age limit for long gun purchases to 21. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced federal legislation earlier this month — less than a week before the Uvalde shooting — that would raise the minimum age to purchase assault weapons to 21 from 18; the California Democrat said in a statement that it was in response to a shooting that killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket. That gunman also was 18 years old.

“It makes no sense that it’s illegal for someone under 21 to buy a handgun or even a beer, yet can legally buy an assault weapon,” she said.

[lboogie1906]

Everette Harp (August 17, 1961) is a jazz saxophonist. His album Jazz Funk Soul, a collaboration with Chuck Loeb and Jeff Lorber, received his first nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

He was born in Houston. He is the youngest of eight children. His father was a minister and his mother played the organ. He started playing jazz in middle school at Marshall Junior High. He attended the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston and North Texas State University as a music major. He joined Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. Working as an accountant for a short time, he played in local Houston bands, most notably a jazz/funk group called The Franchise which released an album locally with the first recording of Harp’s “There’s Still Hope”.

He moved to Los Angeles and toured with Teena Marie and then Anita Baker. George Duke signed him to a contract with Capitol Records to record with his group 101 North. Bruce Lundvall of Blue Note Records signed him to a solo contract before the group album was released. His album was produced by Duke and released by Blue Note.

He appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival as a featured guest artist presented by Duke. He appeared every week on The Arsenio Hall Show. His appearance on Sax by the Fire led to his performing on the theme song for Entertainment Tonight. He played the theme song for Soul Train and shared the stage with President Bill Clinton at the Arkansas Ball.

He worked with Stanley Clarke, Natalie Cole, Neil Diamond, Aretha Franklin, Wayne Henderson, Al Jarreau, The Jazz Crusaders, Billy Joel, Chaka Khan, Kenny Loggins, Bobby Lyle, Peter Maffay, Marcus Miller, Chante Moore, Dianne Reeves, Eros Ramazzotti, Brenda Russell, Joe Sample, and Luther Vandross.

He continued his television and studio recording obligations and his solo recording career. He became a staple in the Los Angeles TV and recording studio scene. He appeared on several television shows, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and with Jay Leno, The Arsenio Hall Show, and The Tavis Smiley Show. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #phibetasigma

[whitney-houston]

Whitney Houston at the American Music Awards, 1986

[irreflexion]

"An Unlikely Trio: Dianne Feinstein, Whitney Houston, and the Disney Stock Saga"

Once upon a time, Dianne Feinstein, a prominent politician, found herself engrossed in the world of finance. She had always been intrigued by the stock market and decided to invest in Disney stock. Little did she know that her investment would lead her to an unexpected encounter. As the stock soared, Dianne attended a glamorous event where she crossed paths with the legendary Whitney Houston.…