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Estate Executors Call Paris Jackson’s Challenge ‘Naïve’

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — A source familiar with the estate’s position said the executors do not see this dispute as a personal clash with Paris. Rather, the source characterized the objections as stemming from her attorney’s lack of familiarity with complex entertainment estates

Published

7 months ago

July 15, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

The long-running administration of Michael Jackson’s estate has entered another contentious phase, as co-executors John Branca and John McClain filed a new supplement defending their decision to pay significant legal fees, including $250,000 bonuses to outside attorneys—while accusing Paris Jackson’s lawyers of lodging untimely and misguided objections.

In the Fifth Supplement to the Fee Petition, filed July 14, 2025, in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the executors state that Paris Jackson’s objections—submitted more than a year after the original petition—should be overruled outright. The filing contends that no other heirs or the California Attorney General have opposed the payments. Paris Jackson, 27, is the second child and only daughter of the late pop legend Michael Jackson. Her biological mother is Debbie Rowe, an ex-wife of Jackson who signed over custody of Paris and her brother, Prince Jackson, following the couple’s divorce in 1999. Paris and Prince’s youngest sibling is Blanket “Bigi” Jackson.

A source familiar with the estate’s position said the executors do not see this dispute as a personal clash with Paris. Rather, the source characterized the objections as stemming from her attorney’s lack of familiarity with complex entertainment estates, describing the lawyer as relatively inexperienced in this area and not part of a major Los Angeles-based firm. According to the source, the estate’s team views the objections as reflecting “a large amount of naïveté” about how music industry transactions are handled. Central to the dispute is the compensation awarded to two law firms, Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP and Greenberg Traurig LLP. The executors argue these firms were pivotal in negotiating the 2018 sale of the estate’s minority stake in EMI Music Publishing to Sony for $287.5 million—an asset they say the estate acquired in 2012 for just $47,500. At the time of that acquisition, EMI’s publishing division controlled 1.3 million copyrights, with a catalog that included music by Arcade Fire, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley, Drake, Jay-Z, Norah Jones, Pink, Rihanna, and Usher. The sale reportedly generated a return of more than 6,000 times the initial investment.

“This was not an asset that Michael or the Estate owned at the time of Michael’s death,” the filing asserts, adding that it was the executors’ “ingenuity and strategic negotiations” that created this value. They maintain that the attorneys’ expertise in entertainment transactions justified fees beyond hourly rates, describing such arrangements as “common” in the music business. The firms were paid $250,000 bonuses in December 2018, in addition to regular billing. Paris Jackson’s legal team argued that the executors exceeded their authority by paying more than 70% of legal fees “on account” without court approval. Branca and McClain disputed that interpretation and cited a February 3, 2010, court order authorizing them to retain and pay legal counsel—such as litigation, trademark, and corporate attorneys—on an ongoing basis in connection with the operation of the MJJ Business. The executors emphasized that this order did not impose a 70% limit on those payments. According to the filing, “to the contrary,” the court specifically recognized the need to allow the executors discretion to assemble a highly experienced legal team to manage the business.

The executors also stated that, despite the lack of any restriction, they generally withheld 30% of billed fees as a matter of practice, with exceptions when they believed payment in full served the estate’s best interests. They noted the estate has received investment earnings on those withheld amounts. The filing argues that since Michael Jackson’s death, the executors and their legal teams have transformed the MJJ Business—which had been saddled with more than $500 million in debt—into an enterprise with assets now worth several billion dollars. The estate’s attorneys have represented the estate in more than fifteen lawsuits in the United States and have coordinated with counsel in Europe and Japan. Almost all litigation against the estate and nearly all of the 65 creditor claims have been resolved favorably. In addition to defending the $250,000 payments, the executors pushed back on objections to a smaller $4,675 payment to Blank Rome LLP. They characterized this as “de minimis” and pointed out that courts have previously excused declarations for such modest amounts. However, they offered to provide additional documentation if the court requests it.

Under the terms of Michael Jackson’s trust arrangements, his children do not gain full control of their trust funds until they reach age 40. According to Carolina Family Estate Planning, they receive allowances starting at age 21, with access to the first third of their share at age 30, a second third at age 35, and full access at age 40. The supplement also asks the court to strike certain “affirmative relief” requests in Paris Jackson’s objections as improperly presented under California procedural rules. The executors warned that pursuing the objections would further drain estate resources and create additional delays, calling the effort “not in the interest of…the other beneficiaries.” If the court declines to summarily reject the objections, Branca and McClain request a formal evidentiary hearing and propose that retired Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff serve as referee under a stipulation signed by the executors and other Jackson heirs, including Katherine Jackson and Michael’s sons, Prince and Bigi. The filing states that the Attorney General has not objected to referring such matters to the retired judge. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 16, 2025, before Judge Brenda Penny in Los Angeles.

Stacy M. Brown

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LIVE from the NMA Convention Raheem DeVaughn Says The Time Is Now: Let’s End HIV in Our Communities #2

Set against the backdrop of the NMA conference, Executive Officers from the National Medical Association, Grammy Award Winning Artist and Advocate Raheem DeVaughn, and Gilead Sciences experts, are holding today an important conversation on HIV prevention and health equity. Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV despite advances in prevention options. Today’s event […]

Published

3 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV despite advances in prevention options. Today’s event is designed to uplift voices, explore barriers to access, and increase awareness and key updates about PrEP, a proven prevention method that remains underutilized among Black women. This timely gathering will feature voices from across health, media, and advocacy as we break stigma and center equity in HIV prevention.

Additional stats and information to know:

● Black women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, with Black women representing more than 50% of new HIV diagnoses among women in the U.S. in 2022, despite comprising just 13% of women in the U.S.

● Women made up only 8% of PrEP users despite representing 19% of all new HIV diagnoses in 2022.

● Gilead Sciences is increasing awareness and addressing stigma by encouraging regular HIV testing and having judgment-free conversations with your healthcare provider about prevention options, including oral PrEP and long-acting injectable PrEP options.

● PrEP is an HIV prevention medication that has been available since 2012.

● Only 1 in 3 people in the U.S. who could benefit from PrEP were prescribed a form of PrEP in 2022.

Oakland Post

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TRUMP: “Washington, D.C. is Safe”

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — President Trump, who typically travels with a full contingent of high-level protection, insinuated that he finally felt safe enough to go to dinner in the District of Columbia. “My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years,” said the nation’s 47th president.

Published

3 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

By Apriil Ryan
BlackPressUSA Washington Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent

“Washington, D.C. is safe,” President Trump declared from the Oval Office today. Those words came while Trump was hosting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During the question-and-answer session, which primarily focused on a peace deal in the Russian-Ukrainian war, Trump explained, “You did that in four days.” He was speaking of how fast the National Guard quelled the violence in what was once called Chocolate City.

The President deployed the National Guard to D.C. a week ago, to a city with reduced crime rates over the previous year. Violent crime dropped by 26%, marking the lowest level in 30 years. Homicides also fell by 11%.

President Trump, who typically travels with a full contingent of high-level protection, insinuated that he finally felt safe enough to go to dinner in the District of Columbia. “My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years,” said the nation’s 47th president.

Trump reinforced his claim about the newly acquired safety in D.C. by relaying that a friend’s son is attending dinner in D.C., something he would not have done last year.

After the president finished his comments, a reporter/commentator in the room with close connections to Marjorie Taylor Greene jumped into the high-level conversation to affirm the president’s comments, saying, “I walked around yesterday with MTG. If you can walk around D.C. with MTG and not be attacked, this city is safe.”

That reporter was the same person who chastised President Zelenskyy months ago during his first Oval Office meeting with Trump for not wearing a business suit. Zelenskyy, a wartime President, has been clad in less formal attire to reflect the country’s current war stance against Russia.

Without any sourcing, President Trump also said, “People that haven’t gone out to dinner in Washington, D.C., in two years are going out to dinner, and the restaurants the last two days have been busier than they’ve been in a long time.”

The increase in policing in Washington, D.C. is because a 19-year-old former Doge employee was carjacked in the early hours of the morning recently.

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Rising Energy Costs Weigh Heaviest on Black Households

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — For many African American families, the cost of keeping the lights on and homes heated or cooled is not just a monthly bill — it’s a crushing financial burden.

Published

3 days ago

February 3, 2026

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

For many African American families, the cost of keeping the lights on and homes heated or cooled is not just a monthly bill — it’s a crushing financial burden.

A new national study from Binghamton University and California State University, San Bernardino, finds that Black households spend a far larger share of their income on energy compared to white households, even when income levels are the same. “We often say that African Americans suffer more, but we often blame it just on income. And the reality is, there is something more there,” study author George Homsy, associate professor at Binghamton University, wrote. “It’s not just because they tend to be poor. There is something that’s putting them at a disadvantage. I think what happened is it happens to be where they live.” The study, published in Energy Research & Social Science, analyzed 65,000 census tracts across the United States. It found that while the average American household spends about 3.2% of income on energy bills, households in the majority African American census tracts spend an average of 5.1%.

Homsy and researcher Ki Eun Kang point to the age and condition of housing stock, along with lower homeownership rates, as key drivers. Their research concludes that “energy burden is not simply a matter of income or energy cost but also race, which might be driven by place.” Older, less energy-efficient housing and high rental rates in Black communities mean residents often cannot make upgrades like improved insulation or new appliances, locking families into higher bills.

Tradeoffs and Health Risks

The consequences go beyond money. Families forced to spend 10% or more of their income on energy — what experts classify as “unmanageable” — may cut back on food, medicine, or other essentials. More than 12 million U.S. households report leaving their homes at unsafe temperatures to reduce costs, while millions more fall behind on utility bills. The health effects are severe. High energy burdens increase risks of asthma, depression, poor sleep, pneumonia, and even premature death. The issue is especially acute for African Americans, who are disproportionately exposed to housing and environmental conditions that amplify these risks.

Washington, D.C.: A Case Study

In Washington, D.C., the problem is particularly stark. A recent analysis by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) shows that SNAP-eligible households spend more than 20% of their income on energy bills. Across the metro area, nearly two-thirds of low-income households devote over 6% of their income to energy, and 40% face what researchers call a “severe financial strain,” paying more than 10%. Pepco, the District’s primary electricity provider, has implemented three consecutive annual rate hikes, pushing the average household bill to $114 per month as of January 2025. Shutoffs have followed — nearly 12,000 customers lost service in 2024, with disconnections doubling after a summer rate hike. Washington Gas has also sought a 12% rate increase and pushed a controversial $215 million pipeline replacement project, rebranded as “District SAFE.” The plan could ultimately cost D.C. households an additional $45,000 each over several decades, or nearly $1,000 annually added to bills.

Historical Roots

Researchers argue that these inequities are not accidental but rooted in history. The ScienceDirect study reveals that African American communities living in formerly redlined neighborhoods continue to face disadvantages today — from poor housing quality to higher climate risks. Homsy says policymakers must make targeted efforts. “It is harder to get to rental units where a lot of poor people live,” he noted. “We need to work harder to get into these communities of color.”