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‘We Are Not Losers Yet’; Cosby Talks Prison Life, NBC, and Media Erasure

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Bill Cosby said his widely criticized admonition that young Black men should “pull their pants up” was less about fashion and more about a system that profits from negative images of African Americans.

Published

9 months ago

September 8, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Bill Cosby said his widely criticized admonition that young Black men should “pull their pants up” was less about fashion and more about a system that profits from negative images of African Americans.

“But what was it they used to say? They not only did that, but what got a lot of attention was the shoes, the untied laces, and then the pants down around the crack. And if this is the attention, then it’s something put towards you like they would put drugs into the neighborhood. They would lace the marijuana. They are putting us under siege,” Cosby said during a candid interview on Black Press USA’s “Let It Be Known.” He tied those images directly to incarceration. “No prisoners had or were allowed to have their pants around the crack. No prisoners were allowed at Phoenix to go around with untied shoelaces,” he said. “So, I just felt this was a move by people who didn’t want to be tied up to have a picture. They would rather have a picture of a youth doing nothing, not studying, and having his pants lowered.” The remarks came in Cosby’s first wide-ranging interview about his prison experience, the long-standing NBC rumor, the media’s portrayal of his life, and the erasure of Black history.

Refusing to Sign Away Innocence

Cosby, famously known as “America’s Dad,” served nearly three years at Pennsylvania’s SCI Phoenix following a 2018 conviction on an aggravated indecent assault charge. In June 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that his trial and conviction were illegal, ordered his release, and barred any retrial. He said prosecutors offered him a way out — if he admitted guilt. “My lawyer came to me and said, the district attorney is offering you to sign a paper saying you did it, and that you would be, you wouldn’t have to do prison time,” Cosby stated. “And I told my lawyer to continue with the trial, don’t stop the trial. I wasn’t signing any papers or anything.” Even in prison, Cosby said, the same deal was dangled before him. “Sign the paper and go to these classes, and then we will let you go,” he said. “Well, my signature would be in a sealed envelope, and nobody could open it. So anyway, it was all set up from way in the beginning.”

Life at Phoenix

Cosby recalled his first hours inside. “When I entered Phoenix for the first time, I could not see,” he said. “And there were regulations such as taking off your clothes and switching to other things, and then the search for some things that you might have.” He said he was kept alone at first. “I was by myself except for a guard or two around the area,” he said. Later, he was moved onto a unit with “convicts who really and truly had done some things like murder, rape, and et cetera, et cetera.” He described the food as barely edible. “It was just that the food was so salty, and it was just that the food appeared from, if you fixed it or it could be written how it’s fixed, it wouldn’t be healthy for human consumption,” he said. Inside, Cosby also became a speaker at peer programs like “Mann Up” and “Men of Valor.” He said he told men preparing for release: “As you leave this prison, whatever you go out and become… make Jesus smile.”

The Release

Cosby described being asleep in his cell when word came. “A resident… said, Mr. Cosby, Mr. Cosby, you have to wake up. You can go home. You can go home,” he said. A white female officer with the rank of major came to push his wheelchair out. “I said, This is not like driving Miss Daisy. And she said, Who’s Miss Daisy?” Cosby recalled. He said as he was wheeled down the corridor, he heard applause from two levels of cells. “It was enough to have all of these fellows clapping,” he said.

The NBC Rumor

Cosby addressed the decades-old claim that his downfall stemmed from an attempt to buy NBC. “I have no evidence to that effect, and nothing comes up to it,” he said. He recounted a Wall Street meeting with financiers that ended in rejection. “The reason for rejecting us for the loan was that they, the people loaning the money, didn’t know anything about television,” he said. Still, he said, the rumor consumed media attention. “Media was the most egregious because I have never been hassled so much in are you going to buy NBC?” Cosby said. He pointed to an article suggesting he would “hire his friends” if successful. “That gave me an idea of how these people were protecting things from, and I think it was a wink that this fellow was writing about… well, he’s going to bring all his Black friends,” he said.

Media Erasure and “The Cosby Show”

Cosby said there was a deliberate effort to erase his achievements. “I heard from a source that a person went on TV and said, let nothing good be said about Bill Cosby,” he said. “From that point on, every source that I know of in the media only printed negative things.” He defended the cultural impact of “The Cosby Show.” “Media didn’t like the fact that the Huxtables were that,” he said. “They said they were rich, which they’re not. That’s middle income. He’s a doctor, she’s a lawyer. And they don’t have a maid or a butler or anything like that.” He recalled a moment when executives considered removing a small set detail. “It just said, abolish Apartheid,” he said of the sign on Theo’s door. “And somebody said to me, well, they want to take that sign down. I said, if you do, you can take the show with it.”

Wealth, Family, and Health

Cosby recalled a conversation with his daughter Erin when she was nine. “She said, Dad, are we wealthy? I said, no, we are rich, but we’re not wealthy,” he said. “Wealthy people can afford maintenance. Rich people can afford to buy things, but there’s still a bill, and when can you pay if you’re rich?”

He credited his wife, Camille, for preserving his life and health. “She has continuously said it’s what you put in your mouth, and if you eat clean, then your brain will be clean, and your body, and your blood,” Cosby stated. “She makes sure that we eat like that, and that’s why, at age 88, I’m cancer-free, and I don’t have any ailments of forgetting things.” When Cosby would call his wife from prison, she remained very protective of her husband of more than 60 years. Camille Cosby understood that every phone call at SCI-Phoenix was recorded, and she refused to allow officials to see any vulnerability. “Whenever I called her, I just badly wanted to tell her how I felt,” Cosby recounted. “And, she would say, ‘just be quiet.’ She didn’t want me to say anything.”

The Fight Over Black History

Cosby warned against efforts to remove Black history from classrooms and museums. “If you remove those things, you remove the spirit of our achievements,” Cosby said. “It’s not going to be Wilma Rudolph winning any races there, but Wilma Rudolph, who was born obviously, it was polio that attacked her, and she still was an Olympic champion.” He continued, “The spirit of success and the continuation of being told that you are dumb, to be told that you cannot compete on any level with people, with white people. What story are they going to tell? I think they never wanted to pay the slaves, and they never forgave us for that.” He also cited Ralph Bunche and the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. among stories that cannot be erased.

A Message to the Black Community

Cosby closed the interview with a direct message. “We are not losers yet,” he asserted. “Tulsa lost because it was the only city in the United States of America that was bombed from the air.”

Stacy M. Brown

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2026 Lucid Air Grand Touring Review — Is This $136K EV Sedan Worth It?

AUTONETWORK ON BLACKPRESSUSA — Finished in Stellar White Metallic with the Tahoe Grand Touring interior, this Lucid makes a strong first impression. The shape is sleek and low, but it still feels elegant instead of trying too hard. Features like soft-close doors, powered illuminated door handles, 20-inch Aero Lite wheels, and the Glass Canopy Roof help the car feel expensive before you even start it.

Published

1 month ago

May 3, 2026

Oakland Post

The 2026 Lucid Air Grand Touring is the kind of luxury EV that makes people stop and ask a simple question: Is this really better than a Tesla Model S, Mercedes EQS, or BMW i7? At $136,150, it has to do more than look futuristic. It has to feel special every time you get in it.

Finished in Stellar White Metallic with the Tahoe Grand Touring interior, this Lucid makes a strong first impression. The shape is sleek and low, yet it still feels elegant rather than trying too hard. Features like soft-close doors, powered illuminated door handles, 20-inch Aero Lite wheels, and the Glass Canopy Roof help the car feel expensive before you even start it.

Inside is where the Air Grand Touring really makes its case. The 34-inch Glass Cockpit Display and retractable Pilot Panel screen give the cabin a clean, modern look that still feels different from other EVs. The Tahoe Extended Leather and Lucid Black Alcantara headliner lifts the sense of occasion, and the front seats are a highlight. They are 20-way power-adjustable, heated, ventilated, and include massage. That matters because luxury buyers at this price expect comfort first.

Rear passengers are not ignored either. You get 5-zone heated rear seating, a rear center console display, and power rear and rear side window sunshades. Add in the Surreal Sound Pro system with 21 speakers, and the Air feels like a true long-distance luxury sedan.

Lucid also gives this car serious EV hardware. The dual-motor all-wheel-drive system, 900V+ charging architecture, and Wunderbox onboard charger are big talking points. Buyers in this segment care about range, charging speed, and everyday ease, not just raw performance. That is where the Lucid continues to stand out.

On the technology side, the Air Grand Touring includes DreamDrive Premium, with 3D Surround View Monitoring, Blind Spot Warning, Automatic Park In and Out, Automatic Emergency Braking, and a Driver Monitoring System with distracted and drowsy driver alerts. This one also has DreamDrive Pro, which adds future-capable ADAS hardware.

There are still some real-world annoyances. Based on your notes, the windshield wiper control is hard to find and use, and that matters more than people think in a high-tech car. When controls become less intuitive, even a beautiful interior can feel frustrating.

Still, the 2026 Lucid Air Grand Touring succeeds where it matters most. It feels luxurious, advanced, comfortable, and thoughtfully engineered. For buyers who want an EV sedan that feels truly premium and less common than the usual choices, this Lucid makes a very strong case.

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Snoop Dogg Celebrates 10 Til’ Midnight at the Compound

LOS ANGELES SENTINEL — The album is paired with a film that stars Snoop Dogg, Hitta J3, G Perico, and Ray Vaughn, and one of the strongest elements of the whole project is that the production stayed rooted right here in Los Angeles.

Published

1 month ago

May 3, 2026

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Snoop Dogg celebrated the premiere of 10 Til’ Midnight at his Inglewood recording studio & multipurpose facility, The Compound, but the night felt like much more than an album release. It felt like Los Angeles. It felt like legacy. And it felt like another major move from one of the city’s greatest cultural architects as he continues to prove that he is not just dropping music — he is building moments, shaping narratives, and pushing the culture forward in real time.

What made the event so powerful was the clarity behind the vision. During a panel conversation with DJ Hed, Snoop opened up about the heart behind 10 Til’ Midnight, explaining that the project was created to help bridge older and younger generations while also speaking to the long-standing divisions between Bloods and Crips in a unique way through film. That alone gave the project a different kind of weight. This was not just about songs. This was about using creativity as a tool for connection. This was about taking a story rooted in Los Angeles and telling it in a way that could bring people together.

Snoop Congratulated By Rapper & Fellow 10 Til Midnight Cast Member G Perico (CreativeLB/KreativeKapturez)

The album is paired with a film that stars Snoop Dogg, Hitta J3, G Perico, and Ray Vaughn, and one of the strongest elements of the whole project is that the production stayed rooted right here in Los Angeles. The film was shot in the city, including at WePlay Studios in Inglewood, which gave the entire project an even deeper hometown feel. It was not just a West Coast story in content — it was a Los Angeles-made production from the ground up.

That matters because, in a city like this, authenticity still carries weight. Snoop understands how to make sure that what he creates does not just represent Los Angeles on the surface, but actually comes from it.

What also makes 10 Til’ Midnight significant is that it represents another major step in Snoop’s evolution as both an artist and executive. Public reporting around the project identifies it as his 22nd studio album, but the bigger story is what it represents in this season of his life. This is one of several consecutive moves he has made in his 50s that show he is still building, still expanding, and still finding new ways to reinvent what the next chapter looks like.

Snoop Dogg at the Premiere of 10 Til Midnight (CreativeLB/KreativeKapturez)

Now, as the head of Death Row Records and the newly aligned leader of Death Row Pictures, he is taking the brand into a new dimension. That is what made this moment feel bigger than music. Snoop is not just protecting the legacy of Death Row — he is stretching it. He is expanding it beyond records and into film, visual storytelling, and larger creative worlds that can continue carrying the label’s impact forward. Public reporting has noted that this project arrives as part of that broader cinematic push.

That is a major Los Angeles move because the city has always been built on the intersection of music, film, neighborhood identity, and cultural storytelling. With 10 Til’ Midnight, Snoop is leaning all the way into that intersection.

The room at The Compound reflected that. It felt like a private premiere, but it also felt like a statement — a reminder that Snoop Dogg’s staying power has never been based only on nostalgia. It comes from his ability to remain connected, remain visionary, and remain in tune with how to move the culture without losing the essence of who he is.

That is why this premiere mattered. It was not just about celebrating another album. It was about witnessing a Los Angeles legend continue to evolve, continue to unify, and continue to use art to tell stories that hit deeper than entertainment alone.

In that sense, 10 Til’ Midnight became more than a project launch. It became another example of how Snoop Dogg is still taking Los Angeles to the next level — using music, film, and legacy together to build something bigger than a moment.

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OP-ED: Small Businesses Need Minnesota to Act on Pass-Through Tax Policy

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN RECORDER — A Twin Cities immigrant entrepreneur who built several businesses including grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods is calling on Minnesota lawmakers to extend the Pass-Through Entity tax option before it expires, warning that its loss would hit small businesses already recovering from Operation Metro Surge with higher federal tax bills.

Published

1 month ago

May 3, 2026

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A Twin Cities Small Business Owner Is Urging Minnesota to Extend a Tax Policy That Could Save Thousands of Businesses

By Daniel Hernandez | Minnesota Spokesman Recorder

I came to the United States as a teenager with a clear goal: to build something meaningful through hard work. I put in long days in construction, restaurants, and landscaping; doing whatever it took to learn, save, and eventually start my own business.

Over time, I built and ran several successful ventures, including an event photography company, a magazine, a tax and accounting firm, and now grocery stores serving neighborhoods across the Twin Cities where other retailers chose not to invest. I’ve created jobs, supported families, and committed to communities that deserve stability and opportunity.

That’s why I’m speaking out now.

Small business owners in Minneapolis and the communities we serve are recovering from serious disruptions, including the impacts of Operation Metro Surge. That event hit immigrant communities especially hard. In my own case, I lost nearly half of my 60 employees and saw revenue drop by about 85%. While I worked to provide competitive wages, health benefits, and paid time off, the real hardship fell on the people who lost their jobs and income.

Even as we rebuild, small businesses are facing another challenge. The Minnesota Legislature is considering letting an important tax policy expire: the Pass-Through Entity tax option.

Here’s what that means in plain terms.

Many small businesses, including mine, are pass-through businesses. That means the business itself doesn’t pay income tax. Instead, the owners report the income on their personal tax returns. But under current federal rules, there’s a limit on how much state tax we can deduct. That often leads to higher federal tax bills.

The Pass-Through Entity option fixes that. It allows the business to pay the state tax directly, which means the business can fully deduct those taxes on its federal return and lower the total amount of income taxed federally. The result is straightforward: small business owners pay less in federal taxes, without reducing what the state collects.

This policy is not new or controversial. Thirty-six states already offer it. It doesn’t cost Minnesota anything, it’s revenue neutral. And it benefits more than 66,000 businesses across the state.

In a state where the cost of doing business is already high, it’s hard to understand why we wouldn’t offer the same basic tax treatment as states like California and Illinois.

Small businesses have carried a heavy load in recent years, through a pandemic, rising costs and public safety disruptions. We’ve adapted, reinvested and stayed committed to our communities. What we need now are practical policies that support that work, not make it harder.

If the Minnesota House does not act soon, many businesses will face significantly higher federal tax bills. That’s money that could otherwise be used to hire workers, raise wages or reinvest in local neighborhoods.

I urge Gov. Tim Walz and members of the House Tax Committee to pass House File 3127 and extend the Pass-Through Entity election.

Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. We’ve proven our resilience. Now we need our state leaders to show the same commitment to us.

Daniel Hernandez is the owner of Colonial Market located at 2100 E. Lake St.

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