Actress urges action on human trafficking
Actress and activist Jada Pinkett Smith urged Congress on Tuesday to step up the fight against human trafficking in the U.S. and abroad.
The actress testified during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that she plans to launch a campaign to raise awareness and spur action against human trafficking and slavery.
“Fighting slavery doesn’t cost a lot of money. The costs of allowing it to exist in our nation and abroad are much higher,” the actress said. “It robs us of the thing we value most, our freedom.”
She said the issue was brought to her attention by her daughter Willow, 11, who sat nearby with actor Will Smith, Pinkett Smith’s husband and Willow’s father.
Rapper will visit Walmart in Alaska
It’s not exactly “International Love,” but Miami rap star Pitbull is about to bring his act to a nonetheless far-flung site – Kodiak, Alaska.
Pitbull, aka Armando Christian Perez, in a promotion with Walmart and Sheets Energy Strips, agreed to visit whichever Walmart got the most “likes” on its Facebook page.
A writer for the Boston Phoenix, thought it would be funny to exile the rapper to the most remote Walmart possible, and encouraged people to “like” the Kodiak Walmart. The store in a city with a population of about 6,100 wound up with more than 70,000 “likes.”
Kerry Kennedy: Seizure caused crash
Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, said doctors believe her recent auto accident on a highway was caused not by illegal drugs or a sleeping pill, but by a seizure stemming from an old brain injury.
Kennedy pleaded not guilty Tuesday night in North Castle Town Court to a charge of driving while drug-impaired. She was released but must submit to fingerprinting by state police and to evaluation by a substance abuse agency. She is due back in court Aug. 14.
Kennedy, 52, was arrested Friday after state police said her Lexus struck a tractor-trailer on Interstate 684 north of New York City. Police said she then took an exit off the highway before her car became disabled.
A police report released Tuesday said Kennedy failed several sobriety tests and was swaying and slurring her speech. She said she felt “confused and erratic” and told the officer she might have accidentally taken an Ambien sleeping pill instead of her daily thyroid pill. But drug tests later that day showed “no alcohol, recreational drugs or prescription medication in my system,” she said.
The birthday bunch
Former South African President Nelson Mandela is 94. Former Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, is 91. Skating champion and commentator Dick Button is 83. Actor James Brolin is 72. Baseball executive Joe Torre is 72.