LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Meg Whitman is accused of hiring an illegal alien housekeeper and then firing her when Whitman decided to run for Governor. Meg Whitman’s maid today said her employment “was a nightmare”. After working “9 years”, she said today that she was “exploited”, “disrespected”, “emotionally and financially abused”. She claimed unlawful pregnancy discrimination, asserted that “Meg Whitman failed to pay her for all the hours she worked”,  and “failed to asked her for documentation”.

The housekeeper claimed that, when Meg Whitman announced her run for Governor, she asked for help to become documented; the maid claimed that Meg Whitman fired her promptly.

The news comes as Whitman has tried to earn the vote of Latin organizers, politicians, and residents. Just days ago, Paul Rodriguez  endorsed Whitman. Rodriguez said that latinos need to support Whitman because of her pledge of job creation. “I find Meg Whitman to be a fresh, independent thinking candidate who is committed to what we care about most: jobs and education. Without jobs and good schools, Californians’ futures are limited.”

Rodriguez, a former winner of the Ruben Salazar Award from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), said he vowed support for Whitman because of her “commitment to improving [jobs for] … latinos in the Central Valley” especially.

“Meg has a real, specific plan to help the Central Valley and all of California overcome its big challenges. She has spent enormous time and energy to introduce herself and her plan to California Latinos. Meg is the only candidate who can lead California to better days.”

Also last week, Whitman received the endorsement of a notable PAC for latino business owners, the Latin Business Association Political Action Committee. The LBA, like the the Hispanic 100 Political Action Committee, has said Whitman “has a plan to help small businesses grow, make our government more efficient and accountable, and make our public schools the best in the country.”

• Comments (1)

LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Shakira’s LOCA (music video below) featuring Dizzee Rascal premiered today and fans are already going crazy. Shakira’s LOCA music video premieres in a year in which the Latin star has proven to critics that she is on the top of her game, and demonstrated to fans, including LALATE, that she is one of the biggest music talents of our time.

LOCA might have been filmed in the streets of Barcelona, but the beats of the incredible song are making fans celebrate internationally, the same as they did during the recent World Cup. The year 2010 started off with Shakira reaching one million fans on Twitter. She rejoiced, tweeting “¡Más de 1 millón de seguidores! ¡Muchas gracias a todos ustedes por ser tan maravillosos conmigo! Shak … Over 1 million followers! Thanks to all of my amazing fans out there! Shak.”

By early spring, LALATE first broke that Shakira would get the official Copa Mundial song, initially dubbed Samia; soon Waka Waka – This Time for Africa became an international smash. And yet, Shakira has remained humble despite such brilliant success this year. In July, at the height of the Waka Waka fame, Shakira took time to greet fans at the Los Premios Juventud 2010.

At home, Shakira still remains devoted to longtime boyfriend Antonio De La Rua. She says of her relationship with De La Rua “The fact is I’m not very traditionalist. We live together as husband and wife, we don’t need anything to make it official, especially not for the paparazzi or magazines.”

• 
  
  Comments (0)

NEW YORK (LALATE) – Tyler Clemente of Rutgers has committed suicide after Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei’s release Wednesday. Tyler Clemente is the Rutgers University freshman that on September 19 was subjected to an illegal hidden taping while he was engaging in relations in his dorm room. The taping was reportedly live streamed online. On September 21, a second taping was set up but didn’t happen. After the videos aired, images of the recordings were also posted online.

Rutgers Pictures: Tyler Clemente Case
Rutgers Photo 1
Rutgers Photo 2
Rutgers Photo 3

Last Wednesday, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wie were charged with illegally taping Clemente. Ravi, 18, was freed on $25,000 bail and Wei, 18, was released on her own recognizance. Each were charged with invasion of privacy for the September 19 broadcast. Ravi was charged with two more counts of invasion of privacy for the attempted September 21st recording.

After the two were released on Wednesday, Clemente headed to the George Washington Bridge. At 8:50 pm, Clemente was spotted standing on the south walk of the bridge; his car, cellphone, and computer were reportedly close by. New York news is reporting that Tyler Clemente jumped to his death. His body has yet to be recovered.

Rutgers said of the passing “The university takes these matters seriously and has policies to deal with student behavior. Under federal law, the university cannot comment on specifics.” Ridgewood school district informed parents last Friday that a recent graduate had died.

• Comments (3)

LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Andrew Shirvell is defending his “Chris Amstrong Watch”, what some call an internet bullying campaign. Andrew Shirvell’s bullying was featured on CNN news last night just as California news was reporting that Seth Walsh killed himself from bullies. As reported previously, Walsh joined Asher Brown and Billy Lucas as the third teen to kill themselves because of bullying at school.

While Brown, Lucas and Walsh were under 15 and suffered bullying in the halls of their high schools, Chris Armstrong is a student in college. Armstrong is the victim of bullying, not on the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor campus where he is a student assembly president, but online at a blog called Chris Armstrong Watch (chris-armstrong-watch.blogspot.com) maintained by Shirvell.

But what makes this story unusual is that the bully is an attorney, an assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan.

CNN Anderson’s Cooper invited Shirvell on his talk show last night to ask him why an attorney, a member of the attorney general’s office, and a person obligated to prosecute wrongful conduct in the State of Michigan, is launching a bullying campaign against a much younger resident. Shirvell’s answer was that he is just expressing his opinions as a “Christian” unhappy with someone else’s “radical” ideas.

“I’m a Christian citizen exercising my First Amendment rights. I have no problem that Chris is homosexual. I have a problem that he’s advancing a very radical agenda.” When asked if he was bigot, Shirvell then called Chris Armstrong a “bigot”. “The real bigot here is Chris Armstrong, I don’t have any hate in my body at all”

Where has been the Michigan Attorney General’s office through all this? Apparently the Office is waking up, with  Mike Cox issuing the following news statement : “Mr. Shirvell’s personal opinions are his and his alone and do not reflect the views of the Michigan Department of Attorney General. But his immaturity and lack of judgment outside the office are clear.”

• Comments (1)

DALLAS (LALATE) – Dez Bryant’s $54896 dinner tab was the rookie’s “lesson” for not picking up pads during a Dallas Cowboys training camp. Dez Bryant made news in the pre-season for failing to meet rookie demands. In contrast to Tim Tebow who gladly had his haircut as St Francis of Assisi, Dez Bryant thought he could just walk way from a request for his pads to be carried.

Instead, on Monday night, Bryant walked into Pappas Brothers. He exited with a $54,896 dinner tab. (Of note, some news reports say Bryant paid the bill solely, while team tweets suggest all the offensive team rookies may have paid for it.)

Bill Parcells made news when he had Terence Newman get him water every practice practice in 2003. Bill Belichick made Laurence Maroney get partitions set up between offense and defense every game his first 2006 season.

Memorable team tweets from dinner included Miles Austin: “Food is crazy here.” Jesse Holley wrote “Woke up this morning and scramble me some cheese eggs to go w/ my left over 20oz Kobe steak from last night”. And Felix Jones before the dinner said “Our offensive rookies are buying dinner … I remember those days. Sure don’t miss them the least bit.”

• Comments (0)