J Dee

Los Angeles rap singer Dasean Cooper, a member of Da Lench Mob, was sentenced to 29 years to life Friday for the 1993 murder of his girlfriend's male roommate. The sentencing of Cooper--a rapper and lyricist whose group rose to fame as proteges of superstar rapper Ice Cube--was the harshest punishment yet in the seemingly endless string of entanglements between rap artists and the law. A jury last year convicted Cooper, known to the rap world as J-Dee, in the murder of Scott (Pearl) Charles, 23.

Los Angeles rap singer Dasean Cooper, a member of Da Lench Mob, was sentenced to 29 years to life Friday for the 1993 murder of his girlfriend's male roommate. The sentencing of Cooper--a rapper and lyricist whose group rose to fame as proteges of superstar rapper Ice Cube--was the harshest punishment yet in the seemingly endless string of entanglements between rap artists and the law. A jury last year convicted Cooper, known to the rap world as J-Dee, in the murder of Scott (Pearl) Charles, 23.

A member of the Los Angeles "gangsta rap" trio Da Lench Mob has been arrested on suspicion of murder in a slaying last month at a bowling alley in the Athens area, authorities said Wednesday. Terry Gray, 24, who goes by the stage name T-Bone, is the second member of the hit rap group to be arrested on suspicion of murder since last summer. A Los Angeles Sheriff's Department spokeswoman said murder charges could be filed as early as today against Gray, who was arrested Tuesday.

A member of the Los Angeles "gangsta rap" trio Da Lench Mob has been arrested on suspicion of murder in a slaying last month at a bowling alley in the Athens area, authorities said Wednesday. Terry Gray, 24, who goes by the stage name T-Bone, is the second member of the hit rap group to be arrested on suspicion of murder since last summer. A Los Angeles Sheriff's Department spokeswoman said murder charges could be filed as early as today against Gray, who was arrested Tuesday.

Syracuse University will conduct an internal investigation into allegations of NCAA violations by its men's basketball program, the university announced today. The inquiry by the school's general legal counsel will begin immediately and its findings will be presented to Chancellor Melvin A. Eggers by the end of the spring semester, said Robert Hill, the university's vice president for public relations.

To the show-biz set, "Sunset Beach" triggers memories of the short-lived TV soap opera, in which women were inseminated with turkey basters and drinks were spiked with "Niagra." But to nature lovers, surfers or day-trippers eager to leave city life behind, the town from which the show lifted its name is one of Orange County's best-kept secrets. Less than an hour's drive from Los Angeles, it's still flying under the radar. An unincorporated area abutting Huntington Beach, Sunset Beach is only 1.

In a marketplace saturated with "Free the Juice" T-shirts, "No sidebar" buttons and amateur rap tapes about the O.J. Simpson murder trial, business for street vendors outside the Criminal Courts Building has hit a slump. Eddie Dee, who has been selling T-shirts, pennants and buttons at sporting events and political conventions all over the country for 40 years, laments that his $1,000-a-day Simpson profits have shrunk to about $200.

Los Angeles rap singer Dasean Cooper, a member of Da Lench Mob, was sentenced to 29 years to life Friday for the 1993 murder of his girlfriend's male roommate. The sentencing of Cooper--a rapper and lyricist whose group rose to fame as proteges of superstar rapper Ice Cube--was the harshest punishment yet in the seemingly endless string of entanglements between rap artists and the law. A jury last year convicted Cooper, known to the rap world as J-Dee, in the murder of Scott (Pearl) Charles, 23.

Once, before congressional hearings, newspaper headlines and the word gangsta overwhelmed it, rap music was a world in which Puma tennis shoes with colorful fat shoelaces, sweat suits, breakdancing battles in the street and boom boxes were more important than posing with guns and drinking malt liquor. It was fun.

Crow is a rotten entree, especially for a true believer. I had been so sure about singing. I would mildly berate people who shied from it, who claimed a tin ear (very unlikely), a terrible voice (can be trained) or consuming stage fright (for wienies). It had never occurred to me that I might be wrong. After all, I had been a choral singer since college, and I had notched up some of my life's most satisfying moments on various stages with my vocal colleagues.

Richard Simon was still in shock the day after he heard the news. "This is the worst," said the Ventura County deputy district attorney. "I've never had a defendant of mine kill someone." Simon was referring to Karen Marie Christensen, a former Simi Valley resident who on June 19 shot and killed her 15-year-old daughter, Emily, in Simi Valley as the girl prepared for her junior high promotion ceremonies. Christensen then took her own life.

At the dedication of a neighborhood library here recently, with the mayor and other dignitaries looking on, several dozen respectable women quietly raised lollipop-shaped protest signs. "Shame on Us," one sign read. "A Nightmare in Our Dream Building," said another. The women had no quarrel with the library; most of them had twisted aldermanic arms to get it built.