Daily News Feed 3.16.2010/Vocab: hirsute

Jackson’s estate signs $250M contract
Nine months after Michael Jackson’s death, his estate has signed one of the biggest recording contracts in history, giving Sony, Mr. Jackson’s longtime label, the rights to sell his back catalog and draw on a large vault of unheard recordings. The deal, for about 10 recordings through 2017, will guarantee the Jackson estate up to $250 million in advances and other payments and offer an especially high royalty rate for sales both inside and outside the United States, according to people with knowledge of the contract who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak about it publicly. It also allows Sony and the estate to collaborate on a wide range of lucrative licensing arrangements, like the use of Jackson music for films, television and stage shows and lines of memorabilia that will be limited only by the imagination of the estate and the demand of a hungry worldwide market. (Continue Reading…)

Wyclef paid mistress with Yele Haiti funds?
According to reports, former Fugee Wyclef Jean paid his mistress a six-figure salary using funds from his charitable organization, Yele. The alleged mistress, Zakiya Khatou-Chevassus, was paid $105,000 as an independent contractor, working on the charity in 2008. “She worked for Wyclef on all Wyclef matters,” a source, told website Gawker. “She did whatever Wyclef needed that day, whether it was related to Yele or not. She would do things like book flights, and she wasn’t very good at it. It’s a shame that she made that much money.” (Continue Reading…)

African Americans get fewer heart-protecting drugs
Even within the Veterans Affairs health system, where everyone should have the same access to care, African Americans are less likely than their white counterparts to be prescribed heart-protecting medications or undergo bypass surgery to treat blocked heart arteries, a new study finds. The findings, based on data for nearly 475,000 VA patients, found that African Americans had lower rates of prescriptions for cholesterol-lowering statins, as well as ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers used to treat high blood pressure and certain heart problems. They were, however, more likely than white patients to be on aspirin. (Continue Reading…)