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Fashion Week Lake Charles

Fashion Week Lake Charles (FWLC) returns in April with three days of runway shows and exclusive events. The week’s events begin with a Media & Patrons Launch Party on Thursday, April 19, from 6 – 10 p.m. at Blue Martini Lounge at the Golden Nugget, 2550 Golden Nugget Blvd.

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Houston Ballet Presents Don Quixote

Houston Ballet presents the much-anticipated return of former Artistic Director Ben Stevenson’s Don Quixote, a thrilling revival of the classic tale, gracing the stage for the first time in more than a decade. Houston Ballet continues their Hometown Tour in venues across the city, performing this exciting ballet at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts April 13-15, 2018.

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2018 Downtown Lake Charles Crawfish Festival

The Original DownTown Lake Charles Crawfish Festival returns Friday -Sunday, April 13-15 at the Lake Charles Civic Center, 900 Lakeshore Drive. Held each April during Parkinson Awareness Month, the festival hosts clean, family fun with great food, including over 10,000 pounds of boiled crawfish, Zydeco and Cajun music, a parade, and a midway carnival.

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Domestic Tour Operators Visit Lake Charles as part of Travel South Domestic Showcase Familiarization Tour

13 domestic tour operators as well as a receptive tour operator who specializes in the South will take part in a Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau (LC/SWLA CVB) familiarization (fam) tour of our area after Travel South Showcase in Biloxi, Miss.

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Sense of humor 'as vast as the universe': Tributes flood in as world remembers Stephen Hawking

Figures from the scientific community and beyond came together to mark the passing of famed physicist Stephen Hawking, who died at age 76 on Wednesday, the same day as Albert Einstein's birthday, also known as "Pi day."

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What is ALS, the condition Stephen Hawking lived with for over 5 decades?

By Euan McKirdy, CNN (CNN) -- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS, is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease. It affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that make the muscles of both the upper and lower body work. Those nerve cells lose their ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which leads to paralysis and death. People with the condition lose control of muscle movement, eventually losing their ability to eat, speak, walk and, ultimately, breathe. Its most famous sufferer was famed physicist Stephen Hawking, who died on Wednesday at the age of 76. ALS is also called Lou Gehrig's disease, named after the famous baseball player who retired in 1939 because of the condition. Other notable sufferers actor David Niven, NBA Hall of Famer George Yardley and jazz musician Charles Mingus. Little is known about the causes of the disease, and there is currently no cure. The condition is slightly more common in men than women. Unusually long life-span Hawking, diagnosed with the condition in 1963, lived with it for more than 50 years -- a remarkably long time for an ALS sufferer. The disease left him paralyzed and completely dependent on others and/or technology for everything: bathing, dressing, eating, mobility and speech. He was able to move only a few fingers on one hand. "I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many," he wrote on his website. "I have been lucky that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope." Hawking's life, including his battle with ALS, was made into a 2014 biopic, "The Theory of Everything," starring Eddie Redmayne. Ice bucket challenge The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 20,000 to 30,000 people have ALS in the United States, with around 5,000 new cases diagnosed every year. People usually find out they have it between 55 and 75 years of age. On average, sufferers live two to five years after symptoms develop. There are two types of ALS, sporadic, which is most common, and familial. The latter is inherited -- the children of sufferers have a 50% chance of inheriting the condition, and people with familial ALS live an average of only one to two years after symptoms appear. But it much more rare than sporadic ALS, which accounts for over 90% of cases. The condition gained widespread prominence in 2014, when Pete Frates, a former baseball player at Boston College who has been living with ALS since 2012, started the Ice Bucket Challenge. The viral sensation vastly improved awareness of the condition and caused a huge uptick in donations to the ALS Association. "We have never seen anything like this in the history of the disease," said Barbara Newhouse, president and CEO of The ALS Association, in a news release at the time. Cause unknown No one knows what causes the disease, and for reasons not yet understood, military veterans are two times as likely to be diagnosed with ALS as the general public, according to the ALS Association. "Scientists have been studying many factors that could be linked with ALS, such as heredity and environmental exposures," the CDC says. "Other scientists have looked at diet or injury. No cause has been found for most cases of ALS. In the future, scientists may find that many factors together cause ALS." Up until last year, there was only one FDA-approved drug for ALS, which only extends survival by several months, but in May 2017 the FDA approved the first new drug in more than 20 years to treat the condition.

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Reporter, tourist and firefighter among NYC helicopter crash victims

A young news reporter, a firefighter and a tourist from Argentina were among the five passengers who died in a helicopter crash in New York's East River on Sunday night.

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Capital One Bank Hit With Explosive Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Filed By the Houston NAACP and LULAC Claiming the Bank Discriminates Against Black and Latino Customers in Favor of White Customers

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Houston Branch (“NAACP”), League of United Latin American Citizens, District VIII (“LULAC”) and a former bank employee have filed a major federal racial discrimination lawsuit against Capital One Bank, a publicly-traded national bank. The suit alleges Capital One has engaged in a conscious and deliberate plan to close banks in Black and Latino communities while keeping banks in white communities.

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Mardi Gras Museum Golf Tournament – March 2

Ryan Navarre of Billy Navarre Chevrolet presented a sponsorship check to the Mardi Gras Museum of Southwest Louisiana to support the Mardi Gras Museum Golf Classic which will take place a Gray Plantation Golf Club, 6150 Graywood Pkwy., on Friday, March 2, from noon – 5 p.m.

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A Tribute to Billy Graham

Overstating the significance of Billy Graham is difficult. Arguably the most important religious leader of the 20th century, Graham presented the gospel to an estimated 215 million people through his many evangelistic campaigns around the world and to hundreds of millions more through radio, television, satellite broadcasts, print, and the internet. The pastor to presidents, Graham served as a spiritual advisor to chief executives from Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush. As depicted in an episode of the Netflix miniseries, “The Crown,” Graham also provided spiritual counsel to Queen Elizabeth II of England.

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Ava DuVernay, Netflix, Issa Rae, Dan Lin and Others Partner With City Of L.A. on Inclusion Initiative, the Evolve Entertainment Fund

“As we radically reimagine Hollywood, it is critically important that young people are included in our vision,” Ava DuVernay said today at the unveiling of the Evolve Entertainment Fund in Los Angeles.

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41st Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival Announces Lineup for June 23-24

he 2018 Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, slated for Saturday, June 23 and Sunday, June 24 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, features a roster of artists, ranging from jazz luminaries -- Jon Batiste, Chris Botti, Herbie Hancock, Gregory Porter, Joey Alexander, and gospel and R&B legend Mavis Staples, who will headline this year’s legendary festival -- to emerging artists making their Saratoga debuts such as José James, Lakecia Benjamin and SoulSquad, Scott Sharrard & The Brickyard Band, Jazzmeia Horn and Keyon Harrold. In addition, unique collaborations will take center stage including Saratoga debuts by the TEN Trio, which features Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding and Nicholas Payton; the newly formed all-star trio Mark Whitfield, Ben Allison and Billy Drummond; Alfredo Rodriguez & Pedrito Martinez Duo; and New Orleans @ 300 featuring Evan Christopher, Quiana Lynell, David Torkanowsky, Roland Guerin & Shannon Powell.

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City Hosting Visitors Center Grand Opening to Promote Tourism & Black History Month Celebrations of Music, Art, Culture & Education

The “Show Me City” will mark two community unity milestones on Friday, Feb. 9 and Saturday, Feb. 10 with the grand opening of the state-of-the-art Visitors Center and the commemoration of the Fourth Annual Black History Month Celebration of Culture & Music.

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Desilu Studios to Bring "V The Movie" to the Big Screen

Desilu Studios, Inc announced today that it will bring the long awaited sci-fi feature film "V The Movie", a big-budget treatment of the highly successful, critically-acclaimed 80's mini-series to movie screens worldwide. The film will be written and directed by the original's creator, Kenneth Johnson and produced by John Hermansen and Barry Opper.

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Noted Political Scientist Dr. Charles V. Hamilton Establishes Research Institute at DuSable Museum in Chicago

Dr. Charles V. Hamilton, a political scientist, activist and Professor Emeritus at Columbia University best known for his 1967 book co-written with Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, has established The Drs. Charles V. and Dona C. Hamilton Institute for Research and Civic Involvement at the DuSable Museum of African American History. The DuSable is scheduled to open the Hamilton Institute’s Reading Room on Monday, February 19, 2018 with a special dedication event.

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Playa! Playa! Musician Icon Quincy Jones, 84, Says He Has 22 Girlfriends

*84-year-old Quincy Jones revealed in a recent interview with GQ that he has 20+ girlfriends and counting. He explains, “I got 22 girlfriends. I was married three times, man. Was told not to marry actresses or singers. I ended up with two actresses, Peggy Lipton and Nastassja Kinski (9), and a superstar model. I didn’t listen to all the advice.”

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Shelley Johnson, CDME, LCTP Louisiana Travel Association Tourism Lifetime Achievement Award

Shelley Johnson, executive director/CEO of the Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana CVB (LC/SWLA CVB) was named as the recipient of the prestigious Will Mangham Tourism Lifetime Achievement Award during the Louisiana Travel Association (LTA) Annual Membership Meeting held recently in Lafayette. The award is named after the late Will Mangham, affectionately known as the “father” of Louisiana Tourism Promotion.

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Texas Southern University to Establish New Criminal Justice Research Center

Texas Southern University continues to be a leader in the progression towards criminal justice reform. The historically black college and university recently announced the establishment of the Center for Justice Research or CJR. The center is the latest in an initiative designed to produce innovative solutions to criminal justice reform and address challenges in America’s criminal justice system.

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Missouri City Hosting Visitors Center Grand Opening to Promote Tourism & Black History Month Celebrations of Music, Art, Culture & Education

The “Show Me City” will mark two community unity milestones on Friday, Feb. 9 and Saturday, Feb. 10 with the grand opening of the state-of-the-art Visitors Center and the commemoration of the Fourth Annual Black History Month Celebration of Culture & Music. The festivities will launch with City Council and staff showcasing the Visitors Center on Friday, Feb. 9 at a 5 p.m. grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony.

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Prison Rights Groups Allege Mistreatment Of African-American Muslims

Prisoner rights groups are concerned that Jewish and Muslim inmates have been denied legally-mandated religious accommodations. But they’re focusing on two inmates who were placed in solitary confinement in the Ramsey unit with no charges or disciplinary hearing.