Dr. Dre's Son Died of a Drug Overdose

A California coroner has confirmed Dr. Dre's son, Andre Young, Jr. passed away last summer over a drug overdose.

According to People, the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner said the 20 year-old died after using heroin and morphine.

"This case has been closed," coroner spokesman Larry Dietz told People. "It's been ruled an accident due to morphine and heroin intoxication."

While early reports suggested an overdose, an official confirmation had been pending for nearly four months.

As previously reported by SOHH, Young Jr. was discovered motionless by his mother, Jenita Porter, August 23 in their Woodland Hills, California residence.

In related news, Interscope head Jimmy Iovine recently promised the release of Dre's long-delayed Detox album this year.

"Dre's going back [to the studio] in January," Iovine told Billboard. "He'll be finished with Eminem by then, and he'll finish his album."

As of now, no release date information for Detox has been released by Interscope/Aftermath.

Ike kills 4 in Cuba, takes aim at Mexico, US Gulf

Hurricane Ike roared across Cuba west of the densely populated capital's aging buildings Tuesday after tearing down the length of the island nation, ravaging homes, killing at least four people and forcing 1.2 million to evacuate.

Residents in Texas and northern Mexico braced for a weekend hit from Ike, which has already killed at least 80 people in the Caribbean.

Winds howled and heavy rains fell across Havana, where streets were empty. Towering waves broke over the graceful Malecon seaside promenade, which police had barricaded off the previous evening. Many of the historic apartment buildings along its length are in poor repair and vulnerable to collapse.

Police spread out across the city to halt all but emergency and official traffic. Roadways were strewn with tree branches and rocks, and the rubble from crumbling balconies littered sidewalks. Navigation was banned in Havana Bay, its usually placid surface stirred up by white-capped waves.

Teresa Tejeda, scared to stay in her dilapidated Old Havana home, evacuated with several hundred other elderly people to a government shelter.





Full Story at Associated Press

'Climate crisis' needs brain gain

the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest physics experiment

The most brilliant minds should be directed to solving Earth's greatest challenges, such as climate change, says Sir David King.

The former UK chief scientist will use his presidential address at the BA Science Festival to call for a gear-change among innovative thinkers.

He will suggest that less time and money is spent on endeavours such as space exploration and particle physics.

He says population growth and poverty in Africa also demand attention.

"The challenges of the 21st Century are qualitatively different from anything that we've had to face up to before," he told reporters before the opening of the festival, which is being held this year in Liverpool.

"This requires a re-think of priorities in science and technology and a redrawing of our society's inner attitudes towards science and technology."


READ FULL STORY AT BBC.COM

Hurricane Ike A Menace As Oil, Gas Output Rises In US Gulf

Energy companies in and around the U.S. Gulf of Mexico continued to ratchet up operations, although there are early signs crude oil and natural gas output could once again be disrupted by a hurricane.

More than 20% of oil output and about 30% of natural-gas production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico had been restored as of Sunday, according to official data. Virtually all hydrocarbons output in the U.S. Gulf was shut in ahead of Hurricane Gustav.

All but four oil refineries were either producing gasoline and diesel or were readying equipment for processing. Most pipelines resumed flows after power was restored. Meanwhile, Hurricane Ike is forecast to move near or over eastern Cuba later Sunday barreling toward Cuba as a Category 4 storm.

Whether Ike becomes a menace to energy infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico - and a force pressuring prices upward - depends on how the storm changes over Cuba and how developing weather systems steer it.

FULL STORY AT CATTLENETWORK.COM

Ike's floods kill 48, cut off aid to parts of Haiti

Haitians took to their roofs to escape rising floodwaters for the second time in a week on Sunday as squalls from Hurricane Ike killed 48 people and collapsed a bridge that cut the last land route into the starving city of Gonaives.

Sunday's victims all came in the Cabaret area north of Port-au-Prince, civil defense director Maria-Alta Jean Baptiste said. They pushed Haiti's death toll to at least 306 from four storms that have hit the impoverished Caribbean country in less than a month.

Witnesses in Cabaret said floodwaters rushed into homes in the middle of the night, crushing walls and reaching chest-high levels before receding Sunday morning and leaving everything caked in mud.

In the Always Funeral Home, 21 mud-crusted bodies were piled in a small room, unclaimed. Two of them were pregnant, one still clutching a small girl to her chest.

FULL STORY AT CNN.COM

How To Escape A Hurricane By Car

From Jalopnik.com

Evacuating from a hurricane involves more than just getting into your car and driving away from the coast. Of the estimated 120 deaths associated with Hurricane Rita, 107 of them were related to the mass vehicular evacuation rather than the storm itself. With hurricane watches being issued for the Mid-Atlantic and a major hurricane approaching the Bahamas, we thought it was a good time to review the proper steps an individual should take when evacuating from a storm in a motor vehicle.


FULL STORY

Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 8/12/07

UGK debut at the #1
Plies' Slip-N-Slide debut Real Testament takes the #2 spot with 96k sold
Amy Winehouse is only down one spot this week to #13 with 38k sold
Sean Kingston's self titled album fell 8 spots from #6 to #14, selling 37k this week
T-Pain's Epiphany slips from the top 20 landing at #21 with 25k sold
Yung Berg's Almost Famous sold 6k this week
Keith Murray, who's Rap-Murr-Phobia sold 4k this week with
Check Out Full Article @ Hip-Hop DX