MEET SHENELL LEIGHTON, Home Savvy’s knowledgeable Home Depot Associate demonstrating the best ways to improve your home. Ms. Leighton is currently Co-Manager of Home Depot Store #1255 in Long Island City, Queens, New York. She has been apart of the Home Depot family for 11 astounding years. Having initially started with the company as a cashier, Shenell advanced through the years serving in various roles such as Front End Supervisor, to Assistant Manager and now, Co-Manager. Consistently striving for the best, Shenell is committed and very much devoted to ensuring that all her customers receive the best quality service when visiting her store in Long Island City, Queens.  Ms. Leighton is proud to serve as Co-Manager of Home Depot and boasts, “My experiences here have truly empowered me. I’ve grown as a person, I’ve grown in my leadership roles with the company and I’ve discovered how to build, create and put together things that I never imagined I’d be able to.” Shenell Leighton is definitely a certified expert in Home Improvement and Madame Noire is happy to have her as apart of Home Savvy.  Be sure to watch Shenell in Episode 1 as she demonstrates how to create a container garden.

WANT MORE HOME SAVVY? WATCH THESE EPISODES: 

SEASON 2

• Episode 1: How to Install a Bathroom Vanity 
• Episode 2: How to Install a Bathroom Faucet

SEASON 1

• Episode 1: Creating a Container Garden
• Episode 2: How to Grow Vegetables at Home
• Episode 3: Interior Painting
• Episode 4: Closet Makeover 
• Episode 5: Kitchen Backsplash

theurbandaily.com

We all should be cautious on who we take relationship advice from, but I’m not sure if we can help hearing what Grammy winnner and Queens rapper nasty Nas has to say about love and marriage. In an open and honest interview the rapper  shares his advice on marriage and making relationships work while keeping it real about his divorce from Kelis. Read it here..!

Photo courtesy of theurbandaily.com

So I was checking out one of my favorite hip-hop blogs today, Herfection, and I came across this video they posted of Nicki Minaj spitting mad bars on the streets of Queens way before she was trying to be the woman of 100 faces, tote Mac lipstick and even before she was anywhere near affiliated with Young Money. Nails extremely long and with her bamboo earrings on, Onika raps with confidence and flair, and you can’t help but nod your head to it. In the end of the video, she freestyles (we hope), gives a shoutout to Cash Money coincidentally, and shouts out the talent of not only herself, but Foxy Brown and AND Lil’ Kim of all people: “Whose your best MC’s? Nick, Fox, and Kim…). She also jokingly boasts about her own rap skills. “I only rap cause I’m good at it. Really. It really was a hobby for a minute but then I was like, damn look at the state of hip-hop, what’s going on!? [laughs]” Interesting…

Now that she’s clearly going a pop route since blowing up, we definitely agree that the “gutta” Nicki Minaj is a lot better. Check out the video below, courtesy of James Delgatto and his Vimeo page, and decide if you agree:

Dirty Money – Nicki Minaj from JAMES DELGATTO on Vimeo.

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It’s supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, but for many Christmas turns out to be the most stressful. On Saturday, an ex-NYPD cop snapped under the financial pressures of the holidays after buying his wife a Louis Vuitton handbag for Christmas. When the couple got into a heated argument about money, Clarence Cash, 49, shot and killed his wife.

According to the NY Post, Cash, calmly told officers, “I just shot my wife,” after allegedly firing 10 bullets into Tracey Young, 42, in their Queens Condo. Young was a top tax investigator who specialized in busting tobacco smugglers. Cash detailed the whole act to cops, saying he shot his wife three times in the face, adding, “My wife, she didn’t deserve that.’’

Cash reportedly went completely over the edge when in the midst of their financial argument, he punched Young and she threatened to leave him. Neighbors admitted that they heard the couple arguing, then loud bangs — but no one called the cops, despite suspected gunfire.

After the incident around 10:30 pm, Cash told cops he wandered the city for more than seven hours trying to work up the nerve to commit suicide. Eventually, he turned himself in around 6 am yesterday, handing over two handguns.

Cash, who supposedly appeared remorseful, was charged with first-degree murder and remanded without bail. Because he is an ex-cop, his lawyer asked that he be placed in protective custody at Rikers.

Neighbors said the couple, who was married a few years ago and had no kids, was last seen arriving home in Cash’s black Mercedes at about 9 pm Saturday.

“They seemed fine when they got on the elevator,” one neighbor said.

Building resident Maple Dong, 28, said Young had recently told her Cash “bought a lot of gifts for her for Christmas,” including the handbag.

“She said, ‘I asked for it, and he bought it for me,’ ” Dong said.

But apparently Cash couldn’t really afford it. According to public records, he’d been hit with federal tax liens, multiple civil judgments, and warrants from New York State for failing to pay back taxes dating to at least 1998.

In sad irony, Young’s own mother was murdered by a lover when she was just a child, a neighbor said.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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• WEEKEND WRAP UP: Kat Williams Wins Back Custody, Common vs. Drake? + More!
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• The Odd Couple: Hollywood’s Most Shocking Relationships
• Changing Faces: Common Cosmetic Surgeries Performed in 2011
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(New York Daily News) — Thirty years ago, southeast Queens was at the center of the hip-hop movement – the stomping ground of lyrical legends Russell Simmons, Run-DMC and Ja Rule.  But the years have not been kind to Hollis.  While some residents say that the area has lost the energy that once made it famous, a local entrepreneur, Orville Hall, is trying to change all that.  The owner of Hollis Famous Burgers and the Hollis Hip Hop Museum, which temporarily closed down in April, is hoping to capitalize on the area’s rich musical history to revitalize the community where he grew up.

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(Crain’s) — Sales of new condo developments in Brooklyn and Queens made a comeback in the second quarter of this year, according to market reports released Thursday.  In Brooklyn nearly one in four sales—24.6% to be precise—were new developments according to Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Inc. This marked the highest level of sales activity for new developments recorded since the firms started tracking the statistic in the first quarter of 2008, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers that autumn. During the second quarter of 2010, new developments represented just 14% of total Brooklyn sales. Even in Queens, where there aren’t as many new developments, 8.9% of sales were new condos—also an all time high.

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