NEW YORK – After saying goodbye on concert stages and online video streams, Lil Wayne had nothing to add as he was sentenced Monday to a year in jail for having a loaded gun on his tour bus.
The Grammy Award-winning rapper delivered only a brief bow to fans and supporters as he was led out of a courtroom in handcuffs to start serving his sentence.
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With that, Lil Wayne headed off to face his punishment in a case that had shadowed him as he became one of music’s most prolific and profitable figures in recent years. Arrested in July 2007, he pleaded guilty in October to attempted criminal possession of a weapon. He admitted he had the loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun on his bus.
His attorney, Stacey Richman, said the rapper was resolute as he was taken away. “He knew what he had to do, and he’s doing it,” she said.
Lil Wayne will serve his sentence in the Rikers Island jail complex. Richman said she expected he will be held in protective custody, but the city Correction Department said it was still deciding on that. Protective custody is given to inmates who, for a variety of reasons including notoriety, require separation from the general prison population.
Palin’s advice to Canada
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Sarah Palin has criticized Canada’s health care program, saying the socialized system should be dismantled in favor of free enterprise.
But during a speech Saturday in Calgary, Palin acknowledged the irony of her family using medical care in Canada decades ago.
Palin was a child in the mid-1960s when her family lived in Skagway, a southeast Alaska town near the Canadian border.
When bad weather kept planes grounded, the train to Whitehorse, Yukon, often was the only option for travel.
Palin told the Calgary audience her family would then take the train across the border for health care.
Jason Recher, an aide to Palin, didn’t immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.
R&B singer D’Angelo arrested
NEW YORK — Authorities say D’Angelo was caught in New York City trying to pay $40 for sex with an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute.
Police said Monday that the 36-year-old R&B singer was arrested early Saturday while behind the wheel of his Range Rover.
D’Angelo, whose real name is Michael Archer, said in a statement that he pleaded not guilty and plans to fight the charge.
The statement said the singer hopes the public will “allow the American justice system to resolve the matter before jumping to any conclusions.”
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