(Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

In today’s top news, the U.S. Supreme Court convenes to hear second gay marriage case; the Chicago Teachers Union will rally against planned school closings; and the location has been approved for a museum honoring Black firefighters in Chicago.

The U.S. Supreme Court convenes to hear second gay marriage case. [Reuters]

The Chicago Teachers Union is planning a rally against planned school closings. [Chicago Tribune]

Chicago approves location for future museum honoring the city’s African-American firefighters. [ABC Chicago]

None of the groups that raised money for the reward in the capture of Christopher Dorner want to pay up. [ABC]

Julia Pierson is the first woman to lead the Secret Service. [Newsday]

Two teen girls that made online attacks against the Steubenville rape victim will appear in court today. [CBSNews]

Former Pittsburgh Steelers player Kordell Stewart has filed for divorce from his reality TV star wife, Porsha Williams. [BET]

A plan to have unarmed students patrolling the campus of Towson University has sparked accusations of racism. [NBC Washington]

North Korea said it was cutting off a key military hotline with South Korea amid high tensions between the two sides. [CNN]

An earthquake killed at least one person and injured 19 other people in central Taiwan. [Wall Street Journal]

Carl Gordon, who played the proud and proudly-Black patriarch on the TV sitcom “Roc,” has died.

He passed at his home in Jetersville, Va..

His character on that 1990s sitcom, a  show about a working class family set in Baltimore, was likeable and grandfatherly. He always had something funny and interesting to say, bringing his unique, wry outlook to whatever topic was up for discussion.

The 78-year-old television and Broadway actor had battled non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, which was the cause of his death.

According to the New York Times, Gordon only began acting in his mid-life after growing tired of a number of rote jobs — sheet metal work and merchandise stocking — that he felt had dulled his creative instincts.

Before “Roc,” he starred in several Broadway plays including August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Thanks for entertaining and inspiring us, Carl Gordon.

Rest in Peace.

Best Buy Ad

Today at almost every search engine on the web, one of the top search terms is “Best Buy TV for $9.99. But is there any truth to the too-good-to-be-true-offer?

The answer is no.

The retailer made a technical error on its Web site, listing a LCD television set that normally costs $1,800 for only $9.999.

A number of customers jumped on the offer and began to buy the $9.99 TV on the Best Buy site. The company has since corrected the error and has begun to refund customers.

Best Buy, however, has a policy that clearly states that it can revoke” offers and to “correct” any errors.

Blacks lack TV presence in 2008, NAACP says. Time was back in the day, Blacks often stopped whatever they were doing to run to the television for a rare glimpse of their own complexion. Many years later, the NAACP says a “serious shortage” of Blacks on prime-time TV threatens to turn back the clock – and the Tyler Perrys of the industry can only do so much. “At a time when the country is excited about the election of the first African-American president in U.S. history, it is unthinkable that minorities would be so grossly under-represented on broadcast television,” NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous states in the report, “Out of Focus, Out of Sync: Take 4.” A virtual disappearance of Black-targeted programming has occurred since the WB and UPN networks merged two years ago, according to the report. Among the top four networks’ shows, only CBS’ “The Unit,” CW’s, “Everybody Hates Chris” and the CW’s “The Game” are led by Black casts, according to the study. The NAACP urges the formation of a task force including network execs, educators and activists to address the alleged shortage.

More legal problems find Gary Coleman.  Police are investigating a weekend incident during which former “Diff’rent Strokes” TV star Gary Coleman allegedly struck a man with his truck after an argument. Find out more at BET.com/News.

Rappers make $100,000 Xbox wager. The Game is a better Madden football player than Bow Wow – and he’ll have $100,000 for charity to prove it. Bow Wow tells TMZ.com that he lost the Xbox video competition to Game. The pair had recently made a friendly wager, with the loser’s cash going to those in greater need.

His acceptance speech attracted more viewers than ever

It seems that everything that Barack Obama does these days makes history. Turns out that when Obama, the first Black major-party nominee, gave his acceptance speech last Thursday before the largest live convention audience ever – 84,000 people – there were more than 40 million people tuning in, making it the most popular TV event in political convention history. As Nielsen Media Research put it, “More people watched Obama speak from a packed stadium in Denver on Thursday than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing , the final ‘American Idol’ or the Academy Awards this year said Friday. (Four playoff football games, including the Super Bowl between the Giants and Patriots, were seen by more than 40 million people.)” Nielsen data showed that together CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, Univision, Telemundo, BET and TV One accounted for a 24.5 national household rating in the 10 p.m. hour. That translates into about 38.4 million people who watched Obama address the Democratic National Convention at Denver ’s Invesco Field. That doesn’t even include those who tuned in from C-SPAN or PBS, according to Nielsen. About 7.5 million of the viewers in the 10 p.m. hour were Blacks, Nielsen estimated. In Obama’s speech was the fifth-highest-rated, non-sports event watched by Blacks in more than a decade. Michael Jackson’s 2001 30th anniversary CBS special is No. 1. No other convention in history even comes close. The next largest TV audience was when 27.6 million watched Bush deliver his acceptance speech after defeating John Kerry four years ago.

Harry Williams shows signs of recovery from spinal damage.
A Houston Texans wide receiver has begun walking for the first time since cracking his vertebrae last week in a pre-season game. Harry Williams was sidelined with the injury, plus ligament damage in his neck, during an Aug. 22 pre-season game versus Dallas. “I started walking today,” Williams told Houston TV station KRIV Thursday. “I brushed my own teeth today, sat up in a chair today, fed myself today. I’m doing good, man.” Williams, 26, has been told he won’t be able to resume his football career. He says he accepts the prognosis.

Three suspects were arrested, and guns, bullet-proof vests and drugs were seized

At least three Colorado men, possibly four, have been arrested with rifles, bullet-proof vest, walkie-talkies and camouflage clothes in an alleged plot to kill Sen. Barack Obama, according to reports from news media and law-enforcement agencies. TV station CBS4 reports that the suspects planned to shoot Obama in Denver during his acceptance speech. One suspect was nabbed in Aurora on Sunday, after being stopped by police for swerving in traffic in a rented pickup truck, reports say. Get more details on the plot at BET.com/News.

Felicia “Snoop” Pearson is arrested on drug charges

Actress Felicia Pearson, best known as the character Snoop from HBO’s “The Wire,” has been charged with suspected marijuana possession after cops went to her Baltimore home last week to pursue her cooperation in a murder trial. Police found two cigars containing suspected marijuana in a bedroom, plus what they believed to be loose weed. Pearson has allegedly refused to appear as a witness to a 2005 murder. Cops say Pearson saw Steven Lashley stab three men, killing one, after an argument. She could be detained until Lashley’s September trial.

Oprah continues reign as top TV earner.

TV Guide reports that Oprah Winfrey is still queen of the ratings and takings. The talk show diva has pulled in $384 million from her talk show, according to the publication. The gross profit makes Winfrey TV’s top-earning celebrity.

Singer signs on for “Dancing With the Stars.”

Singer Toni Braxton is apparently feeling much better since her cancelled string of Las Vegas concert performances, due to a heart condition. The vocalist has signed on to appear on TV’s “Dancing With the Stars.” Braxton, whose “Revealed” show was enjoying a successful run of Vegas dates this spring before she fell ill, will compete among other celebs. Viewers decide which duo of stars are best in performing choreographed routines before a live audience.

Fiddy, child, hang out for first time since legal dispute. Rapper 50 Cent, who’s been back and forth in various courtroom beefs with his ex, has retrieved his son Marquise for visitation. The rapper’s former lover, Shaniqua Tompkins, had reportedly argued against letting the child see his dad since a fire at their home, which she alleged that Fiddy caused. Marquise and his dad are expected to spend time together until next week when 50 leaves the country to film a movie. Tompkins and Fiddy are due back in court on another matter next month.