They fear that stubborn squatters could face the same fate as Katrina victims.

“Stay and die” is the warning from weather officials who say that Hurricane Ike, which is steaming toward the Texas Gulf Coast, could be a deadly monster as sinister as his evil cousin, Katrina. “All neighborhoods … and possibly entire coastal communities … will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide,” the advisory from the National Weather Service said. Read more about the warning and how people are reacting here.

Donyell Marshall to reach 15 years as Sixer. He may have been dropped by the then-unnamed, newly franchised Oklahoma City Thunder, but NBA vet Donyell Marshall wouldn’t be counted out. Marshall will reach his 15^th year in the league as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers after Oklahoma waived him. Marshall, 35, is expected to sign a one year deal with Philly for $1.26 million by week’s end. The deal makes the vet one of the seasoned class eligible for a minimum salary guaranteed only to players with at least 10 years experience in the league. Marshall last averaged 3.8 points off the bench with Seattle before the team moved to Oklahoma.

NFL season begins tonight. The Giants hope to defend their Super Bowl title as the NFL officially begins its regular season today. Meanwhile, New England is among top contenders, Adam “Pacman” Jones will try to show he’s worth his welcome back into the league from

suspension, and Chad Ocho Cinco, formerly Chad Johnson, will likely do his best impression as the Dennis Rodman of football. Keep up with all the action by visiting BET.com.

Entertainer says she’ll likely adopt in U.S. 

Rapper and actress Queen Latifah is ready to adopt her first child, according to the National Enquirer. The Queen has stated that her plans to start a family would “happen eventually,” but the magazine reports that she and her physical trainer are hoping to adopt a child together by Christmas. “I can understand why people go outside the U.S. ,” she says. “You can adopt someone here, and the birth parents have three years to come back and get that child. That’s terrifying. (American children) can use just as much assistance as someone from around the world. I want to do something here.” “Big ‘Tif” hasn’t confirmed the plans for an ‘08 adoption, nor has she confirmed a relationship with her female trainer.

Black Muslims meet in Detroit

When most people think about Black Muslims, Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam is the first thing that comes to mind. But it’s the Muslim American Society and its leader, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, that is widely believed to have the largest following among African Americans. This past weekend, thousands of Black Muslims converged on Detroit for an annual convention, which met in Michigan for the first time in more than 10 years. Metro Detroit has one of the largest Muslim populations in America . Mohammed is the son of the Elijah Muhammad, the longtime leader of the Nation of Islam, who died in 1975. After his father died, Mohammed took over the Black Nationalist organization and retooled group’s message, downplaying racial separatism and preaching orthodox Islam. “He’s a superb leader,” said Nadir Ahmad, 58, of Detroit , told The Detroit Free Press “He has a sober message of good morals, but also a commonsense approach to life and religion.” Ahmad said Mohammed “has always called for cooperation between faiths.”

Live from Denver.

BET News is at the Democratic National Convention in Denver to bring you the latest in this historic presidential race. Find out when to tune in, catch live coverage and analyses and see election specials here.

You(th) Vote. Rapper Daddy Yankee’s endorsement of Sen. John McCain raises a few questions for many of you. Check out video and comments - then let us know what you think here.

HIV  increase in New York is three times the national rate. The virus that causes AIDS is spreading in New York City at three times the national rate, according to a study released on Wednesday by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The study, reports The New York Times, shows that in New York there are 72 new cases of HIV infections for every 100,000 people, compared with 23 per 100,000 nationally. The findings, based on a new formula developed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimated that 4,762 New Yorkers contracted HIV in 2006, the most precise estimate the city has ever offered. But city officials stress that because the method of estimating infections was new, it could not be said definitively whether the number of new infections in the city had increased or decreased from previous years. Blacks, and men who have sex with other men, are the groups at greatest risk of contracting HIV, the study found. Blacks made up 46 percent of the newly infected; Hispanics, 32 percent; and Whites, 21 percent. Men accounted for 76 percent of new HIV infections and women for 25 percent. (The figures exceed 100 percent because of rounding.) Sex between men was the main cause in 50 percent of new infections; high-risk heterosexual sex in 22 percent; intravenous drug use in 8 percent; and unknown or uncertain causes in 18 percent. Over all, the study found some interesting differences between national and local rates of new HIV infections. Nearly two-thirds of the city’s new infections occurred in people 30 to 50 years old. Nationally, people under 30 accounted for 41 percent of new infections, compared with 28 percent in New York City. Also, within New York City, Whites were infected at four times the national rate, Hispanics at three times the national rate, and Blacks at almost twice the national rate.  
The number of uninsured Americans drops. The number of Americans without health insurance dropped by more than 1 million people in 2007, the first yearly decline in seven years, U.S. Census Bureau officials announced Tuesday. The drop was driven largely by an increase in the number of children covered by government-funded programs. The overall number of uninsured dropped from 47 million in 2006 to 45.7 million in 2007, David Johnson, chief of the Census Bureau’s Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, said during a morning teleconference. The number of children with health insurance increased to 8.7 million in 2007, up from 8.1 million in 2006. “The number of children covered by government health insurance programs increased to 31 percent from 29.8 percent in 2006,” Johnson said. “This is the main reason for the fall in the uninsured rates in children and for the fall in uninsured rates in the general population,” he said. Among Blacks, the number of uninsured dipped from 20.5 percent in 2006 to 19.5 percent in 2007. The number of people with private health insurance did not change. However, the number of people covered by government health insurance such as Medicaid increased from 80.3 million in 2006 to 83 million in 2007. People getting their health insurance through Medicaid increased from 38.3 million in 2006 to 39.6 million in 2007. Karen Davis, president of The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that seeks to promote a high-performing health care system for all Americans, thinks that the drop in the number of uninsured supports the argument for government-sponsored health insurance programs. “When you look at what’s really going on, the number of uninsured dropped by 1.3 million, and the increase in coverage under Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) went up by 1.3 million,” she said. This shows the importance of government-funded safety nets, she said.

A food allergy action plan helps protect children.  Parents, teachers and school staff need to take measures to ensure the safety of the more than 2.2 million American students with food allergies, says the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. “Open and frequent communication between parents and school staff is a key ingredient to keeping food-allergic students out of harm,” Dr. Michael Pistiner, a member of the Academy’s  Adverse Reactions to Foods Committee, said in an academy news release. “It takes a partnership to establish effective avoidance strategies and emergency plans.” The academy’s sample action plan and checklist of safety tips:  Inform the school cafeteria, teachers and other staff of what foods your child must avoid. Pack bag lunches. Your child should avoid classroom snacks and refrain from sharing food with friends. When there’s a classroom party, provide your child with safe snacks he or she can eat during the party. And push for “no-eating” policies on buses and in other settings where there’s no supervision of children. “Parents should be aware of expiration dates and keep in contact with their allergist to insure that all medication, especially self-injectable epinephrine, is replaced prior to expiration,” adds Pistiner, whose own nut-allergic son enters kindergarten this fall. Visit the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology for more on food allergies and their management.

Hillary calls for party unity and throws her support behind Obama

Sen. Hillary Clinton left little room for people to question whether she is a “team player” when she took to the stage in Denver last night to throw her support behind the first African American who will win an endorsement from a major party. It was a speech that will take a rightful place in history. Hear more of her speech here. Get the latest reaction from the floor of the convention at Pamela On Politics.

Delegate is called “Uncle Tom” … ready to fight.

What did you call me?!  Democratic National Convention Committee press secretary Delmarie Cobb was ready to fight after being called an “Uncle Tom.”  Cobb said the racially loaded slur came from  Illinois Senate President Emil Jones while discussing her support for Clinton Saturday night. “I was called an ‘Uncle Tom’ by Emil Jones in the lobby of the hotel, right in front of aldermen Freddrenna Lyle, Leslie Hairston and Latasha Thomas,” Cobb, a member of Clinton’s Illinois Steering Committee, told The Chicago Sun-Times. “I walked over to him and asked him, ‘What did you just call me?’” Jones, who is also Black, denies the slur. He says he was referring to Cobb and other Clinton supporters as “doubting Thomases.”  But Cobb doubts that explanation. She says when she confronted Jones, he did not indicate that she had misunderstood him. Cobb told the newspaper that those are “fighting words” and unacceptable.

Live from Denver. BET News goes to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colo. for this historical event. Check out BET’s complete political coverage at BET.com/News.  

Diabetics have another worry: cholesterol. LDL cholesterol that’s either too high or two low signals an increase cancer risk in people with type 2 diabetes, a Chinese study shows.  Researchers studied 6,107 diabetes patients, none of whom was taking cholesterol-lowering statins. The researchers found that LDL levels below 2.80 mmol/L were associated with an increased risk of cancers of the digestive organs and peritoneum, genital and urinary organs, and lymphatic and blood tissues. LDL levels above 3.80 mmol/L were associated with increased risk of oral, digestive, bone, skin, connective tissue and breast cancers. The findings suggest “the use of these levels as risk markers may help clinicians to assess their patients more fully and thus to prevent premature deaths in patients who have high risk,” wrote the team from the Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. However, factors such as lifestyle, socioeconomic status and indication for use of statins need to be considered when examining the association between LDL levels and cancer risk, Drs. Frank Hu and Eric Ding of the Harvard School of Public Health, wrote in an accompanying commentary. The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Most female sports injuries come from cheerleading.

Over the past 25 years, cheerleading accounted for two-thirds of all catastrophic sports injuries experienced by high school and college females in the United States, HealthDay News reports. This is a much higher proportion than previously thought, a new report says. Cheerleading accounted for 65.1 percent of female high school athlete injuries and for 66.7 percent of female college athlete injuries, according to this year’s report from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was previously believed that cheerleading accounted for 55 percent of injuries among high school females and 59.4 percent of injuries among college females. But the percentages increased when new data was used for this year’s report. Center Director Frederick O. Mueller, a professor of exercise and sports science who’s authored the annual report since it began in 1982, said catastrophic injuries to female athletes have increased over the years. “A major factor has been the change in cheerleading activity, which now involves gymnastic-type stunts,” he said in a university press release. “If these cheerleading activities are not taught by a competent coach and keep increasing in difficulty, catastrophic injuries will continue to be a part of cheerleading.” Between 1982 and 2007, there were 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes. The vast majority of those (67) occurred in cheerleading, followed by nine in gymnastics and seven in track.

HIV/AIDS groups to candidates: Where’s Your National HIV/AIDS Plan? Vital Signs: HIV/AIDS groups are concerned that as Black HIV/AIDS numbers grow, little attention is being given the deadly disease from the folks who want to run the country. Vital Signs tells you what they say the candidates must do to win their support.

Two powerful speeches with one message: Elect Barack Obama!

 Sen. Edward Kennedy and Michelle Obama opened the Democratic National Convention Monday night with a message of party unity, calling for the American people to elect Sen. Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Get the latest at Pamela On Politics. Talk about Michelle Obama’s speech here.