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A Palm Springs bouncer knocked a drunk reveler to the pavement in a viral video that has netizens debating the shocking use of force.
The video, posted Tuesday by Instagram account @760today, shows a drunk patron seeming to harass a bouncer at Rooftop 262 Bar in Palm Springs.
Frame from a viral video showing a belligerent patron grappling with a bouncer outside Rooftop 262 in Palm Springs
The man lies unconscious after taking a right-hook from the bouncer
The video-taker laughs for the camera as other bystanders jeer
The doorman pushed the man down, but he sneered, staggered to his feet, knocked over an electric fan, and got back in the other man’s face.
That’s when the bouncer knocked him out cold with a right hook. Bystanders cheered and laughed as the employee dragged the unconscious man off the sidewalk.
Yet the incident has sparked a fierce debate over the bouncer’s method of dealing with the slaphappy troublemaker.
“That was a cheap KO lol he was already out on his feet, bouncer is wrong for that,” one commenter chimed in.
The patron sneers at the bouncer after being pushed over early in the altercation.Spectators voiced their approval, but internet commenters have criticized the bouncer’s actions
“As a nurse, this is concerning. “An intoxicated patient is already at risk for impaired reflexes—knocking him unconscious increases the risk of head trauma, bleeding, and fatal outcomes,” wrote another, claiming to be a nurse.
The video provides no context about who or what started the row; it begins with the man seeming to scream at the employee, who tries to push him away multiple times before taking the swing.
As for a potential lawsuit: California bars have been protected against “dram shop liability” since the 1970s, meaning the bar isn’t liable for the harm that befell the drinker after he left.
However, the employee could be on the hook for battery, should the punch be deemed disproportionate or unprovoked.
Rooftop 262 did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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Summer movie season is fast approaching, and this year’s slate is bringing everything from the highly anticipated return of The Devil Wears Prada to a live-action remake of Moana.
Whether you’re searching for a hit of nostalgia, itching to catch a glimpse of your favourite superhero returning to the big screen or looking to enjoy fresh stories, there’s a new movie dropping almost every week. Grab your popcorn — here’s a rundown of the biggest movies coming out this summer.
The Devil Wears Prada 2
Release date: May 1
Set nearly two decades after the original film, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt reprise their roles as sparring figures once again entangled in the cutthroat world of high fashion. Old rivalries flare, bold couture takes centre stage and high-stakes drama unfolds as this cult classic struts confidently into a new age.
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Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu
Release date: May 22
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu follows bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his young apprentice Grogu as they venture beyond the Outer Rim. Along the way, old enemies rear their heads, new alliances form and loyalties are pushed to their limits.
Scary Movie 6
Release date: June 5
Fans of the Scary Movie franchise will soon be on the edge of their seats as the latest instalment draws them into its distinctive brand of horror parody. Taking aim at today’s most pervasive pop-culture obsessions, familiar faces clash with unsuspecting victims as chaos, racy humour and absurd twists ensue.
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Masters of the Universe
Release date: June 5
Masters of the Universe, starring Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam (a.k.a. He-Man), follows his march to defend Eternia — where the young royal must fight off the evil Skeletor, who threatens to entomb the otherworldly realm in darkness — and embrace his ability to unite a group of scattered allies.
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Disclosure Day
Release date: June 12
From legendary director Steven Spielberg comes this sci-fi thriller starring Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt, in which humanity stands on the precipice of contact with alien life. While little has been revealed about the plot, the film marks Spielberg’s return to the extraterrestrial genre, with early teasers weaving in a whistleblower angle and exploring society’s reaction when the truth finally comes to light.
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The Odyssey
Release date: June 17
The Odyssey follows King Odysseus as he returns home after the Trojan War. Encountering gods, monsters and perilous seas, his character is tested at every turn while the fate of his kingdom hangs in the balance. Drawing on myth and cinematic spectacle, Christopher Nolan reconstructs a timeless epic on the silver screen.
Toy Story 5
Release date: June 19
Set in an all-too-human world, Toy Story 5 reunites Woody, Buzz and the gang as they step into another topsy-turvy, toy-driven adventure. As their timeless bond is tested and they question their purpose, this next instalment promises the warmth and nostalgia at the heart of every Toy Story saga. Bring tissues, you never know!
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Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
Release date: June 26
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow begins with Kara Zor-El as she forges her own path in the wake of Krypton’s legacy. When a freak encounter drags her into a risky quest for justice, she must confront loss and push the limits of her resilience to come into her own as a hero.
Minions & Monsters
Release date: July 1
Minions & Monsters plunges audiences back into the universes of everyone’s favourite little tricksters as they rip through a rowdy world of mayhem, mishaps and pesky villains. This movie is set to be jam-packed with slapstick comedy, endless charm, and another raucous turn into animated chaos.
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Moana
Release date: July 10
This live-action remake of Moana follows a headstrong young traveller who sets sail beyond the safety of her home to discover her true identity. Accompanied by the demigod Maui, she encounters mythical forces, must navigate ancient quests and grapple with her own self-doubt.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Release date: July 31
Spider-Man: Brand New Day reunites audiences with Peter Parker as he embarks on a fresh start in a world that has forgotten him. Rebuilding his life alone, he must manage its everyday struggles as emerging threats pull him back into the world of Spider-Man.
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The End of Oak Street
Release date: Aug. 14
The End of Oak Street follows a seemingly normal suburban community whose daily routines are upended by a series of unsettling events that erode trust and build tension among neighbours. As residents are forced to unearth unseemly truths, they will solve mysteries, ignite drama and hold viewers in psychological suspense.
If you’re searching for the best banana cake recipe, your search is over. Not banana bread masquerading as cake—this is a soft, buttery, ultra-moist sheet cake loaded with real banana flavor and topped with silky cream cheese frosting.
I originally published this recipe in 2016 and have since added new photos and a few more success tips.
My Go-To, Never-Fail Banana Cake
This is my go-to banana cake when I have a bunch of overripe bananas sitting on the counter—and once you try it, you’ll understand why. It’s unbelievably soft and moist with a rich buttery crumb and plenty of bold banana flavor in every bite. We’re not making banana bread here—this is a true cake, tender and fluffy, topped with a thick layer of tangy cream cheese frosting that takes it over the top.
It’s simple enough for a casual bake, yet special enough for birthdays, gatherings, and holidays. One bite and you’ll understand why this is a reader favorite!
One reader, Paul, commented: “I have been baking for 15 years. I use nothing but the finest ingredients. This banana cake IS by far the best banana cake I have ever made or tasted!!!★★★★★“
Another reader, Lorena, commented: “Words don’t do justice to what happens to your taste buds as they experience the first bite. The texture is perfectly moist, the flavor is exquisite. Hands down the best banana cake ever. It’s one of those recipes that you want to pass down as family heirlooms.★★★★★“
Another reader, Jacqui, commented: “The title of this recipe definitely holds true… this is a keeper for sure!★★★★★“
Another reader, Barb, commented: “My husband tried it and said that this was the best banana cake he’d ever had. I told him that was the name of the recipe! … We’d give it 10 stars if we could. Great recipe, Sally, thank you!★★★★★“
Remember that time I told you about the best banana cake I’ve ever had? I enjoyed obsessed over it at a family reunion. My husband’s cousin made it and I stalked her down like a dessert creep and proceeded to talk her ear off about cream cheese frosting and spotty bananas for 35 minutes straight.
What? You don’t do that at parties?
It was the moistest cake I’ve ever eaten. Stick-to-the-back of your fork moist. The perfect cream cheese frosting, both sweet and tangy, sinking into the top of the cake made it even moister. Sweet, but not overpowering. Mega banana flavor, certainly more banana flavor than any banana bread I’ve ever eaten. Very buttery and cakey from creaming the butter and sugars. Just a ridiculously rich, decadent dessert.
The banana cake was dense, but not heavy. If that makes any sense? (Coming from the lady who talks about rotting bananas at social gatherings, but stick with me here.) The crumb was very soft, but they were tight crumbs. The cake didn’t fall apart when you took a forkful.
It was, hands down, the best banana cake I’ve ever had. And I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
Start With Spotty Bananas
The recipe starts with 1 and 1/2 cups (345g) mashed bananas, or about 4 medium or 3 large ripe bananas. Now, make sure those bananas are nice and spotty. More brown spots = sweeter, more banana flavor. It’s what you want for banana bread, chocolate banana bread, and banana muffins, too. Your cake (and everyone who eats it) will thank you.
I simply mash the bananas in my mixer—the same mixer I use to make the rest of the batter. Beat the bananas on high speed for a minute, then transfer to another bowl. No need to wash the mixing bowl before you cream the butter and sugars.
Can I Use Frozen Bananas?
Yes and I do this often. Thaw the frozen bananas at room temperature. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe below. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking.
Other Ingredients You Need:
Flour: All-purpose flour creates the structure of this banana cake.
Baking Powder & Baking Soda: For lift. Be sure they are fresh—expired leaveners will leave you with a dense, stodgy cake.
Cinnamon & Salt: For flavor.
Butter: Be sure to start with proper room-temperature butter.
Sugar: You need both white granulated and brown sugar to sweeten this cake.
Eggs: To bind everything together and add tenderness and lift.
Vanilla: Essential for flavor in all banana desserts!
Buttermilk: Buttermilk is the moist-maker in this cake. The cake wouldn’t be what it is without it! You also need the acid in buttermilk to help the baking soda do its job. If you don’t keep buttermilk on hand or can’t find it at the store, you can make this buttermilk substitute: measure 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar. Pour into a liquid measuring cup. Then add enough whole milk until it reaches 1 and 1/2 cups. Stir, let it sit for 5 minutes, and then it’s ready to be added to your batter.
Here’s the batter. There will be some lumps, and that’s fine!
You can use either a metal or glass 9×13-inch pan. I usually bake this cake in a glass pan, which works really well and bakes it evenly. If using glass, the bake time may be on the slightly longer end.
The Best Frosting for Banana Cake
This is the silkiest and smoothest cream cheese frosting I’ve ever tasted! It’s similar to the cream cheese frosting that we use for carrot cake, but the ratio of cream cheese to butter is different. For this banana cake, we’re using a 2:1 ratio of cream cheese to butter, instead of the carrot cake’s 4:1 ratio. So this makes the frosting a little firmer, silkier, and definitely more buttery!
There’s also a lot of cream cheese frosting. When you begin slathering it onto the cake, you’ll probably go “Sally, this is way too much frosting!” But it’s not. You want a nice thick layer. It’s essential.
If you love the flavor of brown butter, the brown butter cream cheese frosting from my zucchini cake would be fantastic here.
Not a fan of cream cheese frosting or just want to try something different?
More frosting flavors for banana cake:
This banana cake recipe is simple, reliable, and perfect for everything from casual baking days to celebrations, and I have a feeling it’ll earn a permanent spot in your recipe rotation. Just scroll through the many, many reviews below by home bakers who swear by this recipe for the best banana cake!
Other Banana Cake Sizes
Layer Cake (Pictured Above): You can make this as either a 2-layer or 3-layer cake. For a 2-layer cake, divide the batter between two greased and lined 9-inch round pans and bake at 350°F (177°C) for 26–30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For a 3-layer cake, divide the batter between three pans and bake for 22–26 minutes.
Cupcakes: I’ve gotten a few questions about turning this cake into cupcakes. For about 2 dozen cupcakes, fill the cupcake liners halfway and bake for about 20–22 minutes. Same oven temperature. Or use this very similar banana cupcakes recipe.
Bundt Cake: I recommend using my similar recipe for chocolate marble banana Bundt cake instead. (There’s a little extra baking powder for lift, which is helpful when baking in a large Bundt pan.) You can leave out the chocolate swirl in that recipe if you wish, and top with the cream cheese icing from this recipe for hummingbird Bundt cake.
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Description
Soft, buttery, and ultra-moist, this is truly the best banana cake. Made with ripe bananas and topped with tangy cream cheese frosting, it’s a longtime reader favorite.
Banana Cake
Cream Cheese Frosting
Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a metal or glass 9×13-inch pan.
Make the cake: Mash the bananas. I usually just use my mixer for this! Set mashed bananas aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed until creamed together, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula as needed. Add the eggs and the vanilla. Beat on medium-high speed until combined, then beat in the mashed bananas. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk and mixing each addition just until incorporated. Do not overmix. The batter will be slightly thick and a few lumps are OK.
Spread batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45–50 minutes. Baking times vary, so keep an eye on yours. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you find the top of the cake is browning too quickly in the oven, loosely cover it with aluminum foil.
Remove the cake from the oven and set on a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely. After about 45 minutes, I usually transfer it to the refrigerator to speed things up.
Make the frosting: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high speed and beat for 2 minutes. If you want the frosting a little thicker, add the extra 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar (I usually do). Spread the frosting on the cooled cake.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. This helps sets the frosting and makes cutting easier.
Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Bring to room temperature before serving, if desired.
Notes
Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prepare cake through step 6. Cover the cake tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Bring to room temperature, make the frosting, frost, and serve. Frosted or unfrosted cake freezes well, up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, bring to room temperature, and then frost if needed and serve.
Frozen Bananas: You can use frozen bananas here. Thaw the frozen bananas. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking.
Buttermilk: Buttermilk is required for this recipe. You can make your own DIY buttermilk substitute if needed. Add 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup. Then add enough room-temperature whole milk to the same measuring cup until it reaches 1 and 1/2 cups (360g/ml). (In a pinch, lower-fat or nondairy milks work for this soured milk, but the cake won’t taste as moist or rich.) Stir it and let sit for 5 minutes. The homemade “buttermilk” will be somewhat curdled and ready to use in the recipe.
Cupcakes: For about 2 dozen cupcakes, fill the cupcake liners halfway and bake for about 20–22 minutes. Same oven temperature. Or use this very similar banana cupcakes recipe.
Can I Turn This Into a Banana Bundt Cake? I recommend using my very similar recipe for chocolate marble banana Bundt cake instead. (There’s a little extra baking powder for lift, which is helpful when baking in a large Bundt pan.) You can leave out the chocolate swirl in that recipe if you wish, and top with the cream cheese icing from this recipe for hummingbird Bundt cake.
Layer Cake: You can make this as either a 2-layer or 3-layer cake. For a 2-layer cake, divide the batter between two greased and lined 9-inch round pans and bake at 350°F (177°C) for 26–30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For a 3-layer cake, divide the batter between three pans and bake for 22–26 minutes. I often like to pair the layer cake with this brown butter cream cheese frosting.
Lessons from building production AI systems that nobody talks about.
The conversation around AI agents has moved fast. A year ago, everyone was optimizing RAG pipelines. Now the discourse centers on context engineering, MCP/A2A protocols, agentic coding tools that read/manage entire codebases, and multi-agent orchestration patterns. The frameworks keep advancing.
After 18 months building the AI Assistant at Cisco Customer Experience (CX), we’ve learned that the challenges determining real-world success are rarely the ones getting attention. Our system uses multi-agent design patterns over structured enterprise data (mostly SQL, like most enterprises). The patterns that follow emerged from making that system actually useful to the business.
This post isn’t about the obvious. It’s about some of the unglamorous patterns that determine whether your system gets used or abandoned.
1. The Acronym Problem
Enterprise environments are dense with internal terminology. A single conversation might include ATR, MRR, and NPS, each carrying specific internal meaning that differs from common usage.
To a foundation model, ATR might mean Average True Range or Annual Taxable Revenue. To our business users, it means Available to Renew. The same acronym can also mean completely different things within the company, depending on the context:
User: “Set up a meeting with our CSM to discuss the renewal strategy” AI: CSM → Customer Success Manager (context: renewal)
User: “Check the CSM logs for that firewall issue” AI: CSM → Cisco Security Manager (context: firewall)
NPS could be Net Promoter Score or Network Protection Solutions, both completely valid depending on context. Without disambiguation, the model guesses. It guesses confidently. It guesses wrong.
The naive solution is to expand acronyms in your prompt. But this creates two problems: first, you need to know which acronyms need expansion (and LLMs hallucinate expansions confidently). Second, enterprise acronyms are often ambiguous even within the same organization.
We maintain a curated company-wide collection of over 8,000 acronyms with domain-specific definitions. Early in the workflow, before queries reach our domain agents, we extract potential acronyms, capture surrounding context for disambiguation, and look up the correct expansion.
50% of all queries asked by CX users to the AI Assistant contain one or more acronyms and receive disambiguation before reaching our domain agents.
The key detail: we inject definitions as context while preserving the user’s original terminology. By the time domain agents execute, acronyms are already resolved.
2. The Clarification Paradox
Early in development, we built what seemed like a responsible system: when a user’s query lacked sufficient context, we asked for clarification. “Which customer are you asking about?” “What time period?” “Can you be more specific?”
Users did not like it, and a clarification question would often get downvoted.
The problem wasn’t the questions themselves. It was the repetition. A user would ask about “customer sentiment,” receive a clarification request, provide a customer name, and then get asked about time period. Three interactions to answer one question.
Research on multi-turn conversations shows a 39% performance degradation compared to single-turn interactions. When models take a wrong turn early, they rarely recover. Every clarification question is another turn where things can derail.
The fix was counterintuitive: classify clarification requests as a last resort, not a first instinct.
We implemented a precedence system where “proceed with reasonable defaults” outranks “ask for more information.” If a user provides any useful qualifier (a customer name, a time period, a region), assume “all” for missing dimensions. Missing time period? Default to the next two fiscal quarters. Missing customer filter? Assume all customers within the user’s access scope.
This is where intelligent reflection also helps tremendously: when an agent’s initial attempt returns limited results but a close alternative exists (say, a product name matching a slightly different variation), the system can automatically retry with the corrected input rather than bouncing a clarification question back to the user. The goal is resolving ambiguity behind the scenes whenever possible, and being transparent to users about what filters the agents used.
Early versions asked for clarification on 30%+ of queries. After tuning the decision flow with intelligent reflection, that dropped below 10%.
Figure: Decision flow for clarification, with intelligent reflection
The key insight: users would rather receive a broader result set they can filter mentally than endure a clarification dialogue. The cost of showing slightly more data is lower than the cost of friction.
3. Guided Discovery Over Open-Ended Conversation
We added a feature called “Compass” that suggests a logical next question after each response. “Would you like me to break down customer sentiment by product line?”
Why not just ask the LLM to suggest follow-ups? Because a foundation model that doesn’t understand your business will suggest queries your system can’t actually handle. It will hallucinate capabilities. It will propose analysis that sounds reasonable but leads nowhere.
Compass grounds suggestions in actual system capabilities. Rather than generating open-ended suggestions (“Is there anything else you’d like to know?”), it proposes specific queries the system can definitely fulfill, aligned to business workflows the user cares about.
This serves two purposes. First, it helps users who don’t know what to ask next. Enterprise data systems are complex; business users often don’t know what data is available. Guided suggestions teach them the system’s capabilities through example. Second, it keeps conversations productive and on-rails.
Approximately 40% of multi-turn conversations within the AI Assistant include an affirmative follow-up, demonstrating how contextually relevant follow up suggestions can improve user retention, conversation continuity and guide discovery.
We found this pattern valuable enough that we open-sourced a standalone implementation: langgraph-compass. The core insight is that follow-up generation should be decoupled from your main agent so it can be configured, constrained, and grounded independently.
4. Deterministic Security in Probabilistic Systems
Role-based access control cannot be delegated to an LLM.
The intuition might be to inject the user’s permissions into the prompt: “This user has access to accounts A, B, and C. Only return data from those accounts.” This does not work. The model might follow the instruction. It might not. It might follow it for the first query and forget by the third. It can be jailbroken. It can be confused by adversarial input. Prompt-based identity is not identity enforcement.
The risk is subtle but severe: a user crafts a query that tricks the model into revealing data outside their scope, or the model simply drifts from the access rules mid-conversation. Compliance and audit requirements make this untenable. You cannot explain to an auditor that access control “usually works.”
Our RBAC implementation is entirely deterministic and completely opaque to the LLM. Before any query executes, we parse it and inject access control predicates in code. The model never sees these predicates being added; it never makes access decisions. It formulates queries; deterministic code enforces boundaries.
When access filtering produces empty results, we detect it and tell the user: “No records are visible with your current access permissions.” They know they’re seeing a filtered view, not a complete absence.
Liz Centoni, Cisco’s EVP of Customer Experience, has written about the broader framework for building trust in agentic AI, including governance by design and RBAC as foundational principles. These aren’t afterthoughts. They’re prerequisites.
5. Empty Results Need Explanations
When a database query returns no rows, your first instinct might be to tell the user “no data found.” This is almost always the wrong answer.
“No data found” is ambiguous. Does it mean the entity doesn’t exist? The entity exists but has no data for this time period? The query was malformed? The user doesn’t have permission to see the data?
Each scenario requires a different response. The third is a bug. The fourth is a policy that needs transparency (see section above).
System-enforced filters (RBAC): The data exists, but the user doesn’t have permission to see it. The right response: “No records are visible with your current access permissions. Records matching your criteria exist in the system.” This is transparency, not an error.
User-applied filters: The user asked for something specific that doesn’t exist. “Show me upcoming subscription renewals for ACME Corp in Q3” returns empty because there are no renewals scheduled for that customer in that period. The right response explains what was searched: “I couldn’t find any subscriptions up for renewal for ACME Corp in Q3. This could mean there are no active subscriptions, or the data hasn’t been loaded yet.”
Query errors: The filter values don’t exist in the database at all. The user misspelled a customer name or used an invalid ID. The right response suggests corrections.
We handle this at multiple layers. When queries return empty, we analyze what filters eliminated records and whether filter values exist in the database. When access control filtering produces zero results, we check whether results would exist without the filter. The synthesis layer is instructed to never say “the SQL query returned no results.”
This transparency builds trust. Users understand the system’s boundaries rather than suspecting it’s broken.
6. Personalization is Not Optional
Most enterprise AI is designed as a one-size-fits-all interface. But people expect an “assistant” to adapt to their unique needs and support their way of working. Pushing a rigid system without primitives for customization causes friction. Users try it, find it doesn’t fit their workflow, and abandon it.
We addressed this on multiple fronts.
Shortcuts allow users to define command aliases that expand into full prompts. Instead of typing out “Summarize renewal risk for ACME Corp, provide a two paragraph summary highlighting key risk factors that may influence likelihood of non-renewal of Meraki subscriptions”, a user can simply type /risk ACME Corp. We took inspiration from agentic coding tools like Claude Code that support slash commands, but built it for business users to help them get more done quickly. Power users create shortcuts for their weekly reporting queries. Managers create shortcuts for their team review patterns. The same underlying system serves different workflows without modification.
Based on production traffic, we’ve noticed the most active shortcut users average 4+ uses per shortcut per day. Power users who create 5+ shortcuts generate 2-3x the query volume of casual users.
Scheduled prompts enable automated, asynchronous delivery of information. Instead of synchronous chat where users must remember to ask, tasks deliver insights on a schedule: “Every Monday morning, send me a summary of at-risk renewals for my territory.” This shifts the assistant from reactive to proactive.
Long-term memory remembers usage patterns and user behaviors across conversation threads. If a user always follows renewal risk queries with product adoption metrics, the system learns that pattern and recommends it. The goal is making AI feel truly personal, like it knows the user and what they care about, rather than starting fresh every session.
We track usage patterns across all these features. Heavily-used shortcuts indicate workflows that are worth optimizing and generalizing across the user community.
7. Carrying Context from the UI
Most AI assistants treat context as chat history. In dashboards with AI assistants, one of the challenges is context mismatch. Users may ask about a specific view, chart or table they are viewing, but the assistant usually sees chat text and broad metadata or perform queries that are outside the scope the user switched from. The assistant does not reliably know the exact live view behind the question. As filters, aggregations, and user focus change, responses become disconnected from what the user actually sees. For example, a user may apply a filter for assets that have reached end-of-support for one or more architectures or product types, but the assistant may still answer from a broader prior context.
We enabled an option in which UI context is explicit and continuous. Each AI turn is grounded in the actual view state of the selected dashboard content or even objects, not just conversation history. This gives the assistant precise situational awareness and keeps answers aligned with the user’s current screen. Users are made aware that they are within their view context when they switch to the assistant window,
For users, the biggest gain is accuracy they can verify quickly. Answers are tied to the exact view they are looking at, so responses feel relevant instead of generic. It also reduces friction: fewer clarification loops, and smoother transitions when switching between dashboard views and objects. The assistant feels less like a separate chat tool and more like an extension of the interface.
8. Building AI with AI
We develop these agentic systems using AI-assisted workflows. It’s about encoding a senior software engineer’s knowledge into machine-readable patterns that any new team member, human or AI, can follow.
We maintain rules that define code conventions, architectural patterns, and domain-specific requirements. These rules are always active during development, ensuring consistency regardless of who writes the code. For complex tasks, we maintain command files that break multi-step operations into structured sequences. These are shared across the team, so a new developer can pick things up quickly and contribute effectively from day one.
Features that previously required multi-week sprint cycles now ship in days.
The key insight: the value isn’t necessarily in AI’s general intelligence and what state-of-the-art model you use. It’s in the encoded constraints that channel that intelligence toward useful outputs. A general-purpose model with no context writes generic code. The same model with access to project conventions and example patterns writes code that fits the codebase.
There’s a moat in building a project as AI-native from the start. Teams that treat AI assistance as infrastructure, that invest in making their codebase legible to AI tools, move faster than teams that bolt AI on as an afterthought.
Conclusion
None of these patterns are technically sophisticated. They’re obvious in hindsight. The challenge isn’t knowing them; it’s prioritizing them over more exciting work.
It’s tempting to chase the latest protocol or orchestration framework. But users don’t care about your architecture. They care whether the system helps them do their job and is evolving quickly to inject efficiency into more elements of their workflow.
The gap between “technically impressive demo” and “actually useful tool” is filled with many of these unglamorous patterns. The teams that build lasting AI products are the ones willing to do the boring work well.
These patterns emerged from building a production AI Assistant at Cisco’s Customer Experience organization. None of this would exist without the team of architects, engineers and designers who argued about the right abstractions, debugged the edge cases, and kept pushing until the system actually worked for real users.
I’ve watched this movie before. Employees push back on AI. Leadership responds with more training. More town halls. More slide decks explaining the technology. Nothing changes.
Then leadership gets frustrated. “We’ve given them every resource. Why won’t they just use the tools?”
Because the resistance was never about the technology. It’s about fear. Loss of autonomy. Distrust. A culture where people don’t feel safe saying what’s really going on. No amount of training fixes that.
The Training Fallacy
When AI adoption stalls, the default response is education. More training sessions. Better documentation. A slicker internal marketing campaign about the benefits of AI. And when that doesn’t work, more of the same.
It’s the organizational equivalent of speaking louder to someone who speaks a different language. The problem isn’t volume. It’s that you’re having the wrong conversation.
The real question isn’t “Do people understand AI?” It’s “Do people trust that AI adoption is safe for them — professionally, personally, and economically?”
Until you answer that question, training is theater.
The Four Cultural Root Causes of AI Resistance
1. Job Security Anxiety.75% of employees are concerned AI will make certain jobs obsolete (EY, 2023), and 89% report concern about job security (Resume Now, 2025). These aren’t irrational fears. People are watching headlines about layoffs and automation every day. When leadership says “AI won’t replace you,” most employees hear it the same way they hear “this reorganization won’t affect your team.” They’ve been told that before.
2. Loss of Professional Identity. “If an AI can do my job, what am I?” This one runs deep. People invest years building expertise — and then a tool comes along that appears to replicate it in seconds. It’s not about the technology. It’s about what the technology implies about the value of their experience.
3. Trust Deficit with Leadership. “They say no layoffs, but do I believe them?” Trust isn’t a binary. It’s built over years and broken in moments. If your organization has a history of saying one thing and doing another — about restructuring, about priorities, about what they value — then assurances about AI will fall flat. Resistance in this case isn’t about AI. It’s about accumulated distrust finding a focal point.
4. Absence of Psychological Safety. “I can’t admit I don’t understand this.” In cultures where appearing competent matters more than being honest, people won’t say “I’m confused” or “I need help.” Instead, they’ll quietly avoid the new tools, find workarounds, or comply superficially while doing the actual work the old way. The result looks like adoption in the metrics and feels like resistance on the ground.
Resistance as Diagnostic Data
Here’s the reframe that changes everything: resistance isn’t a problem to solve. It’s a signal to interpret.
When your people push back on AI adoption, they’re telling you something important about your culture. The question is whether you’re listening — or whether you’re just looking for more persuasive ways to get compliance.
In my experience, the organizations that treat resistance as diagnostic data — rather than an obstacle to overcome — are the ones that figure this out. They ask, “What is this resistance telling us about our culture?” instead of “How do we get people to stop resisting?”
That’s a fundamentally different question. And it leads to fundamentally different solutions.
The Five-Step Resistance Management Playbook
1. Acknowledge the fear. Don’t dismiss it. Stop telling people their concerns are unfounded. They’re not. Job displacement is real. Skill obsolescence is real. The uncertainty is real. You don’t have to have all the answers — but you do have to acknowledge the reality of what people are feeling. “I understand why this is unsettling, and I don’t have all the answers yet” is more powerful than any reassurance.
2. Create safe spaces for honest conversation. Not suggestion boxes. Not anonymous surveys. Real conversations where people can say “I’m worried about my future here” without it showing up in their next performance review. This requires psychological safety — which means leaders go first. Share your own uncertainties. Model the vulnerability you’re asking your teams to show.
3. Co-design the rollout with affected teams. People support what they help create. This isn’t a radical idea — it’s basic change management that most AI rollouts skip. Involve the people who will actually use these tools in deciding how they get implemented. Not as an afterthought. As a design principle.
4. Invest in meaningful upskilling. Not tool training. Career development. Help people see a future for themselves in the AI-augmented organization. 59% of the global workforce will need some form of training by 2030 (WEF, 2025). Make that training about building capabilities people are excited about — not just learning to operate a new interface.
5. Be transparent about transitions. If roles are changing, say so. If you don’t know yet, say that too. If there will be job losses, be honest about it and provide real support for affected people. Silence breeds distrust faster than bad news. People can handle difficult truths. What they can’t handle is the feeling that leadership is hiding something.
The Middle Management Challenge
One group gets overlooked in almost every AI adoption plan: middle managers.
They’re the most critical group in your entire adoption strategy. And they’re getting squeezed from both directions — pressure from senior leadership to drive adoption, and resistance from their teams who are looking to them for reassurance.
Most AI rollout plans treat middle managers as transmission belts for messaging. That’s a mistake. They need their own support. Their own safe spaces. Their own honest conversations about what AI means for their roles. Because they’re asking the same questions their teams are — they just don’t have anyone to ask them to.
Start with Diagnosis
Every organization’s resistance pattern is different. The mix of fear, distrust, identity threat, and safety gaps varies. You can’t address what you can’t see.
That’s where Culture Dig comes in. It shows you exactly where resistance lives in your organization — and why. Not surface-level symptoms. Root causes. Cultural patterns. The data you need to address the actual problem instead of the presenting problem.
Schedule a conversation. Let’s figure out what your resistance is actually telling you.
This article is part of our AI and Organizational Culture content series. For the full picture of how culture shapes AI adoption, start there.
When it comes to beaches in Batangas, Calatagan is always among our top choices. It has fair sand and shallow waters, and it’s not as crowded as other beach destinations in the province. We returned to Calatagan to find out what has changed since our last visit. In this article, we’ll focus on one of its most iconic attractions — Stilts Calatagan Beach Resort!
Accommodations in Calatagan range from undeveloped coves to more upscale resorts, from rugged camping sites to luxurious villas and water parks. Stilts Calatagan is on the higher end of the spectrum. It is a well-known venue for team buildings and special occasions like birthdays, debuts, and most especially, weddings.
The most distinct feature of the resort is the cluster of overwater bungalows, linked by wooden boardwalks, reminiscent of the water villas in the Maldives. These villas and other overnight cottages/rooms might be too expensive for budget travelers, but sun chasers and beach lovers can make do with a workaround — day tour and beach camping.
When planning a trip to Stilts Calatagan, the first thing you should do is decide whether you’ll be visiting for a day or spending the night (or nights) at the resort. What’s ideal depends on your budget and the things you want to do at the resort.
Day Tour is cheaper, but you have limited time to enjoy the resort and the beach. If you want to maximize your time, you need to be there early.
Overnight stay is costlier, but you have more time enjoying the amenities and other activities at Stilts. You can split the cost if your group is big and you are traveling with friends. Or you can camp out. If this is your long-awaited family outing and you have the money to spend, then, by all means, opt to stay overnight.
Stilts Calatagan Day Tour Rates
Entrance Fee
Off-Peak Season (January to February / July to November) P700/pax
Peak Season (March to June / December / Holidays) P800/pax
NOTES
The Calatagan Municipality has mandated the collection of P30 per person for the Tourism Ecological Fee. This is normally paid at the resort either upon check in or check out. You only need to pay this once. If you’re visiting multiple resorts, you only need to settle this at your first resort.
The entrance for children six (6) years old and below are FREE.
The day tour rates are inclusive of welcome drinks, free use of the swimming pools, and access to the beach areas.
The day tour rates also include access to the shower rooms, souvenir shops, and other amenities like the restaurant.
You can avail of the water activity packages and tours, but these are on top of the entrance fee. These have separate rates.
If you are planning to stay overnight at the resort, you have lots of accommodation options — beach cottages, villas, bungalows, tree houses, and the iconic floating cottages. The rates are on the pricey side, so prepare to splurge for an overnight stay.
Stilts Calatagan Beach Cottages
Regardless of you choice, here are some important notes:
Check-in time starts at 2:00 PM, while check-out time is at 12:00 PM.
The peak season is from March to June (summer), December, and holidays. The off-peak season is January, February, and from July to November.
The rates cover welcome drinks and access to the designated areas.
Floating Cottage Rates
To give you an idea, these are the rates of the floating cottages (overwater rooms) that have become synonymous with the resort:
Small Cottage Off-Peak Season: P9400 per night (good for 3 pax) + P1300 per additional pax Peak Season: P10,400 per night (good for 3 pax) + P1400 per additional pax Maximum Capacity: 10 occupants
Medium Cottage Off-Peak Season: P13,450 per night (good for 5 pax) + P1300 per additional pax Peak Season: P14,700 per night (good for 5 pax) + P1400 per additional pax Maximum Capacity: 15 occupants
Large Cottage Off-Peak Season: P18,800 per night (good for 7 pax) + P1300 per additional pax Peak Season: P20,000 per night (good for 7 pax) + P1400 per additional pax Maximum Capacity: 20 occupants
Stilts Calatagan Overwater Cottages
Tree House Rates
On the other end of the spectrum, the tree houses are the most inexpensive rooms:
Serenitree Price: P5000 per night Good for 2 pax Maximum Capacity: 2 pax
Eternitree Price: P6000 per night Additional Pax: P1300 (Off-peak) / P1400 (Peak) Good for 3 pax Maximum Capacity: 4 pax
All rates are inclusive of welcome drinks, breakfast, and use of amenities including the pool area.
There are many other types of accommodations available: villas, beach cottages, and rooms. You may check the rates here.
Camping Fee
If you are on a budget and don’t have a problem staying in a tent, you can opt to go camping or glamping! Commune with nature as you pitch your tent at the designated campsite in the Serenity Beach area. You may bring your own tent or you may rent tents from the resort.
Off-Peak Season: P1100/person
Peak Season: P1200/person
NOTES
If you are bringing your own tent, you just need to pay the camping fee per person.
If you are renting from Stilts, you still need to pay the camping fee per person. The tent rental fee covers the mattress and linen set up, the use of fans, lights, stools, and a picnic table at the designated campsite area.
Glamping Tent Rentals
Glamping Tent A Capacity: 2 pax Rate: P2000/tent
Glamping Tent B Capacity: 2-3 pax Rate: P2500/tent
Glamping Tent C Capacity: 4-5 pax Rate: P3000/tent
Glamping Tent D Capacity: 2 pax Rate: P1500/tent
HOW TO GET TO STILTS CALATAGAN
Stilts Calatagan Beach Resort is located in Barangay Sta. Ana on the western coast of the municipality. Coming from Manila, the travel time is three to four hours, depending on traffic conditions.
Manila to Stilts Calatagan by Car
Going to Calatagan from Manila, the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) is the fastest route. Another route is via Aguinaldo Highway. Whichever route you choose, road tripping is now easier when you consult Waze or Google Maps for direction. But if you are curious about how to do it old school, read on.
From SLEX, you can either take Santa Rosa Exit or Mamplasan Exit. The latter is now the fastest route, linking you to the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX). Ready your Autosweep and EasyTrip (if taking CALAX).
Either route, you will be driving along Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Road. Continue driving until you reach Tagaytay Rotonda.
Continue driving along Tagaytay-Nasugbu Road. You will reach the Batangas-Cavite boundary. Drive past the arc with a “Welcome to Nasugbu” greeting.
Take a right turn when you reach the Palico Rotonda or junction. The landmarks are Jollibee and Caltex.
Continue driving along Palico-Nasugbu Highway until you reach the Lian-Nasugbu Intersection/Rotonda. Your landmarks are Shakey’s and Shell gasoline station.
Drive around the rotonda to the Calatagan-Lian Highway. You will pass through Lian town proper. Then continue driving until you reach the boundary of Calatagan and Lian.
Continue driving through Calatagan town proper. You will pass by Lago de Oro and Calatagan Golf Course.
Drive straight ahead and follow the road signs. Continue driving until you see the sign to Stilts Calatagan Beach Resort to your right.
Turn right and continue driving until you reach the resort’s main gate.
Alternative Route: In case there’s a major traffic build up in Tagaytay, another route from SLEX is to continue driving to STAR Tollway then take Batangas City Exit. Then drive through the towns of Bauan, Lemery, Calaca, and Balayan to reach Calatagan.
Manila to Stilts Calatagan by Bus
Go to PITX or DLTB Buendia Terminal. DLTB Buendia Terminal is situated close to the LRT Gil Puyat Station.
Board the bus to Calatagan. Travel time is three hours. Bus fare is around P300.
Alight near Calatagan Public Market or anywhere in the town proper.
Charter a tricycle to Stilts Calatagan. Travel time is 20 minutes. Fare is PHP 200+ (good for up to 4 pax).
In the past, there was also a Calatagan Van Terminal in Pasay City. It’s located along P. Zamora Street between Kabayan Hotel and Metropoint Mall. This is the point where MRT trains terminate at Taft Station along EDSA. But we’re not sure if this van service remains operational to this day.
HOW TO CHECK IN UPON ARRIVAL
Upon reaching the resort’s main gate, the guard will ask for info such as the number of guests, the names (or at least the one who booked the reservation), and/or duration of stay (day tour or overnight). The guard will then give you a parking assignment.
Continue driving to the parking lot. The resort has four parking areas: the main parking lot, the small parking lot near the Main Frontdesk, the parking lot near Serenity Beach and the Tree Houses, and the parking lot near Destiny Beach and Infinity Area. Go to the lot that was assigned to you by the guard.
Proceed to the Main Frontdesk area to check-in and register. Your group will be given a map of the entire resort. There are some areas that are off-limits. These will be marked on the map.
Each guest will be given a waterproof wristband. And then you may proceed to the Sweet Spot Restaurant for the welcome drinks.
You can either walk to your designated spot (cottage, table, or villa) or you can avail of the resort’s service vehicle.
Settle down and enjoy!
Harmony Beach
STILTS CALATAGAN OPERATING HOURS
Office Hours 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Monday to Saturday
Day Tour Hours 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Daily
Stilts Calatagan Cozy Nooks
THINGS TO DO AT STILTS CALATAGAN
Three Beaches
THE BEACHES! Stilts boasts three beaches:
Serenity Beach
Harmony Beach
Destiny Beach
Serenity BeachHarmony BeachEntrance to Destiny Beach
Swimming Pools
It also has two sets of swimming pools with kiddie pools. The swimming pools are open from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM only.
Main Pool Area. This is located near the restaurant and the main front desk.
Infinity Pool Area. This is located along Harmony Beach. Pre-pandemic, the day tour entrance is situated in this area.
Infinity Pool
BUT THERE’S MORE! Aside from swimming and lazing on the beach, Stilts offers other fun activities that will fill the day’s itinerary of both day-trip visitors and overnight guests. Here are activity packages and their corresponding rates. For activity reservation and inquiry, you need to contact the management through their mobile number (+63 963 8144192) or email address (stilts.sales@gmail.com).
Aqua Sports & Outdoor Activities
Single Kayak: P350/hour
Tandem Kayak: P450/hour
Banana Boat: P475/person per session (or P2850 for minimum of 6 pax, maximum of 10 pax)
Bandwagon: P475/person per session (maximum of 6 pax)
Both Basic and Complete courses are inclusive of the protective gear, safety briefing and orientation, a practice run on the training course, and the guided tour along the covered ATV trails.
WHERE TO EAT
Stilts has its own in-house restaurant called “Sweet Spot”, located just beside the Infinity reception area. They can also deliver the food to your assigned hut or table.
As in most beach resorts, prices are a bit steep but the servings are big. On our last visit, we were able to try the following:
Pork Sinigang
Chicken and Pork Adobo Binalot sa Dahon
Lumpiang Hubad
Onion Rings
Saba con Hielo
Mais con Hielo
Here are the other popular items on the menu (that we did not order):
Provide the info needed for the formal quotation. Stilts management will ask for details such as the total headcount, your choice lodging, and the date of your visit. Then, they will send you the quotation, bank details, requirements, and other reminders.
Complete the necessary requirements and pay the 50% downpayment. Your reservation is tentative until you send a copy of your deposit slip to the given e-mail address. Make sure to pay on or before the applicable Payment Option Date. Stilts Calatagan reserves the right to cancel your booking if no deposit is made.
Accomplish and submit the necessary forms. After sending a copy of your deposit slip (50% downpayment), the management will forward the following:
– Guest Confirmation Voucher, which contains the cost breakdown, your visit details, and the inclusions – Guest Registration Form, which is a list of all the names of the guests and the waiver – Health Declaration Form – List of rules and regulations
One Registration Form per group, but each guest must submit a Health Declaration Form. You must send via e-mail at least one day before your scheduled visit or check-in date
STILTS CALATAGAN RULES & REGULATIONS
Wear proper swimming attire. There are posters at the pool area showing what to wear and not to wear when using the pool. For women, wear swimsuits or other swimwear like board shorts and dri-fit sando (sleeveless top). For men, wear swimming trunks or board shorts. Rash guards are also allowed.
Again, the swimming pool areas are open from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM only.
Refrain from any unruly and violent behavior. Guests engaging in fights or under the influence of illegal drugs will be asked to leave the premises. The resort reserves the right to evict such guests.
Be mindful of others. Make sure that the volume of your music player is not too loud to avoid disturbing other guests.
Corkage fees apply to outside food (heavy meals/cooked food) and drinks. You can order at the restaurant and eat there or have the food served at designated areas along the beach.
No cooking inside the cottages (enclosed lodgings). You can avail of the resort’s cooking service for a fee. You may also use the grilling station along the beach.
For overnight guests, please check out on time to give the staff enough time to clean and sanitize the rooms for the next guests. You may ask the management to assist you with your stuff and luggage.
Children must be accompanied by their parents or guardians and must be supervised at all times. There are lifeguards stationed at the beach areas and the swimming pool areas; however, the resort will not be held liable should anything happen to the children while unsupervised/unaccompanied.
Do not litter. Please dispose of your garbage properly. There are trash bins provided per cottage/hut and all around the resort. The trash bins are labeled for segregation purposes. Kindly practice proper segregation.
Respect ocean life and wildlife. Do not take anything from the sea, beach, or water — corals, sand, shells, starfish, and other sea creatures.
Take care of your belongings and valuables. Secure your wallets, cellphones, jewelry, gadgets, and other valuables. Make sure there is always someone looking after your stuff. Don’t leave your things unattended. Lock your cottage doors. For those staying in open huts, there are shelves and a locker/storage cabinet per hut. Keep the key with you at all times.
For guests staying overnight, you will be charged for any damaged or lost resort items inside your room/cottage/villa.
MORE TIPS FOR THE POOR TRAVELER
The Calatagan Municipality has mandated the collection of P30 per person for the Tourism Ecological Fee. This is normally paid at the resort either upon check in or check out.
Explore the three beaches. Each has its own charm. Harmony is a long and wide stretch of fine almost-white-sand beach. Serenity Beach is characterized by trees and grassy areas, giving off a rustic, secluded vibe. Destiny Beach has a unique shore that is marked with interesting rock formations, and it also serves as a jump-off point for boat tours.
Don’t forget to drop by the reception or the main front desk upon exit. A gate pass will be handed to you. You will have to present this when you exit the main gate.
Protect your skin from the harmful rays of the sun. Bring sun protection like hats, sunglasses, and sunscreen.
Speaking of sunscreen, please use coral-friendly brands. A study conducted by the Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology revealed that many sunblock products contain chemicals like oxybenzone, benzophenone, and parabens that are harmful to marine life. Choose the ones that do not contain these chemicals.
Wear comfortable footwear or aqua shoes. The sand can be too hot when the sun is high, especially at noon.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Are pets allowed at Stilts?
Yes! Be a responsible pet owner. Make sure to clean up after your pets and keep them on leashes. If staying overnight, please bring your pet’s enclosure or bed because they are not allowed on the beds or on other furniture inside the cottages/rooms.
Can I use the restroom or shower if I’m on a day tour?
Yes, of course. What we love about Stilts is that it has more than enough restrooms with numerous shower and toilet cubicles. Each cubicle is spacious too!
Can I take photos at the stilts area where the overwater villas are?
No. The water villas are exclusive to those who booked them. You may take photos of them from the designated viewing deck/platform. You can also take photos of the water villas from the Sweet Spot Restaurant.
Can I fly a drone?
No, not anymore. In the past, we were allowed to fly one as long as it won’t go above the overwater villas. But as far as we know, drones are no longer allowed today.
CALATAGAN EMERGENCY NUMBERS
Here are some local emergency hotlines to take note of when in Calatagan:
Unified Emergency Hotline 911
Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) +63 909 456 5818 +63 43 419 7510
✅ If you have any questions or need travel tips, feel free to post them to the TPT Support Group. The members are very helpful. This Facebook support group has been around for a long time, and many members have found travel buddies through it. You can join too! Just visit The Poor Traveler Support Group. Note that this is different from The Poor Traveler Facebook page.
Updates Log
2026 4 10 – Updated to reflect changes in rates, available activities, and other info 2024 5 1 – Changed font of featured image 2024 4 6 – Updated post-pandemic prices 2022 2 26 – Updated to reflect 2022 changes 2021 3 9 – Original publication
# From the Fortress: Building in Atlanta as a Black Entrepreneur — And Not Looking Back
I didn’t come to Atlanta to be comfortable. I came here to be unstoppable.
Not a tagline. A decision — made with full clarity, full intention, and zero need for anyone’s cosign. Atlanta wasn’t a default. Wasn’t a trend. It was a calculation — the same cold, precise thinking that kept me writing novels in a prison cell when most men would’ve folded.
The Fortress isn’t just an address. It’s a posture. And Atlanta is where that posture finally has room to operate.
The Decision Nobody Else Got a Vote On
People expected New York. Some expected LA. A few probably expected me to stay wherever the last chapter left off.
I stopped writing other people’s expectations into my story a long time ago.
This move was strategic. Full stop.
Black wealth has been moving south for years — not because the South is romanticized, but because the signal was clear: land is cheaper, infrastructure is growing, and Black people are building here without asking permission from institutions that were never designed to include us.
When you see a signal that strong, you move. Or you watch someone else build what you could’ve built.
Atlanta is the Fortress. A base of operations. A command center. A declaration that the chapter-writing phase is over and the empire phase has begun.
In THE LAST KINGPIN, the whole thesis is about what happens when someone builds something real — something that runs on its own logic, its own code, its own momentum. You don’t build that by asking permission. You build it by making moves that align with your vision when nobody’s watching, and letting the results speak when they are.
That’s exactly the energy that brought me here.
What the North Never Gave Me
I’m not bitter about the North. Bitterness is a luxury I can’t afford. But I am clear.
New York gave me grit. Hunger. A concrete education money can’t buy and textbooks don’t teach. But at a certain point, the city starts collecting on what it gave you. The taxes. The cost of living that climbs while your ceiling stays fixed. The culture of scarcity dressed up as toughness.
There’s a specific drain that comes from building in someone else’s city. You hustle hard, you stack, you create — then you look around and realize the ground beneath you doesn’t belong to you. The infrastructure isn’t yours. The networks weren’t designed with you at the center. You’re performing excellence inside a structure built for someone else’s benefit.
PUSH was about that pressure. FREEZE was about the moment you stop absorbing it and start redirecting your energy somewhere it can actually compound.
The moment I realized I was planting seeds in someone else’s ground was the moment Atlanta became inevitable.
Atlanta Is a Black Man’s Blueprint
Let me be specific. This isn’t a talking point.
Atlanta ranks number one in Black business ownership rate among U.S. cities with populations over 500,000. Roughly one in three businesses here is Black-owned — U.S. Census Bureau data, not inspiration content. Black entrepreneurs in Atlanta generate an estimated $6.3 billion in annual revenue, up 34% since 2017. That’s not a community. That’s an economy.
The Sweet Auburn district was called “the richest Negro street in the world” by Fortune magazine in 1956 — under Jim Crow, while the country was actively working to prevent Black wealth from existing. Atlanta built a sovereign economic corridor anyway. That legacy didn’t disappear. It evolved.
The Cascade Road corridor functions less like a neighborhood and more like a sovereign economic enclave — one of the highest concentrations of Black homeownership in any major American city. Generational wealth built block by block, deed by deed, deliberately.
Georgia’s Black population grew by over 400,000 between 2010 and 2020. A significant portion were return migrants from Northern cities — people who made the same calculation I made. Not defaulting to Atlanta. Choosing it. The Brookings Institution found that 67% of Black Americans who relocated to Southern metros between 2015 and 2022 cited cost of capital and community access as their primary drivers. Not the weather. Not the nightlife. The economics.
This is where BUMRUSH lives in the real world. That book was always about forcing your way into spaces that weren’t built for you. Atlanta is different. Atlanta is a space Black people built themselves. You’re not forcing your way in. You’re coming home to infrastructure designed with you as the intended user.
Ryan Glover co-founded Greenwood Bank here in 2021 — named directly after the Tulsa Greenwood District — and raised $40 million in seed funding in under 90 days. That speed was only possible because Atlanta’s Black financial network already existed and was already activated.
Pinky Cole built Slutty Vegan from a single ghost kitchen in 2018 to a $100 million brand by 2023. No early venture capital. Just Atlanta’s Black foot traffic, Black social media culture, and Black neighborhood loyalty doing what it does when the product is real.
Killer Mike didn’t just perform here. He co-founded AFROPUNK Atlanta, invested in Bankhead barbershops, ran for political office. He treats Atlanta as an operating system for Black power. Not a backdrop. An infrastructure.
That’s building in Atlanta as a Black entrepreneur at its highest expression. I’m here for exactly that reason.
The Fortress Is More Than an Address
When I say Fortress, I mean something specific.
Physical space, yes. But more than that — a creative command center. A place where the work happens daily, deliberately, without apology. Books get written here. Music gets made here. The legacy gets built here — not in theory, not someday, but in actual hours logged against an actual vision.
The prison writing sessions were the early version of this. No resources. No platform. No guarantee any of it would ever matter. Just a man in a cell deciding the story had to get told, the work had to get done, the legacy couldn’t wait for better circumstances.
That discipline — the ability to build in constrained conditions — isn’t a disadvantage I survived. It’s a skill I developed. And Atlanta is where that skill operates at full capacity.
Here’s what people don’t talk about enough: Atlanta has a specific kind of operator that comes out of the prison-to-entrepreneurship pipeline. Georgia’s prison population is disproportionately Black, and the reentry economy here — organizations, informal networks, mentorship structures built by people who’ve been through it — creates business minds stress-tested in ways no accelerator can simulate. There’s a tradition in this city of converting incarcerated time into business acumen.
My story fits directly into that lineage. I don’t say that with shame. I say it with clarity.
TRIPLE THREAT was always about coming at your vision from multiple angles simultaneously. No single point of failure. Publishing. Music. Sync licensing. Catalog ownership. Content creation. Each revenue line reinforcing the others.
The Fortress runs on that principle. Atlanta gives the ecosystem to execute it — Black lawyers, Black accountants, Black distributors, Black customers — all within a 15-mile radius. That’s not inspiration. That’s friction reduction. And in business, friction reduction is everything.
What I’m Building and Why It Can’t Wait
Vague ambition is for people who haven’t done the work yet. Here’s the mission.
225 MORE books this year. That would make the catalogue over 500 stories documenting Black life the way it actually is — raw, real, unfiltered, unapologetic. And none of the books are similar. PUSH. PLATINUM DOLLS. TOPLESS. SUGAR DADDY. EXTRA MARITAL AFFAIRS. SINGLE WITH BENEFITS. RAPPERS R IN DANGER. FIRE & DESIRE. LADY FIRST. Those first books/Stories that hit a large, mainstream market… books that (once upon a time) publishers wouldn’t touch. Stories that existed in a space gatekeepers called too raw, too street, too specific — while Black readers needed them desperately. Needed to see their lives reflected without sanitization. Without someone else’s comfort level determining what parts of Black experience get to be literature.
I sold millions of books from a prison cell. Not because I had a deal. Not because I had a marketing budget. Because the work was real and the audience recognized itself in the pages.
Legacy isn’t abstract. Legacy is royalties. Legacy is catalog ownership. Legacy is your name on books your grandchildren can hold — stories they can trace back to a man who refused to let the system define what he was capable of creating.
The sync licensing work is the next expansion. Atlanta’s music industry infrastructure — my own music inside of my own films… the studios, the producers, the culture that generates the sounds the whole world pays to license — that ecosystem breathes here in a way it doesn’t breathe anywhere else. The catalog of stories becomes a catalog of intellectual property. The characters, the worlds, the narratives — they have a life beyond the page.
Building in Atlanta as a Black entrepreneur means accessing all of that simultaneously. The creative infrastructure. The financial infrastructure. The community infrastructure. The cultural credibility. All in one city. All built by people who look like me and operate with the same understanding of what’s at stake.
This is not slowing down. This is scaling up.
Not Looking Back — And Here’s Why That’s the Point
Looking back is how you lose the lead.
Not a metaphor. Physics. The energy it takes to keep your eyes on what’s behind you is energy you’re pulling from what’s ahead. And what’s ahead is the only thing that matters.
I made peace with the past the way you make peace with anything that shaped you — by understanding it, extracting the lesson, and refusing to let it be the final word on who you are.
That’s FREEZE energy. Cold. Calculated. Committed. When you know your next move with that kind of certainty, nothing behind you deserves your attention. The distractions fall away. The doubters become background noise. The obstacles become information. And you keep building.
The Fortress is built. The catalog is loaded. 225+ books documenting Black life the way it actually is — raw, real, and relentless. Written in impossible conditions. Published against impossible odds. Read by millions of people who needed exactly what those pages delivered.
Atlanta didn’t make me. But Atlanta is where what I already created gets to operate without a ceiling.
That’s the declaration. That’s the choice. That’s the chapter we’re in now.
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Richmond, Virginia, July 2, 2025 (12 On Your Side)
Henrico Police say they were called to the 3700 block of Vawter Avenue just after 5 p.m. on July 2 for a reported shooting call. They arrived and said the incident happened on Vawter Avenue between Young Street and Pensacola Avenue…
Asyah Brooks, 20, didn’t want her face shown on camera, but tells 12 On Your Side she and her boyfriend were driving in their pickup truck with their baby in the backseat when a burgundy sedan sideswiped their car and kept moving.
Brooks’ boyfriend, who was driving, followed the sedan to get him to stop so they could get insurance information.
She said the sedan’s driver led them through a neighborhood and onto Young Street…
Brooks said that they were allegedly met by a woman who was standing outside a home with a gun pointed at the car…
She says that the woman then passed the gun to the sedan’s driver, who started firing at Brooks’ truck. She said she jumped out of the car to get her daughter out of the back seat, and her boyfriend returned fire…
According to Brooks, the sedan’s driver was shot in the leg. Police say he was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Brooks, her boyfriend and their baby were not hurt…
Jacksonville, Florida, July 5, 2025 (Action News Jax)
Police said three suspects, all dressed in black and wearing masks, entered the Cash America Pawn on Blanding Boulevard and stole $9,000 in jewelry…
Williams said he drew his concealed gun and shouted at the suspects to stop and get out.
“The one guy with the hammer turned to me and raised the hammer and took a step toward me, and I pulled the trigger,” said Williams. “He kind of fell backward, stepped backward into his friend, and the friend dropped the bag that he had.”…
Police said another witness pulled his concealed carry firearm and fired one shot as one of the suspects ran in front of the store…
Des Moines, Iowa, July 5, 2025 (Des Moines Register)
Just after 8:15 p.m. Saturday night, a hit-and-run crash occurred at 2nd Avenue and Hull Avenue, and the driver at-fault fled the scene on foot. Two members from the other vehicle searched for the fleeing driver, the police said.
The searchers found the fleeing driver accompanied by a 30-year-old male who had a baseball bat around 9 p.m. near Ohio Street and University Avenue. One of the searchers, a 21-year-old male, allegedly shot the 30-year-old out of fear once he raised the bat. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died from his injuries, police said.
The shooter and witnesses were interviewed by Des Moines Police Department Crimes Against Persons detectives. No charges had been filed by Sunday morning.
Officers said they responded to calls about a person shot in the 2000 block of Alison Court SW around 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
When they arrived, they saw a man standing outside the building with a rifle and a handgun, according to police. Before officers could confront him, he took off.
Officers said they heard multiple gunshots while searching for the man, and found him shot. A civilian shot the man, according to APD. No officers fired their weapons…
Alcova, Wyoming, July 5, 2025 (Cowboy State Daily)
NCSO spokesperson Kiera Hett said deputies were called about 10:30 p.m. to an area between Black Beach Campground and Cottonwood Campground on Kortes Road on the southeast side of the reservoir for a report of shots fired…
Hett said there had been an apparent confrontation between the Colorado man and the Casper man after an argument among campers about the Colorado man attempting to drive his vehicle while intoxicated.
The intoxicated Colorado man allegedly pointed a rifle in the direction of the Casper man.
“In response, the other male fired his handgun,” Hett said. “As a result, the male with the rifle and a female bystander each sustained a single gunshot wound to the leg. Both were transported to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.”
The shooter was initially detained for questioning and later released, Hett said. Deputies have spoken with all the people involved and the case remains under investigation…
Police in Redmond are investigating a shooting near the QFC along Redmond Way Sunday night…
Redmond PD shared details from their preliminary investigation: An employee of a nearby business says he observed a man attempting to steal his car and confronted him. During the encounter, the employee says the suspect became aggressive and advanced on him. The employee was in legal possession of a handgun and fired, striking the suspect once in the abdomen. The employee stated to police that he acted in self-defense…
Allentown, Pennsylvania, July 6, 2025 (lehighvalleylive.com)
No charges will be filed against the killer of 35-year-old Tamir Johnson, District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan said in a news release Monday.
Johnson, of Whitehall Township, allegedly struck the driver’s side door of a Toyota Prius with a metal baseball bat during a road rage incident about 3:35 a.m. July 6 at South Fifth and Hamilton streets in Allentown. The driver of the Prius shot Johnson because he feared for his life, investigators determined…
Johnson had pursued the Prius for two blocks before cutting it off at South Fifth and Hamilton streets, the release says. After the shooting, the Prius driver drove his car a short distance away, parked and dialed 911, according to investigators. He stayed put until police arrived then handed over his legally possessed gun, the release says…
Kankakee, Illinois, July 6, 2025 (Shaw Local News)
Two people suffered gunshot wounds Sunday afternoon that were not life-threatening in the 1700 block of East Maple Street in Kankakee.
Kankakee police said about 12:34 p.m. they responded to a shots fired call. Officers located the two shooting victims in a parking lot…
The 23-year-old victim was taken into custody on scene after alerting officers that he had returned fire in self-defense and surrendered his firearm — a Glock .45 caliber handgun — located beneath a nearby vehicle.
The victim was legally carrying a firearm as he is a FOID/CCL holder.
Video surveillance obtained from the scene allegedly confirmed that Carmona was the initial aggressor. The victim returned fire. After being shot, Carmona gave his weapon to an unidentified accomplice who fled the scene.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 12:30 a.m., officers responded to the Shell Gas Station in the 3800 block of East New York Street on the report of a person shot…
According to IMPD Captain Don Weilhammer, it is believed the male was shot during an attempted carjacking. Investigators say the owner of the vehicle “prevented the carjacking from happening.”…
Two men are facing charges after a Facebook Marketplace truck sale turned into a shooting during an attempted robbery in a Kansas City apartment complex parking lot.
Clarence Melbert and Aaron Melbert allegedly arranged to sell a black Ford F-150 on July 9.
When the buyer arrived with $2,500 in cash, police say Clarence pointed a gun at him and ordered him out of the truck, while Aaron threatened him with a knife.
As the victim tried to leave, he was shot from behind in the ear and arm.
The victim’s wife, who witnessed the attack, fired her own gun in self-defense as the suspects fled…
Sharon, South Carolina, July 10, 2025 (wsoctv.com)
The York County Sheriff’s Office said on Wednesday it won’t charge a driver who shot and killed a man Thursday outside a Dollar General store in Sharon.
The 69-year-old shooting victim, Joseph Lewis, made threats and punched the driver, according to deputies…
The 25-year-old driver then shot Lewis who later died at a hospital, investigators said…
The driver was legally allowed to carry a gun and the shooting was self-defense, according to the solicitor’s office…
Eastpointe, Michigan, July 10, 2025 (Click on Detroit, CBS News)
The stabbing happened shortly before 8 a.m. on Thursday, July 10, at the McDonald’s at 17921 9 Mile Road in Eastpointe…
“She produced a weapon that was a knife longer than 3 inches, and she stabbed the victim multiple times, up to possibly as many as 15 times, eventually causing her death,” assistant prosecutor Hengeveld said during Muhammad’s arraignment…
A customer who saw the altercation was also lawfully carrying a concealed weapon and fired his weapon in an attempt to stop the assault. The suspect was then followed by the armed customer and held at gunpoint until Eastpointe police arrived…
Fresno, California, July 11, 2025 (The Fresno Bee)
Just before 5:30 p.m., officers responded to 7064 N. Cedar Ave., near Herndon Avenue, regarding a stolen vehicle with three people in it that had crashed into the front of the jewelry store, and the trio’s subsequent attempt to rob the store, Fresno Police Lt. Henry Garcia III said.
A civilian who works nearby and saw what was happening opened fire on the suspects.
Garcia III said another vehicle was also at the scene; the suspects got into that vehicle and fled north on Cedar…
Belleville, Illinois, July 13, 2025 (First Alert 4)
Officers were called just before 1 a.m. on Sunday to the 500 block of North 40th Street for a shooting. When they arrived, Monzelle Mason, 50, was found dead at the scene, and a woman was taken into custody.
Monday afternoon, Belleville police said that Mason had a gun and threatened a 25-year-old woman who was inside a vehicle. The woman, who was also armed, fired her gun, striking Mason.
Police said that detectives and the Crime Scene Unit conducted multiple interviews and collected evidence to present the case to the St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s Office for review. The office declined to file charges…
Bronx, New York, July 14, 2025 (defiantamerica.com)
The incident erupted around 13:00 p.m. on Monday near Commonwealth and Westchester Avenues in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx.
What began as a dispute—possibly over money, as a witness overheard demands of “give me my money”—quickly escalated into a brutal beatdown. Two attackers cornered the victim against a wall: one in a black T-shirt and orange shorts, who was shockingly filming the assault on his cell phone while kicking the man in the face, and the other in red sweatpants and a white T-shirt, joining in the punches and kicks. Pinned and outnumbered, the victim—dressed in black pants and a black sweater over a white shirt—managed to stand, only to be grabbed from behind in a rear waist lock. In a split-second decision that likely saved his life, he drew a concealed handgun and fired over his shoulder, striking the 27-year-old assailant in orange shorts directly in the torso. The wounded man collapsed to the sidewalk, unresponsive and bleeding, as the victim broke free and fired additional shots at the fleeing cameraman in red, who bolted from the scene…
Anaheim, California, July 17, 2025 (FOX 11 Los Angeles)
The attempted robbery happened at Al-Amira Jewelry on July 17. The owner told FOX 11 that it was close to closing time, when five cars pulled up to the front of the store.
Security camera footage showed about 20 people piling out of the cars and mobbing the store’s entrance. Some of them had sledgehammers and pickaxes and started smashing the door…
Video from inside the store showed the other angle. When the people inside saw the thieves, they ran behind the counter. Several came back out to the front, armed. That’s when the owner fired one shot…
The owner said he heard a loud noise, and when he looked at the door, he saw “many people. I can’t count it.”
“Then I have to defend myself and my store and my employees. I take my gun, I shoot one bullet, I scare him (the person at the door), he moved and the problem is done,” the owner said…
Sunnyvale, California, July 18, 2025 (The Silicon Valley Voice)
On the afternoon of July 18, surveillance footage captured video of approximately 10 would-be thieves descending on Nijjar Jewelers, 1024 E. El Camino Real in Sunnyvale. Just five days later, on July 23, police arrested five men…
The gang in the July 18 attempt wore dark clothing, following the playbook of two previous robbery attempts in the same area, ramming a stolen Honda Civic into the front of the store. Store employees, armed with legally owned handguns, confronted the suspects, causing them to flee in a Honda Accord…
Portland, Oregon, July 18, 2025 (The Oregonian/OregonLive)
Ashe Sarethi was accused of shooting Jasen Fitzsimmons, 42, in the July 18 shooting. She was released from Multnomah County custody on Aug. 15, the same day a grand jury declined to charge her with second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.
Sarethi told 911 dispatchers that she fired shots in the grocery store parking lot, at 6901 NE Sandy Blvd., because Fitzsimmons allegedly tried to drive off with her van while she sat in the back, according to a probable cause affidavit…
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 19, 2025 (FOX 6 Milwaukee)
It happened just after 2 a.m. near Broadway and Juneau, right by the Milwaukee School of Engineering campus…
The video shows the three young men walking “with purpose” eastbound through the intersection of Juneau and Milwaukee St. The video shows Wilson approach a group of four unidentified individuals.
Per the complaint, the video shows Wilson producing a firearm and pointing it at the four unidentified individuals. Seconds later, the 15-year-old produced a firearm and pointed it at one of the four people, and Gaines ran up to the person that the teen had his firearm pointed at, and began grabbing at that individual’s pockets, “as if trying to take something from them.”
Police said Wilson is then seen running northbound across Juneau, where he approaches a fifth unidentified person and appears to point a gun at him. Wilson then turns his back to the fifth unidentified person, and begins jogging back.
The video then shows the fifth unidentified person open fire on Wilson.
According to the complaint, the video shows Wilson raising his firearm and firing multiple times in the direction of the original shooter…
Markle Burris Jr., 18, is accused of killing Melique Etienne, 22, on July 22 on Cathedral near Wyandotte Street.
According to police, the shooting happened during an attempted robbery that began as a sale started on social media.
Police said that Etienne and Burris were the two would-be robbers, and that they had arranged to meet two men who were selling a dirt bike. During the exchange, Burris and Etienne tried to rob the sellers, leading to shots being fired. One of the dirt bike sellers fired a shot that killed Etienne. Burris left the scene shortly after…
He was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on second-degree murder and attempted armed robbery charges…
According to East Cleveland Mayor Lateek Shabazz, officers responded to the McDonald’s on Euclid Avenue and Eddy Road Tuesday evening.
Multiple reports stated that a male suspect with a gun was holding up the fast food restaurant, city officials said.
A preliminary investigation later revealed that the suspect was trying to rob the McDonald’s when he was “fired upon by a good Samaritan,” the mayor’s statement said…
Detroit, Michigan, July 24, 2025 (The Detroit News)
Vernal Newson, commander of the Detroit Police Department’s Sixth Precinct, said the shooting happened at about 10 p.m. on the Southfield Freeway Service Drive near Joy Road.
He said the two victims, ages 19 and 23, got into a late-model, wide-body Dodge Charger when two people in a blue sedan approached and pulled alongside them.
“They were wearing masks and announced a holdup,” Newson said. “One of the victims in the Charger, a CPL holder, produced a weapon and one of the suspects in the blue vehicle (both) opened fire.”
Police said a witness to the gunfight produced his a weapon and fired at the blue sedan.
Newson said the suspects fled and were last seen heading south on the freeway’s service drive…
According to a news release from Tucson Police. The 14-year-old and a 13-year-old male were allegedly in a stolen Hyundai Sonata, when they pulled up on a 19-year-old walking home from work near South Oak Tree Drive and West Sauvignon Drive in Midvale Park.
The 13-year-old allegedly exited the vehicle and attempted to rob the 19-year-old at gunpoint. The victim complied, but was also able to pull out his own gun, firing at the suspects.
The suspects fled the scene in the Sonata and the victim reported the shooting at around 10:15 p.m. He was uninjured during the altercation…
Nearly a dozen people were randomly injured in the attack on Saturday before a group of citizens — including Derrick Perry, who was armed with a gun — helped prevent the suspect from leaving or harming others, authorities said…
The suspect allegedly entered the Walmart store in Traverse City, about 150 miles north of Grand Rapids, Saturday afternoon and began attacking people with a folding knife, authorities said.
“It appears that these were all random acts,” Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea said at a news conference on Sunday afternoon, adding that the attacks began near the checkout area.
A group of citizens, including a firearm-wielding Perry, confronted the suspect in the parking lot in a dramatic scene that was captured on video by a bystander. A deputy then took the suspect — 42-year-old Bradford James Gille — into custody, authorities said…
A man was shot and killed at the Motel 6 near Carowinds in late July; however, no charges have been filed against the shooter, York County Sheriff’s Office said…
Investigators say Williams allegedly used a stun gun on the driver and attempted to strangle him. The driver opened fire on Williams with a gun he lawfully carried.
The Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor determined the driver was acting in self defense and will not be charged for the death of Williams…
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 27, 2025 (NBC Philadelphia)
According to police, the incident happened at about 10:45 p.m. on Sunday, when a 27-year-old woman shot a 21-year-old man after he physically assaulted her along the 3400 block of North Lee Street in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood.
The man, officials said, smashed the windshield of the victim’s vehicle and charged at her when she produced her legally registered handgun and fired at the suspected attacker…
On Sunday, July 27, 2025, at approximately 2:10 a.m., officers responded to 2061 St. Stephens Road (Super Stop) in reference to a shooting. Upon arrival, officers discovered a male subject deceased from a gunshot wound.
Upon further investigation, officers discovered the subject produced a firearm and attempted to rob the victim who was operating a food truck at the location. It was then discovered the victim produced a firearm and shot the subject. The victim was not injured…
A man accused of opening fire during a drive-by shooting on the Crescent City Connection last month — a gun battle that left his brother dead and another man wounded — is being held on a $1.5 million bond…
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Riley was riding in the passenger seat of a Nissan Altima driven by his brother, 27-year-old Vincent Robertson, when both men began shooting at a Porsche traveling westbound on the bridge. Police said the brothers were “stalking” the occupants of that car — a woman and two men — and opened fire with 9mm handguns as a Cadillac driven by a friend of the victims traveled alongside them.
Investigators later determined that Riley and Robertson “had a motive to shoot … in retaliation for a 2019 homicide,” court records show.
During the exchange, a 31-year-old man in the Porsche’s back seat was shot in the arm. The Cadillac’s driver fired back at the brothers with a .40-caliber handgun in an attempt to shield his friends. Both the Porsche and Cadillac crashed on the bridge…
Around 4:20 a.m. officers were called to the 215 block of East Burress Street for a robbery in progress. When they arrived, they found two suspects were being held at gunpoint by the business owner, Captain Watson said.
According to officials, the owner got an alert about people in his scrapyard, so he got his shotgun and went to see what was going on.
He confronted two men he saw on hit property carrying scrap metel. One suspect allegedly told the owner, “I’m going to kill you.”
Police report the owner shot his weapon at the suspects. One suspect had a gunshot wound to the head and the second had a puncture wound which investigators believe he got by possibly falling on a piece of metal…
HCSO said the attempted robbery happened around 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday on Victoria Street near Nadolney Street in the Cloverleaf area.
Investigators said the suspect, 18-year-old Anthony Lewis Cantera, approached his victim with a gun outside a home and took their wallet and keys.
During the robbery, other residents at the location came out of the home and confronted Cantera. HCSO said Cantera responded by shooting his gun at one of the residents. According to the sheriff’s office, that resident was armed as well and fired back, hitting Cantera in the leg.
Cantera reportedly took off, and investigators found him a short while later, less than half a mile from the initial scene. He was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery…
Shreveport, Louisiana, July 30, 2025 (KTBS 3 News)
The shooting was reported in the 500 block of W. 77th near Bernstein about 6:30 a.m.
Police say William Mayfield and another man were arguing in the street when they started shooting at each other. The KTBS 3 News crew on the scene counted more than a dozen shell casings on the ground.
Mayfield was shot in the lower leg, while the other man had a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Officers determined Mayfield went to the other man’s house and opened fire. The victim returned fire in self-defense, resulting in both being injured…
It happened around 8:45 p.m. near Northeast 119th Street, where deputies said they responded to reports of a man shot…
According to an arrest report, Desrameaux is the father of a 3-year-old boy whose mother is now dating the victim. The mother and the victim live together at the home where the shooting occurred.
Because of previous conflicts between Desrameaux and the mother, investigators said all custody exchanges had reportedly been occurring at the child’s daycare.
But on Thursday evening, Desrameaux allegedly showed up unannounced at the home, honking his car horn repeatedly from outside, according to his arrest report.
The report stated that the victim escorted the woman and children inside, then stepped out to investigate.
As he approached the vehicle, Desrameaux allegedly fired a shot through the closed passenger-side window, hitting the victim in the arm. The victim returned fire, and Desrameaux fled the scene, the report stated…
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, July 31, 2025 (local10.com)
According to a police report from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, the shooting occurred at about 7:30 p.m. on July 31, 2025, in the parking lot of the Wawa gas station, located at 6191 NW Ninth Ave…
According to the report, the victim told detectives that he was at the gas station, checking the pumps for his stickers promoting his junk car towing business, when Fortham, who was in a white BMW, asked him, “What are you doing to my car?”
The victim said he told Fortham he was just checking the pumps for his stickers and then saw that Fortham had a gun on his lap…
According to the report, the victim then saw Fortham raise his gun and point it in his direction before shooting him in the leg.
The victim said he then fired back at the car before limping back to his truck…
