Jermaine Jackson, 54, and his wife, Halima Rashid, boarded a private jet with CNN host Larry King at Van Nuys airport to fly to Santa Barbra for a live interview at Neverland Ranch tonight.

MORE pics after the break!

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About 1 minute of footage from MiJac’s final rehearsal at the Staples Center the night before he died of a heart attack at age 50. The footage was released by AEG Live, the company that booked Jackson for 50 concerts at the 02 Arena in London. Despite taking out insurance policies on Jackson, AEG plans to return $85 million to ticket holders. AEG will most likely sell all the footage from the final rehearsal to the highest bidder just to break halfway even.

According to TMZ.com, the NYPD is looking for Rihanna after she was videotaped tattooing her initial and an umbrella on 3 fans without a license!

Apparently, unlicensed personnel could cause infections and other health problems if the procedure is not done properly.

The NYC Health Department just told TMZ: “Only licensed tattoo artists can administer tattoos in the city according to the City’s Health Code. We are sending someone down to follow up on this.”

From TMZ.com:

We’re told RiRi tattooed three of East Side Ink’s artists with umbrellas and the letter R. None of her pet projects cared that she didn’t have a license — but the NYC Law Department does.

They say Rihanna could be slapped with three misdemeanors for the offense, each with its own hefty penalty — as much as $300 for the first offense, $500 for the second and $1,000 for the third.

Sources say the tattoo shop could also face considerable fines of its own if the NYC Law Dept. decides to open an investigation.

They can’t say Rihanna was just pretending. They got the evidence on video! Unlike rappers, Rihanna doesn’t need street cred.

Photo: INF DAILY

As most of you know, rapper Maino’s debut album “If Tomorrow Never Comes” dropped on Tuesday. Unfortunately, Michael Jackson’s untimely passing means Maino likely has no chance of cracking the top 10 on the charts.

But that didn’t stop the Atlantic Records and Hustle Hard from feting Maino and the release of his debut cd with a surprise dinner at Ruth Chris Steak House in NYC last night.

Thanks to PR superstar Sydney Margolis of Atlantic Records and the incomparable celebrity photographer, Ray Tamarra, for the pics!

L to R: Julie Greenwald/ COO of Atlantic, Maino’s manager Karl Lawrence and Maino

MORE pics after the break!

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In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, a grieving Jermaine Jackson said he wished he had died instead of his brother.

Jackson, a practicing Muslim, said his younger brother Michael was a “gift from Allah.” Michael reportedly converted from Jehovah’s Witness to the Muslim faith a few years ago.

“He went too soon,” said Jackson, 54. “I don’t know how people are going to take this, but I wish it was me.”

When asked why he felt that way, Jermaine Jackson said he always felt that he was Michael’s “backbone.”

“Someone to be there for him. I was there and he was sort of like Moses. Things he couldn’t say, I would say them. During the trials, during everything …”

Jermaine Jackson said that when he rushed to UCLA Medical Center last Thursday, where the 50-year-old pop singer was pronounced dead, “I wanted to see Michael, and I wanted to see my brother, and seeing him there lifeless and breathless was very emotional for me, but I held myself together because I know he’s very much alive.”

“His spirit is, and that was just a shell, but I kissed him on his forehead and I hugged him, and I touched him and I said, `Michael, I’ll never leave you. You’ll never leave me.’” READ MORE…

Jermaine also said he would like to see Neverland Ranch as Michael’s final resting place. A public memorial service was planned for July 3 on the estate in the rolling hills of Santa Barbara, CA. But the billionaire who co-owned the property with Jackson wasn’t able to get a permit in time.

Even if you don’t like former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, you have to feel some empathy for her current situation. Cynthia and 20 others got locked up by the Israelis while trying to deliver medical supplies by yacht to Gaza.

You recall the last time she made this same trip, her yacht rammed an Israeli gunboat and got turned around, but Cynthia wasn’t arrested.

There’s no telling what she did this time to get herself arrested. Those Israeli’s don’t have as much patience with Cynthia as we do.

McKinney’s father, former Georgia legislator Billy McKinney, told the AJC that his daughter was “all right.”

“I just got off the phone with her an hour ago,” McKinney said. “We didn’t have a conversation. She just said she was all right, and that was about it.”

We sincerely hope Cynthia makes it home OK.

Blogger Waset (a self-proclaimed truth seeker, writer and part security guard), wrote a thought-provoking piece about Barack Obama and his failure to pay proper tribute to Michael Jackson at a time when everyone else in the world tripped over each other to honor the great one.

Me thinks Waset forgets that narcissists like Obama hate to give any shine to another famous figure, even in death. Too bad Michael Jackson wasn’t a terrorist.

Waset’s post is very lengthy (and hilarious) so I’m providing a couple of excepts and you can go here to read the rest.

CNN found themselves on the red carpet [at the BET Awards] reporting live before the show began. I know right? If you had asked somebody a month ago what it would take for CNN to actually broadcast from the BET Awards, that person would have laughed, bent their wrist forward and said, “Chile, Michael Jackson would have to die for that to happen.”

And what about the President of the United States – Barack Obama? What the fu*k was that *****’s excuse? Yeah, I said it. The most famous person in the entire world died and he couldn’t even utter two words about it. Meanwhile, people cried rivers of tears throughout the world.

“Mr. President, you couldn’t recognize an American treasure? I thought you were the leader of the free world? He’s not coming back either dude, it was a now or never moment and you blew billions of us off. Whether you like him or you don’t is irrelevant. The relevancy lies in the fact that so many people cared about him and his contributions to the world. The fact that a multitude of other world leaders publicly recognized Michael Jackson’s passing; while you let your Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, parrot some rather unflattering commentary that you made under what seemed like duress is an outrage. Not only did you fail to follow the most basic rule of PROTOCOL, you managed to break the whole code. Please turn in your badge at the front desk because you’re feeling real BET to me right now. Your Black is wack. Michael Jackson was my civil rights movement, but clearly you don’t get it. Maybe you’re waiting for somebody more famous than Michael Jackson to die before you address your subjects, followers and constituency? Oh wait, there is no one more famous than Michael Jackson.” –WASET

For those who believe Obama didn’t have 10 or 20 seconds in his busy day to address the world in regards to the King of Pop, he was on CNN for 34 minutes the day after Mike died.

Former Michael Jackson nurse, Cherilyn Lee, who specializes in herbal or alternative medicine, is telling anyone who will listen that her friend was not a prescription drug addict.

She claims Michael was simply an insomniac, a tormented soul who just wanted to get a good night’s sleep.

She also claims that Michael recently begged her for Diprivan, a powerful short-acting sedative that is only administered intravenously in a medical facility. This was her proof that Mike only needed a little rest.

Nevermind that there are many powerful sedatives available by prescription that don’t require starting an IV every time they’re administered.

Note to Cherilyn: We don’t believe you!

People don’t spend $48,000 a month on sleeping pills. And they don’t obtain thousands of scripts using aliases and employee’s names unless they’re addicts. Good try though.

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