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Rap legend Heavy D of Heavy D and the Boyz leaves lasting final lyric: ‘BE INSPIRED!’

LOS ANGELES — It was as if Heavy D knew that it would be his last tweet.

The self-proclaimed “overweight lover” of hip hop, who became one of rap’s top hitmakers with his charming combination of humor and positivity, enthusiastically told his Twitter followers Tuesday morning to “BE INSPIRED!” He later collapsed outside his home following a shopping trip, unable to breathe, before he was transported to a nearby hospital.

Heavy D died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to Lt. Mark Rosen of the Beverly Hills police. He was 44. Rosen said detectives found no signs of foul play and believe his death was medically related. If true, Heavy D would of course not have known that “BE INSPIRED!” would be his last tweet but that it was is fitting for the life that Heavy D lived.

Heavy D may have died from pneumonia complications

Rapper Heavy D, who was pronounced dead Tuesday at the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, may have collapsed and died from complications related to pneumonia, authorities said.

Dwight Arrington "Heavy D" Myers

May 24, 1967 – November 8, 2011

May God Bless His Soul & Spirit!

Emergency alert system to be tested Wednesday

The White House is preparing the country for the first nationwide test of the country's emergency alert system on Wednesday.

The test will occur at 2 p.m. EST Wednesday and will last about 30 seconds, presidential spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

Mortgage payments show surprising rise in delinquencies

While lawmakers in Washington debated the debt ceiling and consumer confidence dropped, more homeowners were having a harder time making their

mortgage payments.

The rate at which mortgage holders were late with their payments by 60 days or more rose in the June-to-September period for the first time since the last three months of 2009, according to TransUnion.

The credit reporting agency said 5.88% of homeowners missed two or more payments, an early sign of possible foreclosure. That was up from 5.82% in the second quarter.

The increase surprised TransUnion researchers, who had expected late payments, or delinquencies, to fall for the quarter.

Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard)

But, it turns out, middle and high school students are having most of the fun, building their erector sets and dropping eggs into water to test the first law of motion. The excitement quickly fades as students brush up against the reality of what David E. Goldberg, an emeritus engineering professor, calls “the math-science death march.” Freshmen in college wade through a blizzard of calculus, physics and chemistry in lecture halls with hundreds of other students. And then many wash out.

Studies have found that roughly 40 percent of students planning engineering and science majors end up switching to other subjects or failing to get any degree. That increases to as much as 60 percent when pre-medical students, who typically have the strongest SAT scores and high school science preparation, are included, according to new data from the University of California at Los Angeles. That is twice the combined attrition rate of all other majors.

LME plans to list Charleston as steel warehouse

The London Metal Exchange plans to approve Charleston, South Carolina, as a location of good delivery for steel billet, head of business development Chris Evans told Reuters.

The port was chosen for its proximity to steel mills on the southeast coast of the United States and is aimed at expanding the steel contract's footprint in North America even as domestic steel mills continue to resist using the futures market for hedging.

Ventre: Frazier Deserves Same Reverence Given to Ali

It’s almost impossible to look at the career of Smokin’ Joe Frazier, who passed away far too soon Monday night from liver cancer at the age of 67, without also noticing the dancing shadow of Muhammad Ali. The two are locked in a clinch for eternity, and boxing fans tend to favor the flashier performer, especially when he is brilliant also as well as a once-in-a-lifetime personality.

But Joe Frazier was great, too. The phrase “Ali-Frazier” has been burned into the lexicon. It represents two titans of sport, not one and his able foil. It has been used to describe every clash between two parties of equal strength who pose a test to each other — Yankees-Red Sox, Lakers-Celtics, etc.

Boxing champ Joe Frazier passes away at 67

Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age of 67, will forever be linked to Ali. But no one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin' Joe.

"You can't mention Ali without mentioning Joe Frazier," said former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. "He beat Ali, don't forget that."

Joseph William "Joe" Frazier

January 12, 1944 - November 7, 2011