'The Help' leads NAACP Image Award nominees

LOS ANGELES—“The Help” has been served eight Image Award nominations. The adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel about Black maids speaking out about their white employers during the civil rights movement led the 43rd annual NAACP Image Awards nominations Thursday. It’s competing for outstanding motion picture against “Jumping the Broom,” “Pariah,” “The First Grader” and “Tower Heist. The medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” and football sitcom “The Game” ruled the TV categories with six nominations each. Beyonce and Jill Scott both received four nominations in the music categories. They’ll vie against Jennifer Hudson, Ledisi and Mary J. Blige for the outstanding female artist trophy. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Image Awards honor diversity in the arts and will be presented Feb. 17 on NBC.

Johnny Otis of 'Willie and the Hand Jive' dies

LOS ANGELES—Johnny Otis, who made the R&B classic

“Willie and the Hand Jive” and evangelized Black music to white audiences as a bandleader and radio host, has died in California at 90. His manager, Terry Gould, says Otis died Tuesday at his home. Otis, who was white, grew up in a Black neighborhood and adopted Black culture as his own. He started his musical career as a drummer. By 1945, he was a band leader and had a hit with “Harlem Nocturne.” Otis’ 1958 recording of “Willie and the Hand Jive” sold more than 1.5 million copies. He also wrote “Every Beat of My Heart,” which was a hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips, and discovered such R&B artists such as Etta James and Big Mama Thornton.

Illegal immigrant gets 180 days for lewd conduct

LOS ANGELES—An illegal immigrant has been sentenced to 180 days in jail for lewd conduct in front of a 4-year-old Los Angeles girl. Los Angeles city prosecutors say 49-year-old Rene Ochoa pleaded no contest on Tuesday to child endangerment and lewd conduct. Besides jail time, the judge placed him on four years probation. Prosecutors say Ochoa exposed himself to the girl and touched the child inappropriately while repairing a tenant’s bathroom. Ochoa, who works as a Pacific Palisades apartment building maintenance worker, is also facing federal prison for illegally entering the United States and he will be deported.

L.A. court protest held over Supreme Court ruling

LOS ANGELES—Several dozen people rallied at a downtown Los Angeles federal courthouse to protest a U.S. Supreme Court decision that removed most limits on corporate and labor election funding. About 50 people gathered on Nov. 20 on a patio at the Roybal Federal Courthouse to hear speeches condemning the decision. Police presence was light and no arrests have been reported. The event was one of several at courthouses around the country organized by the grass-roots group Move to Amend. The protests are efforts to raise support for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court decision.

E.coli found in raw milk dairy's calf area

FRESNO— California health officials said samples collected from a Central California raw milk dairy’s calf area tested positive for E. coli and two matched the bacteria strain that infected five children last year. In a letter to Organic Pastures made public on Nov. 20, the California Department of Public Health said 10 of the environmental samples taken at the Fresno County dairy tested positive for E.coli. Those samples were taken from cow manure, water, soil and other surfaces. The letter also stated that two of the samples had a genetic pattern indistinguishable from the outbreak strain. In November, California officials recalled and quarantined the dairy’s raw milk products after three California children who drank Organic Pastures milk were hospitalized. But officials did not find E.coli in the company’s recalled products.