Retired NBA star Yao Ming has added another line to his post-basketball resume — politician — becoming a member of an advisory body to Shanghai’s legislature.

Since the 31-year-old Yao announced last July that injuries had ended his career with the Houston Rockets, he has become a university student and set up a wine business to go with owning a professional basketball team in China.

Photos in official media on Monday showed Yao at the weekend closing ceremony for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Shanghai Committee.

“There are about 142 members in the group, and Yao is the youngest,” Kong Rong, who works in the service office of committee, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.

The advisory committee does not have any real power, but the newspaper said Yao is supposed to attend regular meetings, and can make suggestions for the advisory body and government departments.

Yao was quoted as saying “raising proposals is very serious business, and I do not want to be hasty.”

It is common for sports figures to move into politics in China. Olympic gold medal hurdler Liu Xiang is a member of both the Shanghai and national political advisory bodies.

Yao, one of the most popular celebrities in China from his eight seasons in the NBA, is a student at Jiaotong University, one of the top universities in his hometown Shanghai.

In November, he released the first-ever bottles of his new Yao Ming-branded wine, a 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon currently available only in mainland China, where the market for imported wines has boomed over the past decade.

Source: The Daily Caller.

*Taken from SLC Dunk.

Yao Ming, of the Houston Rockets, has retired from the NBA, according to a number of sources. Obviously, not directly Jazz related news, but we see the continuing death of true, back to the basket big men in the passing of Yao Ming from being an “active” player to retiring from the NBA. He will be missed. Love him or hate him, he was a very nice man who advanced basketball in his nation (China), his continent (Asia), and across the globe. Yes, he got a lot of All-Star votes every year – but you can’t hate a guy for being popular. (The under-reported issue is that the majority of Yao Ming votes came from the US, not China…) He finishes his NBA years with career averages of 19.0 ppg (52.4 fg%, 83.3 ft%), 9.2 rpg, and 1.9 bpg. Hall of Famer? He’ll get in for sure. Even if he only got out of the 1st round once in his career.

He will be missed.

*Taken from NY Daily News.

A 32-year-old Houston man butchered his best friend with a chainsaw and stashed his body parts in a trash bag under an abandoned house, police said.

Cops found the mutilated body of Marlon Thomas, 35, lying in the weeds in the backyard of a house in northeast Houston Sunday night, The Houston Chronicle reported.

A bloody trash bag containing a head and an arm was found under the house, which was propped up on cinder blocks and next door to the duplex that the two men shared. A chainsaw was found nearby.

On Monday, cops arrested Noe Gerardo Morin and charged him with murdering Thomas in the apparent Texas chainsaw massacre.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from MSNBC.

Authorities say four people were indicted in a Houston bank robbery after bragging about it on Facebook.

Federal prosecutors say two former tellers at the International Bank of Commerce recruited a boyfriend and a brother to steal more than $62,000 on March 23.

Prosecutors say former tellers 18-year-old Estefany Danelia Martinez and 19-year-old Anna Margarita Rivera; Martinez’s boyfriend, 19-year-old Ricky Gonzalez; and Rivera’s brother, 22-year-old Arturo Solano were indicted Wednesday on charges of bank robbery and embezzlement.

Authorities say an anonymous tip led investigators to Facebook posts. In one Martinez wrote, “IM RICH.” Another post said: “WIPE MY TEETH WITH HUNDEREDS.”

Gonzalez’s attorney, Lance Hamm, says his client is “extremely remorseful for what he’s accused of doing.”

Attorneys for the others did not immediately return messages Wednesday night.

*Taken from Your Cleveland News.

A Cleveland man was attacked by a housecat Friday afternoon and the man’s injuries are so severe that he had to be taken by air ambulance to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

The altercation between the man and the animal occurred at a home on CR 3182 a few miles south of Cleveland in Liberty County. 

At some point during the attack, the man and the cat reportedly were injured by a knife the man was holding. The man was taken to Cleveland Regional Medical Center before being transported to Houston.

Game wardens Danny Diaz and Adam Broll captured the cat. It was taken to Big Thicket Animal Hospital for examination.

The man’s identity is unknown at this time.

*Taken from Infowars. Written by Paul Joseph Watson.

Secret police with their faces covered by black ski-masks are the hallmark of any modern day dictatorship, which is why the sudden appearance of one such individual helping police conduct traffic checkpoints in Houston County by roughing up victims and planting drugs on them is an damning indictment of America’s slide into an authoritarian police state.

According to a report by Rickey Stokes of the Houston Newspaper Online, Houston County Sheriff Vice Deputy Phillip Small is being assisted in conducting traffic stops by a ski-mask wearing man wearing a bullet proof vest with the words “State Police” written on it. The mask covers the whole of the man’s face apart from his eyes. The man has also been seen carrying a large gun strapped to his back. Photos taken by Stokes confirm that the individual is helping police conduct arrests and warrantless searches of vehicles.

When Stokes took photographs of the man during a traffic checkpoint at Piggly Wiggly on Montgomery Highway last week, he immediately ran over to Stokes’ vehicle, parked at some distance away from the traffic stop, and started threatening the reporter with arrest if he didn’t delete the pictures. Having committed no crime, Stokes simply drove away.

In a subsequent conversation with Attorney Doug Valeska about the incident, Valeska confirmed that Stokes was not committing any offense. He was a member of the media and was not obstructing the traffic stop in any way.

In another incident described by a black man called Rickey, whom Stokes subsequently interviewed, Small and his ski-mask wearing assistant pulled over Rickey with no probable cause and proceeded to order him to exit his car with guns drawn.

Rickey was then assaulted by the black-ski mask clad man, who put his foot in Rickey’s back as he was being apprehended. When Sheriff Small temporarily left the scene, the anonymous individual attempted to plant drugs in the passenger side of the vehicle, claims Rickey, who was subsequently accused of possession.

Rickey was not arrested for possession of drugs, he was arrested for “eluding” the Sheriff and his assistant, suggesting that the attempt to frame Rickey was mothballed after he confronted the black ski-mask clad thug about planting evidence.

In another incident which took place on Friday night last week, the black ski-mask individual was witnessed involved in a chase of another vehicle. “The chase came down 231 North and onto Horace Shepard Road. On the scene, the masked NINJA Officer was there. Running around with a bullet proof vest, a gun and on the back of the vest “ State Police”, wearing his mask,” writes Stokes.

“We have learned the masked NINJA is a agent of the Alabama Beverage Control Board (ABC),” reports Stokes. “He is working undercover and does not want anyone to know who he is. That excuse is not acceptable.”

Having spoken to numerous law enforcement officers, both active and retired, all clearly told Stokes that having secret police conduct checkpoints in America was completely unconstitutional. Stokes says that he has received a number of complaints about the ski-masked man from numerous different people.

Houston County Sheriff Andy Hughes later confirmed that the practice of having anonymous black ski-mask clad individuals involved in traffic stops was completely unacceptable, and that the involvement of whoever the person in the photographs is would be halted immediately.

Watch the interview with Rickey below.