PEOPLE Are Talking About …

Jet, Sept 13, 1999

* The tender side of tough, hitmaking rapper DMX, who is sending 40 kids stricken with the AIDS virus to camp in New York. "I grew up in group foster homes and I know what it is like to be at a disadvantage," he explained. "I can't imagine what it is like to be stricken with a disease at an early age that you had nothing to do with. These kids need my help and a chance to be happy. It is my job to share my wealth."

* What Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell said about being a pioneer in the NBA. "When a guy like Shaquille O'Neal gets a contract for $100 million, that says something good about what we were doing," Russell told the Chicago SunTimes. "I think it's great there's that much money in the game. I applaud it."

* The legal battle taking shape in Minneapolis, MN, over whether a school librarian who was once named David Nielson, who is now Debra Davis, can use the women's restroom. A female teacher, Carla Cruzan, filed a complaint with the state about having to share the bathroom with Davis. Davis--considered transgender--has been employed in Minneapolis' public schools for almost 28 years as Nielson, but has been working as a woman since last year. Davis, who has not revealed whether she has had a sex change, says she is using the proper bathroom and has no plans to change.

* How a dog in Stuttgart, Germany, shot and killed its owner, according to police. The 51-year-old man, who had been hunting with his shotgun, was found dead beside his car near the southwestern town of Bad Urach. Police ruled out suicide and foul play and said the gun must have gone off when the dog jumped on top of it on the car seat.

* Retired basketball great Magic Johnson, who has agreed to play at least one game in Sweden's basketball league for a team known as M7.

* South African Nicklaas Amsterdam, who just turned 112, and swore that a life without sex did him some good. "I have never had a woman to give me a headache," he said in the New York Daily News. "That's how I got to live so long. I have never wanted a partner ... and I honored my father and my mother so God could spare my life."

* Celebrating birthdays this week are former soul singer-turned-minister Joe Simon, 58, and actor Richard Roundtree, 57, both on September 7; musician Billy Preston, 53, on September 9; entertainer Lola Falana, 56, on September 11; and soul crooner Barry White, 55, on September 12.