By theGrio
8:46 AM on 01/28/2010
VIDEO – Fliers comparing Chicago Alderwoman Toni Preckwinkle to Aunt Jemima are being distributed in the South Side…
By theGrio
7:07 AM on 01/28/2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) – A French search team that wouldn’t go home pulled off another "miracle" rescue in Port-au-Prince, lifting a 17-year-old girl alive from beneath this cityscape of rubble….
By theGrio
4:46 PM on 01/27/2010
NEW YORK (AP) – NBA commissioner David Stern has suspended Washington Wizards guards Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton for the remainder of the season for having guns in the locker room…
By theGrio
4:36 PM on 01/27/2010
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Jordan Miles, an 18-year-old who attends a prestigious Pittsburgh arts school, said three white undercover officers beat him on Jan. 12 as he walked from his mother’s home to his grandmother’s house…
By theGrio
4:15 PM on 01/27/2010
NEW YORK (AP) – Nielsen SoundScan said Wednesday that the compilation CD of performances from last week’s charity telethon sold 171,000 units over the weekend…
By theGrio
4:05 PM on 01/27/2010
UNION CITY, Calif. (AP) – The families of California black teens who say they’ve been the target of racially motivated crimes by a Hispanic gang are suing the Union City police…
By theGrio
1:06 PM on 01/27/2010
Relief experts say it would be a mistake to send too much direct cash to the Haitian government, which is in disarray and has a history of failure and corruption…
By theGrio
11:02 AM on 01/27/2010
SANTA ANA, California (AP) — An international jewel thief who claims to have pocketed a small fortune in gems while shoplifting in ritzy stores from New York to Monte Carlo was arrested…
9:38 AM on 01/27/2010
Anita Maltbia’s local green activism has won her the coveted seat next to the first lady at Obama’s State of the Union. It’s no surprise why she was invited…
By theGrio
9:12 AM on 01/27/2010
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Oden says the pictures, taken with his cell phone and sent to a former girlfriend, were taken about 1½ years ago…
From the Huffington Post:
Chris Matthews is definitely going to take some heat for exclaiming that he “forgot [Obama] was black tonight for an hour… I said wait a minute, he’s an African American guy in front of a bunch of other white people.” Matthews was analyzing President Obama’s first State of the Union speech when he made the remark.
By
A great deal of Massachusetts’ history is tied to the sea. Because of this, Massachusetts is also known for its lighthouses. Lighthouses were once the trusted tool that guided navigators through treacherous waters enabling them to avoid coastal rocks and running aground. Like the lighthouse, the election to fill the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts should serve as a beacon to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Obama administration.
As the Democrats navigate through these treacherous and rocky political waters, the election of Scott Brown as the Senator to replace Ted Kennedy should serve as a warning to the DNC of the dangers of arrogance, complacency, and disorganization. It should also serve notice to the Obama administration of the dangers of failing to articulate a consistent message and failing to deliver what was promised to your supporters.
First, the DNC should recognize that Scott Brown did not run a great campaign insomuch as Martha Coakley, like Cree Deeds in Virginia, ran a terrible one. Coakley ran an elitist campaign, failing to reach out to the communities that helped to elect Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and President Obama. According to the Boston Globe, “The lapses were particularly noticeable in minority communities, traditionally bastions of Democratic votes, which did not turn out in high numbers…” As a demonstration of her arrogance, Coakley took a week off and vacationed during the campaign. According to The Hill, “Martha Coakley’s New Year’s vacation may reign as one of the costliest political blunders of all time.” Even if you’ve “got it in the bag” you never leave the bag unattended!
By theGrio
12:48 PM on 01/26/2010
BRIGHTON, Colorado (AP) — A white supremacist group will be heading out on the roads to pickup litter. A spokesman for the group, Neal Land, says they are "doing good things."
By theGrio
12:01 PM on 01/26/2010
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Republican gubernatorial candidate Andre Bauer recently compared children on public assistance to ‘stray animals’…
By theGrio
11:56 AM on 01/26/2010
SOMERVILLE, New Jersey (AP) – Lloyd R. Woodson, a 43-year-old from Reston, Va., also had maps of a U.S. military facility and a town in another state…
By theGrio
10:58 AM on 01/26/2010
VIDEO – Doctors in Haiti are reporting that nearly 70 people a day are becoming amputees…
By theGrio
10:24 AM on 01/26/2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – The 55-year-old actor piloted his own Boeing 707 from Florida with six tons of ready-to-eat military rations and medical supplies for survivors of Haiti’s earthquake…
By theGrio
8:17 AM on 01/26/2010
WASHINGTON (AP) – The freeze would affect about $477 billion in money available for domestic agencies whose budgets are approved by Congress each year…
By theGrio
5:58 PM on 01/25/2010
CHICAGO (AP) – An interactive exhibit chronicling the lives of 20 black women who played roles in the struggle for civil rights and equality opened in Chicago this weekend…
By theGrio
4:58 PM on 01/25/2010
MONTREAL (AP) – In her remarks to an afternoon session that was closed to press coverage, Clinton stressed the importance of not dictating to Haiti what its priorities should be…
By theGrio
3:12 PM on 01/25/2010
WASHINGTON (AP) – An avid basketball fan himself, Obama said he gets enormous pleasure from watching excellence on the court…
By theGrio
1:11 PM on 01/25/2010
VIDEO – The pilot diverted to Denver, after an apparent intoxicated passenger tried to open an exterior door during the flight…
Talking about giving back, Charlie Simpson, a 7-year-old boy from England has raised over $160-thousand for the relief fund for Haitian earthquake victims.
The unselfish kid asked his mother if he could set up a sponsored bicycle ride around his local park in West London. Originally expecting to raise around $1,000 for UNICEF Haiti appeal with a 5-mile bike ride on Sunday, donations poured in from his webpage and are still coming.
His mother Lenora Simpson stated,
" He was really upset by the pictures on TV. He actually burst into tears. He sat on my lap and we had a chat about the things he could do. He decided to do the cycle ride and he made me do a sponsorship form and that was it. We sent it out on the web and it just went everywhere."
PITTSBURGH – The photos taken by Jordan Miles’ mother show his face covered with raw, red bruises, his cheek and lip swollen, his right eye swollen shut. A bald spot mars the long black dreadlocks where the 18-year-old violist says police tore them from his head.
Now, 10 days after plainclothes officers stopped him on a street and arrested him after a struggle that they say revealed a soda bottle under his coat, not the gun they suspected, his right eye is still slightly swollen and bloodshot. His head is shaved. The three white officers who arrested him have been reassigned. And his mother says she is considering a lawsuit.
“I feel that my son was racially profiled,” Terez Miles said. “It’s a rough neighborhood; it was after dark. … They assumed he was up to no good because he’s black. My son, he knows nothing about the streets at all. He’s had a very sheltered life, he’s very quiet, he doesn’t know police officers sit in cars and stalk people like that.”
A judge continued the case until Feb. 18 after the officers failed to appear at a hearing Thursday, Miles’ attorney, Kerrington Lewis, said. The police department is saying little as it investigates, and isn’t releasing the officers’ names.
By theGrio
11:40 AM on 01/24/2010
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Mo’Nique’s trophy came for her searing portrayal of an abusive mother in "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire."
10:05 AM on 01/24/2010
DISPATCH – Seventy-two hours. That is the window of time most experts give for finding survivors of a disaster. Yesterday a 24-year old Haitian man was pulled alive from a pile of rubble…
By theGrio
11:18 PM on 01/23/2010
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The photos taken by Jordan Miles’ mother show his face covered with raw, red bruises, his cheek and lip swollen, his right eye swollen shut…
By theGrio
9:05 PM on 01/23/2010
VIDEO – MSNBC’s Monica Novotny talks with theGrio.com’s digital journalist Todd Johnson about his coverage in Haiti. Johnson spent a week in Haiti and covered…
By theGrio
5:51 PM on 01/22/2010
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Michael Vick returned to the site of his gruesome dogfighting crimes, looked at an empty dog bowl left behind in a dingy cage…
By theGrio
5:01 PM on 01/22/2010
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The announcement came hours before Jean was to headline a globally broadcast concert called "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief"…
By theGrio
4:59 PM on 01/22/2010
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Two men administering Michael Jackson’s estate are seeking 10 percent of profits they’re able to generate from the late pop superstars work…
By theGrio
4:55 PM on 01/22/2010
VIDEO – The billboards, reportedly placed in New York, Atlanta, and San Francisco, point people to a website that catalogs in meticulous photographic detail a long romance…
By theGrio
4:10 PM on 01/22/2010
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The "Purple Rain" songsmith penned "Purple and Gold" after he saw the Vikings beat Dallas at the Metrodome last weekend…
By theGrio
3:18 PM on 01/22/2010
ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) – Obama weaved angry us-against-them rhetoric throughout the day, telling a town hall audience that he "will never stop fighting" for an economy that works for the hard-working…
What makes more than an uber-celebrity who earns millions per movie, album, or TV season? Two uber-celebrities who just happen to be married. Forbes is always giving us a behind-the-scenes peek at famous finances—don’t tell us you weren’t surprised by the top-earning dead celebrities—and their latest list shows the famous couples who made the most from June 2008 to June 2009. Topping the list—actually, clobbering the list (they made almost twice what the #2 couple grossed)—are Jay-Z andBeyonce. Together, they banked $122 million smackeroos. Interestingly, Beyonce is the one who brought home the most bacon—she earned $87 million to his $35 million. Also notable: While this is a massive amount of money, it’s actually much less than these two made last year, when they pulled in $162 million cumulatively.
Beyonce and Madonna have been added as performers to Friday’s multi-network "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon, and Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and former President Bill Clinton are among the participants.
A statement released Thursday said Beyonce would perform from London, and Madonna from New York City. The list of musical performers already includes such heavyweights as Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Keith Urban.
People can start donating even before the start of the 8 p.m. EST concert via phone and text.
The two-hour telethon will be shown on all the major networks and a host of other channels. It will be broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti.
The firing of nearly one-quarter of the full-time faculty members at Clark Atlanta University a year go led to an investigation by the American Association of University Professors.
The investigatory committee has just released its report about the sudden termination of 55 faculty member, concluding that the college’s actions were egregious.
Among the findings:
The administration selected the particular faculty members for dismissal without any discernible prior consultation with appropriate faculty bodies. The administration in its selections also paid no heed to the rights of tenured over nontenured faculty with respect to retention.
- By not affording the dismissed faculty members opportunity for a hearing before a body of faculty peers, the Clark Atlanta University administration denied them academic due process to which they were entitled under stated university regulations as well as Association-supported standards.
Expand Your Reality – Expand your reality to the point where you pursue what you love doing and excel at it. Involve yourself in high-energy levels of trust, optimism, appreciation, reverence, joy, and love when you engage in every activity in your life.
-Dr. Wayne W. Dyer The Power of Intention
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a DREAM that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal. A DREAM that his four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. He had a DREAM that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. He hoped for a freedom that would allow blacks and whites to work together as well as pray together. He had a dream that one day we all would be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
As musician Wyclef Jean tearfully denied recent allegations that he misappropriated funds from his Yele Haiti charity, experts on non-profits said they couldn’t find serious wrongdoing, except for a lapse of discipline in filing his taxes.
"Did I ever use Yele money for personal benefits? Absolutely not," Jean said Monday at a press conference in Manhattan. "Yele’s books are open and transparent, and we have a clean bill of health by an external auditor every year since we started."
The tears began as Jean addressed his fellow Haitians in his native Creole. "I do not cry for myself; I cry for them," he explained, translating for the English-speaking members of the audience. "I tell them, just permit us a little time."
The charges of misappropriated funds emerged over the last several days, as Jean was in Port-au-Prince assisting with relief efforts following last week’s earthquake. Donations have poured in during that time, totaling "several million dollars," Hugh Locke, president of Yele Haiti, said at the press conference.
A former NAACPexecutive was charged in Fulton County, Ga., with embezzling $275,000 from the U.S. civil rights organization, NAACP officials say.
The Rev. Amos Brown, administrator for the NAACP’s Atlanta chapter, said former NAACP official Judith W. Hanson and Hanson’s former assistant, Saundra Douglass, are accused of embezzling funds during their time with the Baltimore-based organization, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Tuesday.
Authorities allege Hanson, who served as the executive director of the NAACP’s Atlanta chapter, and Douglass used NAACP funds for personal expenses during a six-year period.
If the blurry image is Tiger, it marks the first time the disgraced golf star has been seen in public since his Thanksgiving car crash.
Woods is undergoing sexual addiction rehabilitation at the Gentle Path clinic in the city of Hattiesburg, according to several reports from gossip websites and local television stations.
The National Enquirer claims the photo, which shows a scruffy-faced man wearing a hood and hat, was taken at the facility.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The most powerful aftershock yet struckHaiti on Wednesday, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country’s capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.
The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the Jan. 12 quake. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear.
Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03 a.m. U.S. soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday’s quake was centered about 35 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Port-au-Prince and 6.2 miles (9.9 kilometers) below the surface — a little further from the capital than last week’s epicenter was.
Historically, marriage was the surest route to financial security for women. Nowadays it’s men who are increasingly getting the biggest economic boost from tying the knot, according to a new analysis of census data.
The changes, summarized in a Pew Research Center report being released Tuesday, reflect the proliferation of working wives over the past 40 years — a period in which American women outpaced men in both education and earningsgrowth. A larger share of today’s men, compared with their 1970 counterparts, are married to women whose education and income exceed their own, and a larger share of women are married to men with less education and income.
"From an economic perspective, these trends have contributed to a gender role reversal in the gains from marriage," wrote the report’s authors, Richard Fry and D’Vera Cohn.
President Obama’s response to the tragedy in Haiti has been robust in military deployment and puny in what the Haitians need most: food; first responders and their specialized equipment; doctors and medical facilities and equipment; and engineers, heavy equipment, and heavy movers. Sadly, President Obama is dispatching Presidents Bush and Clinton, and thousands of Marines and U.S. soldiers. By contrast, Cuba has over 400 doctors on the ground and is sending in more; Cubans, Argentinians, Icelanders, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and many others are already on the ground working–saving lives and treating the injured. Senegal has offered land to Haitians willing to relocate to Africa.
The United States, on the day after the tragedy struck, confirmed that an entire Marine Expeditionary Force was being considered "to help restore order," when the "disorder" had been caused by an earthquake striking Haiti; not since 1751, 1770, 1842, 1860, and 1887 had Haiti experienced an earthquake. But, I remember the bogus reports of chaos and violence the led to the deployment of military assets, including Blackwater, in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One Katrina survivor noted that the people needed food and shelter and the U.S. government sent men with guns. Much to my disquiet, it seems, here we go again. From the very beginning, U.S. assistance to Haiti has looked to me more like an invasion than a humanitarian relief operation.
Relief workers say pockets of violence inHaiti’s devastated capital are hindering a slow increase in much-needed aid delivery, and some residents have banded together to protect the few possessions they have left.
As thousands of others head to the countryside, people in one hillside Port-au-Prince district blocked off access to their street with cars and asked local young men to patrol for looters.
"We never count on the government here," said Tatony Vieux, 29. "Never."
A week after the magnitude-7.0 quake struck, Tuesday dawned with new potential for reinforcements to aid in security and disaster relief. The United Nations Security Council was expected to approve additional peacekeeping forces. Some 2,000 U.S. Marines who arrived in the region a day earlier were parked offshore on ships.
But the scope of catastrophe had widened dramatically. The latest casualty report, from the European Commission citing Haitian government figures, doubled previous estimates of the dead to approximately 200,000, with some 70,000 bodies recovered and trucked off to mass graves.
The port remains blocked. Distribution of food, water and supplies from the city’s lone airport to the needy are increasing but still remained a work in progress, frustrating many survivors who sleep in the streets and outdoor camps of tens of thousands. European Commission analysts estimate 250,000 were injured and 1.5 million were made homeless.
"I simply don’t understand what is taking the foreigners so long," said Raymond Saintfort, a pharmacist who brought two suitcases of aspirin and antiseptics to the ruins of a nursing home where dozens of residents suffered.
The U.N. humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said not all 15 planned U.N. food distribution points were up and running yet. The U.N. World Food Program said it expected to boost operations to feeding 97,000 on Monday. But it needs 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days, and it appealed for more government donations.
In one step to reassure frustrated aid groups, the U.S. military agreed to give aid deliveries priority over military flights at the now-U.S.-run airport here, according to the WFP. The Americans’ handling of civilian flights had angered some humanitarian officials.
Haiti’s musician Wyclef Jean, left, arrives at the airport in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, the day after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit his country. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
(AP)
Groups that vet charities are raising doubts about the organization backed by Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, questioning its accounting practices and ability to function in earthquake-hit Haiti.
Even as more than $2 million poured into The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc. via text message after just two days, experts questioned how much of the money would help those in need.
"It’s questionable. There’s no way to get around that," said Art Taylor, president and chief executive of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, based in Arlington, Va.
Taylor reviewed Internal Revenue Service tax returns for the organization also known as Yele Haiti Foundation from 2005 through 2007. He said the first red flag of poor accounting practices was that three years of returns were filed on the same day — Aug. 10 of last year.
In 2007, the foundation’s spending exceeded its revenues by $411,000. It brought in just $79,000 that year.
Pat Robertson, the evangelical Christian who once suggested God was punishing Americans with Hurricane Katrina, says a "pact to the devil" brought on the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
Officials fear more than 100,000 people have died as a result of Tuesday’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti.
Robertson, the host of the "700 Club," blamed the tragedy on something that "happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it."
The Haitians "were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever," Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. "And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ "
Native Haitians defeated French colonists in 1804 and declared independence.
"You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other." Robertson has previously linked natural disasters and terrorist attacks to legalized abortion in the United States. Soon after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 and wreaking unprecedented devastation on New Orleans, Louisiana, Robertson weighed in with his own theory.
Michael Eric Dyson, professor of African American studies at Georgetown, addressed the Harry Reid “negro dialect” controversy last night on MSNBC. He criticized Obama for avoiding racial issue.
You ain’t talking about civil rights, you ain’t talking bout affirmative action, you’re not pressing the issue.”
He also said that Barack Obama does not sound Black.
If Barack Obama was standing forth in America to speak brilliantly and courageously about the issues of race, he’d sound a lot more black too.
Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
On January 18, 2010, America will celebrate the birth, death, and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will hear those powerful words "I Have A Dream.” What has troubled me over the years is how Dr. King, the visionary, prophet, and revolutionary’s vision, action, and ultimate sacrifice have been hijacked, compromised, and relegated to being those of just a dreamer.
Dreamers are safe, docile, and non-threatening. People are comfortable with dreamers. Why? To be a dreamer you must be in a restful state, usually asleep. To cast Dr. King in the light of a dreamer allows people to be convinced that action resulting from clear vision is not necessary. It allows the oppressed to be fooled into being patient and non-revolutionary; yours will come by-and by. It allows Dr. King’s “Dream” his vision to remain a dream.
What many fail to realize is that Dr. King was no dreamer. He was a visionary, not some abstract thinker or philosopher. He was a prophet and a true revolutionary.
Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
As Americans usher in a new year and new decade they find themselves confronted with old problems, war and terror. The epicenter of these problems has shifted from Iraq to Central Asia – Afghanistan/Pakistan.
According to the web site iCasualties.org 953 American troops have died in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion began in 2001; more than one-third of those killed (319) died in 2009. The NY Times reports that on December 30, a suicide bomber killed at least 8 C.I.A. officers in the Khost Province in Afghanistan. On January 2, four American troops were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated while they were on foot patrol in Southern Afghanistan. With the President’s escalation of troops, these numbers should dramatically increase before they decline.
Political uncertainty continues to control the Afghan parliament and President Hamid Karzai’s ability to form a new and stable government. The Afghan parliament rejected 17 of the 24 new cabinet recommendations of President Karzai on the grounds that the nominations were not based upon the qualifications of the individuals, but founded on either bribery or ethnicity. In this New Year, it looks like more of the same.
From The New York Daily News
Bill Clinton helped sink his wife’s chances for an endorsement from Ted Kennedy by belittling Barack Obama as nothing but a race-based candidate.
“A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee,” the former president told the liberal lion from Massachusetts, according to the gossipy new campaign book, “Game Change.”
The book says Kennedy was deeply offended and recounted the conversation to friends with fury.
After Kennedy sided with Obama, Clinton reportedly griped, “the only reason you are endorsing him is because he’s black. Let’s just be clear.”
Christopher Charles Lloyd, (Lloyd Banks) of G-Unit was arrested this weekend in Toronto, Canada for allegedly beating up a concert promoter. Lloyd is one of four men involved in the incident taht could lead to charges that may include: assault, forcible confinement and robbery.
The group allegedly held down and beat the concert promoter, Chris Hines on Friday night after Lloyd Banks walked out on a contract he was contracted to perform. The four men remained in jail over the weekend and will appear in court Monday, January 11, 2010.
Photos have surfaced of the beating victim.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had to backpedal and apologize very quickly for a private conversation he had with Barack Obama during Obama’s presidential campaign. In the discussion, Reid stated that Obama could be a successful candidate because he is "light skinned" and that he speaks with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
Two journalists, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, made this assertion in a book to be released next Tuesday.
"He [Reid] was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama – a ‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,’ as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama’s race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination," they write.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apologized Saturday following reports he had privately described then-candidate Barack Obama during the presidential campaign as a black candidate who could be successful thanks in part to his “light-skinned” appearance and speaking patterns "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
Journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann reported the remarks in their new book “Game Change,” which was purchased by CNN Saturday at a Washington-area bookstore. The book is slated for official release next Tuesday.
“He (Reid) was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama – a ‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,’ as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama’s race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination," they write.
“I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words,” Reid said in a statement to CNN. (Update 3:15 pm:Reid spokesman Jim Manley tells CNN that the senator also called President Obama Saturday afternoon to apologize for his remark.)
“I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments.
By Chris Isidore, senior writerJanuary 8, 2010: 11:31 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Employers once again slashed a substantial number jobs off their payrolls in December, according to adisappointing report from the government Friday. But there was a small glimmer of hope as well.
The payroll number for November was revised to a net gain of 4,000 jobs. That’s the first increase in jobs in nearly two years. The government had previously indicated that 11,000 jobs were lost in November.
By News One January 8, 2010 6:05 pm
Read more about Officer Charged With Oscar Grant’s Murder Appears In Court
TAGS: BART, Bay Area, Oscar Grant, Police brutality
By Associated Press January 8, 2010 5:22 pm
Read more about Joe Biden’s Mother Dies At 92
TAGS: Joe Biden
By News One January 8, 2010 5:05 pm
Read more about Census Estimate: D.C. Black Population Is Shrinking
TAGS: census, Washington D.C.
By Associated Press January 8, 2010 4:10 pm
Read more about Gingrich Says Republicans Are Nervous Around Michael Steele Because He’s Black
TAGS: GOP, Michael Steele
By Associated Press January 8, 2010 3:30 pm
Read more about L.A. To Train Anti-Gang Workers In New Academy
TAGS: California, crime, Gang Violence, Los Angeles
By Associated Press January 8, 2010 2:52 pm
Read more about Andre Dawson Elected To Baseball Hall Of Fame
TAGS: Andre Dawson, Baseball, black achievement, black athletes, MLB
By Associated Press January 8, 2010 1:58 pm
Read more about Source: DA To Seek Indictment Of Jackson Doctor
TAGS: black celebrities, celebrity deaths, Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson
By News One January 8, 2010 1:38 pm
Read more about Fewer Black Students Being Admitted To Law Schools
TAGS: black lawyers, black students, education, law school
Steve McClairin,36, is accused of placing his seven-year-old daughter in the dryer, shutting the door, and turning it on.
McClairin was arraigned Wednesday morning on a handful of charges, including two counts of endangering children, felonious assault, kidnapping and domestic violence.
Prosecutors say the accusations in this story are horrific.
"There’s no explaining this type of activity, why any individual would place any human being or any animal or anything in a dryer is unexplainable and to a normal thinking person, there’s no explanation and obviously this man has issues," said Mike O’Malley, First Assistant to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason.
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The following is an excerpt from the book, “The Millionaire Mentor” by Towanna Freeman (click her name to buy the book) Happiness is a Choice You Make |
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If you are not a happy person that is a choice you are making. You have full control over your life and the decisions that you make. There are many factors which people measure happiness. Some people think money is happiness however they may absolutely miserable with what they do on a daily basis to make their money. |
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You might look at people who have absolutely everything and you strive to be like them. These things may be wealth, possessions, status, or even the position you hold at work. These things don’t create happiness. Happiness is a choice. |
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There are many people who have wealth and a high status who are completely miserable. They may be lonely, divorced and more. Happiness comes from within. These people may be working jobs they absolutely hate but just have a knack for making money. |
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Happiness is Subjective |
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There are things in life that can make you happy that are subjective. They are subjective because happiness comes differently for everyone. |
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You might find joy and happiness seeking thrills through rides like roller coasters and bungee jumping. This thrill may be more than torture for someone with a fear of heights who would never step foot on a roller coaster or ever be brave enough to jump from a bridge suspended by a bungee cord. |
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Everyone seeks happiness in their own way. What makes you happy is a natural high that you deserve to seek. There is nothing wrong with the things that you find joy in. You may be told you are crazy but that is because of the subjectivity. |
From Seun Adbiyi At The Huffington Post
As a 26 year-old African-American, I don’t know which is more difficult: trying to make history as the first Nigerian delegate in the Winter Olympics, or finding a donor for a bone marrow transplant.
In June 2009, just days after graduating from Yale Law School, I was diagnosed with two rare and aggressive forms of cancer: lymphoblastic lymphoma and stem-cell leukemia. Instead of a grueling Olympic training regimen for the skeleton — an 80 mph headfirst plunge down a mile-long ice chute — I underwent an equally grueling cycle of high dose chemotherapy during a seven-week hospital stay at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
In terms of President Obama’s ability to articulate and take action on his vision for America in one, year, I would issue a grade of B+. He has motivated millions across the globe to be more charitable, considerate, and reflective on our personal and national interests. Contrastingly, I would personally give him a grade of a C to mark the more free-thinking, activist, and liberal political stance that I thought and hoped he would bring to the White House. Mr. Obama is clearly a centrist and that is a dangerous position to have if his desire is to serve an additional four years. While his pit crew (the people that elected him) are screaming “Open it up! We’ve got your back,” he’s driving his Ferrari 35 mph. Is it a lack of political skill or political will for this seemingly gentle posture? Time will definitely tell. Nonetheless, many Americans remain hopeful for real change with his ideological path of appeasement and consensus-building.
Elliot Millner, Legal Advisor for the YBW Coalition, had this to say about the gun charges for NBA Star, Gilbert Arenas:
“It is still very early in the criminal investigation of Gilbert Arenas, and many facts are still unclear, however Arenas could be in some trouble. First, Arenas has prior gun-related charges, having plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of illegally possessing a concealed weapon while in California in 2003. Also, Arenas not only has D.C. authorities to answer to, but possibly Virginia police as well, given that he transported his guns from Virginia into D.C. It has been mentioned that Arenas may not have had proper registration for the guns in question, and also may have lacked a concealed weapons permit. Virginia accepts concealed weapons permits from certain other states, so that could work in Arenas favor if he had a concealed license permit from another state. In addition, even in regards to registered guns, D.C. prohibits guns deemed to be particularly "unsafe", so if any of Arenas’ guns fall in that category, it could lead to other charges. It has been reported that all of Arenas’ handguns were unloaded, however we do not know if Arenas stored any bullets in his locker also, which could lead to more charges. Some commentators have discussed the idea of Arenas being charged with assault with a deadly weapon, however given the statements made by most who observed the incidents in question, I see that as highly unlikely. The act of Arenas removing the guns from the locker and placing them out in the open (even if unloaded) could be problematic for him as well.
Ultimately, we will know more about what charges Arenas may face in the next few weeks. It is a sad and ridiculous situation, that was completely avoidable with even a little bit of forethought."
To paraphrase a great old slogan for Guinness beer: Sex isn’t just good, it’s good for you!
Okay, so maybe there’s some wishful thinking going on — the science isn’t exactly iron-clad — but evidence is accumulating that the more sex you have, the better off you are.
There is one caveat, though. “We do not have good data to show a direct connection [to all-around good health]," says Jennifer Bass, the head of information services at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction in Bloomington, Ind. "We know that healthier people have more sexual activity. But we do not know which comes first. Does the good health make you more willing to have sex, or does the sex have a positive impact?”
And you dirty girrrls and Don Juans should know that the assumed health benefits of sex are generally thought to accrue to people in loving, monogamous relationships or those flying solo. Risky sex with lots of partners will probably do more harm than good.
Police in Ohio are searching for two brazen girls, believed to be as young as 12 and 14, who robbed a bank in a Cincinnati suburb and escaped a police dragnet that included a helicopter and dogs.
Ohio police are looking for two girls suspected of robbing a bank.
The baby faced bank robbers, one believed to be 12 years old and the other 14 or 15, entered the 1st National Bank in Symmes Township, "walked up to the bank teller, and gave the teller a note demanding money," Steve Barnett, spokesman for the Hamilton County Sherriff’s Office, said in a statement.
When President Obama was elected, it only took a few weeks for Ty, Inc to start producing Sasha and Malia dolls. The little clones were taken off the market as soon as Michelle Obama objected, but it appears that the Democrats are now producing clones of Michelle’s husband, Barack.
Meet Harold Ford Jr.., a former Congressman from Tennessee who has now become the next Barack Obama, at least in the eyes of enthusiastic Democrats. Ford has recently moved to New York and may be positioning himself to fight for the Senate seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand, a New Yorker who hasn’t exactly won over her constituency. Ford has the horsepower to win, and can raise the money to do it. Such a move would represent a significant step in his quest to become President of the United States. Yes, I did say "President."
As the next "Great Black Hope" of the Democratic Party, Harold Ford Jr. gives many of his supporters both the visual and political cues necessary for them to think that he should be the next Barack. Both Obama and Ford are light-skinned. They are both "articulate and well-behaved" black men who attended Ivy League institutions. They are both prototypical politicians: the guys you neither like nor dislike too much. And to be quite honest, neither Ford nor Obama take tough stands on much of anything unless it happens to be the fashionable thing to stand up for at that particular time. Then again, these men are not black leaders, they are black politicians. The job requirements are different.
By theGrio
4:18 PM on 01/06/2010
NEW YORK (AP) — NBA commissioner David Stern has indefinitely suspended Gilbert Arenas, saying the Washington Wizards guard is "not currently fit to take the court" for a game…
By theGrio
2:50 PM on 01/06/2010
VIDEO – She helps unlock the secrets to success in school with teenagers other teachers might write-off. To know Tonya Griggs is to listen to her students…
By theGrio
2:06 PM on 01/06/2010
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The heart-wrenching story of an illiterate and abused Harlem teen who finds hope in a classroom of misfits led the nominations..
By theGrio
12:43 PM on 01/06/2010
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Investigators say Johnny Lee Wicks was on a suicide mission the day he walked three miles to the federal building in downtown Las Vegas…
By theGrio
12:35 PM on 01/06/2010
LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — In 2006, Abraham Shakespeare — a truck driver’s assistant who lived with his mother — won $30 million in the Florida lottery. His good fortune may have cost him his life.
By theGrio
9:36 AM on 01/06/2010
While most of us were ringing in the New Year – one heartland family was falling apart. Six children were removed from their home for reasons of safety…
By theGrio
9:30 AM on 01/06/2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fur is flying over a new ad campaign by an animal rights group the White House says is using first lady Michelle Obama’s image without her permission…
By theGrio
9:15 AM on 01/06/2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Council’s chief of staff says the Obama administration will "follow through" on all intelligence leads as they seek to avert any further terrorist attacks…
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9:13 AM on 01/06/2010
When employees at a McDonald’s in Kansas City, Missouri reportedly messed up this woman’s order, she wasn’t going to take it anymore…
By theGrio
8:46 AM on 01/06/2010
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – A ex-Richmond city councilman is among those asking that Virginia officials excavate part of a university parking lot to determine …
No strangers to controversy, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is up to its old tricks again. This time they’ve raised eyebrows by using an image of Michelle Obama in an anti-fur advertisement without her permission. The White House is not pleased, to say the least.
The ad in question features the image of the first lady alongside the images of Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks, and Carrie Underwood underneath the slogan, "Fur-free and fabulous!" The ads, which PETA says features "a bevy of the smartest, most stylish, and most influential women in America," are being plastered all over the Washington D.C. Metro mass transit system, in addition to appearing in various magazines and websites.
While Winfrey, Banks and Underwood are all on record as publicly endorsing PETA’s anti-fur efforts, first lady Michelle Obama cannot endorse special interest groups such as PETA. Thus, the White House is mildly perturbed by the use of the first lady’s image in the campaign
From Macon.com:
WARNER ROBINS — Citing flawed membership intake processes at chapters across the country, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity incorporated has put a halt to new membership processes nationwide.
The ruling, announced to active members in a letter from the fraternity’s General President Herman “Skip” Mason Jr., comes nearly a month after a member of the student chapter at Fort Valley State University was charged with aggravated battery against a new member. Mason said the decision to halt intake was due to “the failure of some of our members to behave honorably and with care.”
Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton say the U.S. Census Bureau is not devoting enough resources to reaching hard-to-count populations, especially new immigrants and minorities who may be distrustful of government questionnaires.
African-American leaders including Jackson and Sharpton met recently with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who will be responsible this year for the population count that occurs once every 10 years.
NAACP president Ben Jealous said there’s no reason the nation can’t have the most accurate census ever, but pointed to historical undercounts of the black population.
Census Bureau offices in Memphis, Shelby County and Jackson, Tenn., as well as Southaven, Miss., will be gearing up this month to hire workers for the count. The Memphis and Shelby County jobs pay $17 per hour. In Southaven, the pay rate is $10.50 an hour, and in Jackson, it’s $11.25.
The census is used to draw congressional and state legislative districts and allocate federal funding. The confidential census of the population is called for in the U.S. Constitution. Inaccurate counts can distort political power and result in discrepancies that can last for a decade.
Eunice W. Johnson gave Ebony magazine its name and for almost 50 years produced an influential traveling fashion show that brought haute couture to African-Americans while raising millions of dollars for charity.
The widow of Johnson Publishing Co. founder John H. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, 93, died of renal failure Sunday, Jan. 3, in her Chicago home, according to a company spokeswoman.
A close business partner of her husband’s since the beginning of Johnson Publishing in 1942, Mrs. Johnson remained the company’s secretary-treasurer at the time of her death and for years wrote a monthly fashion feature for Ebony magazine.
Johnson Publishing’s flagship, conceived as an African-American version of Life magazine and published since 1945, was named by Mrs. Johnson to reflect the mystique of fine black ebony wood, said Wendy Parks of Johnson Publishing.
But Mrs. Johnson’s greatest legacy may be her role as producer and director of the Ebony Fashion Fair, an influential event that for decades has been a showcase for the world’s top designers.
JACKSON, Miss. — Bobby DeLaughter, a former Mississippi prosecutor and judge whose legal conquests became the subject of books and a movie, is set to report to federal prison Monday for lying to the FBI in a judicial bribery investigation.
The next chapter of DeLaughter’s life, as inmate No. 12930-042, marks a long fall from the height of his legal career in 1994 when he was a prosecutor who helped convict a civil rights-era assassin for the 30-year-old murder of NAACP leader Medgar Evers.
The 55-year-old DeLaughter (deh-LAW’-ter) was to report to a federal prison camp in McCreary, Ky., by 2 p.m.
DeLaughter’s lawyer, Thomas Durkin of Chicago, told The Associated Press on Monday that he didn’t know exactly what time DeLaughter would report to prison, but that he wouldn’t be late. A prison official said he was not in custody as of about 10:45 a.m.
by Dr. Julianne Malveaux, President – Bennett College For Women
Had Dr. Martin Luther King lived until his birthday, January 15, he would be 81. It is interesting to speculate how the octogenarian might spend his time. If he is anything like some of his peers – Ambassador Andrew Young or Rev. Joseph Lowery – he’d still be involved in some form of activism, perhaps combining religious service with involvement in domestic and international affairs, perhaps with dimensions that included some involvement in commerce (such as Mr. Young’s consulting company Good Works). What might Dr. King think or say about the state we find ourselves in today? A year since the inauguration of President Barack Obama, would he embrace the concept of post-racialism that some bandy about? Would he reflect on his words during the March on Washington and conclude that the dream he so brilliantly articulated had been realized? Or would he be forced to conclude that the check is still marked "insufficient funds".
I am sure there will be those who will quote Dr. King’s dream that people would be judged by "the content of their characters, not the color of their skin". That’s the easiest King quote to use, but it is not the most telling. In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech he said, "I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, peace, dignity and freedom for their spirits." Have any of these things yet been attained? In the middle of our recession there are millions who go hungry. On Sunday, the New York Times reported that one in 50 American households have no income except food stamps. You can’t pick up a single paper without reading of the foreclosure crisis, and the increasing economic dislocation, including homelessness, which goes with it.
Dr. King spoke of education, but the ways we fail to invest in education are shameful. Students graduate from college with staggering amounts of debt, and many enter college from inner city high schools that poorly prepare them for advanced study. Education and culture? Please. Our global competitors are investing so much more in education than we are that a nation that once led the world is now struggling to keep up with countries we once described as "developing." We have made the decision not to invest fully in education as the demographic pipeline to college has browned, suggesting that our investment decision has at least a little something to do with race.
Dr. Martin Luther King said we came to the nation’s capital to cash a check, and he said, in 1963, "It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, American has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation."
Actually there have been sufficient funds to bail out the financial sector, but insufficient funds to rewrite the mortgages of those they decimated, sufficient funds to help the auto industry but not ailing Detroit or laid off auto workers. When Dr. King spoke of insufficient funds, he was speaking of the racial economic justice that we have not yet attained, and that we are unlikely to attain unless aggressive, corrective measures are taken.
The Congressional Black Caucus has been talking about corrective matters when they asked President Obama to consider targeting recovery programs toward the African American community that suffers from an extraordinarily high unemployment rate. President Obama has rightly said that he leads a nation, not a race, but if another group, say whites, experienced disproportionately high unemployment you can bet there would be a targeted program for them. Indeed, one can argue that while the bank bailout didn’t happen on President Obama’s watch, there was an economic recovery program targeted toward just one sector of the population.
What might Dr. King say when confronted with these circumstances? While it is impossible to predict, I think that 47 years after "I have a dream", he would still demand that our nation "cash the check."
Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author and commentator, and the Founder & Thought Leader of Last Word Productions, Inc., a multimedia production company.
Last Word Productions, Inc. is a multimedia production company that serves as a vehicle for the work and products of Dr. Julianne Malveaux. For the last 10 years the company has centered its efforts on Dr. Malveaux’s public speaking appearances, her work as a broadcast and print journalist, and also as an author. Currently, Julianne Malveaux is President of Bennett College For Women in Greensboro, North Carolina.
To find more of Dr. Julianne Malveaux’s columns, work and appearances please visit:
www.juliannemalveaux.com
As the battle lines for health care reform are being drawn – and redrawn – a silent segment of the population is strategically left out of the conversation. A group of individuals who have been deemed enemies of society, and cast away behind iron bars to fend for themselves. In California, health care in the state’s 33 prisons is so inadequate that one unnecessary death takes place per week, as inmates are often stacked in triple bunk beds in hallways and gymnasiums. With nearly twice the number of prisoners than it was designed to hold, California prisons will have to be cut by about 40,000 in the next two years – and it’s about time.
Federal judges just released a 184-page order demanding that California’s inmate population be reduced by 27%, and gave the state 45 days to come up with a plan. In what they termed an ‘unconstitutional prison health care system’, the three-judge panel concluded that disease was spreading rampantly and prisoner-on-prisoner violence was all but unavoidable. Forced to close a $26 billion dollar budget gap, California will now have to look at mechanisms to reducing its extensive prison spending, which in 2007 topped out at nearly $10 billion (approximately $49,000 for each inmate).
Whether it’s for pure economic reasons or for an actual concern over the well being of prisoners, California will hopefully serve as an example for a reversal of the ever-growing prison industrial complex. A system that unfairly profiles and detains minorities, American jails produce a vicious cycle of recidivism and community breakdown. Last year, the Pew Center on the States released a scathing report stating that one in every 100 American adults was in jail, and that an astonishing one in 15 Black adults was behind bars. According to government reports in 2007, there were three times as many Blacks in jail than in college dorms, with Latinos not far behind at 2.7 times more behind bars than in secondary schooling.
A 4-year-old boy who was struck by a stray bullet while at church died Friday.
The incident happened around midnight Friday during a New Year’s Eve watch service at the Covington Drive Church Of God of Prophecy in Decatur.
It was not immediately clear who fired the shot that came through the roof of the church and struck the child, who was identified as Marquel Peters.
"It’s hard. He was my only child. He was only 4. He was a smart little boy, he was so sweet," said his mother, Nathalee Peters.
She said Friday night that she still can’t believe it happened.
The investigation of Gilbert Arenas and the guns he brought to the Verizon Center took a more serious turn Friday amid a report that the Wizards guard and teammate Javaris Crittenton allegedly drew on each other during a locker-room argument over a gambling debt.
Arenas responded with a flurry of messages on Twitter, at times making light of the news but also making one tweet that read somewhat like a denial: "I understand this is serious..but if u ever met me you know i dont do serious things im a goof ball this story today dont sound goofy to me."
The NBA and the Wizards would only confirm that an investigation is taking place — and it’s being led by law enforcement, not the league. The capital has some of the most strict gun laws in the nation.
The Wizards and Arenas both have acknowledged that Arenas kept guns in his locker. Arenas has said he took his unloaded guns to the Verizon Center because he didn’t want them in his house after the birth of his latest child.
By theGrio
10:27 AM on 01/01/2010
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Post is reporting Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton drew guns on each other during…
10:43 AM on 12/31/2009
With 2009 coming to an end, we turn our attention to the new year. Today on the barbershop buzz: 2010…
By theGrio
1:26 PM on 12/30/2009
VIDEO – It’s called the ‘Teachermate’ reading and math lessons all crammed into a little device…
By theGrio
10:43 AM on 12/30/2009
VIDEO – Afghan war veteran, Sgt. Sammy Washington, is going back to the war zone. To hear the sounds, see the sights and feel the explosions, in a virtual reality clinic at Andrews Air Force Base…
By theGrio
10:20 AM on 12/30/2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" video, with that unforgettable graveyard dance, will rest among the nation’s treasures in the world’s largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings…
By theGrio
10:00 AM on 12/30/2009
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lil Wayne emerged as a top-selling musician known for his clever wordplay and risque lyrics, but like rappers before him, he’s staring down a year behind bars at the peak of his career…
By theGrio
9:06 AM on 12/30/2009
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves’ trade of backup point guard Jason Hart didn’t exactly go as smoothly as planned…
By theGrio
8:43 AM on 12/30/2009
HONOLULU (AP) – President Barack Obama says the intelligence community had information that it should have been pieced together before the Christmas Day attempted terror attack…
By theGrio
2:59 PM on 12/29/2009
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A congressman trying to becoming Alabama’s first black governor is facing opposition from some unlikely critics — black leaders who were on the front lines of the civil rights movement…
By theGrio
1:38 PM on 12/29/2009
SAN JOSE, California (AP) — Grainy cell phone images are often used against cops accused of using excessive violence. Now, officers are being armed with their own cameras…
