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Arkansas legislators elect first black House speaker
March 10, 2012 - Arkansas legislators made history Friday when they elected a black lawmaker to lead the state House, marking the highest elected position a black person has won in the state since Reconstruction.
Representatives chose Democratic Rep. Darrin Williams of Little Rock to be the next speaker of the House by a 54-46 vote. Williams was elected as speaker-designate during a secret ballot, though Democrats hold a 54-46 majority in the House, which mirrors the vote total. Read more at blackpoliticsontheweb.com.
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Jamaican P.M. Talks Slavery Apology & Reparations From U.K.
March 6, 2012 - Jamaican prime minister Portia Simpson Miller suggested today that the British government should finally apologise for enslaving Jamaican peoples' ancestors.
The PM also hinted that the former colony was ready to ditch the British monarchy and become a republic.
Talking to the BBC hours before Prince Harry landed at Kingston's Normal Manley Airport for a four-day visit, Ms Simpson Miller said: "No race should have been subjected to what out ancestors were subjected to - it was wicked and brutal. Read more at morningstaronline.co.
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Florida Black Teen Killed In Gated Community By White Watchman
March 8, 2012 - The curious case surrounding the killing of African-American 17-year-old Trayvon Martin (pictured) in a gated Florida community has the family of the teen questioning the circumstances that led to his untimely death at the hands of an armed neighborhood watch captain. The twist to this story? The watch captain is a White man. Martin’s family will be filing a lawsuit today, according to the Miami-Herald, and are demanding the arrest of the captain. Read more at newsone.com.
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Star Jones Responds To Being 'Ambushed' In Her Return To 'The View' On 'The Rosie Show' (VIDEO)
March 8, 2012 - When Star Jones returned to "The View" six years after her tumultuous departure from the daytime talk show, she thought she was there to talk about the Go Red for Women campaign to raise awareness of the dangers in women of heart disease. But the co-hosts seemed determined to rehash the bad old days. It was "as though they ambushed you," Rosie O'Donnell told Jones on "The Rosie Show" (Weeknights, 7 p.m. EST on OWN), repeating how "Today" later described the interview. Read more at huffingtonpost.com.
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Rush Limbaugh Defended Joseph Kony, Leader Of Rebel Militia Accused Of Atrocities
March 8, 2012 - Joseph Kony, the African strongman who is suddenly a major villain thanks to a viral video about his atrocities, has a friend in Rush Limbaugh.
In 2011, President Obama sent American troops to fight Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a guerilla group in Uganda. The LRA has been condemned for human rights violations and using child soldiers to carry out atrocities. A video from the charity group, the Invisible Children, about Kony and the violence in central Africa, has garnered nearly 40 million views since it went up on Youtube three days ago. Read more at huffingtonpost.com.
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Were Rush’s Slurs Against Black America Not Cancellation Worthy?
March 7, 2012 - I received an extremely interesting email this morning pertaining to the train-wreck that is Rush Limbaugh:
Hi, Rush Limbaugh’s radio show is a part of the Clear Channel lineup. Let’s send a message to them that no longer can they allow Rush Limbaugh the opportunity to spew hateful and sometimes derogatory comments. Sign the petition and help get this done. Read more at clutch.com.
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Terrorist Joseph Kony Video Gets Millions Of Views
March 8, 2012 - If Joseph Kony lived in relative anonymity before this week, he’s found Internet stardom now.
A video about the atrocities carried out by Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army is rocketing into viral video territory and is racking up millions of page views seemingly by the hour. Read more at newsone.com.
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Rush Limbaugh: Lost Sponsors Like Worthless French Fries
March 8, 2012 - After offering Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, a half-baked apology for calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute” on his nationally syndicated radio show, the odious “voice of the GOP,” Rush Limbaugh, is back to his arrogant ways, saying that he cares nothing about the sponsors fleeing from his show in droves, reports Politico.com. Read more at newsone.com.
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Whitney Houston Leaves Everything To Bobbi Kristina
March 7, 2012 - Whitney Houston left everything to her 19-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina.
The pop superstar’s will doesn’t mention specific assets, but leaves all of her furnishings, clothing, personal effects, jewelry and cars to her surviving children. Bobbi Kristina was her only child. Read more at newsone.com.
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California Case Could Give Prisoners Right To Vote
March 7, 2012 - The nonpartisan League of Women Voters and two prisoners’ rights groups sued California elections officials on Wednesday, claiming that tens of thousands of criminals being shifted to county jails and community supervision should be eligible to vote.
The state’s new realignment law that took effect in October is sending lower-level offenders to county jails instead of to state prisons, where they are barred from voting. It also ends parole for many ex-convicts, substituting a similar program called “post-release community supervision” instead. Read more at newsone.com.
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Congo Needs Help! No Rescue Efforts 3 Days After Blast
March 7, 2012 - Families desperately crowded outside morgues on Wednesday while others tried to get past the police tape blocking access to the wasteland that now stretches over one-square-mile of this African capital.
It’s a tableau of twisted metal, punctuated by the unmistakable smell of death. More than three days since a fire inside an arms depot set off a series of catastrophic explosions, officials say no coordinated rescue effort has yet been launched, making it increasingly unlikely that any more people will be pulled alive from the flattened homes, churches, businesses and government buildings. Read more at newsone.com.
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Harmelss Obama 'Harvard Tape' has the Right in tizzy
March 8, 2012 - Wait...that was it? The shocking videotape unearthed by the late, right wing gadfly Andrew Breitbart, that was supposed to finally prove that Barack Obama is indeed the crazed race warrior the right has tried to portray him as since 2007, turns out to be neither new, nor newsworthy.
Breitbart was supposedly working on a major exposé on the tape, which shows Obama during his days at Harvard Law School in the early 90s. It leaked early -- a suspicious cabal of liberal media elites at Buzzfeed having scooped Fox News' Sean Hannity using the clandestine tactic the left calls "licensing the video from Boston's PBS TV station." Read more at thegrio.com.
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Harley-Davidson highlights history of black 'Iron Elite' bikers
March 7, 2012 - When most people think of Harley-Davidson, they rarely associate the name with blacks. The stereotypical motorcycle enthusiast is a bearded, vaguely intimidating white man sporting sunglasses and a leather jacket.
However, Harley-Davidson has recently tried to upend this stereotype by getting more blacks engaged in the riding culture through an exhibition on the evolution of black bikers, which was kicked off in honor of Black History Month. Read more at thegrio.com.
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Urban League Wants to Occupy the Vote
March 7, 2012 - On Wednesday the National Urban League released its yearly analysis of the socioeconomic status of African Americans, The State of Black America report. And although the Occupy Wall Street movement, in addition to the White House, has emphasized the widening wealth gap and shrinking middle class as being the make-or-break issues for the nation this year, the civil rights organization has a different assessment. Read more at theroot.com.
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It's Time to Stop Calling Obama a Wuss
March 7, 2012 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be mistaken, of course, if he went home this week with the impression that all along, he's been dealing with some sort of peace freak in the White House -- but you could still forgive him for it.
After all, that's what President Barack Obama's rivals like to say. Read more at theroot.com.
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Selma March 47 Years Later Unites Generations, Races For Voting, Immigrants' Rights
March 8, 2012 - By the time Williabelle Lee was 11, she knew enough about the U.S. Constitution to teach her neighbors in rural Mississippi how to interpret the sections about voting and elections. She wanted more than anything to help them stand up to white election clerks who would systematically discourage black voters with various tests and poll taxes. Read more at huffingtonpost.com.
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SPHA Buys Senior Housing Apartments
On February 21, 2012, the St. Petersburg Housing Authority (SPHA) finalized the purchase of Sunset Oaks Apartments, a 38-unit senior housing development, from 4888 Recovery LLC. Sunset Oaks Apartments, located at 4888 21st Avenue North in St. Petersburg, will become part of SPHA’s public housing program as an option for income-eligible senior citizens.
Joseph Lettelleir, chairman of the SPHA Board of Commissioners, said, “There is a definite need for quality, affordable housing for the elderly in this region. The Sunset Oaks development will help serve that need, and we look forward to working hand-in-hand with community members to ensure it is a beautiful place to live.” Read more at spha.org.
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“The Wire” Actor Wendell Pierce Starts New Orleans Grocery Chain
March 6, 2012 - Wendell Pierce who starred as Detective Bunk Moreland on the critically acclaimed TV Show, “The Wire” as well as trombone player, Antoine Batiste on the New Orleans based TV show, “Treme” has started a chain of grocery stores in New Orleans. Read more at newsone.com.
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The Mormons' Black Priesthood Ban: No Apology, Explanation
March 5, 2012 - In 1978, the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- also known as the Mormon church -- received a revelation that is now part of their scriptures, which allowed "all worthy male members" to be ordained to their priesthood and participate in their sacred temple rituals. Until that time, African American men were barred from holding the priesthood or being married for eternity to their spouses in Mormon temples. (Women and female-to-male transgendered Mormons are still barred from holding the priesthood.) Read more at yahoo.com.
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Fantasia’s Married Baby Daddy Still Pursuing Wife
March 6, 2012 - The old saying, “How you get him, is how you’ll lose him,” is perhaps ringing true in singer Fantasia Barrino‘s case. Fantasia, who just had a baby with her still married boyfriend Antwuan Cook might be singing the Blues in the near future. RadarOnline is reporting that the man she had pursued and pined over is quite possibly now trying to get back with his estranged wife Paula Cook. Read more at newsone.com.
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