A 5-year-old Newark, NJ boy became a hero after he used quick thinking and A-B-C skills to save his father’s life last week.
The two were driving home from buying Nathaniel Dancy Jr. school shoes when Nathaniel Sr. suffered an aneurysm and stroke, making him violently ill, according to a report by New York’s NBC Channel 4 News. He was able to pull the car over, but then got out of the car, vomited, and became paralyzed by a seizure. That’s when Nathaniel Jr., who is in kindergarten, sprang into action, grabbing his dad’s phone and calling his grandmother.
“He said, ‘Come and help me and my daddy. We’re in trouble,’” Susan Hardy-Blackman told NBC New York. She asked him where they were, and, though her grandson was unable to read the sign on the store they were in front of, he spelled it for her: F-U-R-N-I-T-U-R-E. But she was still confused. And that prompted the young boy to be persistent well beyond his years.
“He said, ‘Grandma, use your active listening skills,’” she said. “‘Listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth.’” He gave her another clue, that they’d just gone through a tunnel, and Hardy-Blackman was able to go to them, where they were parked in front of a furniture store, and send an ambulance there, too.
Brett Baker, director of operations at Nathaniel’s North Star Academy, told Yahoo! Shine that young Nathaniel is “a very caring individual,” and that he was proud to know the school’s emphasis of core values “really helped him seize the moment, as it were.” Doctors say that Nathaniel Sr., who remains hospitalized, is lucky to be alive.
article by Beth Greenfield via shine.yahoo.com
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Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) is one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies. It has a membership of more than 4,000 scholars from a wide variety of academic disciplines including all the natural sciences. Its membership includes at least 200 Nobel Prize winners and more than 50 winners of a Pulitzer Prize. This year, 198 new fellows were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Among the new fellows are three African American women with ties to academia.
• Paula T. Hammond is the David H. Koch Professor in Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot is the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
• Natasha Trethewey is the Poet Laureate of the United States and the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing and holds the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry at Emory University in Atlanta.
article via jbhe.com
An Atlanta mother got a late Mother’s Day gift that was surely worth the wait.
Former Atlanta Falcons running back Warrick Dunn gave Kimberly Kindel (pictured) and her three children their first home as part of his charity’s “Home for the Holidays” program on Tuesday, Fox 5 News Atlanta via All News 106.7 reports. In addition to the home being fully furnished, Dunn gave Kindel $5,000 to help with the down payment.
The ex-NFL player gave Kindel the home through his charity, Warrick Dunn Charities. He has been helping single parents get into their first home since 1997. Atlanta Habitat for Humanity and Aaron’s, Inc. partnered with Dunn to get Kindel and her children into the house. While it brings Dunn joy to give Kindel this wonderful Mother’s Day, the holiday evokes bad memories for the former NFL star. His mother, Betty Smothers, was a Baton Rouge, La., police officer when she was killed in the line of duty. Dunn was just 18-years-old at the time.
Giving mothers a new home is therapy for him, he says. “Losing my mom at that early age, I knew what her dream was, and to be able to share this moment with another single parent who’s providing, and putting her family in a position to be successful long-term for me is — I can’t truly describe the emotions,” Dunn said.
To see video on this story, click here.
article via newsone.com
From the Times London:
Scotland Yard was found guilty today (May 14) of discrimination, harassment and victimisation against a black, gay officer who was dismissed for “discrediting the police service”.
The overwhelming ruling by an Employment Appeal Tribunal in favour of Kevin Maxwell raises questions about the Metropolitan Police’s public commitment to stamp out racism in its ranks.
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met commissioner, pledged last year to be the “implacable enemy” of racism after a series of allegations against his officers.
Mr Maxwell, 34, a former detective constable in the Met’s Counter-terrorism Command, has fought a three-year legal battle with the Met since lodging a complaint about his treatment.
Stationed at Heathrow airport he complained of homophobic remarks and said ethnic minority officers were used as a “buffer” to stop passengers who would then be passed to white officers to be searched.
He lodged an employment tribunal claim but details of it, and especially comments about his sexuality, were leaked to The Sun newspaper.
In February 2012 an employment tribunal ruled in Mr Maxwell’s favor and also criticised senior Met officers for not appearing to understand their own policies on supporting whistleblowers. Against the advice of the tribunal, the Met launched an appeal against the ruling.
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met commissioner, pledged last year to be the “implacable enemy” of racism after a series of allegations against his officers.
Mr Maxwell, 34, a former detective constable in the Met’s Counter-terrorism Command, has fought a three-year legal battle with the Met since lodging a complaint about his treatment.
Stationed at Heathrow airport he complained of homophobic remarks and said ethnic minority officers were used as a “buffer” to stop passengers who would then be passed to white officers to be searched.
He lodged an employment tribunal claim but details of it, and especially comments about his sexuality, were leaked to The Sun newspaper.
In February 2012 an employment tribunal ruled in Mr Maxwell’s favor and also criticised senior Met officers for not appearing to understand their own policies on supporting whistleblowers. Against the advice of the tribunal, the Met launched an appeal against the ruling.
From Clutch Magazine:
Wet Seal has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a class action discrimination case that originated when three African-American store workers from Delaware County filed a complaint last year claiming Wet Seal, Inc. fired them because they didn’t fit the store’s image. Of that total amount, $5.58 million will go to current and former managers who are African-American.
In 2009, Nicole Cogdell, a manager at Wet Seal’s King of Prussia store, pulled together her team to welcome visiting corporate staff. Cogdell said she overheard an executive vice president tell a district manager during the visit that Cogdell “wasn’t the right fit for the store” and that the vice president “wanted someone with blonde hair and blue eyes.”
Cogdell was fired days later and was told by her district manager that she was fired for being African-American. In one email, an executive wrote: “Store Teams – need diversification African American dominate – huge issue.” Cogdell issued a statement through the NACCP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “Being targeted for termination from a job I loved because of my race was a nightmare,’ Cogdell said in the statement.
Read the rest of this story on Clutch Magazine.
Will (pictured far right) and Monifa Sims (pictured) never imagined that they’d become overnight Internet sensations as a result of a quick trip to their local gas station to fill up their car.
Actor Tim Stack of “Pumpcast News,” a regular sketch on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,“takes a break from reading the day’s news to play around with unsuspecting patrons from pump-mounted TV screens. When Stack a.k.a. “Jack Rafferty” spied the Sims at a Burbank, Calif., gas station, he surprised Will with a greeting and asked him if he’d be willing to belt out a song for his telecast. Will, who admitted that he enjoys karaoke, agreed to sing a Bon Jovi classic, “Livin’ On A Prayer,” without hesitation.
As Will performed the song without any reservation, his wife of 12 years, Monifa, sat boisterously laughing inside their vehicle. When Will ended his rendition of the song, Rafferty asked Will whether Monifa would join in too. And while Monifa was initially hesitant, after Rafferty mentioned a free tank of gas and Will began singing about the offer, Monifa exited the car.
Rafferty was soon able to coax Monifa in to singing a song as well, with the fitness instructor choosing a Eurythmics chart topper, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This).” Not only did Monifa belt out the song in near perfect pitch, but her husband soon joined her, chiming in where needed. The couple also showed off their synchronized dance moves.
Watch Will and Monifa Sims sing here:
Actor Tim Stack of “Pumpcast News,” a regular sketch on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,“takes a break from reading the day’s news to play around with unsuspecting patrons from pump-mounted TV screens. When Stack a.k.a. “Jack Rafferty” spied the Sims at a Burbank, Calif., gas station, he surprised Will with a greeting and asked him if he’d be willing to belt out a song for his telecast. Will, who admitted that he enjoys karaoke, agreed to sing a Bon Jovi classic, “Livin’ On A Prayer,” without hesitation.
As Will performed the song without any reservation, his wife of 12 years, Monifa, sat boisterously laughing inside their vehicle. When Will ended his rendition of the song, Rafferty asked Will whether Monifa would join in too. And while Monifa was initially hesitant, after Rafferty mentioned a free tank of gas and Will began singing about the offer, Monifa exited the car.
Rafferty was soon able to coax Monifa in to singing a song as well, with the fitness instructor choosing a Eurythmics chart topper, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This).” Not only did Monifa belt out the song in near perfect pitch, but her husband soon joined her, chiming in where needed. The couple also showed off their synchronized dance moves.
Watch Will and Monifa Sims sing here:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNM0ENUCO5I&w=560&h=315]
article by Ruth Manuel-Logan via newsone.com
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh5lAV0uU0U&w=560&h=315]
The Best Man is returning to the big screen this fall. The gang is back and the star-studded cast reunites to film Best Man Holiday. In it, Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long, Harold Perrineau, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Monica Calhoun, Melissa De Sousa and Regina Hall come together fifteen years later.
Universal Pictures has released the teaser trailer to the sequel of the 1999 film, which are both directed and written by Malcolm D. Lee.
The film picks up when the group of friends reunite over the Christmas holidays where rivalries are ignited and romances spark. The movie is scheduled to hit theaters on November 15.
article by Lilly Workneh via thegrio.com
Jordan Dickerson and Robin Jeter were separated when they were infants, but reunited by chance at a high school track meet earlier this year. Dickerson, a junior at Woodrow Wilson High School, and Jeter, a senior at Friendship Collegiate Academy public charter school, attend school about 10 miles apart in Washington D.C. and play the same sports, but had never crossed paths.
On January 9, both sisters attended the same track meet. Dickerson told WUSA 9 that her teammates told her there was another girl who looked just like her. “I had already known about my adoption, and I knew my last name was Jeter,” Dickerson said. When she learned Robin’s last name, she said she started crying.
They talked on the phone the night they met, discovering that they were born just nine months apart. Jeter first lived with her biological mother, then moved to foster care, and then to a legal guardian. The sisters decided to look for more siblings, finding four so far, according to WUSA 9. Dickerson and Jeter have become close, spending weekends together and frequently talking on the phone.
Click here to watch the full WUSA 9 report.
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center has the second highest percentage of African-American medical student graduates among non-historically black medical schools in the U.S., according to a new report.
The report, compiled by the Association of American Medical Colleges, stated 20 African-American students graduated from UTHSC during the 2011 academic year, making up 14.08 percent of its 142 graduating class. Duke University was No. 1, graduating 19 students, or 19 percent of its 100-student graduating class.
The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing 141 accredited U.S. and 17 Canadian medical schools, nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems. It also includes 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers and nearly 90 academic and scientific societies.
“Our College of Medicine is committed to recruiting talented, motivated African-American men and women with the drive and desire to become competent, caring physicians,” David Stern, executive dean for UTHSC, said in a statement. “Matching the complexion and diversity of the physician workforce to the communities we serve is essential in ameliorating disparities in health care that plague our region and nation.”
article by Michael Sheffield via bizjournals.com
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D_R4eZ9Yt4&w=560&h=315]
In the ongoing quest to reinvent the police procedural, NBC has revamped the 1967-75 hit “Ironside.” The original starred Raymond Burr as a San Francisco cop paralyzed by a sniper’s bullet and confined to a wheelchair, thus forced to solve crimes using his wits. This time around, the action moves to New York City and Blair Underwood takes the chair.
“Ironside” will air on NBC Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. this fall.
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/starr-raving/see-the-first-trailer-from-nbcs-gritty-take-on-ironside-with-blair-underwood#AALbVpqUGKHgjWcI.99