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
Posts published by “goodblacknews”
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
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxUJwJfcQaQ&w=560&h=315]
According to Deadline.com, Michael B. Jordan (Friday Night Lights) stars in Fruitvale Station as Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old Bay Area man whose fatal 2009 shooting by Oakland BART police sparked outrage and protests against police brutality. The Weinstein Co. secured the rights to Ryan Coogler’s directorial debut out of Sundance for $2 million before it won the film festival’s U.S. Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. Now the movie is set for a July 12 release, hoping to attract attention for awards season. Check out the trailer above.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson and Lesa Lakin
In addition to making his return to “The Voice” this week, Cee Lo Green has also landed a new show with TBS.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Turner network has green lit a six-episode series, tentatively titled “The Cee Lo Life,” which follows the Grammy Award-winning musician along with his Goodie Mob group mates, Big Gipp, Khujo and T-Mo, as they work on their new long-awaited hip-hop album.
“With his distinctive voice, winning personality and remarkable ability to tap into a wide range of musical styles, Cee Lo Green has risen to the top of the music industry,” Michael Wright, president, head of programming for TBS explained to the site. “This new TBS series will give viewers the chance to get to know Cee Lo Green,who is without a doubt one of the hardest working men in show business. “The Cee Lo Life” is certain to be a smart, fun and funny journey packed with a lot of great music.”
Earlier this year during an interview with FUSE, Green revealed that the hip hop quartet is looking forward to releasing their first album together since 1999’s “World Party.”
“We’re still mixing and doing a few more guest appearances and putting the final touches on it, but yes, it’s pretty much done,” he said. “I think we’ve grown a great deal in the last 10 years. There’s a lot more to consider.”
“There’s a broader audience and a greater aspiration to reach as many people as we can, to be as relatable, to be as real, relevant and resourceful as we can. So Age Against the Machine is symbolic of wisdom being the weapon of choice. Those rules will apply.”
“The Cee Lo Life” is scheduled to premiere on TBS in 2014.
article via huffingtonpost.com
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Turner network has green lit a six-episode series, tentatively titled “The Cee Lo Life,” which follows the Grammy Award-winning musician along with his Goodie Mob group mates, Big Gipp, Khujo and T-Mo, as they work on their new long-awaited hip-hop album.
“With his distinctive voice, winning personality and remarkable ability to tap into a wide range of musical styles, Cee Lo Green has risen to the top of the music industry,” Michael Wright, president, head of programming for TBS explained to the site. “This new TBS series will give viewers the chance to get to know Cee Lo Green,who is without a doubt one of the hardest working men in show business. “The Cee Lo Life” is certain to be a smart, fun and funny journey packed with a lot of great music.”
Earlier this year during an interview with FUSE, Green revealed that the hip hop quartet is looking forward to releasing their first album together since 1999’s “World Party.”
“We’re still mixing and doing a few more guest appearances and putting the final touches on it, but yes, it’s pretty much done,” he said. “I think we’ve grown a great deal in the last 10 years. There’s a lot more to consider.”
“There’s a broader audience and a greater aspiration to reach as many people as we can, to be as relatable, to be as real, relevant and resourceful as we can. So Age Against the Machine is symbolic of wisdom being the weapon of choice. Those rules will apply.”
“The Cee Lo Life” is scheduled to premiere on TBS in 2014.
article via huffingtonpost.com