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What the Affordable Care Act Provides for Breast Cancer Treatment

By goodblacknews on October 3, 2013
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Women won’t pay higher health bills simply for being women, and they will be able to get the medical care they need, particularly for breast cancer, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), a leading women’s advocate says.  “The Affordable Care Act will help us realize the promise of access for all,” said Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, president and CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative in Washington, D.C., which was founded 30 years ago as the National Black Women’s Health Project.
Open enrollment began this week under the ACA. Uninsured and underinsured Americans will gain greater access to a medical home with preventive care that can reduce the risk of a host of conditions including breast cancer, the second leading cause of death among women.  “We know that prevention works, and mammogram screening is an essential health-care benefit,” said Hoytt, adding that Congressional efforts to stall or kill the ACA as part of a federal shutdown are “unconscionable.”
Black women are number two behind white women for developing breast cancer, but the gap is narrowing, according to a new study released this week for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They are the only group of women to show increases in breast cancer — up 0.2 percent each year between 2006 and 2010 — and they also have the highest death rate. The American Cancer Society published the study, “Breast Cancer Statistics, 2013,” in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and in aconsumer version.
Under the new healthcare law, women who are 40 and older are entitled to coverage for mammograms. Those who have a family history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer can also receive free counseling and testing for mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Women with mutations are five times more likely to develop breast cancer — a fact highlighted by actress Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy earlier this year.
Women facing genetic tests ranging up to $4,000 and other costs associated with breast cancer won’t have to worry about annual or lifetime spending limits, beginning in 2014.  “You can now be insured with pre-existing conditions,” Hoytt notes. “You do not have to be afraid of being dropped from your insurance.”

Russell Simmons Donates $10K to New York Anti-Violence Program Life Camp

By goodblacknews on October 3, 2013
Russell Simmons attends 2013 ADWEEK Brand Genius Awards at Capitale on September 25, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Ben Gabbe/Getty Images)
Russell Simmons attends 2013 ADWEEK Brand Genius Awards at Capitale on September 25, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Ben Gabbe/Getty Images)
Russell Simmons has amassed close to three million follows on Twitter and the strong presence he holds on the social media site had a powerful impact Wednesday night.  Simmons sent Tweets to help raise money for a New-York-based anti-violence program that has launched a campaign on the fundraising site Crowdtilt.
The program, called Life Camp, is a non-profit violence prevention program that is hoping to raise $100,000 to help end gun violence and provide positive alternatives to kids and young adults.  “During the prior eighteen months, before our full program was implemented, 17 people had been shot in our community,” wrote Erica Ford, the executive director of Life Camp. “Once our program was fully operational, we had 340 days of NO SHOOTINGS in our target area in South Jamaica, Queens.”
According to the Crowdtilt page, a government grant was delayed, which ultimately led to the closing of the community center.  Since most of the program’s resources have been exhausted, the program’s founders turned to the crowd funding site to raise money.  Simmons announced on Twitter that he has donated $10,000 to the campaign and asked followers to give money to the cause by promising retweets to those who said they pledged.
“Who can give $5, $10, $20 to save program that has saved lives of so many young people?? NO MORE BULLETS IN THE HOOD! http://tilt.tc/snyD,” he wrote. This followed his earlier tweet which said, “first ten people to donate $10 or more to keep one of the most critical anti-violence programs open, gets a RT.”
He kept his word – soon, followers responded to the call and Simmons thanked them for their kindness via Twitter.  By the end of the night, Simmons reported that more than $775 was raised.  There are still 27 days left in the fundraising campaign and the program has not yet reached half of their target goal. The money will be used towards initiatives like keeping the community center open and to restart the program’s “I Love My Life” campaign tours in local churches and schools.
To learn more about “Give Life to LIFE Camp! No More Bullets In The Hood” campaign, click here.
article by Lilly Workneh via thegrio.com

Mother And Son Graduate Together With PhDs

By goodblacknews on September 29, 2013

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Vickie McBride gave birth to her son at the tender age of 13, but that did not deter her from earning her PhD–or his, for that matter.  Last August, Vickie and her son, Maurice, walked across the stage at a graduate ceremony in Minneapolis, Minnesota and were handed their doctorate degrees from Capella University, WRDW-TV Augusta 12 reports.
Given their journey, Maurice said he could not have ever imagined the day he would earn such a high academic honor. “Never in a thousand, million, trillion years [did I expect to get my PhD],” Maurice said. “The thought of becoming a doctor anyone was far fetched.”  Maurice’s awe at his own success was only outdone by his mother’s achievement.
“I never thought I would get chance to see my mother walk across the stage and then she turned around and saw me walk across the stage,” he said.  Growing up in the small town of Waynesboro, Ga., Vickie said  being a teenage parent was taboo. She remembers some of the older people in the community ”whispering” about her, but that did not stop her from continuing her education. Vickie’s mother, a retired teacher, took care of Maurice while she attended school.
“As a teenager I continued my education, Vickie said. ”(Dropping out) was never an option.”  She eventually went to college and even earned a graduate degree all while raising Maurice and three other children.  “I had to figure out how to work and how to parent and how to manage school all at the same time.” she said.

Jury Awards $1 Million To John Collins, Who Sued City of Chicago For False Police Charges

By goodblacknews on September 25, 2013
John Collins
John Collins, who was wrongfully imprisoned in Cook County Jail for over a year.

Cook County jurors on Tuesday awarded $1 million to a man who was wrongfully held in jail for more than a year.  John Collins, a 42-year-old Chicago barber, was arrested in 2006 and spent 385 days in jail due to false charges of aggravated battery to a police office, officials said.  After a three-day trial, a jury found the city of Chicago and Chicago police Officer Michael Garza guilty of malicious prosecution.

“I felt like a right in the pool of wrong,” Collins said of his time in jail. “I didn’t want to swim in that pool no more, but I didn’t want to drown either. So I kept fighting.”  When officers pulled Collins over in 2006, he’d just left his salon.  One officer accused him of kicking and spitting on them, but a jury acquitted Collins and he was released from Cook County in 2007.

“All I know is that I ended up a victim,” he said. Collins said the trauma and distress is still with him. “I was just devastated,” he said. “I was just devastated.” Collins missed the birth of his now 7-year-old son Elwood while in jail, a moment he said he can never get back.  Since his release, Collins has worked continuously in his Dolton salon, and noted the verdict brings him a step closer to having his life back.  “I’m thankful that someone’s seen justice,” he said.

A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said they are “disappointed” in the verdict in the case and said they plan to “explore all available options including an appeal.”

article by Natalie Martinez via nbcchicago.com

Attorney General Eric Holder Expands Changes in Drug-Case Policy

By goodblacknews on September 22, 2013
Attorney General Eric Holder, speaks about the mandatory minimum policy at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 2013 annual legislative conference in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Attorney General Eric Holder, speaks about the mandatory minimum policy at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 2013 annual legislative conference in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is expanding a major change in federal drug sentencing policy to cover pending drug cases, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday.  Last month, Holder said certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders — those without ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels — no longer will be charged with offenses that impose severe mandatory minimum sentences.

Holder said he now has broadened the new policy to cover defendants who have not yet been convicted in drug cases that could involve lengthy mandatory prison sentences. The policy also may be applied, at the discretion of prosecutors, to a defendant who has entered a guilty plea, but has not yet been sentenced.  Mandatory minimum prison sentences, a legacy of the government’s war on drugs, limit the discretion of judges to impose shorter prison terms.  Holder says the government should reserve the most severe prison terms for serious, high-level or violent drug traffickers.
“Some federal drug statutes that mandate inflexible sentences — regardless of the individual conduct at issue in a particular case — do not serve public safety when they’re applied indiscriminately,” Holder told a criminal justice issues forum of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said that in one case, a first-time offender arrested with less than 2 ounces of cocaine was sentenced to 10 years in prison because of mandatory sentencing guidelines. Paul has drafted legislation along with committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that would give judges wider sentencing discretion as one way to relieve prison overcrowding and bring down the exploding costs of operating prisons.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com

Congress Honors ’4 Little Girls’, Civil Rights Era Bombing Victims

By goodblacknews on September 11, 2013
President and CEO of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Lawrence Pijeaux, front, lays on a table the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously awarded in honor of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, the four young black girls who lost their lives in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, presented by Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, back center, during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. Others are, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., from back left, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., obscured, unidentified, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President and CEO of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Lawrence Pijeaux, front, lays on a table the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously awarded in honor of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, the four young black girls who lost their lives in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, presented by Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, back center, during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. Others are, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., from back left, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., obscured, unidentified, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) — House and Senate leaders on Tuesday awarded Congress’ highest civilian honor to four girls killed in the Alabama church bombing nearly 50 years ago that became a watershed moment in the civil rights movement.
The Congressional Gold Medal went to Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, who were all 14, and Denise McNair, who was 11. The ceremony came five days before the 50th anniversary of their deaths inside the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
“Their names remain seared in our hearts,” said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. She was joined at the commemoration by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and cmembers of Alabama’s congressional delegation.  Along with the many lawmakers in the crowd paying tribute were director Spike Lee, and several relatives of the girls.

First Lady Michelle Obama Makes 9/11 Visit to Virginia USO Center

By goodblacknews on September 11, 2013
First lady Michelle Obama visits with children at the USO Warrior and Family Center in Fort Belvoir, Va., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, during a service project to commemorate the Sept. 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance at Food and Friends. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
First lady Michelle Obama visits with children at the USO Warrior and Family Center in Fort Belvoir, Va., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, during a service project to commemorate the Sept. 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance at Food and Friends. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama drew a pair of construction paper hands for a project with military children during a 9/11 visit to a USO center at the Army’s Fort Belvoir.  The first lady said she wanted to highlight the organization’s work on behalf of wounded service members and their families.

The USO Warrior and Family Center opened in February at the Army installation in Virginia, just south of Washington. The USO says it’s the largest ever to support wounded troops, their families and others by providing relaxation, home-cooked meals, kids’ playrooms and other support.
Mrs. Obama helped children complete banners decorated with cutouts of handprints for a rock concert Wednesday night. She was joined by actor Gary Sinise, a USO supporter whose “Lt. Dan Band” was performing at the event. Sinise played the character “Lt. Dan” in the movie Forrest Gump.
Mrs. Obama also brought along cookies shaped like the family’s new Portuguese water dog, Sunny.  Afterward, she toured the Intrepid Spirit center, also at Fort Belvoir. The facility was dedicated Wednesday and provides outpatient care to service members and veterans with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and related conditions.
She met privately with wounded service members and their families and participated in a round-table discussion with caregivers.  Mrs. Obama traveled to Fort Belvoir after observing a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill, and White House staff members.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com

‘Ask A Slave’ Web Series Creator Azie Mira Dungey Uses Satire To Educate the Ignorant About Slavery

By goodblacknews on September 5, 2013
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Playing the role of a slave woman at one of the country’s top-tourist destinations, actress and comedian Azie Mira Dungey learned first hand how ignorant many Americans are about the institution of slavery.  For two years, Dungey worked part-time at George Washington‘s Mount Vernon mansion in Mount Vernon, Va., often portraying one of the slave women who worked inside of Washington’s home. The role required her to read countless books on the plantation’s history over a two month period before she started the job.
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Once she stepped into character, Dungey realized that she was more than just a recent New York University graduate milling around in a short-term gig until Hollywood called; instead, Dungey believed that she was something of a griot of Black history and took her role very seriously.
And her job wasn’t easy. Often, Dungey has had to answer challenging questions from mostly White tourists — all while staying in character.
During an exclusive interview with NewsOne, Dungey recalled the time someone asked, “What’s your favorite part of the plantation?” (Her answer: “My bed”) Then there was the guy who asked, “How did you get to be the house maid for such a distinguished Founding Father? Did you see the advertisement in the newspaper?”

(Her answer: “Did I read the advertisement in the newspaper? Why yes. It said, ‘Wanted: One housemaid. No pay, preferably mulatto, saucy with breeding hips. Must work 18 hours a day. No holidays. But, you get to wear a pretty dress. And, if you’re lucky, you might to get carry some famous White man’s bastard child.’ So, you better believe I read that, ran over and said, ‘sign me up.’” ).
But not all of the obtuse questions came from White people.
After speaking to an older Black man about a runaway slave who attempted to flee Washington’s plantation, the man seemed shocked at the slave’s attempt at freedom. “He was like, ‘Wait a minute, why did he want to run away?’” Dungey recalls the man asking. “‘I thought that George Washington was a good slave owner.’”
“I just looked at him, like, Are you serious?… You can be the nicest in the world but people don’t want to be your slave. And the man was like, ‘Yeah, that’s true.’”
As aforementioned, though, as comical as some of the questions were, Dungey never broke character. Dungey was committed to ensuring that she conveyed the reality in which her character lived. In her role, Dungey realized that she may be one of the few people from whom they can get some sense of how Blacks lived during a very repressive period in American history.
“History is our narrative,” she said. “It shapes what we think of ourselves and our society. How it is controlled, and whose stories get told (or not told) has a strong effect on culture, and even on public policy. Black history is not a separate history or a less important one. Misconceptions about Black history and the modern Black experience is really dividing us politically and socially. If we don’t understand racism and where it comes from, how can we end it? How can we weed it out? We have to be critical of these things to make true progress.”
She left that job late last year and has since moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, but the two-year experience motivated her to turn the hilarity of the tourists’ ignorance into the YouTube web series “Ask A Slave.” As “Lizzie Mae,” Dungey sits in front of a TV and answers viewers’ questions about slavery and George Washington.
All of the questions are ones tourists actually asked while she was working at Mount Vernon.
Watch Episode 1 of “Ask A Slave” here:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1IYH_MbJqA&w=420&h=315]

Since going live with two videos Sept. 1, the first episode has garnered more than 301,100 views, while the second episode has more than 119,000 views. It’s not a bad start at all, especially considering that Dungey raised the funds for production herself.
Watch Episode 2 of “Ask A Slave” here:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEaNduN88DQ&w=420&h=315]

Back in April, she raised $3,000 through the crowdsourcing site GoFundMe to shoot six episodes, which will be published on YouTube each Sunday. The series was directed by Jordan Black, creator of the improvised comedy web series “The Black Version.”  The first two episodes have gotten positive reviews from Jezebel, MadameNoire, as well as other sites, with Gawker’s Neetzan Zimmerman calling it “the best web series since “Drunk History.”

USC Offers Full-Ride Scholarships To Low-Income Students Who Commit to 7-year Program of Tutoring, Classes and Seminars

By goodblacknews on September 3, 2013
Tristan Baizar, Neighborhood Academic Initiative scholarship recipient, in his new dorm room, hugs his mother, Malva Yorke.

Flush with excitement, Tristan Baizar showed up on his USC move-in day even before the official 8 a.m. check-in time. His mom and girlfriend helped him unpack. It was a quick process — from past camps and programs, the 18-year-old South Los Angeles resident knew how to move into USC’s dorms. Except this was the real deal, the first step into his freshman year of college. Baizar met his new roommates, bought textbooks and soaked in the experience.

But later in the day, a few hours before his first dorm meeting, Baizar slipped away from campus. He drove across town to a small elementary school in Boyle Heights and an auditorium full of sixth-graders and their parents.  Baizar stood at the front of the room and flashed a smile. He hoped his presence would help pitch the program he credits for his new Trojan education.
More than two decades ago, USC designed a way to give low-income students in South Los Angeles a chance to attend the private university, free of charge, if they met several conditions.  Currently, students commit to a seven-year regimen of after-school tutoring and classes on Saturdays. Beginning in ninth grade, students also have to take weekday morning classes at USC. Parents must attend Saturday seminars.
Those who stay with the program from sixth grade through their senior year of high school and meet USC admission requirements receive a 4 1/2-year tuition scholarship to the university. The scholarship money applies only to USC, but officials say the program motivates students to attend four-year schools.  The first class of students graduated from the program in 1997. Of those original 43 graduates, 20 went to USC.
Today, the Neighborhood Academic Initiative boasts 745 graduates and a 99% graduation rate from the program, with 83% enrolling as freshmen at four-year colleges and universities and 35% as freshmen at USC.  About five years ago, officials began looking to move the program beyond South Los Angeles for the first time.
To the northeast sits USC’s 79-acre Health Sciences Campus. USC already had long-standing relationships with several neighborhood schools, said Kim Thomas-Barrios, executive director of USC Educational Partnerships.  “Logically, that was the best place for us to expand,” Thomas-Barrios said.  When USC officials approached the principals of Murchison and El Sereno elementary schools to determine interest in the program, they quickly agreed.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for our community,” said Margarita Gutierrez, the principal of Murchison.
Most families in the area live at or below the poverty line, and almost all of the students qualify for free- or reduced- priced lunch. Gutierrez said parent participation is low — so she was thrilled when two-thirds of sixth-grade parents showed up for an informational meeting last month.
Program manager Isabel Duenas, who took attendance at the meeting, entered the program as a sixth-grader at Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Middle School in L.A.’s Mid-City neighborhood. When she was in high school, her family moved to Lynwood, and she commuted to classes at USC to keep her spot.
It paid off: She earned the scholarship to USC and graduated in 2010. She’s among the growing pool of graduates who return as teachers, mentors or coordinators.  Duenas will be busy the next few months. The East L.A. branch of the program is slated to launch Jan. 25, and before that, she’ll spend her time convincing students and parents to sign up, as she and eight other program graduates did at the meeting.
Baizar, the tallest, stood in the middle of the line of graduates. It seemed as if time had barely passed since he heard the same presentation as an overly talkative fifth-grader.  At the time, he had some taste of what to expect. His older sister also graduated from the program, falling short of the USC scholarship but doing well enough to attend Loyola Marymount. His mother, Malva Yorke, a single parent, had attended the years of Saturday seminars.
Baizar battled a lack of motivation at first. He got a few D’s and F’s midway through sixth grade and barely clung to his spot in the program. After that, he vowed he’d never get anything below a C.  When Baizar graduated from James A. Foshay Learning Center in South L.A. in the spring, he had a 3.7 GPA and a 1650 SAT score — good enough for admission to USC.  Baizar said the program gave him a shot at a campus that was probably otherwise out of reach.  “I feel like I would have been at a good university, like UC Irvine or Cal State Long Beach, but not as well-funded,” Baizar said. “I don’t believe USC would have been a possibility.”
His girlfriend, fellow program graduate Jessica Alcazar, wasn’t accepted to USC. But she described the process as a “win-win,” saying the classes and mentoring kept her grades high enough to earn admission to UC Irvine.  After the presentation at Murchison, excited chatter bounced around the auditorium as parents and students filled out applications. All 66 sixth-graders at Murchison will be able to participate, as well as 35 more from El Sereno Elementary. Officials said the program will eventually expand to about 600 students in East L.A.
Parent Morena Gonzales was all smiles. She said her oldest child finished only high school, and she didn’t pressure her to continue out of concern about costs.  “As a single parent, I wouldn’t even begin to figure out how to pay for my child’s education,” she said in Spanish. “My whole perspective has changed — I’m looking forward to learning more.”  After the meeting, her daughter Lilia, 11, said she wants to go to USC.
article by Devin Kelly via latimes.com

Hip-Hop Version of 'Othello' by Chicago Shakespeare Theater Resonates Behind Bars

By goodblacknews on September 2, 2013
Rapper Postell Pringle wears a wig as he performs a hip hop adaptation of William Shakespeare titled "Othello: The Remix" at the Cook County Jail in Chicago.
Rapper Postell Pringle wears a wig as he performs a hip hop adaptation of William Shakespeare titled “Othello: The Remix” at the Cook County Jail in Chicago. (M. SPENCER GREEN / AP)
CHICAGO — Act I, Scene 1: Four actors in well-worn coveralls and baseball caps take the stage at the county jail. They’re here to tell a tale of love, friendship, jealousy and betrayal. It’s the stuff of Shakespearean tragedy. The names and themes haven’t changed over the centuries, but the language has a modern beat:
“Othello never knew, He was getting schemed on by a member of his crew.”
This is “Othello-The Remix,” the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s hip-hop version of the tragedy about a valiant Moor deceived by the villainous Iago into mistakenly believing his wife has been unfaithful. After Othello smothers his beloved Desdemona, he discovers she has been true to him and he kills himself.
That’s how Shakespeare told the story 400 years ago. This modern version – performed this week for about 450 Cook County jail inmates – is a rhyming, rapping, poetic homage to the Bard. It has singing and dancing. Comic touches. Men playing women. Sexual talk. References to Eddie Murphy and James Brown. A throbbing beat, courtesy of an onstage DJ.
And a contemporary plot: MC Othello is a self-made rap star turned music mogul (think Jay-Z) who decides to promote Cassio, a middle-of-the-road rapper, by releasing his next album. That infuriates the edgy rapper, Iago, who vows revenge. “This is why I hate the Moor,” he fumes. “He never lets me get my foot in the door.” Desdemona is not seen, but heard, her ethereal golden pipes occasionally filling the air.
The Othello remix is the brainchild of two Chicago brothers and rappers – GQ and JQ, aka Gregory and Jeffrey Qaiyum. They wrote and directed the show, honing 40 or so drafts over eight months into a 75-minute rhyme-a-thon. It’s their third hip-hop translation of Shakespeare, following “The Bomb-itty of Errors” and “Funk It Up About Nothin.'”