Spelman President Beverly Daniel Tatum was announced Monday as one of four recipients of the 2013 Academic Leadership Award, from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The honor makes Tatum the first ever HBCU president and first president in the state of Georgia to earn the prize. Carnegie said each winner is an exceptional president of a U.S. college or university, and that the award is in the form of a $500,000 grant to be used in support of each honoree’s academic initiatives.
The other 2013 honorees are Richard H. Brodhead, President, Duke University; Michael M. Crow, President, Arizona State University; and John L. Hennessy, President, Stanford University.
The award honors university presidents who are not only resourceful administrators and managers, but also have a keen interest in the liberal arts and a commitment to excellence and access, curricular innovation, reform of K-12 education, international engagement, and the promotion of strong links between their institutions and their local communities, Carnegie said.
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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (AP) — An Olympic gold medal won by Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Games has sold for a record $1.4 million in an online auction. SCP Auctions said Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Ron Burkle paid $1,466,574, the highest price for a piece of Olympic memorabilia. The online auction ended Sunday.
“We just hope that it’s purchased by an institution where the public could have access to it, a museum or something like that,” Owens’ daughter, Marlene Owens Rankin of Chicago, told The Associated Press before the sale. The auction house said Burkle, who also owns William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize for literature, has plans for an educational tour of the historic pieces. He wasn’t available for comment Sunday. The Los Angeles billionaire investor’s holdings include retail, food and entertainment companies.
Owens won gold in the 100- and 200-meters, 400 relay and long jump at the games attended by Adolf Hitler, who used the Olympics to showcase his ideas of Aryan supremacy. According to the auction house based in Laguna Niguel, Calif., the medal is unidentifiable to a specific event. It said Owens gave the medal to his friend, dancer and movie star Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, as thanks for helping Owens find work in entertainment after he returned from Berlin.
The medal was sold by the estate of Robinson’s late widow, Elaine Plaines-Robinson. SCP Auctions Vice President Dan Imler said the Owens family confirmed the medal is original; the whereabouts of the other three is unknown. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the medal will be donated to the Jesse Owens Foundation. The Robinson family had declined to comment on the auction, but Imler said they also plan to use the proceeds to pay college tuition.
- President Barack Obama (R) and First Lady Michelle Obama arrive for a reception at the White House for the 2013 Kennedy Center Honorees on December 8, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kristoffer Tripplaar-Pool/Getty Images)
The 2013 Kennedy Center Honors were held on Sunday evening in Washington, D.C., bringing all the good cheer we have come to expect from the annual celebration of our nation’s best performers. First lady Michelle Obama stole the show as usual for her fifth annual appearance at the fete, as she entered its opening reception on President Obama‘s arm. Wearing an emerald green gown by Marchesa with draping silk framing her biceps, Mrs. Obama looked both fit and glamorous in the strapless piece.
Showcasing her trim figure in the intricate folds of its bodice, the first lady paired this structured garment with big curls tousled away from her face. “Her makeup was stunning as well — she wore a pretty pink, shiny lip gloss,” according to HollywoodLife.com. “She wore black eyeliner around her eyes with a slightly smokey purple/mauve shadow. Her cheeks were highlighted with a gorgeous blush. She looked so beautiful!” The softness of her hair was matched by the flow of the full chiffon skirt. Simple silver-toned jewelry completed the look.
President Obama made remarks at the opening reception before the first couple, honorees, and other luminaries attended a performance lauding these creative greats. “Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, opera star Martina Arroyo and actress Shirley MacLaine all received Kennedy Center Honors at the annual national celebration of the performing arts,” reports E! news, “and top entertainers such as Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks and Don Henley, offered tribute performances for each honoree.”
The entire performance will be broadcast on CBS on December 29.
“The diverse group of extraordinary individuals we honor today haven’t just proven themselves to be the best of the best,” President Obama said. “Despite all their success, all their fame, they’ve remained true to themselves — and inspired the rest of us to do the same.”
article by Alexis Garrett Stodghill via thegrio.com
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reports that between 1990 and 2009, pregnancy rates have fallen by 51 percent for Black teens in the U.S.
“The decline has been fueled by three factors: more teens are waiting to have sex; they also report fewer sexual partners and better use of contraception,” said Sarah Brown, CEO of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Since its peak in 1990, teen pregnancy has declined 52 percent among 15-17 year-olds and by 36 percent for 18-19 year-olds among all races. Most adults are not aware of the progress in this area.
“In short, the credit for this remarkable national success story goes to teens themselves,” said Brown. “Unfortunately, precious few adults are aware of the good news. In fact nearly half of Americans incorrectly believe the teen pregnancy rate in the U.S has increased over the past two decades.”
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy is a private, non-profit organization. For more information on the report or the NCHS please visit www.TheNationalCampaign.org.
article by Dominique Hobdy via essence.com
Nelson Mandela, who led the emancipation of South Africa from white minority rule and served as his country’s first black president, becoming an international emblem of dignity and forbearance, died Thursday night. He was 95.
“Our nation has lost its greatest son,” said Jacob Zuma, the South African president, about Nelson Mandela. Zuma announced Mr. Mandela’s death. Mr. Mandela had long said he wanted a quiet exit, but the time he spent in a Pretoria hospital this summer was a clamor of quarreling family, hungry news media, spotlight-seeking politicians and a national outpouring of affection and loss. The vigil eclipsed a visit by President Obama, who paid homage to Mr. Mandela but decided not to intrude on the privacy of a dying man he considered his hero.
Mr. Mandela ultimately died at home at 8:50 p.m. local time, and he will be buried according to his wishes in the village of Qunu, where he grew up. The exhumed remains of three of his children were reinterred there in early July under a court order, resolving a family squabble that had played out in the news media.
Mr. Mandela’s quest for freedom took him from the court of tribal royalty to the liberation underground to a prison rock quarry to the presidential suite of Africa’s richest country. And then, when his first term of office was up, unlike so many of the successful revolutionaries he regarded as kindred spirits, he declined a second term and cheerfully handed over power to an elected successor, the country still gnawed by crime, poverty, corruption and disease but a democracy, respected in the world and remarkably at peace.
The question most often asked about Mr. Mandela was how, after whites had systematically humiliated his people, tortured and murdered many of his friends, and cast him into prison for 27 years, he could be so evidently free of spite.
The government he formed when he finally won the chance was an improbable fusion of races and beliefs, including many of his former oppressors. When he became president, he invited one of his white wardens to the inauguration. Mr. Mandela overcame a personal mistrust bordering on loathing to share both power and a Nobel Peace Prize with the white president who preceded him, F. W. de Klerk.
And as president, from 1994 to 1999, he devoted much energy to moderating the bitterness of his black electorate and to reassuring whites with fears of vengeance. The explanation for his absence of rancor, at least in part, is that Mr. Mandela was that rarity among revolutionaries and moral dissidents: a capable statesman, comfortable with compromise and impatient with the doctrinaire.
When the question was put to Mr. Mandela in an interview for this obituary in 2007 — after such barbarous torment, how do you keep hatred in check? — his answer was almost dismissive: Hating clouds the mind. It gets in the way of strategy. Leaders cannot afford to hate.
Amidst the dark skies of the Healthcare.gov launch, some daylight may finally be emerging with respect to one of the critical goals of the Affordable Care Act—bending the cost curve of America’s expensive healthcare system.
According to a New York Times report out Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office has quietly removed hundreds of billions of dollars from the projected costs of Obamacare, primarily the result of an anticipated decrease in the federal government’s contribution to the Medicaid expansion program along with the projected cost of the subsidy payments to those buying private insurance policies on the healthcare exchanges.
Why the good news?
The more favorable projections are the direct result of the slowing trend in the growth of healthcare spending over the past five years leading to a slowdown in rising costs. While, ten years ago, per-capita spending on healthcare had been growing by an average annual rate of 5 percent, that number was dramatically cut to 1.8 percent during the 2007-2010 period and reduced even further to 1.3 percent in the years following 2010.
Do we have Obamacare to thank for this highly successful “bending” of the cost curve? Naturally, the answer depends upon who you ask as there simply is no definitive way of knowing—yet.
While most economist believe that the lion’s share of the reduction is due to the sluggish economy—making Americans far more careful when it comes to making decisions regarding when or if to spend money on medical care—others believe that some of the plans built into the ACA designed to get people to spend less may actually be working.
Among Obamacare inventions that do appear to be paying off in lower healthcare costs is the government’s refusal to pay hospitals more when patients are re-admitted within 30 days of their initial discharge. Additionally, new plan designs engineered to reward providers for quality of care rather than for quantity of care may well be paying off in terms of lowering the overall cost of care.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation—widely regarded as an honest, non-partisan broker when it comes to healthcare issues and analysis—the declining increases in the cost of healthcare is 75 percent the result of economic factors and 25 percent a benefit of the cost cutting measures in the ACA that do, in fact, appear to be working.
- President Barack Obama speaking at a World AIDS Day event. (EVAN VUCCI/AP)
President Barack Obama has announced a new initiative at the National Institutes of Health in pursuit of a cure for HIV. Obama says his administration is redirecting $100 million into the project to find a new generation of therapies. He said the United States should be at the forefront of discoveries to eliminate HIV or put it into remission without requiring lifelong therapy. Obama made the announcement Monday at a White House event marking World AIDS Day, which was Sunday.
The president also announced that the U.S. passed the ambitious goal he set last year to support 6 million people around the globe in getting access to anti-retroviral drugs. Obama said the U.S. helped 6.7 million people receive life-saving treatment.
Looks like Oprah Winfrey‘s “biggest yard sale ever,” which was held on Saturday, Nov. 2, was a huge success for both the fans and the media mogul. The OWN founder’s auction, dubbed “The Oprah Winfrey Collection” and featuring hundreds of her personal items, netted more than $600,000, according to the Los Angeles Times. The sale, which was held at the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club, included “antiques, contemporary furnishings, and fine art” from the TV star’s homes in Indiana, Hawaii, Chicago, Santa Barbara and her “La Quinta” estate. Kaminski Auctions ran the event. A few items from her trainer and longtime pal Bob Greene were also put up for auction.
“Had so much fun at the auction which is still going on,” Lee Daniels’ The Butler actress tweeted on Saturday. Oprah’s BFF, Gayle King, shared a photo on her Instagram account, which shows Oprah holding one of her adorable dogs and prepping for the big day. “Auction day for @oprah getting ready,” King captioned the snapshot.
The biggest selling item(s)? Six 18th century Louis XVI armchairs with hand-embroidered details sold for $60,000, reported by the Times. Certain objects and things exceeded price expectations, like a teapot that sold for $1,000 but was worth less than $100. Sounds like her many admirers just wanted to get a piece of the icon.
Here are a some highlights and their final pricetags:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9l2TaLb9Xs&w=560&h=315]
Darnell Barton, a bus driver in Buffalo, New York, was driving across a Buffalo highway express with 20 high school students in his bus when he spotted a woman who had crossed the guard rail and was leaning over the passing traffic below. Against his training as a bus driver, Barton stopped the bus and quickly phoned dispatch to send someone to help, then got out of the bus and approached the woman. The woman turned her head, then looked back down at the traffic below the bridge. Barton then quickly put her in a bear hug and asked her if she would like to come over the guard rail. The woman, who had up until this point been silent, said yes.
A corrections officer and female driver sat with the woman, along with Barton, until an ambulance arrived to take her for help. Barton then got back on the bus and continued his route. He received a standing ovation from the students aboard the bus, as well as other passengers who’d been watching the ordeal. He finished the day and wrote up the report.
“Being the humble individual that Darnell is, he didn’t write it in a way that was going to call attention to himself,” said C. Douglas Hartmayer, spokesman for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. “It was: I did it, got back on my bus and continued. That speaks volumes about his demeanor and character.”
Thanks to one man for taking the time out of his day to help someone who truly needed it. For more information about suicide prevention, visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. If you are in crisis, please call (800) 273-TALK (8255).
article via dailyoftheday.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker was sworn in as a Democratic senator from New Jersey on Thursday, taking the oath of office, exchanging hugs with Vice President Joe Biden and acknowledging the applause of friends and family members seated in the visitor’s gallery that rings the chamber. Booker became the second African American in the Senate, alongside Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Booker, 44, was elected to fill out the term of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died earlier this year. His first day in office was a busy one. Before taking the oath of office, he and his mother met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Minutes after being sworn in, he participated in his first roll call vote, supporting an attempt by Democrats to advance the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C. to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Booker also was to meet later in the day with President Barack Obama at the White House. Booker placed his hand on his own Bible as Biden led him in reciting the oath of office. His oath-taking gave Democrats control of 55 Senate seats, counting two held by independents. Republicans hold 45.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com