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Through the Pain, 25 Year-Old Eric Williams and Others Speak Out During National Sickle Cell Awareness Month

By goodblacknews on September 23, 2015
Sickle Cell Disease sufferers from around Southern California banded together Wednesday to bring awareness for September’s National Sickle Cell Awareness Month, like Eric Williams, a 25-year-old who suffers from the genetic disease. (photo via nbclosangeles.com)

Nearly 100,000 Americans live with sickle cell disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and every September many of those who suffer from the ailment as well as their families and supporters, participate in National Sickle Cell Awareness Month.

Symptoms include widespread pain, fatigue, organ failure and a shortened life span. A person with sickle cell will usually live to the age of 50.  The diease affects one in 500 African Americans, but can also affect Hispanics.

“You get slow throbs and it builds and then feels like someone is punching you, then stabbing you, then a building is coming down on you,” said Eric Williams, a 25-year-old living with the genetic disease.

As a child, Williams said he had more access to pediatricians who specialized in the disease.  As an adult, it’s considerably harder for him to find specialists in Los Angeles County, where he lives, that treat adults.

Dr. Susan Claster is one hematologist in Orange County who does treat adults, but has trouble handling a huge flux of patients by herself.  “I can’t see everybody, and we need to find others who are interested in seeing these patients,” Claster said. “That really frustrates me.”

California and eight other states recently received grant funding to expand treatment for sickle cell patients.

Williams, set to attend nursing school, said he won’t let the disease slow him down, and hopes to inspire others.  “I would like to inspire them by having them see you can go to college and get a job and be part of mainstream society – you just have to figure out your way to do it,” Williams said.

To learn more about Sickle Cell Disease, go to: http://sicklecelldisease.org/index.cfm?page=news&id=94

original article by Angie Crouch and Heather Navarro via nbclosangeles.com; additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

History! Viola Davis Becomes 1st Black Woman To Win Emmy For Lead Actress in Drama; Regina King and Uzo Aduba win Emmys for Supporting Roles

By goodblacknews on September 20, 2015

67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards - Show
Viola Davis made history Sunday night as the first Black woman to win an Emmy for outstanding actress in a drama series, bringing a sisterhood of Black actresses to their feet at the announcement of her accomplishment.
But Davis’ win was the second history-making moment of her night — as Vanity Fair points out, the nomination of lead actress, alongside Taraji P. Henson’s nomination, was the first time multiple women of color have been considered for the award at the same time.
The significance of the moment was not lost on Henson, who stood to embrace Davis as she made her way to the stage.  In a powerful speech that amplified the voices of Black women who have called for more representation in TV, media and film, Davis noted that roles for Black women are scarce in a whitewashed Hollywood.

“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there,” she said.

A quote from Harriet Tubman, which she recited at the top of her acceptance speech, served as a succinct but profound outline of what many Black actresses are facing in the world of film, even in 2015.

“In my mind I see a line and over that line I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line, but I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line.”

You can watch her speech here:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrkGmYbvISo&w=560&h=315]

But Davis’ win was not the first exceptional moment for Black women at the 2015 Emmy Awards. Orange Is The New Black star Uzo Aduba also made her own history when she accepted the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series, making her the first actress to win both a drama and a comedy award for the same role.
67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards - Show
Hollywood veteran and favorite Regina King also took home an award for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie for “American Crime.” It was King’s first nomination and win.
67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards - Show
For a full list of winners, click below:
2015 Emmy Awards: A List Of The Night’s Big Winners
article by Christina Coleman via newsone.com

Obama Urges Focus on Black Women in Congressional Black Caucus Speech

By goodblacknews on September 20, 2015

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Awards. (photo via foxiness.com)
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Gala. (photo via foxnews.com)

President Barack Obama pressed on Saturday night for a greater focus on helping black women who are more likely to be stuck in minimum wage jobs, have higher rates of illness and face higher rates of incarceration than other women.
His speech delivered to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual gala was short on hard policy prescriptions aimed directly at black women. Rather Obama said that many of the proposals that his administration has championed, such as raising the minimum wage and criminal justice reform, would help close the gap between black women and their peers.
The president briefly acknowledged Hillary Clinton, his former Secretary of State who was in the audience and is campaigning for the presidency. Obama called her “outstanding” and noted that she could relate to first lady Michelle Obama’s concerns over the pay gap that women face compared to their male counterparts.
“We are going to have to close those economic gaps,” Obama said.
Obama spent a significant portion of his remarks making the case for criminal justice reform, which has become a core part of his agenda during his remaining days in office. His push to pare back the prison population by reducing mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders has garnered some Republican support, but still faces a tough odds in Congress.
Obama, spurred by a series of high profile cases of apparent police abuse, has spoken far more forcefully in recent months about the impact of racial bias on policing. He bristled, though, at some media depictions that suggested that he was anti-law enforcement.
“We appreciate them and we love them,” Obama said of police officers. “They deserve our respect. I just want to repeat that because somehow this never gets on television. There is no contradiction between caring about our law enforcement officers and making sure the laws are applied fairly.”
He paused and looked out at the crowd. “Hope I am making that clear,” he said. “I hope I am making that clear.”
The focus of his remarks, though, was on helping black women. Black women are one of the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituencies and consistently vote at higher rates in national elections than any other demographic group. In 2012, they turned out at a rate of 70 percent for the presidential election and were crucial to Obama’s victories in key states like Florida, Ohio and Virginia.
Obama described the important and too often anonymous role that black women played during the civil rights movement and praised the recent push to put a black woman’s picture on the $10 bill. But he insisted that such symbolic actions fell short of what was needed. “We’ve got to make sure they are getting some ten dollar bills,” he said, “that they are getting paid properly.”
Obama made the case for better job training and more mentorship programs to encourage women of color to pursue careers in math and science. He noted that his wife often worried that she would be labeled too assertive or “too angry” as she pursued her career. His primary focus, though, was on black women who were struggling to get by on minimum wage salaries or trying to overcome abuse.
The president noted that the incarceration rate for black women is twice that of white women and described a “sinister sexual abuse to prison pipeline” in which traumatized women went on to commit crimes.
He called for more effort to stop violence and abuse against women “in every community and on every campus.”

article by Greg Jaffe and Vanessa Williams via washingtonpost.com

Vanessa Williams Receives ‘Unexpected’ Apology at Miss America Pageant

By goodblacknews on September 14, 2015
Vanessa Williams received a public apology from the Miss America organization. (CreditMark Makela/Reuters)

Betty Cantrell of Georgia was crowned Miss America on Sunday, but an apology to Vanessa Williams stole the show.  In 1983, Ms. Williams, now 52, became the first African-American to win the Miss America pageant. She was forced to resign 10 months later after nude photographs of her surfaced.

She went on to enjoy a decades-long career in TV, film and music. But it was a particular redemption to return to Sunday’s pageant in Atlantic City as a celebrity judge.

After Ms. Williams sang a song, Sam Haskell, executive chairman of the Miss America pageant, apologized for the way the organization treated her three decades ago.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXOLd3G_AHY&w=560&h=315]

“I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less the Miss America you are and the Miss America you always will be,” Mr. Haskell said in an onstage apology.

Ms. Williams called the apology “so unexpected but so beautiful.”

Ms. Williams, who was 21 at the time, resigned after nude photos of her appeared in “Penthouse” magazine.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwBmoNXrr0w&w=420&h=315]

In her departing speech in 1984, Ms. Williams said that she had never consented to those photos being published; the magazine’s publisher responded by saying that the photos were an “interesting bit of highly newsworthy information and photographs,” and that the publication was carried out as an obligation to the magazine’s readers.

Ms. Williams’s return to the pageant was a happy one, and more than a little triumphant. In the days leading up to it, she shared photos of her Miss America crown and pin with her followers on social media.

article by Katie Rogers via nytimes.com

President Barack Obama Remembers 9/11, Salutes Troops in Town Hall

By goodblacknews on September 11, 2015

President Barack Obama and First lady Michelle Obama on 9/11/15. (Photo via abcnews.go.com)
President Barack Obama and First lady Michelle Obama on 9/11/15. (Photo via abcnews.go.com)

President Barack Obama told members of the military Friday that he calls them as he sees them when it comes to the big decisions his job requires.
“When I go to bed, I go to bed easy, because I know that I’ve made the best decisions I could make,” Obama said during a 9/11 military town hall at Fort Meade near Washington, D.C.
The commander in chief took questions from service members piped in from around the world during the event designed to mark the 14th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“On 9/11, I thought it was particularly appropriate for me to be able to address you directly, and to say thank you on behalf of the American people,” Obama told the troops.
Whether in person, via phone, video conference, or the Internet, troops asked questions ranging from the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, to how the president and first lady Michelle Obama raise their daughters in the glare of the White House. (On that last query, the president said, “I just do what Michelle tells me to do and it seems to work out.”)
At one point, Obama says it appears to him that Syrian President Bashar Assad is inviting the Russian military into his country because he’s worried about holding onto power. The president said that the United States has warned Russia that beefing up its support for Assad is doomed to fail.
Obama also said that the United States needs to step up its responses to cyber attacks, and criticized China for some of its cyber practices.
The president chuckled when one of the troops asked him how he dealt with people “hating” and “talking smack” about him all the time.
“Not everyone is talking smack about me,” Obama said. “But there is a sizable percentage in Congress that talks smack about me, no doubt about it.”
Obama said he must own all decisions, whether it’s the operation that killed Osama bin Laden to the initial problems with the health care website, which he described as a “screw-up.”
Said Obama: “If it’s an easy question, it doesn’t get to my desk.”
In closing, the president again thanked the troops for their work in the years since 9/11.
“What you do is vital to our way of life,” Obama said. “America is strong, and it’s strong because of all of you.”
article by David Jackson via usatoday.com

Georgia Cheerleader Angel Rice, 16, sets Tumbling World Record

By goodblacknews on September 11, 2015
GA cheerleader
Angel Rice (Fox5Atlanta)

A 16-year-old Georgia cheerleader has just broken a tumbling world record.  Angel Rice completed ten double full twists in one minute while an official from the Guinness World Records counted the seconds of her tumbling routine.

“It took me until the next day to realize, wow!  It’s real!” Angel told Fox5Atlanta. ” It didn’t feel real when it was happening.  I had to actually think about it and look at the plaque.”

Tumbling coach Frank Riley said that he had taken notice of Angel the minute she arrived at his gym at just five years old.
Of course, now that Angel has broken the world record, everyone wants to know what she’ll do next. We’ll just have to wait and see.
“When she came it was like, ‘Wow! Who is this little girl?’” said Riley. “She was strong.  She wasn’t one of the kids that come to the gym and they’re scared. Anything I asked her to do she would try,” he added.

article via thegrio.com

Obama Pushes "College Promise" Plan for Free Community College

By goodblacknews on September 10, 2015
Obama
President Barack Obama speaks at Macomb Community College, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015, in Warren, Mich. Obama announces new steps to expand apprenticeships and a push to make community college free for responsible students. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WARREN, Mich. (AP) — Unable to have his way with Congress, President Barack Obama reached back to his roots as a community organizer and sought Wednesday to spark a national movement in support of his idea for free community college.
Congress has shown next-to-no interest in Obama’s $60 billion community college proposal, so he’s taking his case to the people.  “It’s an idea whose time has come,” Obama told an audience at Macomb Community College. “It’s an idea that makes sense.”
Obama said six states and communities have created programs similar to what he proposed during his State of the Union address earlier this year, including one announced by Milwaukee on Wednesday. Lawmakers in more than 10 other states have introduced legislation providing for free community college, he said.
Getting an education is the best investment anyone can make for their and the country’s future, Obama said.  “Education has always been the secret sauce, the secret to America’s success,” he said.
Obama announced that a new, independent “college promise” advisory board will work with various organizations to build momentum for the idea by highlighting programs that already provide free community college, and recruiting more states and communities to do likewise. It will be headed by a woman who Obama said is his “favorite community college instructor,” Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, and former Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer, a Republican.
Biden, who teaches English at a community college near Washington, D.C., traveled to Michigan with the president.  “It’s important that you give your friends, your families, your classmates, a heads-up to join the movement to make two years of community college free because education is the key to America’s future,” she said while introducing Obama.
Obama also announced $175 million in Labor Department grants to help create 34,000 apprenticeship slots around the country.

Toyota Awards $75,000 Jesse L. Jackson Sr. Fellows Scholarships to Black Engineering and Business Students

By goodblacknews on September 9, 2015
Toyota Invests In Future Engineers and Business Leaders by Providing First-Ever $75,000 Jesse L. Jackson Sr. Fellows Scholarship, Summer Co-Op Internship Program and Mentorship Pairing (PRNewsFoto/Toyota)
Toyota Invests In Future Engineers and Business Leaders by Providing First-Ever $75,000 Jesse L. Jackson Sr. Fellows Scholarship, Summer Co-Op Internship Program and Mentorship Pairing (PRNewsFoto/Toyota)

Toyota is partnering with Rainbow PUSH Excel to provide $75,000 scholarships to 10 deserving engineering and business college students through the Jesse L. Jackson Sr. Fellows Scholarships. In addition to the scholarships, Toyota is offering these students the opportunity to work at one of their facilities across North America to gain valuable real-world experience, as well as be paired with mentors from Toyota management to help guide them through the next three years of college.

“The scholarship recipients were selected from hundreds of applicants,” Simon Nagata, chief administrative officer, Toyota North America, noted in a statement. “Toyota is proud to recognize and invest in the outstanding academic achievements of these 10 scholars. The commitment to community service and personal excellence of these future leaders is truly inspiring, and we are excited to be a part of their journey.”
With STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) professional jobs going unfilled, Toyota is preparing to fill the pipeline with qualified candidates. The scholarships were awarded to college students who are majoring in either STEM or business academics, states Toyota.
Students also had to demonstrate participation in community service and a financial need. The $25,000 scholarship is renewable each year for a maximum three-year period. In order to receive the award each year, the students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 throughout the school year.

Freddie Gray’s Family to Receive $6.4 Million Settlement From Baltimore

By goodblacknews on September 8, 2015
The settlement, which stemmed from a civil lawsuit filed by the family after Gray’s unlawful arrest and death in April, is said to be one of the largest in police brutality suits since 2011. According to the Sun, the settlement is “larger than the total of more than 120 other lawsuits brought against the police department for alleged brutality,” in years. The plan is scheduled to be approved by the city’s spending panel on Wednesday, the office of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake confirmed.

“The proposed settlement agreement going before the Board of Estimates should not be interpreted as a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial,” the mayor said in a statement. “This settlement is being proposed solely because it is in the best interest of the city, and avoids costly and protracted litigation that would only make it more difficult for our city to heal and potentially cost taxpayers many millions more in damages.”

Unrest erupted after Gray’s funeral as human rights groups, protesters, activists, and residents of Baltimore City piled into the streets to call for reform of police practices and justice for the young man. Six officers involved in the arrest and transport of Gray have pled not guilty to a range of charges that include assault, false imprisonment, and even murder. A pre-trial motions hearing this week will determine if the six individual trials will be moved out of Baltimore.
From the Baltimore Sun:

The city is accepting all civil liability in Gray’s arrest and death, but does not acknowledge any wrongdoing by the police, according to a statement from Rawlings-Blake’s administration.
The mayor’s office declined to answer questions about the settlement, including why it was brought to the spending panel before any lawsuit was filed.
Under the proposed settlement, the city would pay $2.8 million during the current fiscal year and $3.6 million in next year, the city said. By entering into a settlement, the city would avoid a public lawsuit that could have played out in court. In such city settlements, a clause has stated that both sides cannot talk publicly about the case.

An attorney representing the Gray family has declined to comment on the settlement.
article by Christina Coleman via newsone.com

President Obama Observes Labor Day, Extends Paid Sick Leave for Employees of Federal Contractors

By goodblacknews on September 7, 2015
Barack Obama Labor Day
U.S. President Barack Obama waves to reporters after returning to the White House on board Marine One September 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. Obama spent three days in Alaska this week where he became the first sitting president to go to the Arctic Circle. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Showing solidarity with workers on Labor Day, President Barack Obama will sign an executive order Monday requiring paid sick leave for employees of federal contractors, including 300,000 who currently receive none.

The White House wouldn’t specify the cost to federal contractors to implement the executive order, which Obama was to address at a major union rally and breakfast in Boston. The Labor Department said any costs would be offset by savings that contractors would see as a result of lower attrition rates and increased worker loyalty, but produced nothing to back that up.
Under the executive order, employees working on federal contracts gain the right to a minimum of one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours they work. Stretched out over 12 months, that’s up to seven days per year. The order will allow employees to use the leave to care for sick relatives as well, and will affect contracts starting in 2017 — just as Obama leaves office.
The Obama administration has been working on the executive order for months, and chose Labor Day to announce it as Obama works to enact what policies he can before his presidency ends despite resistance in Congress to laws he’s proposed to improve workplace conditions. That push has reverberated in the 2016 campaign, where Democratic candidates are seeking to draw a distinction with Republicans on who’s most supportive of the middle class.
“There are certain Republicans that said we can’t afford to do this,” said Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. He lamented how paid leave is seen as a partisan issue in the U.S. despite broad support in Europe. “The Republican Party is out of step with similar conservative governments around the world,” he said.
Roughly 44 million private sector workers don’t get paid sick leave — about 40 percent of the private-sector workforce, the White House said. In his speech to the Greater Boston Labor Council’s breakfast, Obama was also to renew his call for Congress to expand the requirement beyond contract workers to all but the smallest U.S. businesses, an idea that has gained little traction on Capitol Hill.
The Labor Day gathering in Boston was attracting other bold-named politicians, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh among them. Vice President Joe Biden, who is considering entering the Democratic presidential primary, was to echo the labor rights theme in a march with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Monday at a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh.
Unable to push much of his agenda through a Republican-controlled Congress, Obama has in recent years used executive orders with frequency to apply policies to federal contractors that he lacks the authority to enact nationwide. His aim is to lay the groundwork for those policies to be expanded to all Americans. Earlier executive orders have barred federal contractors from discriminating against workers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, raised the minimum wage for contractors and expanded the number of contract workers eligible for overtime.
Although labor groups have hailed those moves, they remain deeply skeptical of Obama’s push to secure sweeping new trade deals with the Asia-Pacific region and with Europe. Many unions have warned that the deals could lead to the widespread elimination of certain types of U.S. jobs.
The White House said it couldn’t estimate how many federal contractors don’t offer paid leave now, citing a maze of state and local laws that make crunching the numbers difficult. Officials also declined to put a dollar figure on how much contractors would face in added compensation costs.
Cecilia Muniz, director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, said the administration has an obligation to get the most out of every federal tax dollar.
article by Josh Lederman, AP via thegrio.com