(CNN) — It’s one win for Darrell Wallace Jr., but what will it mean for other African-American race car drivers — present and future? The answer to that question might not come for years. Nonetheless, NASCAR wasted no time Saturday in hailing Wallace’s on-track success at Martinsville Speedway in southern Virginia.
“We congratulate Darrell Wallace Jr. on his first national series victory, one that will be remembered as a remarkable moment in our sport’s history,” said NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France. Wallace took the Kroger 200 on the racing circuit’s Camping World Truck Series, which is on NASCAR’s third tier.
Still, it is notable given that no African-American has won any NASCAR national series race since December 1, 1963, when Wendell Scott became the first ever to win a race at NASCAR’s top level, in a victory at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida. Scott, a Virginia native who served in the Army during World War II, raced in more than 500 races during his career — finishing in the top five 20 times, though that would be his only victory.
Plus, the 20-year-old Wallace isn’t just any driver. He’s a highly touted graduate of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity, having been featured in numerous local and national publications. The Mobile, Alabama, native — who lives in Concord, North Carolina — won in his 19th start on Camping World Truck circuit. In 10 of his first 18 starts, he finished in the top 10. Shortly after the Martinsville race ended, Wallace — using his twitter handle @BubbaWallace — reveled in the victory.
He wrote: “We Came. We Saw. We Conquered.”
article by Greg Botelho via cnn.com
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama called on Congress Thursday to finish work on an immigration overhaul by the end of the year, a lofty goal that will be difficult to meet given the staunch opposition of many House Republicans. While immigration remains one of Obama’s top second-term priorities, the issue has been overshadowed for months, most recently by the 16-day partial government shutdown. The president’s shift to a greater focus on immigration came as the White House was seeking to shift the conversation away from the deeply problematic rollout of Obama’s health care law.
During remarks at the White House, Obama insisted that Congress has the necessary time to finish an immigration bill by the end of the year. The Democratic-controlled-Senate passed sweeping legislation this summer that would provide an eventual path to citizenship for some 11 million immigrants living here illegally and would tighten border security. But the measure has languished in the Republican-led House.
“It doesn’t get easier to put it off,” Obama said, during an event in the East Room. The White House was buoyed by comments this week from Republican House Speaker John Boehner who said he was optimistic his chamber could act on immigration by year’s end. But Boehner has long had trouble rallying support from the conservative wing of his caucus and it’s unclear whether he can get their backing for the comprehensive bill Obama is seeking.
A black woman has just been named as president and CEO of one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. According to a press release, La June Montgomery Tabron will take the helm at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as the president and CEO on January 1, making her the first African-American to lead the foundation in its 83-year history. The rising executive will replace Sterling Sperin, who is stepping down as of December 31st after eight years.
The 51-year-old Detroit native has a long history with the company. Tabron started her career there at age 24. She began as a financial controller and rose within the company over the past 26 years into her current role of executive vice president of operations and treasurer. “Growing up in a family of ten children in inner-city Detroit, I know first-hand the day-to-day challenges faced by the families we seek to help,” she explained in the press release. “In so many ways, my own journey illustrates the power and impact of what is possible with the right conditions.”
Tabron graduated with a business degree in business administration from the University of Michigan, and went on to acquire a master’s degree in business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. It goes without saying, black CEO’s are rare. If we take a look at the landscape of Fortune 500 companies, there are only six black CEO’s. Among those just one is a woman.
article by Rhonesha Byng via huffingtonpost.com
The 51-year-old Detroit native has a long history with the company. Tabron started her career there at age 24. She began as a financial controller and rose within the company over the past 26 years into her current role of executive vice president of operations and treasurer. “Growing up in a family of ten children in inner-city Detroit, I know first-hand the day-to-day challenges faced by the families we seek to help,” she explained in the press release. “In so many ways, my own journey illustrates the power and impact of what is possible with the right conditions.”
Tabron graduated with a business degree in business administration from the University of Michigan, and went on to acquire a master’s degree in business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. It goes without saying, black CEO’s are rare. If we take a look at the landscape of Fortune 500 companies, there are only six black CEO’s. Among those just one is a woman.
article by Rhonesha Byng via huffingtonpost.com
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zLJe0JGN4M&w=420&h=315]
During a speech this morning by President Barack Obama on Obamacare, a woman standing directly behind the president began to wobble back and forth as if she was about to faint. Luckily, Obama realized there was something going on behind him and immediately turned around to catch the woman, making sure she remained steady on her feet.
Good catch Mr. President! Apparently the woman was attending the speech as a guest who was a beneficiary of the Affordable Care Act.
“I got you. You’re OK,” the President said. “This is what happens when I talk too long,” the president said after helping her get escorted off the stage.
article by aattp.org
The Redskins have been wary of Devin Hester hurting them in the return game. Well, he did it anyways. Hester’s 81-yard punt return score tied Sunday’s Chicago-Washington at 17 in the second quarter. The return touchdown was the 19th of Hester’s NFL career, which equals Deion Sanders’ league-record mark.
On the play, Hester caught the ball on the far sideline, then worked his way to the other side of the field, where he had a convoy of blockers. Hester got a couple more blocks — with Khaseem Greene’s knockdown of Logan Paulsen a highlight — and the legendary special-teamer was gone, en route to his 13th career punt return score.
Hester’s big play was another tough moment for Washington’s embattled special teams, which had all sorts of problems with the Cowboys’ Dwayne Harris in last week’s loss at Dallas. Washington has stayed away from Hester on kickoffs, employing pooch kicks. Moreover, Sav Rocca’s punt on Hester’s touchdown wasn’t a bad effort, as it pinned the Bears’ returner near the sideline. But when Washington couldn’t stop Hester from reversing field, there was trouble ahead.
Hester’s touchdown was a highlight in a roller-coaster half for the Bears, who lost quarterback Jay Cutler to an injury in the second quarter.
article by Mike Wilkening via profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
Hester’s big play was another tough moment for Washington’s embattled special teams, which had all sorts of problems with the Cowboys’ Dwayne Harris in last week’s loss at Dallas. Washington has stayed away from Hester on kickoffs, employing pooch kicks. Moreover, Sav Rocca’s punt on Hester’s touchdown wasn’t a bad effort, as it pinned the Bears’ returner near the sideline. But when Washington couldn’t stop Hester from reversing field, there was trouble ahead.
Hester’s touchdown was a highlight in a roller-coaster half for the Bears, who lost quarterback Jay Cutler to an injury in the second quarter.
article by Mike Wilkening via profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
NEW YORK (AP) — Her body weak, her voice rich and strong, Maya Angelou sang, lectured and reminisced as she accepted a lifetime achievement award Thursday night from the Norman Mailer Center. The 85-year-old author, poet, dancer and actress was honored during a benefit gala at the New York Public Library, the annual gathering organized by the Mailer Center and writers colony . Seated in a wheelchair, she was a vivid presence in dark glasses and a sparkling black dress as she marveled that a girl from a segregated Arkansas village could grow up to become a literary star.
“Imagine it,” she said, “a town so prejudiced black people couldn’t even eat vanilla ice cream.” Angelou was introduced by her former editor at Random House, Robert Loomis, and she praised him for talking her into writing her breakthrough memoir, the million-selling I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The key was suggesting to her that the book might be too hard to write.
The people who knew her best, she explained, understood that “if you want to get Maya Angelou to do so something, tell her she can’t.” Angelou, a longtime resident of North Carolina, will be back in Manhattan next month to collect an honorary National Book Award medal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is calling back a trusted counterterrorism adviser from his first term by nominating former top Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson as Secretary of Homeland Security. Obama plans to announce Johnson’s nomination Friday. He must be confirmed by the Senate before taking over the post most recently held by Janet Napolitano, who stepped down in August to become president of the University of California system.
As general counsel at the Defense Department during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Johnson oversaw the escalation of the use of unmanned drone strikes, the revamping of military commissions to try terrorism suspects rather than using civilian courts and the repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay service members.
A senior Obama administration official on Thursday confirmed Johnson’s selection, first reported by The Daily Beast. The official was not authorized to speak about the nomination on the record and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said Obama chose Johnson because of his experience as a national security leader. The official noted that Johnson oversaw the work of more than 10,000 lawyers and was responsible for reviewing every military operation approved by the president and defense secretary.
WASHINGTON — The government shutdown is dead. Obamacare is alive.
The Senate voted 81 to 18 Wednesday night to reopen the federal government and raise the nation’s borrowing limit, hours before the Treasury Department faced the possibility of being unable to pay all of America’s bills for the first time in modern history. The House followed suit, voting 285-144, to end the latest damaging battle of divided government in a polarized Congress.
President Barack Obama said he would reopen the government immediately to “lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease” that settled on the nation and start fixing the damage. “There is a lot of work ahead of us, including our need to earn back the trust of the American people that has been lost over the last few weeks,” Obama said in a brief speech at the White House.
The standoff began over the summer, when tea party Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), demanded that the House of Representatives lock government funding in a chokehold unless Democrats and Obama defunded the Affordable Care
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said no, at first. But but he later gave in,ignoring the advice of other Republicans, from Mitt Romney to John McCain (Ariz.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.). Democrats opted for defend over defund, with Obama declaring he would not negotiate over his signature law, the budget or the debt while Republicans were holding hostages.
Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark easily won New Jersey’s special Senate election on Wednesday, finally rising to an office that measures up to his national profile. He will arrive in Washington already one of the country’s most prominent Democrats, and its best-known black politician other than President Obama, who backed him aggressively. Mr. Booker’s fund-raising prowess puts him on course to lead his party’s campaign efforts in the Senate, and he has been mentioned as a possible vice-presidential pick for 2016.
With 55 percent of the precincts reporting, Mr. Booker had 55 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Steve Lonegan, a Republican former mayor of Bogota, N.J., and state director of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, according to The Associated Press. Still, the campaign gave a wider audience to certain facets of Mr. Booker that long ago began to prompt eye-rolling among his constituents.
With a Twitter following six times as large as the city he has led, Mr. Booker was known outside Newark largely for his appearances on late-night television and his heroics: rescuing a neighbor from a burning building, shoveling out snowbound cars, living on a food stamp diet.
According to Variety.com, Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced an eclectic lineup of nominees for 2014 induction today, including rap acts LLCoolJ and N.W.A., disco band Chic and New Orleans funk group the Meters.
Other newly-anointed candidates include Chicago’s blues-rocking Paul Butterfield Blues Band, British hard rock act Deep Purple, U.K. singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, blue-eyed soul duo Hall & Oates, costumed Detroit metal act KISS, Seattle grunge icons Nirvana, Minneapolis’ shambolic punks the Replacements, vocalist Linda Ronstadt, singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, pathfinding guitarist Link Wray, Brit prog-rock kings Yes, and ‘60s British Invasion group the Zombies.
Stevens, LL Cool J, Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Deep Purple, KISS, N.W.A. and the Meters are all repeat nominees; it is the first time in the running for the remainder of the field. Gabriel is already a member of the Rock Hall via his association with Genesis, inducted in 2010. The induction ceremony is set for April in New York, and will be presented on HBO in May.
Inductees are select by a panel of 600 music biz authorities, including musicians, execs and writers. Beginning today through Dec. 10, fans can vote online at rockhall.com/vote; the top five vote recipients will constitute a “fan’s ballot” counting toward the final vote tally.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson