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Central African Republic Chooses Female Mayor Catherine Samba-Panza as New President

By goodblacknews on January 21, 2014
Catherine Samba-Panza
The mayor of Bangui, Catherine Samba-Panza, attends a session at the National Transitional Council (CNT) before being elected interim president of the Central African Republic on January 20, 2014, in Bangui. Samba-Panza was elected in a second-round vote by the transitional parliament, securing 75 votes against 53 for Desire Kolingba, the son of a former Central African president. (AFP PHOTO / Eric FEFERBERG Getty Images)

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Members of a national transitional council chose the female mayor of Central African Republic’s capital to lead the country out of chaos Monday, as a top U.N. official urged the international community to keep the nation from “crossing the tipping-point into an all-out sectarian conflict.”  At two meetings in Brussels, international donors pledged a total of $496 million in humanitarian assistance and European Union foreign ministers took a first step toward potentially deploying hundreds more troops to reinforce French and African peacekeepers to secure the lawless and violent country where nearly one million people are displaced.
Bangui Mayor Catherine Samba-Panza was chosen as interim president after two rounds of voting, becoming the first female leader in the country’s history. She beat out Desire Zanga-Kolingba, the son of a former president in Monday’s runoff. Samba-Panza, dressed in a bright pink suit jacket, thrust her arms into the air in victory.  French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius described the 59-year-old Samba-Panza as a “very remarkable woman.”
Samba-Panza, a longtime corporate lawyer in the insurance industry who took over the mayor’s office last June, now will be tasked with organizing national elections before the end of 2014, a job critics say may be nearly impossible given the amount of looting and destruction to administrative buildings throughout the country. She also faces the enormous task of stemming anarchy and bloodshed that has left an untold number dead since a March 2013 coup. An armed Christian movement known as the anti-Balaka arose in opposition to the mostly Muslim Seleka rebellion that seized power then.
“I call on my children, especially the anti-Balaka, to put down their arms and stop all the fighting. The same goes for the ex-Seleka — they should not have fear. I don’t want to hear any more talk of murders and killings,” she said.  She urged the 100,000 people sheltering near the airport — nicknamed with bitter irony the “Ledger” after the town’s sole five-star luxury hotel — to return home.  “I’m also calling on the international community to help us quickly restore order in our country which today is on the brink of chaos,” she said.

Michelle Obama's 50th: First an AARP Card Tweet on Friday, Then Last Night, "A Fun, Fun Party"

By goodblacknews on January 19, 2014

michelle obama-aarpFirst Lady Michelle Obama spent Friday, January 17th – her actual birthday – out of sight, with no public appearances, except the tweet of a photo of herself holding up her AARP card. She tweeted, quote, “Excited to join Barack” in the 50-plus club today . “check out my @AARP card!”
But last night, January 18th, Beyoncé and Stevie Wonder rocked the White House at a star-studded, late-night dance party celebrating Obama’s 50th, two guests told the Chicago Tribune today.  President Barack Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha joined family friends, elected officials, entertainers, athletes, business executives and big donors at the gala, which kicked off Saturday and lasted until the wee hours Sunday morning, the sources said.
The event was closed to the press, and the White House did not release a guest list or any other details. But two guests spoke to the Tribune on condition of anonymity, describing a bash at which a deejay kept people on the dance floor in the East Room until after 3 a.m. Washington time.  VIP guests, according to sources, included political luminaries Bill and Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, national security adviser Susan Rice, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Democratic National Committee official Donna Brazile.
Other high-profile guests included Sir Paul McCartney, Magic Johnson, Chicago-born actress/singer Jennifer Hudson, singer Janelle Monae, actor Kal Penn, TV personality Al Roker, actress Ashley Judd, tennis great Billie Jean King, retired Olympic figure-skater Michelle Kwan and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, the sources said.

Beyoncé Advocates for Gender Equality in Shriver Report Essay

By goodblacknews on January 15, 2014

beyone-girls-run-press-617-409
Beyoncé may sing about girls running the world, but she’s under no delusion that it’s actually true. The superstar recently penned an article for The Shriver Report about the lack of equality between the sexes.
“We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality,” Knowles-Carter writes, “It isn’t a reality yet.”
Beyoncé’s essay is a part of The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, a “multi-platform nonprofit media initiative led by Maria Shriver that seeks to modernize America’s relationship to women.” The report, which can be downloaded for free until January 15, features essays and photos by some of our nation’s preeminent thinkers, activists, entrepreneurs, and celebrities including Anne-Marie Slaughter, Howard Shultz, Sheryl Sandberg, Jada Pinkett Smith, Hillary Clinton, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, LeBron James, and Tony Porter.
In her article, Beyoncé discusses the wage gap between the sexes and makes a passionate plea to men to step up to the plate and “demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more.”
The essay marks yet another step in Beyoncé’s feminist journey. Recently, the singer made waves when she featured excerpts from Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk, “We Should All Be Feminists,” on the song “Flawless,” causing many to wonder if Beyoncé was simply calling herself a feminist to sell records or if she was actually identifying as such.
Despite referring to herself as a “modern day feminist” in the past, this essay may silence her critics and perhaps lend some much-needed support to The Shriver Report, which attempts to tackle some of the most pressing issues that face women today.
Check out out Beyoncé’s essay, Gender Equality Is A Myth! below:

We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more—commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect.
Humanity requires both men and women, and we are equally important and need one another. So why are we viewed as less than equal? These old attitudes are drilled into us from the very beginning. We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life. And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible.
We have a lot of work to do, but we can get there if we work together. Women are more than 50 percent of the population and more than 50 percent of voters. We must demand that we all receive 100 percent of the opportunities.

Download The Shriver Report for free from January 12-15th here.
article by Britni Danielle via clutchmagonline.com

White House: Black Unemployment Decreases 5 Percent Since 2010

By goodblacknews on January 10, 2014

white house unemployment report
The White House has released a report discussing the most-recent unemployment numbers from theBureau Of Labor Statistics, and the African-American unemployment rate, is one of the groups to see a decrease.  Even though long-term unemployment remains elevated, it has somewhat subsided for historically marginalized groups, with the African-American rate reportedly decreasing .5 percent from November (12.4 percent) to December (11.9 percent). Below is the unemployment decrease African Americans experienced for the year 2013:

Unemployment rates…declined over the course of 2013 for women (1.3 percentage points), teenagers (3.8 percentage points), African-Americans (2.1 percentage points), and Hispanics (1.2 percentage points). Similarly, since the overall unemployment rate peaked at 10.0 percent in October 2009, these rates have all shown marked declines.

The White House also reported that unemployment fell 5 percentage points between March 2010, when it was at a shocking 16.9 percent, to now.  Included in the report are also five key points about the most-recent job market. The first one notes that America’s businesses have added jobs for 46 months in a row, with employment increasing by 8.2 million during that time frame.  Private employment has also risen by an average of 177,000 jobs per month over the last three months. Still, the report notes:

Policymakers should be doing everything they can to speed job creation. The Council of Economic Advisers estimates that extending the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program through 2014 would lead to an additional 240,000 jobs over the course of the year, because the benefits sustain the purchasing power of recipients who support local businesses and their suppliers.

The Newfound Success of Obamacare – More Than 6 Million Americans Covered So Far

By goodblacknews on January 1, 2014

ObamaCare-SuccessThe Obama administration announced on Tuesday that more than 6 million Americans have obtained health insurance through the new health care law, a major achievement for the president and his team, which has been sharply criticized for a sloppy rollout of “Obamacare” that included a website that barely functioned for weeks.
In the last three months, according to the administration, about 2.1 million Americans have enrolled in private health care plans through the law. Another 3.9 million have been determined eligible for either Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, both of which were expanded under the Affordable Care Act.
These numbers vindicated the administration, which had predicted that the struggles of October, when Americans across the country complained about the website, would not permanently harm the health care program. Only 106,000 Americans enrolled in private plans in October, far below expectations, but more than 1 million did in December. Administration officials had predicted enrollment would surge in December, as that was the deadline for purchasing insurance that would start by Jan 1.

First Lady Michelle Obama Helps Explain Obamacare Benefits For Parents

By goodblacknews on December 21, 2013

michelle obama obamacare
As the holidays approach, the Obama administration has drummed up its efforts to educate the public on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Through press calls, a strong push in social media, and other methods, the Health Department has been dedicated in demystifying the the ACA and encouraging the use of the Health Insurance Marketplace. First Lady Michelle Obama (pictured left) adds to this new push by offering a heartfelt editorial for Babble on the importance of the Affordable Care Act for parents.

Late one night about 12 years ago, our baby daughter Sasha woke up sick. When we took her to our pediatrician the next morning, he took one look at her and sent us straight to the emergency room. He was worried that Sasha might have meningitis – and he was right, wrote the First Lady.
But we were lucky. While our finances weren’t exactly in great shape back then – we were still struggling to pay off our student loans and pay down our mortgage – we had health insurance. So during the three long days Sasha spent in the hospital, our only worry was about her health because we knew the bills would be covered. And fortunately, while her care must have been terribly expensive, it didn’t come anywhere near triggering her lifetime insurance caps.

The emphasis of the piece was the Affordable Care Act’s elimination of insurance cap limits set by companies and the now-illegal practice of denying coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions. In times past before the historic passing of the bill, families struggled to keep up with expensive premiums as a result of health conditions, such as asthma, cancer, or diabetes.
Additionally, the children of these working families remained on their parents’ coverage but eventually faced the looming specter of aging out. As the First Lady notes in her piece, the Affordable Care Act provides many safeguards against the detrimental insurance practices of the past. Now children can remain on their parents’ coverage until the age of 26.
Pre-existing conditions adding to higher costs are now a thing of the past, and there are no longer cap limits on insurance. Uninsured families can now visit HealthCare.gov and choose from a list of affordable plans; they may even qualify for assistance for the monthly premiums. Read First Lady Michelle Obama’s special op-ed here.
article by D.L. Chandler via newsone.com

Congress Passes Bipartisan Budget Agreement, Avoids Another Shutdown

By goodblacknews on December 18, 2013

The Capital is mirrored in the Capital Reflecting Pool on Capitol Hill in Washington early Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has sent President Barack Obama a modest, bipartisan budget pact designed to avert another U.S. government shutdown and ease the harshest effects of automatic budget cuts.  Obama’s signature was assured on the measure, which lawmakers in both parties and at opposite ends of the Capitol said they hoped would curb budget brinkmanship and prevent more shutdowns in the near future.  The final vote on the measure was 64-36 in the Senate. The House approved the bill last week.
The product of intensive year-end talks, the measure met the short-term political needs of Republicans, Democrats and the White House.  As a result, there was no suspense about the outcome of the vote in the Senate — only about fallout in the 2014 elections and, more immediately, its impact on future congressional disputes over spending and the nation’s debt limit.
The measure will restore $45 billion, half the amount scheduled to be automatically cut from the 2014 operating budgets of the Pentagon and some domestic agencies, lifting them above $1 trillion. An additional $18 billion for 2015 would provide enough relief to essentially freeze spending at those levels for the year.  The budget deal marks a modest accomplishment for the divided and often dysfunctional Congress.

Stanley Wrice, Wrongfully Imprisoned for 30 Years, Freed in Chicago Police Torture Saga

By goodblacknews on December 12, 2013

Stanley Wrice, center, convicted of rape and sentenced to 100 years in prison in 1982, speaks to the media with his lawyer Heidi Linn Lambros , left, and his daughter, Gail Lewis, as he leaves Pontiac Correctional Center Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013 in Pontiac, Ill. Wrice was released after serving more than 30 years in prison when a Cook County Judge overturned his conviction the day before and granted him a new trial. Wrice has claimed for decades he was beaten and coerced into confessing to the rape by Chicago police Area 2 detectives working for disgraced former Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge. Burge himself, is now in federal prison after being convicted of perjury related to torture allegations. Judge Richard Walsh's ruling comes after the officers working for Lt. Burge who Wrice says beat him, invoked their right not to testify. (AP Photos/M. Spencer Green)
Stanley Wrice, center, convicted of rape and sentenced to 100 years in prison in 1982, speaks to the media with his lawyer Heidi Linn Lambros, left, and his daughter, Gail Lewis, as he leaves Pontiac Correctional Center Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. Wrice was released after serving more than 30 years in prison when a Cook County Judge overturned his conviction the day before and granted him a new trial. (AP Photos/M. Spencer Green)

PONTIAC, Ill. (AP) — During his more than 30 years behind bars, Stanley Wrice insisted he was innocent, that Chicago police had beat him until he confessed to a rape he didn’t commit. On Wednesday, he walked out of an Illinois prison a free man, thanks to a judge’s order that served as a reminder that one of the darkest chapters in the city’s history is far from over.
“It’s just an overwhelming feeling of joy, happiness that finally it’s over,” said Wrice, who was greeted by his two daughters, his attorneys, and other supporters. He wore sweat pants, a dark jacket and baseball cap and carried a cardboard box filled with letters, photographs and legal papers – all of his possessions after three decades in prison.
Wrice, who was sentenced to 100 years behind bars for a 1982 sexual assault, is among more than two dozen inmates – most of them black men – who have alleged they were tortured by officers under the command of disgraced former Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge in a scandal that gave the nation’s third-largest city a reputation as haven for rogue cops and helped lead to the clearing of Illinois’ death row. Some of the prisoners have been freed; some are still behind bars, hoping to get the kind of hearing that Wrice got that eventually led to his freedom.

Surprise! Obamacare Now Projected To Cost Hundreds Of Billions Less Than Expected

By goodblacknews on December 3, 2013
We Love ObamacareAmidst 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 Reveals $100 Million HIV Research Initiative

By goodblacknews on December 2, 2013
President Barack Obam speaking at a world AIDS Day event.
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.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-reveals-100-million-hiv-research-initiative-article-1.1535029#ixzz2mMTuYNtO