Denzel Washington and Maya Angelou are ranked in the top 10 on the new Reader’s Digest Trust Poll: The 100 Most Trusted People in America, ranking third and fifth respectively.
RD, with the help of The Wagner Group, polled over 1,000 Americans to see which celebrities and “the ideals they represent have earned our confidence.”
Reader’s Digest editor-in-chief Liz Vaccariello said in a press release: “The poll results were fascinating, fun and shocking.” Topping the list is actor Tom Hanks.
Good Morning America host Robin Roberts is America’s “Most Trusted” woman in TV, ranking at number 12.
The list also includes: First Lady Michelle Obama, former NFL coach Tony Dungy, Muhammad Ali, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, President Barack Obama, and Steve Harvey, just to name a few.
Click here to view the full list of the “100 Most Trusted People in America.”
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com
Good Black News
Music TV network Fuse is making its first foray into scripted programming with The Hustle, which will premiere June 19 at 11PM. The six episode, half-hour dramedy is in the vein of Entourage set in the hip hop world and centers on aspiring artists trying to break into the business. It is produced by Alloy Digital-owned Generate. The Hustle will be joined by a companion after-show, The Hustle After Party, which will be taped in front of a studio audience in Fuse’s street-front studio on 7th Avenue in New York City. Hosted by Esteban Serrano (host of Fuse’s Top 20 Countdown), The Hustle After Party will feature interviews and performances with hip hop stars, along with discussions with industry experts and appearances by the cast.
WWE and Sean “Diddy” Combs today unveiled a new global anti-bullying public service announcement encouraging kids to stand up to bullying. It will begin airing tonight during Monday Night Raw.
“Bullying is a very serious issue and needs to stop now,” says Diddy in the release. In the video, he says, “In this digital age sometimes it just doesn’t stop when the days end. … If it’s not you being bullied, help someone who is. … Stand up to bullying.”
The music mogul will serve as an ambassador for Be a Star, the anti-bullying initiative co-founded by WWE and The Creative Coalition to encourage young people to treat each other with tolerance and respect.
Combs is also trying to encourage an end to bullying with his Invisible Bully clothing line. The motto there: “The mind is the most powerful tool you possess. Thoughts are invisible and only those that believe in the invisible can achieve the impossible. The dream is real if you believe.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Pr1XMJUDw&w=560&h=315]
article by Ann Oldenburg via usatoday.com
The road to one of this country’s leading historically Black colleges was not a walk in the park for the girls; they worked hard to maintain their high grade point averages in high school. According to Kirstie Bonner, who spoke with WSB-TV, “Before we came to college, we prayed that we would keep 4.0′s all the way through, but I don’t think we ever really expected it.”
But apparently there is strength in numbers, and as sisters who have traveled along the same path, sharing the same educational goals for success, the young women seemed to fuel each other, as evidenced by their noteworthy standing at Spelman, “You can have strength together,” Kristie points out.
When the young women arrived at the Atlanta college, they said they really pushed themselves to the limit to maintain excellent grades, even making themselves physically ill. Eventually, both Kirstie and Kristie learned from their mistakes, self-corrected, and managed their college workload in a way that would not negatively affect their health.
But apparently there is strength in numbers, and as sisters who have traveled along the same path, sharing the same educational goals for success, the young women seemed to fuel each other, as evidenced by their noteworthy standing at Spelman, “You can have strength together,” Kristie points out.
When the young women arrived at the Atlanta college, they said they really pushed themselves to the limit to maintain excellent grades, even making themselves physically ill. Eventually, both Kirstie and Kristie learned from their mistakes, self-corrected, and managed their college workload in a way that would not negatively affect their health.
The new Broadway production of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful,” featuring Emmy-winning stage and screen star Cicely Tyson, has extended its run at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. The production, which officially opened April 23, had been scheduled for a 14-week limited engagement through July 7. It has now extended an additional eight weeks and will continue through Sept. 1. “Bountiful” was recently nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Actress in a Play (Tyson), Best Featured Actress in a Play (Condola Rashad), Best Sound Design for a Play (John Gromada) and Best Revival of a Play.
The cast also includes Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (“Jerry Maguire,” “Red Tails”), Emmy Award nominee Vanessa Williams (“Ugly Betty,” “Desperate Housewives”), Rashad (Lifetime’s “Steel Magnolias,” Broadway’s Stick Fly), Tom Wopat, Devon Abner, Curtis Billings, Pat Bowie, Leon Addison Brown, Arthur French, Susan Heyward, Bill Kux, Linda Powell and Charles Turner. Michael Wilson directs.
View some behind-the-scenes vignettes below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1hZddQFHng&w=560&h=315]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW4CyhIrVlo&w=560&h=315]
article via eurweb.com
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5elloa4kOc&w=560&h=315]
On Monday, Charles Ramsey became a national hero. Ramsey is the next door neighbor to the three Castro brothers, who allegedly held three women captive in a Cleveland home for more than a decade. Ramsey says shortly after he’d returned home from McDonald’s on Monday, he heard “a girl going nuts” at the Castro house.
It was Amanda Berry. But Ramsey didn’t know who she was. He’d lived next door to the Castro brothers and barbequed with Ariel Castor in the back yard. But he’d never seen this young woman before. “She said help me get out,” he says. “I figured it was a domestic violence dispute,” he told The Associated Press. The door would only open a crack, so he told her to kick out the screen. “She comes out with a little girl and says ‘Call 911.’
The Obama administration is ramping up its plans to implement the so-called Obamacare health care law, with speeches from the president, new aides tasked with selling the law to the public and a broad push to get people to enroll for health insurance all coming in the next several months.
To lay the groundwork for the broader public, top administration officials are holding briefings with key members of the press and stakeholders. Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett recently met with more than 100 African-American leaders from across the country to talk about the law. President Obama is increasingly mentioning Obamacare in his speeches.
The White House has hired a special communications adviser, veteran Democratic strategist Tara McGuinness, to help rebut criticism of the law from both Republicans and increasingly some Democrats and improve public opinion about the Affordable Care Act.
Kerry Washington has landed the cover of Elle‘s June 2013 issue, making it the actress’ first major fashion mag cover. Washington poses in a sweet cardigan and plaid shorts by Marc Jacobs, with just a hint of a Carine Gilson Lingerie Couture bra peeking out. It shouldn’t be too surprising that Kerry’s scored a major cover — not only is she a Best-Dressed List regular with enviable red carpet style, but she also stars in TV’s hottest show, Scandal, and was part of the massively successful Django Unchained.
Yet with all that success, Kerry had yet to pose for a fashion magazine cover up till now. Women’s Health, Ebony, Essence, Vibe — plenty of non-fashion glossies have chosen Kerry for their covers. She even shared the cover of Elle‘s “Women in Hollywood” issue in December 2012. But the likes of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar eluded her. Until now.
article via huffingtonpost.com
In case you missed it last week, here is the inspiring story and performance of Camden, New Jersey’s drill team, the Camden Sophisticated Sisters, formed twenty-six years ago by Camden native and CNN Hero Tawanda “Wa-Wa” Jones, on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars”:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VARCjIF1zhY&w=560&h=315]If you’d like to help, donate or follow the Sophisticated Sisters, click here.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A year to the day after kicking off his victorious re-election campaign on this college campus, President Barack Obama returned to Ohio State University and told graduates that only through vigorous participation in their democracy can they right a poorly functioning government and break through relentless cynicism about the nation’s future.
“I dare you, Class of 2013, to do better. I dare you to dream bigger,” Obama said.
In a sunbaked stadium filled with more than 57,000 students, friends and relatives, Obama lamented an American political system that gets consumed by “small things” and works for the benefit of society’s elite. He called graduates to duty to “accomplish great things,” like rebuilding a still-feeble economy and fighting poverty and climate change.
“Only you can ultimately break that cycle. Only you can make sure the democracy you inherit is as good as we know it can be,” Obama told more than 10,000 cap-and-gown-clad graduates gathered for the rite of passage. “But it requires your dedicated, informed and engaged citizenship.”
The visit to Ohio State — the first of three commencement addresses Obama will give this season — was a homecoming of sorts for Obama, who has visited the campus five times over little more than a year, starting with his first official campaign rally here last May. He made many more stops elsewhere in Ohio as he and Republican Mitt Romney dueled for the Midwestern state which was pivotal to Obama’s victories in both 2008 and 2012.