Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama signed a sweeping overhaul of child nutrition standards Monday, enacting a law meant to encourage better eating habits in part by giving the federal government more authority to set standards for food sold in vending machines and elsewhere on school grounds.
Among other things, the $4.5 billion measure provides more money to poor areas to subsidize free meals and requires schools to abide by health guidelines drafted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To help offset the higher cost of including more fruits and vegetables, the bill increases the reimbursement rate for school lunches.
The bill is about “giving our kids the healthy futures they deserve,” the president said during a bill signing ceremony at a Washington elementary school. “Right now across the country too many kids don’t have access to school meals.”
Even when they do, he added, too often the meals aren’t sufficiently nutritious. As a result, he said, one out of every three children in America is overweight or obese.
Some Democrats had objected to the bill because it is funded in part by stripping $2.2 billion from the federal food stamp program. Congress also voted over the summer to take money from the program to fund legislation sending money to cash-strapped states to avoid teacher layoffs.
The cuts largely negate a spending increase provided to the food stamp program by the 2009 economic stimulus plan. Administration officials reportedly have promised anxious liberals that they will work to find ways to restore the higher funding levels.
The measure has been a top priority for first lady Michelle Obama, who has championed it as part of her “Let’s Move” initiative to combat child obesity in the United States.
“Had I not been able to get this bill passed, I would be sleeping on the couch,” the president joked shortly before signing the measure into law.
“We won’t go into that,” the first lady said. “Let’s just say it got done. Don’t have to go down that road.”
Good Black News
Braun to Run for Chicago Mayor
CHICAGO (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun kicked off her campaign for Chicago mayor Saturday by reintroducing herself to voters, some of whom weren’t even born when she last won election in 1992. Braun, who runs an organic food company, was the last of six major candidates to formally declare her candidacy to replace retiring Mayor Richard Daley, who has presided over the city for more than 20 years but announced in September that he wouldn’t seek a seventh term. The former senator joins a race that includes former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. “While the city has many challenges: creating jobs, balancing our budget, fixing our schools, protecting our seniors and our children and making our government more accountable to the people, I stand before you today in the fervent belief that there is no city in this country better positioned for progress and opportunity for all its citizens than Chicago,” Braun told more than 100 supporters at an outdoor rally on Chicago’s lakefront with the skyline as her backdrop. The 63-year-old Braun made history when she was elected in 1992 as the first black woman in the U.S. Senate. She lost a re-election bid in 1998 and was later named ambassador to New Zealand. Braun also ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. She is hoping voters will be attracted to her breadth of government experience. Before winning the 1992 Senate race for the seat President Barack Obama later went on to hold, Braun served as an Illinois state lawmaker and Cook County government official. In the mayor’s race, Braun will likely have to address some past miscues that raised questions about her judgment, including a highly criticized visit with a brutal Nigerian dictator when she was a senator and never-proven accusations about misused campaign money.
Braun is counting on her business experience running a small company that specializes in coffee, tea and spices to be a plus with voters. She said she’s had to work hard to weather the recession that battered businesses, both big and small. In her attempt at a political comeback, Braun has the backing of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, who said he was friends with Emanuel and the other two major black candidates in the race, state Sen. James Meeks and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis. In fact, Rush said he “loved” Davis. “But you know what? This election is not about friendship, it’s about leadership,” Rush bellowed into a microphone, revving up Braun’s supporters. A group of black leaders tried to prevent splitting black votes in the Feb. 22 mayor’s race by picking Davis as their preferred candidate over other finalists, including Meeks and Braun. Braun singled out Emanuel during her announcement speech, taking him to task over a TV commercial that says people must decide whether Chicago will become a “second-tier” city. Braun said Chicago can’t just be great for people who live in the “right neighborhoods.” “Let me tell you something about us: Chicago will always be a great city because its people will tolerate nothing less,” she said. Other major declared candidates in the mayor’s race are Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle and former Chicago school board president Gery Chico.
Washington (CNN) — The U.S. Senate approved a $1.15 billion measure Friday to fund a settlement initially reached between the Agriculture Department and minority farmers more than a decade ago. The 1997 Pigford v. Glickman case against the U.S. Agriculture Department was settled out of court 11 years ago. Under a federal judge’s terms dating to 1999, qualified farmers could receive $50,000 each to settle claims of racial bias. “This is much long overdue justice for black farmers,” said John Boyd, founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association.
President Barack Obama issued a statement applauding the Senate’s decision and urging the House to follow-up on its efforts earlier this year, so he can sign the settlements into law. Officials are still working to resolve similar discrimination lawsuits filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture by women and Latino farmers, according to Obama. “While these legislative achievements reflect important progress, they also serve to remind us that much work remains to be done,” Obama said. In another statement, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called the settlements “a major milestone in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s efforts to turn the page on a sad chapter.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, also said the vote gives “long-suffering Americans … the closure that they deserve.” “The agreement that we reached shows what can happen when Democrats and Republicans come together to do the right thing,” he said. The measure was approved by unanimous consent. The Senate also cleared — in the same piece of legislation — $3.4 billion to fund a separate settlement reached with the Department of Interior for mishandling of a trust fund managed for Native Americans. The bill also includes settlements for four water-right lawsuits filed by Native American tribes.
In July, the House approved a war supplemental bill that included money to pay for the settlements. At the time, however, the Senate failed to approve the measure. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, dropped an objection to the package this week after Senate leaders agreed not to finance it through additional deficit spending. Prominent members of both parties have voiced support for paying out the settlements. The measure will now have to be approved by the lame duck House before moving to Obama’s desk to be signed into law.
CNN’s Ted Barrett and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.
Poet Maya Angelou and civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga, are among the 2010 winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. President Barack Obama will present the awards to them and the other thirteen honorees early next year, the White House announced Wednesday. Other winners include President H.W. Bush, investor Warren Buffett, plus St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan “The Man” Musial, Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Obama’s bipartisan gesture in picking the first President Bush for the honor is not unprecedented. Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, awarded a Medal of Freedom to former Republican President Gerald Ford.
“These outstanding honorees come from a broad range of backgrounds and they’ve excelled in a broad range of fields, but all of them have lived extraordinary lives that have inspired us, enriched our culture, and made our country and our world a better place,” Obama said. “I look forward to awarding them this honor.” The medal is presented to people who have made notable contributions to U.S. interests, from cultural achievements to security matters. The full list of winners:
–George H.W. Bush was America’s 41st president, and previously vice president and CIA director. He also worked with Clinton to raise money for victims Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
–Merkel is the first woman and first East German to serve as chancellor of a unified Germany.
–Musial is a Hall of Fame first baseman who played 22 seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals.
–Russell is the former captain of the Boston Celtics and first black man to become an NBA head coach.
–Yo-Yo Ma is a world renowned cellist who has won 16 Grammy awards and is known for his interpretations of Bach and Beethoven. He played at Obama’s inauguration.
–Lewis served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helped organize the first lunch-counter sit-in. In 1965 he led the Selma-to-Montgomery, Ala., march for voting rights and was brutally beaten along with others in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
–Buffett, chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, is a famed investor known as the “Oracle of Omaha” for his prescient business sense. He is also a generous philanthropist.
–Angelou is a prominent poet, educator, filmmaker, producer and civil rights activist.
— Jasper Johns, an American artist whose work has dealt with themes of perception and identity. He is considered a major influence on pop, minimal and conceptual art.
–Gerda Weissmann Klein, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who founded Citizenship Counts, an organization that teaches students to cherish the value of their American citizenship.
–Dr. Tom Little, an optometrist murdered last August by the Taliban in Afghanistan as he and nine others returned from a mission to provide eye care in the Parun valley of Nuristan. The award is being given posthumously to Little.
–Sylvia Mendez, a civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent.
–Jean Kennedy Smith, a Kennedy family member who served as U.S. ambassador to Ireland and is the founder of VSA, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that promotes the artistic talents of children and adults with disabilities.
–John Sweeney, AFL-CIO president from 1995-2009.
–John H. Adams, who in 1970 co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council, a prominent environmental advocacy group.
article content via Associated Press and businessweek.com
via todaysdrum.com
Stackhouse, 16, a high school junior, has been playing in AJGA tournaments for the past four years and built a notable resume over that time by collecting 12 top-10 finishes. Because of her example on and off the course, Stackhouse has been chosen as the first African-American in this position. Already a role model from her playing career, she will now be given the opportunity to step into an even greater leadership position. “It is something that represents my entire body of work,” Stackhouse said. “It lets other people see that I’ve worked very hard to get to this point, yet I was still humble about it and it’s nice to be recognized. I always looked up to the player representatives and thought it would be really cool. When Mr. Hamblin called and asked me, I considered it such a blessing.”
Read more: http://www.worldgolf.com/newswire/browse/65200-Mariah-Stackhouse-Trey-Kaahanu…
VH1 can’t get enough ‘Single Ladies’
Queen Latifah project expands from film to series
By JON WEISMAN
VH1 has decided to go steady with “Single Ladies,” taking the original film exec produced by Queen Latifah and expanding it into a weekly scripted dramedy series, the network’s first. Starring Stacey Dash, LisaRaye McCoy and Charity Shea as the title characters, the “Single Ladies” pic will now become the premiere of the series, launching in July 2011. Eight ensuing episodes have been ordered. “It’s a great swing for us to take, and one we’re really excited about taking,” VH1 exec veep of original programming and production Jeff Olde said. “We are developing other scripted projects that we feel are traveling a lane that would be complementary to this. … (but) this is really our focus, and I think it’s going to be a really easy shift for our audience.”
Set in Atlanta, the “Single Ladies” pic completed filming this summer, with the series now scheduled to begin shooting before the end of the year. DB Woodside is part of the principal cast, with Latifah now scheduled to make a guest appearance in the series. Lauren London, Eve, Common, Chili, and Kim Porter also appear in the film. Speculation that the film could serve as a backdoor pilot began nearly a year ago (Daily Variety, Feb. 5). Olde said that VH1 was prepared to hold off on its series order until after the film premiered next summer, but reaction to the film and its characters was so positive in test screenings that the network felt confident moving forward. “As we started showing it around, (viewers) would actually be mad at us if we just showed the movie,” Olde said. “That was the thing we kept hearing: ‘What happened next?’ “
Shakim Compere and Shelby Stone are exec producing with Latifah for Flavor Unit Entertainment, alongside fellow exec producers Maggie Malina, Stacy Littlejohn and Tamra Davis. Davis directed Littlejohn’s script. “My partner Shakim and I are excited to collaborate with VH1, as they have a similar vision on how to bring this show to life,” Latifah said. “I think ‘Single Ladies’ will really fill a hole in what is needed on television today.”
Read more: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118025884.html?categoryid=4027&cs=1#ixzz12r755PPF
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VH1 can’t get enough ‘Single Ladies’
Queen Latifah project expands from film to series
By JON WEISMAN
VH1 has decided to go steady with “Single Ladies,” taking the original film exec produced by Queen Latifah and expanding it into a weekly scripted dramedy series, the network’s first. Starring Stacey Dash, LisaRaye McCoy and Charity Shea as the title characters, the “Single Ladies” pic will now become the premiere of the series, launching in July 2011. Eight ensuing episodes have been ordered. “It’s a great swing for us to take, and one we’re really excited about taking,” VH1 exec veep of original programming and production Jeff Olde said. “We are developing other scripted projects that we feel are traveling a lane that would be complementary to this. … (but) this is really our focus, and I think it’s going to be a really easy shift for our audience.”
Set in Atlanta, the “Single Ladies” pic completed filming this summer, with the series now scheduled to begin shooting before the end of the year. DB Woodside is part of the principal cast, with Latifah now scheduled to make a guest appearance in the series. Lauren London, Eve, Common, Chili, and Kim Porter also appear in the film. Speculation that the film could serve as a backdoor pilot began nearly a year ago (Daily Variety, Feb. 5). Olde said that VH1 was prepared to hold off on its series order until after the film premiered next summer, but reaction to the film and its characters was so positive in test screenings that the network felt confident moving forward. “As we started showing it around, (viewers) would actually be mad at us if we just showed the movie,” Olde said. “That was the thing we kept hearing: ‘What happened next?’ “
Shakim Compere and Shelby Stone are exec producing with Latifah for Flavor Unit Entertainment, alongside fellow exec producers Maggie Malina, Stacy Littlejohn and Tamra Davis. Davis directed Littlejohn’s script. “My partner Shakim and I are excited to collaborate with VH1, as they have a similar vision on how to bring this show to life,” Latifah said. “I think ‘Single Ladies’ will really fill a hole in what is needed on television today.”
Read more: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118025884.html?categoryid=4027&cs=1#ixzz12r755PPF
Visit Variety.com to become a Variety subscriber.
Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu talks during a press conference in Cape Town, South Africa, July 22, 2010. (AP Photo)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a “moral titan” who will be missed as he formally retires from public life Thursday on his 79th birthday. Obama says the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been a voice of principle, an unrelenting champion of justice and a dedicated peacemaker. Tutu played a pivotal role in South Africa’s struggle against apartheid, the now-abolished system of white-minority rule. He also has advocated freedom and justice worldwide, supported gay rights and pushed for treatment programs to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Tutu announced this year that he would retire on his birthday, Oct. 7, to spend more time with his family.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
By WILL CONNORS
Jane Hahn for The Wall Street JournalObama biscuits are wrapped at the United Biscuit factory in Ghana.
ACCRA, Ghana—The expansion of a small cookie factory on this city’s outskirts offers a glimpse of how Obamamania in Africa is developing from a fad into a lasting brand for local companies across the continent, even as the U.S. president’s popularity takes a hit at home. Marc Skaf, a portly man of Lebanese-French stock, is the managing director of United Biscuit Ltd., maker of the “Obama biscuit.” Mr. Skaf is overseeing the expansion of the company’s main factory, which during peak production churns out 2.8 million biscuits a day. The Obama biscuit accounts for about 60% of current production. The round cookie stamped with the company’s logo comes in regular, ginger flavor and the latest, ChocObama. Its package bears an image of Mr. Obama, and can be found in small roadside shops across Ghana.
Obama Cookies Find Sweet Spot in Ghana
Many in Africa consider Mr. Obama, whose father was Kenyan, one of their own. During his visit to Ghana in July 2009, thousands of spectators wearing T-shirts or traditional fabric bearing the president’s image lined the streets to catch a glimpse of his motorcade. That popularity inspired African entrepreneurs. In the months surrounding Mr. Obama’s Ghana visit, hundreds of shops, bars, restaurants and hotels across the continent adopted the Obama name. Dozens of companies put Obama on their products, including bottled water, bubble gum and beer. A year later, many of these products are still selling well, highlighting an African consumer trend that could be termed “brand Obama.” This summer, Mr. Skaf noticed that a Chinese company had begun exporting Obama crackers to Ghana from China. Mr. Skaf says he has plans to release his own Obama cracker soon. Requests to the White House to comment on the proliferation of Obama products in Africa went unanswered.
Obama biscuits are packaged to be sent out to stores.
KenAfric Industries Ltd., one of the biggest confectionery makers in Kenya, sells Magic Obama Bubblegum (strawberry and orange flavored). In Zambia you can buy Obama-branded whiskey and brandy. And in several countries, including semi-autonomous Somaliland, you can eat at the Obama Restaurant or the Obama Cafe. “There was a definite increase in sales around the time Obama announced his candidature,” says John Mwongera, head of sales at KenAfric Industries. Now, however, Mr. Mwongera says, sales of the Obama candies are “purely driven by the usual market forces and branding activities.”The Obama brand may be most developed in Ghana. In Accra, the capital, there is the Obama Hotel, where a portrait of the president hangs in the busy lobby; guests can stay in the Joe Biden room. On the road to the United Biscuit factory, travelers pass roadside artists; one is selling portraits of boxer Mike Tyson, an unidentified woman in a green bikini, and Mr. Obama, depicted in traditional Ghanaian dress. For five months after Mr. Obama’s Ghana visit, the United Biscuit factory produced only Obama biscuits. Demand eventually tapered off, and Obama biscuits now account for just 60% of the factory’s production.
Mr. Skaf, who has lived in West Africa for more than 20 years, still faces obstacles to further growth. The price of flour—which makes up more than two-thirds of each biscuit—went up 80% recently, without explanation from flour importers. But Mr. Skaf has big plans for the Obama biscuit. Expansion work on his factory is now almost complete. The company has hired additional staff to supplement the 250 he now employs. In August, he rolled out the newest flavor: ChocObama. He is planning another big push for the biscuits in November, as the holiday season rolls around, including an ad campaign—the company’s first.
“It’s the best idea I’ve ever had,” says Mr. Skaf. “In America he is not popular right now. The war, the economy, the oil spill. But here he’s still popular, and I don’t think that will be changing anytime soon.” While an August Gallup poll reported that a majority of Americans, 51%, disapproved of Mr. Obama’s performance as president, in Africa his name continues to be a good way for businesses to attract attention and customers. “Regardless of the status of President Obama’s popularity in the U.S., he continues to be enormously popular in Africa and his name and image are co-opted for many uses,” says David Easterbrook, curator of the Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University, which has been collecting publications and objects from Africa that use Mr. Obama’s name and image.
Despite the challenges, the Obama Biscuits brand is well-established in Ghana. Mr. Skaf introduces himself around town as the “guy who makes Obama biscuits.” His factory manager also has been given a nickname. “Every day on my drive to work people point and yell at me, ‘Obama!’ ” says United Biscuits manager Elie Abou Jaoude. “They don’t know my real name, so they call me Obama.”
—Each week, Africa Dispatch takes a snapshot of a different African place, offering a ground-level view of change on the continent.
via online.wsj.com
via guardian.co.uk
By now Achieng Ajulu-Bushell has got used to the questions. Since April she has had to. That was the month when it all kicked off. At Ponds Forge in Sheffield she won both the 50 metres and the 100m breaststroke titles at the British championships. Some feat for a 16-year-old. But the press did not want to talk only about her age or her talent, it is the colour of her skin that has been attracting all the attention. Ajulu-Bushell is of mixed race, the daughter of an English mother and a Kenyan father. When she competed at the European championships in Budapest last August, she became the first black woman ever to swim for Britain. The year before she had been representing Kenya at the world championships, but she decided to switch nationalities at the start of 2010.
Some have been predictably quick to claim that Ajulu-Bushell is living refutation of the ugly old assertion that black Africans cannot swim at the top level. “It’s pretty crazy,” she says of all the coverage she has received. “I still don’t really understand it. It is an honour, the whole history of it, but it doesn’t really feel any different.” Before the championships in Budapest it was pointed out to her again and again that no black African had ever won an international title. After Budapest that was still true – she had a terrible competition, knocked out in the heats of the 50m and failing to make the final of the 100m. The pressure got to her and understandably so – it was only a month before that she was finishing her GCSEs. The Commonwealth Games will be her first major meet since, and her first chance to make amends.
Those who fixate on Ajulu-Bushell’s colour miss the point. Her story is so much more than skin deep. Her father is Rok Ajulu, a prominent politics professor who now lives in South Africa. Ajulu was expelled from Kenya in the 1990s because of his active opposition to the repressive regime of the then president, Daniel arap Moi. Living in exile in England Ajulu met Helen Bushell. Their relationship did not last long, but Achieng was born in Warrington early in 1994. The next year the mother and daughter moved to Africa so Helen could pursue her aid work. Achieng’s first birthday was in Britain, her second in Malawi, her third in Uganda and her fourth in Kenya.
“I learned to swim when I was four years old,” Ajulu-Bushell remembers. “I went in with a dinghy, a rubber ring, armbands and I wouldn’t let my mum let go of me. I don’t really know how it started. I did my first competition at school when I was about six years old, a 25-metre freestyle.” At that age her school teacher, who had swum for South Africa herself, was already predicting that Ajulu-Bushell would be a star swimmer. As was the girl herself. Helen Bushell remembers the six-year-old Achieng drawing crayon pictures of herself winning her first Olympic medals. “I got into it seriously when we moved to South Africa,” Achieng says. “Then when we settled in Kenya it was like ‘Well, I’m either going to carry on swimming or give it up, because obviously there aren’t the facilities to do it.'” She wanted to continue, and so moved back here to take up a place at Plymouth college, where she was in the same class as Tom Daley.
Eventually she switched nationalities, too. The Kenyan federation understood her move, and gave permission for her qualification to be fast-tracked. “That was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do,” she says. “It wasn’t a decision I really wanted to make. It was a lot of stress and pressure which I didn’t really want. But you can only have one sporting nationality. I was born in England, my mum lived in England and the support British swimming gives me is amazing.” These days her ambitions stretch a long way beyond the swimming pool. She is applying to study politics, philosophy and economics at university. During the pre-Games camp in Qatar she was taking time out from training to write an A-level essay on the merits of constitutional versus unwritten law. The girl, you would guess, is going places. And not just in the pool.