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Y.M.C.A. Adopts Michelle Obama's Recommended Health Policies for Youth

By goodblacknews on November 29, 2011

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Michelle Obama, with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a Y.M.C.A. event last year, has worked with the Y to develop health standards for its youth programs.

By 
WASHINGTON — The Y.M.C.A., one of the nation’s largest child-care providers, intends to announce Wednesday that it is adopting new “healthy living standards,” including offering fruits, vegetables and water at snack time, increasing the amount of exercise and limiting video games and television for youngsters in its programs.  The guidelines grow out of discussions the Y has been having with Michelle Obama, the first lady, and thePartnership for a Healthier America, a year-old nonprofit group dedicated to supporting Mrs. Obama’s campaign to reduce childhood obesity. The first lady will join Y officials for the announcement.
Roughly 700,000 youngsters are enrolled in early childhood, after-school and summer programs at 10,000 Y chapters around the country, and the organization has a broad reach into the lives of American families. Independent experts and White House officials say they hope the Y’s move will serve as a model for other day-care providers.
“The difference between kids getting a sugary beverage and an unhealthy snack versus water and an apple can change a kid’s life, if that’s what they are eating day in and day out after school,” said Sam Kass, Mrs. Obama’s top food policy adviser. “The Y sets a standard.”
The standards, however, will be voluntary; Neil Nicoll, president and chief executive of the Y.M.C.A. of the U.S.A., said the national organization could not impose them on chapters. But Mr. Nicoll said that they had been developed in consultation with Y leaders around the country, and that he expected 85 percent of chapters to comply.
“We don’t anticipate a lot of pushback,” he said. “We find that once kids get into healthy habits of eating carrots instead of cookies and being physically active instead of sitting in front of the screen, they go with the flow pretty easily.”
Specifically, the Y is urging its chapters to serve fruits and vegetables at each meal, and to offer water instead of juice. For young children, the guidelines call for 15 minutes of exercise per hour, no more than 60 minutes per day of screen time for 2- to 5-year-olds, and no screen time for children under 2. Older children would have 60 minutes a day of physical activity, and no access to television or movies. Digital devices would be used only for homework or programs that promote physical activity.
Mr. Nicoll estimates the changes will cost 50 cents per child per day; he said the Y was working with food vendors to help chapters buy discounted fruits and vegetables. It has also pledged an independent evaluation of the program’s effectiveness.
“The early childhood and youth development fields need more evidence of what works to prevent and treat obesity in children and adults,” said Carol Emig, president of Child Trends, a research organization not affiliated with the Y. “Hopefully, the Y experience will produce such evidence.”
The Y is the latest in a string of companies and organizations, including Wal-Mart and Walgreens, to sign onto Mrs. Obama’s initiative. This year, Bright Horizons, a company that provides day care to about 70,000 children, agreed to standards similar to those adopted by the Y.
The Partnership for a Healthier America, financed by philanthropies like the Kaiser Permanente and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations, was founded to work with the private sector, and to ensure that Mrs. Obama’s initiative continues beyond her White House tenure. The Y will unveil its program at the partnership’s first conference; Mrs. Obama will be the keynote speaker.
“One in three kids are overweight or obese,” said Lawrence A. Soler, the partnership’s chief executive. “We are not going to be able to solve this problem in one or two presidential administrations.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 30, 2011
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the source of funding for the Partnership for a Healthier America. It was financed in part by the Kaiser Permanente Foundation, not Kaiser Permanente.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Wins 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

By goodblacknews on October 7, 2011
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Wins 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

Women’s rights activists share 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. (Getty)

CNN is reporting that three women’s rights activists have received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize award. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and activist Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, along with activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, were awarded the prize “for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and forwomen’s rights to full participation in peace-building work,” the Nobel committee said.
“We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.”
Jan Egeland of Human Rights Watch told CNN that the Nobel committee had come up with a great prize that merged the efforts of Liberian women in achieving “momentous change” in their country with the vital role of women in the ongoing Arab Spring movement.
Rights group Amnesty International said the award would encourage women everywhere to continue fighting for their rights.
Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s 72-year-old president and Africa’s first elected female head of state, told CNN she was very excited about the prize, which she said was shared by all of her country’s people.
“I’m accepting this on behalf of the Liberian people, so credit goes to them,” she said. “For the past eight years, we have had peace, and each and every one of them has contributed to this peace.”
She said the peace that had ended 14 years of civil war should be attributed to the country’s women.
Congratulations to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state; Leymah Gbowee; and Tawakkul Karman for not only talking the talk but also walking the walk. The only thing more wonderful than when words and deeds match up is being acknowledged and honored for it.
Read more at CNN.

US Army Selects First Black Female Two-Star General

By goodblacknews on September 30, 2011
marcia-anderson_US_Govt.jpg

Already the highest-ranking African-American female in the U.S. Army, Gen. Marcia Anderson’s recent promotion to the rank of major general makes her the first black woman to hold the title in the history of the military branch.
Anderson formerly served as a deputy-commanding general of the human resources command in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Now in the third highest-ranking position in the army, Gen. Anderson will now be stationed at the office of the chief of the U.S. Army Reserve in Washington, D.C.
The 30-year vet spoke to the Associated Press following her promotion. In her interview, the general spoke of the limited opportunities available for blacks prior to and the immediate years following World War II that affected many African-Americans, including her father.
“This is for people like him who had dreams deferred,” Anderson to the AP referring to her father’s failed dream of flying bombers during his time in the military. Her dad drove trucks instead because of the narrow opportunities for blacks at the time.
Anderson assumed her new post on September 30 in Washington, D.C.

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By goodblacknews on August 22, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tourists and Washingtonians were about to get their first up-close look Monday at the memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The site was set to open without fanfare around 11 a.m. to kick off a week of celebrations ahead of Sunday’s official dedication. About 20 people had lined up outside the site by late morning on what was a warm and sunny day.
Pamela M. Cross, 53, a cybersecurity professional from Washington, said she usually passes by the memorial on her morning walk around the National Mall and was excited to be able to see it up close.
Cross said her father, a postal worker, attended the march on Washington in 1963. She said King’s message continues to resonate.
“The way the country is right now, it’s good to remember his principles,” Cross said. “We are in need of jobs, we’re in need of equality, we’re in need of an economic vision that’s inclusive.”
The memorial sits on the National Mall near the Tidal Basin, between memorials honoring Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. It includes a 30-foot-tall sculpture of King and a 450-foot-long granite wall inscribed with 14 quotations from the civil rights leader.
The sheer size of the sculpture of King sets it apart from nearby statues of Jefferson and Lincoln, which are both about 20 feet tall, though inside larger monuments.
A panel of scholars chose the engraved quotations from speeches by King in Atlanta, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Montgomery, Ala., as well as from King’s books and his letter from a Birmingham, Ala., jail.
One of the stone engravings reads: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
The sculptor, Lei Yixin, said he wanted the memorial to be a visual representation of the ideals King spoke of in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
“His dream is very universal. It’s a dream of equality,” Lei said through his son, who translated from Mandarin. “He went to jail. He had been beaten, and he sacrificed his life for his dream. And now his dream comes true.”
The 30-foot sculpture depicts King with a stern expression, wearing a jacket and tie, his arms folded and clutching papers in his left hand. Lei said through his son that “you can see the hope” in King’s face, but that his serious demeanor also indicates that “he’s thinking.”
The statue depicts King emerging from a stone. The concept for the memorial was taken from a line in the “I Have a Dream” speech, which is carved into the stone: “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” Visitors to the memorial pass through a sculpture of the mountain of despair and come upon the stone of hope.
The National Mall site will be surrounded with cherry trees that will blossom in pink and white in the spring.
Sunday’s dedication ceremony will mark the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at the dedication.
via thegrio.com

Lakers’ Ron Artest Honored By LA County Board Of Supervisors

By goodblacknews on July 12, 2011

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest was honored Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for his work in raising awareness of mental health issues.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas recognized Artest for “his demonstrated courage in helping to erase the stigma
associated with mental health challenges.”
Artest’s goal, he said, is to let kids in particular know that there’s nothing shameful about seeking help when they need it.
“There’s nothing wrong with improving yourself … there’s nothing wrong with that,” Ridley-Thomas said.
Artest has appeared in public service announcements for the county and other organizations and raised $650,000 to support mental health programs by raffling off his 2010 NBA championship ring.
His advocacy earned him the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award presented by the Professional Basketball Writers Association.
The county’s director of mental health services, Marvin Southard, reinforced Artest’s message Tuesday, saying, “If you get the help, anything is possible.”
via cbslocal.com

Morgan Freeman honored with AFI Life Achievement Award

By goodblacknews on June 10, 2011

Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman accepted the American Film Institute’s 39th Life Achievement Award on a Sony Studios sound stage in Culver City on Thursday night, basking in 3 1/2 hours of film clips and tributes from Clint Eastwood, Tim Robbins, Forest Whitaker, Garth Brooks, Betty White and more.
“I’m proud to be an actor, although for this one night, you’ve made me feel like a star,” Freeman said.
The AFI celebration included clips of Freeman’s legendary films and early performances interspersed with recorded segments of Freeman and other actors and filmmakers reflecting on his career. And yes, his singing and dancing on public TV’s ’70s kids show “The Electric Company” was included.
Freeman blew Robbins a kiss when “The Shawshank Redemption” star said, “It was an honor being locked up with you, Morgan.”
Also on hand at the star-studded event, to name a few (and only a few): Helen Mirren, Samuel L. Jackson,Matthew McConaughey, Cuba Gooding Jr., Cary Elwes, Djimon Honsou, Kimora Lee Simmons and film critic Leonard Maltin.
“This is easy to take but hard to believe. Where I come from in Mississippi, they call this walking in high cotton,” he said. “For me, heaven has always been about acting in the movies.”
by Christie D’Zurilla via latimes.com

Dora Anne Council, 76, Graduates From Gateway Community College

By goodblacknews on May 30, 2011
After starting school 42 years ago, 76 -year-old Dora Anne Council finally walked across the stage to graduate from college.

 
Thursday was the graduation day a Hamden grandmother has been looking forward to for 42 years.  Dora Anne Council, 76, was among the 870 graduates to receive their diplomas at Gateway Community College Thursday night.

Photojournalist Honored For Soweto Uprising Image

By goodblacknews on April 27, 2011

Sam Nzima poses with his iconic photo of Hector Pieterson, a 13-year-old fatally shot by police during the 1976 Soweto Uprising, in South Africa on Wednesday.
Sam Nzima poses with his iconic photo of Hector Pieterson, a 13-year-old fatally shot by police during the 1976 Soweto Uprising, in South Africa on Wednesday. (Denis Farrell/Associated Press)
The man behind a searing image that helped shine an international spotlight on apartheid-era violence more than 30 years ago is being recognized in South Africa Wednesday.
South African President Jacob Zuma will pay tribute to former photojournalist Sam Nzima and bestow on him the Order of Ikhamanga, which celebrates citizens who excel in the arts, culture, journalism or sport.
Nzima, 75, is best known for his June 16, 1976 image of Hector Pieterson, a 13-year-old who was one of the first to die from police gunfire during the Soweto Uprising.
Working as a photojournalist for daily newspaper The World, Nzima was assigned to cover what he thought would be a peaceful demonstration by black students protesting an order that Afrikaans be an official language taught in non-white schools. An officer ordered the students to disperse and, when they began singing instead, the police began firing on the students.

Pronounced dead

Nzima witnessed a boy shot and picked up by another youth, who began to run away with the boy in his arms.
The photographer was able to snap six images of the scene before he and another newspaper colleague rushed the injured child to a clinic. There, the young Pieterson was pronounced dead. Hundreds of black students were killed in ensuing incidents across the nation.
Nzima had removed the film with the images of Pieterson and hid the roll — wisely because when he later encountered police, the officers forced him to expose the film inside his camera.
“A lot of people ask me, why didn’t I help Hector Pieterson?…It was not my duty. A journalist must do his job. My job is to take pictures,” Nzima said in an interview on Wednesday. “This picture was an eye-opener for the whole world.”
Facing police harassment and fearing for his life after the attention-grabbing images were published worldwide, Nzima decided to end his career as a photojournalist. He left Johannesburg for a small eastern town.

A symbol of the Soweto uprising

Over the years, his image has been included in exhibitions in the U.S. and across Europe. He was also invited to speak to students at a German school named for the slain Pieterson, who became a symbol of the Soweto Uprising.
“It has been 35 years now, but when I look at the picture, I still remember everything that happened on that day,” he said.
Nzima is being recognized alongside others receiving national honours on Wednesday, dubbed Freedom Day to mark the anniversary of the first democratic elections held in South Africa.

Man Freed After Twenty-Seven Years In Prison For Crimes He Didn’t Commit

By goodblacknews on March 23, 2011

By 

RICHMOND — After spending 27 years in prison for rapes and attacks prosecutors now say he did not commit, Thomas Haynesworth started a new life as a free man Monday.

At his mother’s cozy bungalow, where a spare bedroom has always waited for him, Haynesworth ate the Chinese takeout he had been craving — chicken fried rice for lunch. For the first time in his life, he placed a call on a cellphone. Two nieces he had just met crawled into his lap as he relaxed on a recliner in the living room.

It was his 46th birthday, and he was finally home.

“I’m just going to sit here and relax and spend time with my mother,” Haynesworth said.

Haynesworth was an 18-year-old high school dropout when was arrested as he walked to the market to buy sweet potatoes and bread for Sunday dinner. He told police they had the wrong man.

Now, nearly three decades later, Virginia Attorney General Ken T. Cuccinelli II and two prosecutors say they believe he was telling the truth. DNA and other evidence, they say, point to another attacker.

Haynesworth has his freedom, but he is still fighting to clear his name. He was released after Gov. Robert F. Mc­Don­nell (R) asked the parole board to review his case. The state of Virginia is supporting Haynesworth’s bid to have the Virginia Court of Appeals issue a “Writ of Actual Innocence.”

“I believe in Mr. Haynesworth’s innocence, and I will continue to work toward a complete vindication,” Cuccinelli said in a written statement.

Haynesworth said he will continue fighting for exoneration. He thinks the court “will see the truth,” he said.

But Monday was about celebrating and starting anew.

About 11:20 a.m., Haynesworth, wearing khaki pants and a button-down shirt, walked out of the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt carrying his television and a single garbage bag that held the rest of his belongings.

“He’s home,” his mother, Dolores Haynesworth, said as she tucked her arm around her son. “It’s still hard to believe. I’m holding him, but it’s still hard to believe.”

Haynesworth has never googled, used an ATM or traveled on an airplane. He doesn’t have a driver’s license. During nearly three decades behind bars, he was told when to eat, exercise and go to bed. He said he’s ready to catch up with a world he knows only from television and books.

But for starters, he craves simple things. He wants to sit on a porch, reconnect with old friends and enjoy some of his mother’s fried trout.

“It’s been a long journey,” Haynesworth said. “I just want to reflect and sit down and talk to my momma and eat a meal with her.”

Haynesworth was arrested on a February afternoon in 1984 when his mother sent him out to buy groceries. A woman who had been attacked days earlier saw Haynesworth and told a police officer he was the man.

Haynesworth, who had no criminal record, maintained from the start that he was innocent. But five women ultimately identified him as their attacker. He was convicted in three attacks and acquitted in one; one case was dropped.

In 2005, in the wake of the exonerations of five other wrongly convicted men, then-Virginia governor Mark R. Warner (D) ordered a sweeping review of thousands of criminal cases from 1973 through 1988. Haynesworth’s was among them.

Using technology that wasn’t available in the 1980s, authorities tested DNA collected from a January 1984 rape for which Haynesworth was convicted. The results cleared him and implicated a convicted rapist named Leon Davis.

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project took on Haynesworth’s case. DNA testing exonerated Haynesworth in a second rape in which he had been a suspect. Again, Davis was implicated.

Davis lived in the same neighborhood as Haynesworth. They resembled each other and have the same blood type.

Davis, who is jailed on other charges, has declined to be interviewed.

Haynesworth also was convicted in two attacks for which there is no genetic evidence. Prosecutors who have reexamined the cases are convinced he was wrongly convicted of those crimes, too.

Haynesworth said guards at the prison woke him up about 1 a.m. Monday to tell him he soon would be released. The other inmates gave him a birthday card that he brought home.

Hours later he was walking outside, hugging his mother and sisters. News photographers shot photos and reporters fired questions at him.

“Back in the hands of the people that love him,” a nephew said.

“I always believed this day would come,” Haynesworth said. “I didn’t think it would take 27 years.”

At home, he checked out his new bedroom and decided it would need some of his own touches. His mother’s dog, Stud, snapped at him. And he settled back in the easy chair as his mother prepared to whip up a dinner of scalloped potatoes, string beans and her son’s favorite trout.

“When we’re here tonight and it’s just the two of us, it will sink in,” she said.

 

Man Freed After Twenty-Seven Years In Prison For Crimes He Didn't Commit

By goodblacknews on March 23, 2011


By 

RICHMOND — After spending 27 years in prison for rapes and attacks prosecutors now say he did not commit, Thomas Haynesworth started a new life as a free man Monday.
At his mother’s cozy bungalow, where a spare bedroom has always waited for him, Haynesworth ate the Chinese takeout he had been craving — chicken fried rice for lunch. For the first time in his life, he placed a call on a cellphone. Two nieces he had just met crawled into his lap as he relaxed on a recliner in the living room.

It was his 46th birthday, and he was finally home.
“I’m just going to sit here and relax and spend time with my mother,” Haynesworth said.
Haynesworth was an 18-year-old high school dropout when was arrested as he walked to the market to buy sweet potatoes and bread for Sunday dinner. He told police they had the wrong man.
Now, nearly three decades later, Virginia Attorney General Ken T. Cuccinelli II and two prosecutors say they believe he was telling the truth. DNA and other evidence, they say, point to another attacker.
Haynesworth has his freedom, but he is still fighting to clear his name. He was released after Gov. Robert F. Mc­Don­nell (R) asked the parole board to review his case. The state of Virginia is supporting Haynesworth’s bid to have the Virginia Court of Appeals issue a “Writ of Actual Innocence.”
“I believe in Mr. Haynesworth’s innocence, and I will continue to work toward a complete vindication,” Cuccinelli said in a written statement.
Haynesworth said he will continue fighting for exoneration. He thinks the court “will see the truth,” he said.
But Monday was about celebrating and starting anew.
About 11:20 a.m., Haynesworth, wearing khaki pants and a button-down shirt, walked out of the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt carrying his television and a single garbage bag that held the rest of his belongings.
“He’s home,” his mother, Dolores Haynesworth, said as she tucked her arm around her son. “It’s still hard to believe. I’m holding him, but it’s still hard to believe.”
Haynesworth has never googled, used an ATM or traveled on an airplane. He doesn’t have a driver’s license. During nearly three decades behind bars, he was told when to eat, exercise and go to bed. He said he’s ready to catch up with a world he knows only from television and books.
But for starters, he craves simple things. He wants to sit on a porch, reconnect with old friends and enjoy some of his mother’s fried trout.
“It’s been a long journey,” Haynesworth said. “I just want to reflect and sit down and talk to my momma and eat a meal with her.”
Haynesworth was arrested on a February afternoon in 1984 when his mother sent him out to buy groceries. A woman who had been attacked days earlier saw Haynesworth and told a police officer he was the man.
Haynesworth, who had no criminal record, maintained from the start that he was innocent. But five women ultimately identified him as their attacker. He was convicted in three attacks and acquitted in one; one case was dropped.
In 2005, in the wake of the exonerations of five other wrongly convicted men, then-Virginia governor Mark R. Warner (D) ordered a sweeping review of thousands of criminal cases from 1973 through 1988. Haynesworth’s was among them.
Using technology that wasn’t available in the 1980s, authorities tested DNA collected from a January 1984 rape for which Haynesworth was convicted. The results cleared him and implicated a convicted rapist named Leon Davis.
The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project took on Haynesworth’s case. DNA testing exonerated Haynesworth in a second rape in which he had been a suspect. Again, Davis was implicated.
Davis lived in the same neighborhood as Haynesworth. They resembled each other and have the same blood type.
Davis, who is jailed on other charges, has declined to be interviewed.
Haynesworth also was convicted in two attacks for which there is no genetic evidence. Prosecutors who have reexamined the cases are convinced he was wrongly convicted of those crimes, too.
Haynesworth said guards at the prison woke him up about 1 a.m. Monday to tell him he soon would be released. The other inmates gave him a birthday card that he brought home.
Hours later he was walking outside, hugging his mother and sisters. News photographers shot photos and reporters fired questions at him.
“Back in the hands of the people that love him,” a nephew said.
“I always believed this day would come,” Haynesworth said. “I didn’t think it would take 27 years.”
At home, he checked out his new bedroom and decided it would need some of his own touches. His mother’s dog, Stud, snapped at him. And he settled back in the easy chair as his mother prepared to whip up a dinner of scalloped potatoes, string beans and her son’s favorite trout.
“When we’re here tonight and it’s just the two of us, it will sink in,” she said.