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Kodak Settles Black/White Issue With Touch Of Green!

By goodblacknews on September 5, 2010
 

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A federal judge on Friday approved Eastman Kodak Co.’s $21.4 million offer to settle class-action lawsuits by black employees who maintained white counterparts were favored over them for pay and promotion.
http://www.thegrio.com/news/judge-oks-kodaks-settlement-of-race-based-lawsuit.php

Charter School In Cleveland Gets $1 Million Gift

By goodblacknews on August 30, 2010
Cliffs Natural Resources, formerly known as Cleveland Cliffs, made the substantial investment in Village Prep, an inner-city school with 180 kindergarteners and first graders.

“This is the most phenomenal thing that has ever happened to the organization,” said Village Prep founder John Zitzner. “It really allows us to keep moving forward in the right direction, to keep expanding, to keep adding more children.”
Village Prep, which started only one year ago, has a partner middle school, Entrepreneur Preparatory School, or E-Prep, which was founded in 2006 and has 300 students.
Both are located in Tyler Village, a renovated factory at East 36th Street and Superior Avenue.
“Listen, we need educated folks as we go forward, and good team members, and this school shows everything that we need as we go foward,” said Cliffs CEO Joseph Carrabba, as he helped christen the Cliffs Natural Resources K-2 Wing at Village Prep.
“It’s the foundation of Cleveland,” he told WKYC. “The children, you can see their self confidence when they come into a room. All those leadership qualities are coming along, with everything they’ll need in life skills, and an education.”
The youngsters at Village Prep and E-Prep are held to high standards, says Zitzner. “High expectations, no excuses, very strict discipline,” he explained. “It’s just setting high standards for the kids, for their parents, for everybody. For the teachers, and then holding them accountable for that.”
E-Prep students had some of the highest state achievement test scores in Ohio in April, 2010, far outpacing the average for African-American students around the state, and mostly exceeding the average scores of other public schools.
About 95 percent of the school’s enrollment is African-American, with 82 percent coming from families under the poverty line. Both Village Prep and E-Prep are open to any student in Ohio.
“Just think about all those kids that now have a future in front of them, due to the generosity of Cliffs and other fine organizations in Cleveland,” Zitzner beamed, as he led company executives on a quick tour of the exceptional school.
Carrabba also sensed the enthusiasm his company’s sizeable contribution added to the school’s already positive atmosphere.
“You can see it,” Carrabba noted, glancing at the first graders who had just welcomed his group to the school. “It just abounds in their faces. It gives you a real thrill to see this happen right in front of you.”

Smithsonian Honors Philadelphia Hat Maker Mae Reeves

By goodblacknews on July 28, 2010
  • Taking a bow, Donna Limerick (center) and others modeling her mother's hats acknowledge Mae Reeves, top photo, at the end of the ceremony at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Thirty of Reeves' hats will become part of the Smithsonian's permanent collection.
Taking a bow, Donna Limerick (center) and others modeling her mother’s hats
Donna Limerick had always believed her mother was a pioneer.
Not many women in the 1940s had the gumption and the bank loans to start their own business. Especially not African American women. Especially not African American women who designed and made millinery in Philadelphia.
Still, Limerick didn’t want to be presumptuous. She wasn’t sure that her mother’s legacy would qualify for the Smithsonian.  A documentary producer for National Public Radio, Limerick had heard that the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture was looking for compelling stories about black families and culture. With modest expectations, she nominated her mother, Mae Reeves.
Tuesday, two of the museum’s curators attended a ceremony honoring Reeves and announced that 30 hats and several pieces of antique furniture from Mae’s Millinery shop in West Philadelphia will become part of the Smithsonian’s permanent collection.
“Oh, God bless you,” Reeves said, as television cameras closed in on her. She’d just been handed a softball-sized bronze model of the Liberty Bell that clanged happily in her lap.
“It’s our biggest honor,” said Melanie Johnson, city representative, apologizing that Mayor Nutter couldn’t make the event. He was in Washington for a meeting, representing the U.S. Conference of Mayors, but promised to make a personal visit upon his return.
“Oh my goodness!” Reeves said.
Now 97 and living in a retirement home in Darby, she arrived in a stylish wheelchair upholstered in teal leatherette. Her arthritic knees were covered by a black chenille blanket to match her beaded black jacket and dress. She wore a hat (of course) – one of her favorites, a cloche layered thickly in shiny black feathers with an emerald and turquoise gleam.
For more than 50 years, until 1997 when she retired at 85, Reeves ran her own store, first on South Street and later on North 60th Street. She sold to stars such as Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and Marian Anderson; the social and political elite like Leonore Annenberg and C. Delores Tucker; and everyday women seeking audacious hats.
Midway through the ceremony, held in the auditorium of the African American Museum in Philadelphia, a short video was shown. Produced by one of her nine grandchildren, it captures Reeves in a sparky exchange with her daughter.
Having grown up in Georgia and studied millinery in Chicago, Limerick asks Reeves, “Why did you come to Philadelphia?”
“Because I knew people!” Reeves says.
by Melissa Dribben via articles.philly.com

SEED School in D.C. Shapes Scholars!

By goodblacknews on June 1, 2010
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(CBS)  A few miles from the White House in southeast Washington sit some of the worst public schools in America. The students there are mostly poor, mostly black, and their test scores are low. Only one in three finish high school; of those who do go on to college, just five percent graduate.
But right in the middle of this same area is also one of the most successful and innovative public schools in the country. Started in 1998, the school is called SEED. It’s the nation’s first urban public boarding school.
Ninety one percent of the students finish high school, and 95 percent go on to college. It’s a charter school that’s getting national attention. Admission is by lottery, open to any family in the district willing to take a chance. 

Texas Twins Top Class!

By goodblacknews on May 27, 2010
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They look alike, talk alike, dress alike…and they’re best friends.

But that’s not all twins LaTonya and LaToya Harris have in common. They’re also the top two graduates of South Garland High School class of 2010.  And they’ll even give their graduation speech together as valedictorian and salutatorian.
Although their parents say they’ve been baffled by the girls since birth, they can’t help but be proud of their twin prodigies.  So what’s the plan for next year?
The girls will begin their college careers (rooming together, of course) at The University of Texas – both on full scholarships.
article via www.thegrio.com

Obama Mandates Rules to Raise Fuel Standards

By goodblacknews on May 22, 2010
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By PETER BAKER
Published: May 21, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama ordered the government on Friday to develop tougher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, advancing the fight against climate change without waiting for Congress.  Mr. Obama announced the creation of a national policy that will result in less greenhouse-gas pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks for the first time, and will further reduce exhaust from cars and light-duty trucks beyond the requirements he had already put in place.  “Today’s announcement is an essential part of our energy strategy, but it’s not a substitute for other necessary steps,” Mr. Obama said in a Rose Garden ceremony on Friday, flanked by auto and truck manufacturers. He repeated his hope that Congress will pass an energy bill by the end of the year. “In the meantime,” he added, “I’m going to take every sensible, responsible action that I can take using my authority as president.”
Mr. Obama said that reducing fuel use would save money for businesses and consumers, and he linked his new policy to the enormous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “The disaster in the gulf only underscores that, even as we pursue domestic reduction to reduce our reliance on imported oil, our long-term security depends on the development of alternative sources of fuel and new transportation technologies,” he said.  The executive memorandum the president signed on Friday orders theEnvironmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department to develop new fuel and emissions standards more strict than those formalized last month, but the memorandum did not propose specific fuel-economy figures.
Under last month’s rules, new cars must get at least 35.5 miles to a gallon of fuel, on average, by 2016, in combined city and highway driving. The president’s new plan would order further improvements in fuel efficiency for cars and light trucks made in 2017 and beyond, and in medium and heavy trucks made in 2014 through 2018.  In addition, Mr. Obama’s directive orders more federal support for the development of new vehicles like advanced electric cars, and it instructs the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce emissions of other kinds of pollutants by motor vehicles, besides greenhouse gases.  Environmentalists hailed the move. “President Obama’s oil savings proposal will reduce our dependence on oil,” said Daniel J. Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research organization. “More efficient cars and trucks will help to protect families’ budgets as well as America’s shores.”
Medium and heavy trucks represent only 4 percent of all vehicles on American highways, but they consume more than 20 percent of the fuel used in road transportation, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental advocacy organization. Improving the average fuel economy of these trucks by 3.7 miles to the gallon would, by 2030, reduce American oil consumption by 11 billion gallons a year, the group said.
Mr. Obama said existing technology could improve the fuel economy of tractor-trailers, as an example, by 25 percent. Over all, he said that within 20 years he wants the nation’s vehicles to be using half the fuel and produce half the pollution they do today.
Building cleaner vehicles costs money, but may ultimately save consumers more through lower gasoline bills. The policy already enacted will add about $1,000 to the cost of an average new car by 2016, but save about $3,000 in fuel over the life of the vehicle, according to government officials.
Mr. Obama was joined on Friday by environmental leaders and representatives of major truck manufacturers who supported the new policy. Among them were the chief executives of Volvo, Daimler Trucks North America, Cummins and Navistar, the head of the American Trucking Association and a garbage-truck driver in his uniform.  Manufacturers want a single national standard set over the long term because that is easier to comply with than the patchwork of state and national regulations that had been imposed in the past.
Before the president’s initial policy a year ago, car and light-truck makers were facing fuel-efficiency standards being developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in response to Congressional legislation; separate greenhouse-gas standards being developed by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act; and the possibility of separate standards enacted in California and 13 other states.  “The federal government is looking 15 years down the road and uniting all the diverse stakeholders to work towards the same national goal,” Dave McCurdy, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said in a statement. Noting the collaboration over the set of rules enacted last month, he added, “This approach achieved success once before, so we are optimistic that we can do it again.”
Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, a nonprofit group, said the new policy would promote the use of clean diesel technology. “Diesel engines offer an unmatched combination of energy efficiency, work capability, reliability and now near-zero-emissions environmental performance,” he said.

Women of Color Form "Sisters Tri-ing" To Foster Health and Athleticism!

By goodblacknews on May 21, 2010
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When Ayana Ball-Griffe crossed the finish line of the first triathlon she’d ever run, she noticed an odd phenomenon – she was one of only two women of color running in the marathon.  That revelation left her determined to see changes and get more black women out exercising. She came up with Sisters Tri-ing – as in triathlon.
“The purpose of Sisters Tri-ing is just to really encourage women of color to get healthy and fit” says Ayana.  Weight is a “heavy” issue for African-American women and the Center for Disease Control estimates nearly 80 percent of black women are either overweight or obese.  There can be several factors which may discourage women from putting in time at the gym. Among them are cost, time management and hair…yes, hair.
“You don’t want to get your hair done at the beauty shop and turn around and go sweat it out at the gym!” says Ayana.  Ayana takes that into consideration by offering hair stylists at her non-profit. She also has healthy eating classes and two personal trainers available for the women.  Many of the 90 local members also meet weekly to push each other physically and emotionally.  As one SistersTri-ing member puts it, “For me, it helps to have the encouragement and support and know that somebody is going through the same thing you are.”
article via www.thegrio.com

Women of Color Form “Sisters Tri-ing” To Foster Health and Athleticism!

By goodblacknews on May 21, 2010
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When Ayana Ball-Griffe crossed the finish line of the first triathlon she’d ever run, she noticed an odd phenomenon – she was one of only two women of color running in the marathon.  That revelation left her determined to see changes and get more black women out exercising. She came up with Sisters Tri-ing – as in triathlon.
“The purpose of Sisters Tri-ing is just to really encourage women of color to get healthy and fit” says Ayana.  Weight is a “heavy” issue for African-American women and the Center for Disease Control estimates nearly 80 percent of black women are either overweight or obese.  There can be several factors which may discourage women from putting in time at the gym. Among them are cost, time management and hair…yes, hair.
“You don’t want to get your hair done at the beauty shop and turn around and go sweat it out at the gym!” says Ayana.  Ayana takes that into consideration by offering hair stylists at her non-profit. She also has healthy eating classes and two personal trainers available for the women.  Many of the 90 local members also meet weekly to push each other physically and emotionally.  As one SistersTri-ing member puts it, “For me, it helps to have the encouragement and support and know that somebody is going through the same thing you are.”
article via www.thegrio.com

African-American Jockey Oliver Lewis Made History 135 Years Ago Today

By goodblacknews on May 18, 2010
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Riding the colt Aristides, Oliver Lewis won the inaugural Kentucky Derby on May 17, 1875. His time of two minutes 37.75 seconds also set an American record over the mile and a half distance (the Kentucky Derby became a 1.25 mile race in 1896). Lewis was one of 13 black jockeys in the 15-strong field. Early in the race, he joined a small group behind Volcano, who led the race from the start. Lewis had been instructed to force the pace to favor another horse owned by H.P. McGrath, Chesapeake. But as they entered the final stretch Aristides and Volcano were out in front and Chesapeake was trailing the pack. Lewis, riding Aristides, won the race in front of 10,000 spectators by two lengths ahead of Volcano. Chesapeake came home eighth. Later the same season, again riding Aristides, Lewis took second in the Belmont Stakes and won three races on Churchill Downs that season, but he never rode in the Kentucky Derby again. Very little biographical information is available, but it is known that Lewis later served as a supplier of information about horses for a bookmaker, which was then legal.
Oliver Lewis was born in 1856 in Fayette County, Kentucky; his parents were Goodson and Eleanor Lewis. Very little is known about Lewis’s life, but according to the Black Athlete Web site he was “A family man, a husband and father of six children.” Lewis was 19 years old in 1875 when he entered the inaugural Kentucky Derby riding Aristide, a colt owned by H. Price McGrath and trained by Ansel Williamson, who was also black. In fact blacks dominated racing in the late 1800s, winning 15 of the first 28 Derbies according to BlackAmericaWeb.com and training six of the first 17 winners. By the early 1900s, however, blacks had been pushed out of the business, which had also become wealthier and less accessible to the working classes. Black jockey James Winkfield won the Kentucky Derby in 1901 and 1902, but after 1921 there were no black riders in the race until Marlon St. Julien in 2000.
The 1875 race was held on May 17 at the newly-opened Louisville Jockey Club race track, now known as Churchill Downs. Lewis’s mount Aristides was one of two horses entered in the race by owner H. Price McGrath in hopes of netting the $2850 prize money. But it was the other horse—Chesapeake, ridden by William Henry—that was expected to win. Lewis’s role in the race was to force the pace so that Chesapeake could take the lead when the rest of the field tired. Aristides and Chesapeake started the race as favorites. Aristides’ reputation for powerful starts and Chesapeake’s strong finishing made them the two most likely contenders, but it was Volcano who took the lead from the start and pulled away, leaving Aristides, closely followed by Verdigris and McCreary just behind.
By the start of the home stretch the race was between Volcano and Aristides, with Chesapeake struggling in the pack. Wondering what was going on behind Lewis apparently eased up and looked back, but was waved on by owner McGrath, who was trackside on the home straight. Larry Muhammad, writing for BlackAthlete.net quotes the Courier-Journal‘s play-by-play, published the next day: “Right gallantly did [Aristides] the game and speedy son of Leamington and Sarong answer the call to his forces, for he held his own all down the stretch in spite of most determined rushes on the part of Volcano and Verdigris, and dashed under the wire the winner of one of the fastest and hardest run races ever seen on track.” Lewis and Aristides led Volcano home by two lengths, with Verdigris trailing in third and Chesapeake eighth. Lewis’s time for the mile and a half long course (reduced to a mile and a quarter in 1896) was two minutes 37.75, an American record for the distance.
Lewis’s achievement in the opening year of what has become America’s longest-running sporting event went almost unrecognized for over a century. He rode Aristides to second place in the Belmont Stakes, which later became one of the “Triple Crown” races, and won a total of three races at the Louisville Jockey Club that season. He never rode another Kentucky Derby, but it is known that he attended the 33rd race, in 1907. Lewis’s career as a jockey did not last long. After a spell working as a day laborer Lewis began providing notes on racing form to bookmakers and later became a bookmaker himself, a profession that was then legal in the United States. Lewis’s methods of collecting data and compiling detailed handicapping charts have been likened to the systems used by the Daily Racing Form. Lewis passed on his bookmaking skills and business to his son James.
Read more: Oliver Lewis Biography http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2969/Lewis-Oliver.html#ixzz0oEEKOlcU

Happy Sixty-Ninth Birthday, Actor and Adoption Activist Taurean Blacque!

By goodblacknews on May 11, 2010
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Taurean Blacque (born Herbert Middleton Jr. in Newark, New Jersey, May 10, 1941) is an American television and stage actor, best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on the series Hill Street Blues. He also is a past national spokesman for adoptive services, having been one of the first single black men in the United States to adopt a child.

Before appearing on television, Blacque trained and performed at the New Federal Theater in New York, a theater founded to provide opportunities to minorities and women. Early in his acting career, Blacque began making guest appearances in sitcoms such as What’s Happening!!, Sanford and Son, The Bob Newhart Show,The Tony Randall Show, Good Times, and Taxi, and auditioned for permanent roles on others, including Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati, eventually played by Tim Reid.
In 1981 he joined the cast of the fledgling police drama Hill Street Blues, staying with the show throughout its run, which ended in 1987. While appearing on that show, he was nominated in 1982 for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, but lost to fellow HSB actor Michael Conrad, in the only year in which all the nominees in a category came from the same series. His theatrical career continued during his run on the show, winning him an NAACP Image Award of Best Actor (Local) in 1985 for his role in Amen Corner.  In 1986 his stage roles included the male lead in the musical Don’t Get God Started during its initial six-week summer run in Beverly Hills.
After Hill Street ended, Blacque moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to provide a better home for his children; in his new home, he has focused on theatrical work while making occasional guest appearances on television. Notable stage performances include Stepping Into Tomorrow with Yolanda King in 1987, and a 1988 revival ofCeremonies in Dark Old Men.  Television work included a pilot, Off-Duty, for CBS, in which Blacque once again played a police officer; the show was not picked up by the network. Blacque also had a small role in Disney’s animated film Oliver & Company.  In 1989, he portrayed Henry Marshall on NBC’s Generations.

Blacque initially was asked to serve as spokesman for the County of Los Angeles Adoption Services office though he had no adoptive children at the time. Upon looking into adoption, he was told that as a single black male, he was not eligible to adopt; however, he pressed on, eventually adopting ten children in addition to the two sons he already had. The adopted children included twin boys and a group of five children whose mother could not keep them due to her drug addiction. In 1989 he was asked by President George H. W. Bush to serve as a national spokesman for adoption.


article via www.wikipedia.com