article by Shenequa Golding via vibe.com
Four Georgia teens are receiving a virtual standing ovation from the Internet after Zsa Zsa Heard praised their tenacity on Facebook. The LaGrange Housing Authority CEO uploaded a photo of the young men after they walked into her office and asked for a job to avoid gangs.
Heard spoke with Fox 32 and recounted the entire story. After they walked into her office asking for a job Heard asked why they wanted to work for her. “We do not want to be in a gang!” they said. She then inquired if they had been approached by a gang and the teens replied with a resounding yes.
Determined not to allow these young men to fall peril to gang life, Heard hired them on the spot. Since Wednesday (July 27) the young men have been keeping busy by passing out mail, working in the community garden and helping out in the kitchen.
Source: Four Georgia Teens Ask For A Job To Avoid Gangs And Get Hired Immediately
Posts tagged as “Georgia”
article by David Mercer via abcnews.go.com
The University of Illinois has hired a top administrator from a State University of New York campus who has a background in agricultural research to be the new chancellor at the Urbana-Champaign campus.
State University of New York at Albany President Robert J. Jones was named chancellor on Tuesday, pending formal approval by the University of Illinois board of trustees on Thursday. He will take over the university’s flagship campus after a period of turmoil that saw the last permanent chancellor resign under pressure and alleged mistreatment of players by a football coach.
Jones took over at Albany-SUNY after a period of turnover and low morale, which faculty leaders there say he handled well.
Jones is the first black chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus and called his new role his “dream job.”
“I have the land-grant mission in my blood. I am a product of it. It is what brought me into higher education, from a sharecropping family in Georgia,” the 65-year-old said in the release.
University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen, who came to the university from SUNY and says he knew Jones well, praised his work since taking over at Albany-SUNY in 2013 in developing the campus and linking it to the community around it.
“It comes down to, Robert checks so many of the boxes,” Killeen said in an interview. “His background in academia, in the Big Ten, agronomy. … His leadership building out a research university in Albany.”
Jones, who spent 34 years at the University of Minnesota, will be paid $649,000 a year but with no package of potential bonuses, according to university spokesman Tom Hardy. The last permanent chancellor, Phyllis Wise, was paid $550,000 plus a $100,000 retention bonus that she eventually agreed not to take after her resignation.
Jones will lead a campus with about 46,000 students, 11,400 employees and an annual operating budget of $2 billion. He also will be the vice president of the University of Illinois system, which also includes campuses in Chicago and Springfield and a total of more than 80,000 students.
Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Fort Valley State College, a master’s degree in crop physiology from the University of Georgia and a doctorate in crop physiology from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
To read full article, go to: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/chancellor-university-illinois-flagship-campus-40698680
article by Hope Jensen via wsbtv.com
At just 19 years old, Fred Barley has proven he knows what he wants out of life and he’ll do anything to make it happen. Officers found the teen sleeping in a tent over the weekend outside Gordon State College in Barnesville, GA. Instead of giving him a ticket for trespassing, the officers listened to his story – and that’s where this amazing story begins.
Barley, a homeless college student, told the officers he had ridden his little brother’s bike six hours from Conyers to Barnesville to register for classes for his second semester of college. He had two duffel bags carrying all he owned and 2 gallons of water as he rode through the heat of a Georgia summer.
Problem is, the Gordon State College campus dorms don’t open until August, so Barley pitched a tent in some bushes on campus and prepared to spend the next few weeks there, with nothing more than a box of cereal to eat.
Barley spent the day job-searching and had just returned to his tent Saturday night when officers responded to a report of someone sleeping in a tent on campus. They told Barley to come out with his hands up, but the officers quickly realized that something wasn’t right. They sat down with Barley, who told them his story.
The biology major, who dreams of going to medical school one day, told the officers he thought the bushes on campus would be a much safer place for him to sleep than staying in his tent in Conyers. “We can’t allow you to stay here, but I have somewhere you can stay.”
“He was so understanding and he said, ‘I definitely I applaud you for doing this. We can’t allow you to stay here, but I have somewhere you can stay,’” Barley told Channel 2 Action News.
Without a second thought, the officers took him to a local motel and paid for his next two nights. “The stuff that’s happening with police officers, I am black and he didn’t care what color I was. He just helped me, and that meant a lot,” Barley said.
That could be the end of this story, but it was only just the beginning.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a 7-1 decision issued today, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Foster v. Chapman, No. 14-8349, that Butts County, Georgia prosecutors violated the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution by rejecting two prospective African-American jurors because of their race in the capital murder trial of Timothy Foster, an African-American man who was convicted of capital murder in 1987 by an all-white jury.
Chief Justice Roberts’ majority opinion, which was joined by five of his colleagues, cited several pieces of evidence from the prosecutors’ files that supported the Court’s conclusion, including the first five names of a “Definite NO” list of six prospective jurors containing the only five African-Americans in the jury pool; multiple documents that identified the African-American prospective jurors by their race; and notes with “N” for “no” appearing next to the names of all the African-American members of the jury pool.
The Court also found that the race-neutral reasons the prosecutors offered for rejecting two of the African-American prospective jurors did not withstand scrutiny because (1) the prosecutors offered shifting rationales at different stages of the proceedings and (2) the reasons offered for excluding the African-American jurors did not result in the prosecutors rejecting white prospective jurors who had the same characteristics that led to the dismissal of the African-American jurors. The Court dismissed one of the prosecutors’ rationales as “[n]onsense.”
“The systematic exclusion of African-Americans from juries, particularly in serious criminal and capital cases, is a problem that we continue to see today,” stated Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “The Lawyers’ Committee is pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling which affirms the longstanding, fundamental constitutional principle that prospective jurors cannot be rejected because of their race. The evidence in this case was overwhelming that prosecutors were determined to try Mr. Foster, an African-American man, before an all-white jury. All defendants are entitled to a fair trial and excluding prospective jurors based on their race taints the process because it means that defendants are not tried by a jury inclusive of their peers.”
The Supreme Court’s decision reversed the Georgia Supreme Court and sent the case back to the Georgia Supreme Court for further proceedings consistent with the opinion. Though he did not join in Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion, Judge Alito concurred in the judgment. Justice Thomas dissented.
article via clutchmagonline.com
Melonie Wright had tons of obstacles set up against her when she was younger. As a child in school, she was considered a special education student. Then in her adult life, she was faced with getting pregnant at a young age, and was also homeless. But that didn’t stop Melonie from achieving her goals. Next month, Melonie will graduate from Emory University Law School!
Source: Yes She Can: Woman Who Was Considered “Special Ed” Graduates from Law School – Clutch Magazine
article by Angela Bronner Helm via theroot.com
Morris Brown College, which has in recent years fallen on some hard times, seems to be back on the mend with a three-year, $900,000 grant to stem HIV/AIDS infections among young black adults, reports HBCU Digest.
Morris Brown College, which has in recent years fallen on some hard times, seems to be back on the mend with a three-year, $900,000 grant to stem HIV/AIDS infections among young black adults, reports HBCU Digest.
The site reports that this is the second such award for the college in the last two years and the money will be used to launch seminar-styled education sessions on campus, with a focus on substance abuse prevention among college-age youth to prevent risky sexual behaviors.
The grant is reportedly part of a national initiative launched by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration targeting HBCUs as service delivery partners in vulnerable areas.
Morris Brown, founded in 1816 as one of only a few historically black colleges and universities founded by African Americans, has served as a lead institution in the program since 2014 to help improve public health outcomes among youth in Fulton and Dekalb Counties.
Greater Atlanta has alarming rates of HIV infections and the state of Georgia ranks second among U.S. states in the rate of new HIV diagnoses. Only 73 percent of the people in the Atlanta metro area who have HIV know it, because not enough people are getting tested for the virus. (The national average is 87 percent.)
The program at Morris Brown hopes to reach more than 400 participants by 2017.
Read more at HBCU Digest.
article by Nick Prevenas via uanews.arizona.edu
Ever since he can remember, Rick Kittles always wanted to know where he came from.
Born in Sylvania, Georgia, and raised near Long Island, New York, a great deal of his academic interest was sparked by the desire to trace his ancestral lineage as far back as it could go. This proved to be exceedingly difficult, for a number of reasons.
“There simply wasn’t a strong database in place or any kind of access to information on African genetics,” Kittles said. “Records were either inaccurate or nonexistent, so there were a number of hurdles in place for African-Americans to try to figure out their ancestry.”
An aptitude for biology, coupled with a deep exploration of Alex Haley’s novel, “Roots,” led Kittles on a path that eventually would help thousands of people like him clear these hurdles. He is the director of the Division of Population Genetics at the University of Arizona, which he joined in July 2014.
Developing and implementing a comprehensive African genealogy database seemed daunting at first, but during his graduate studies at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and, later, though his work at Howard University’s College of Medicine in the late 1990s, Kittles met the historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and fellow geneticists who could help turn this dream into a reality.
“I was looking at my own DNA profile, analyzing my Y-chromosome lineage, and I noticed my Nigerian lineage didn’t track with the other Y-chromosome samples from West Africa,” Kittles said.
UrbanGeekz has joined forces with Atlanta Tech Village to offer women and underrepresented minorities the chance to be part of a thriving technology innovation hub in the heart of Atlanta.
We have teamed up to offer an exciting opportunity for a talented tech entrepreneur to gain around the clock access to Atlanta Tech Village’s flourishing startup community in the Buckhead district.
To help foster inclusion and engagement of underserved communities in the technology space, we are launching a competition where one lucky winner will win six months of free co-working space at Atlanta Tech Village’s state-of-the-art facility. The competition is open to women of any background and underrepresented minorities.
This is an amazing chance for one fortunate entrepreneur to kick-start their startup without having to worry about the cost of office space. It is also an invaluable opportunity to network, exchange ideas, access curated mentors, and much-needed resources.
To participate applicants should apply here and submit a video up to 60 seconds introducing themselves and their startup. Each submission will be judged based on the mission, viability, and the long-term impact of the company.
“UrbanGeekz is less than a year old and in a short time we have had a lot of success, including partnerships with the likes of AT&T and 20th Century Fox,” says Kunbi Tinuoye, founder and CEO of UrbanGeekz, whose editorial team is based at Atlanta Tech Village (the Village). “But this collaboration is by far the most rewarding on both a personal and professional level. We’re thrilled to partner with Tech Village to support an ambitious entrepreneur.”
“Being an entrepreneur isn’t for the faint-hearted, “she adds. “You need a huge amount of faith, self-belief, and dogged determination. Having access to a supportive community, resources, mentorship, business coaching, and guidance on raising capital in a space like Tech Village can give entrepreneurs a tremendous boost to scale their startup.”
Atlanta Tech Village, a thriving ecosystem for tech firms, is the Southeast’s largest co-working and office environment for emerging technology companies and tech startups. There are nearly 300 companies and 900 plus members based in the Village. As one of the fastest-growing technology startup centers, the Village is dedicated to fostering innovation, encouraging collaboration, and driving economic development in Atlanta community and beyond.
“Atlanta Tech Village is proud to partner with UrbanGeekz to support entrepreneurship and empower women and minorities on their quest to change the world through technology,” says Karen Houghton, director of Atlanta Tech Village. “We are a community of innovators that becomes greater with ever increasing diversity. We understand that startups are hard, and having a community of positive, supportive people around you can be inspiring.”
“The Village offers an abundance of resources from work space to meet-ups and networking events, to mentors and advisors for advice. We look forward to growing our community and supporting entrepreneurs on their startup journey.”
Atlanta Tech Village is an incredible place for new startups to land. It’s so much more than an office space,” says Aliceson Y. King, whose company Center for Excellence in Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance (CEDSPV) is based at the Village. “It is a community that provides amazingly talented colleagues in a diverse array of areas and super knowledgeable mentors who can assist in guiding you and your business to success from the start. Being at ATV for the last year has made all the difference in moving my startup to the next level.”
Since its inception in 2013, the Village has been home to some of the most successful startups in Atlanta, such as Yik Yak, BitPay, and Insightpool. Three years in, it is one of the top 10 tech hubs in the U.S. The technology hub also boasts a competitive accelerator, Atlanta Ventures, where startups receive mentor support and up to $120,000 in investment capital.
Applicants must…
– Submit a video (up to 60 seconds) introducing themselves and their startup.
– Be over 18 years old.
– Be a woman (any demographic) or male/female underrepresented minority.
We will consider entrepreneurs from any field but our focus is on tech startups and technology related companies. The application deadline is March 13th at 11:59 pm EST.
We have teamed up to offer an exciting opportunity for a talented tech entrepreneur to gain around the clock access to Atlanta Tech Village’s flourishing startup community in the Buckhead district.
To help foster inclusion and engagement of underserved communities in the technology space, we are launching a competition where one lucky winner will win six months of free co-working space at Atlanta Tech Village’s state-of-the-art facility. The competition is open to women of any background and underrepresented minorities.
This is an amazing chance for one fortunate entrepreneur to kick-start their startup without having to worry about the cost of office space. It is also an invaluable opportunity to network, exchange ideas, access curated mentors, and much-needed resources.
To participate applicants should apply here and submit a video up to 60 seconds introducing themselves and their startup. Each submission will be judged based on the mission, viability, and the long-term impact of the company.
“UrbanGeekz is less than a year old and in a short time we have had a lot of success, including partnerships with the likes of AT&T and 20th Century Fox,” says Kunbi Tinuoye, founder and CEO of UrbanGeekz, whose editorial team is based at Atlanta Tech Village (the Village). “But this collaboration is by far the most rewarding on both a personal and professional level. We’re thrilled to partner with Tech Village to support an ambitious entrepreneur.”
“Being an entrepreneur isn’t for the faint-hearted, “she adds. “You need a huge amount of faith, self-belief, and dogged determination. Having access to a supportive community, resources, mentorship, business coaching, and guidance on raising capital in a space like Tech Village can give entrepreneurs a tremendous boost to scale their startup.”
Atlanta Tech Village, a thriving ecosystem for tech firms, is the Southeast’s largest co-working and office environment for emerging technology companies and tech startups. There are nearly 300 companies and 900 plus members based in the Village. As one of the fastest-growing technology startup centers, the Village is dedicated to fostering innovation, encouraging collaboration, and driving economic development in Atlanta community and beyond.
“Atlanta Tech Village is proud to partner with UrbanGeekz to support entrepreneurship and empower women and minorities on their quest to change the world through technology,” says Karen Houghton, director of Atlanta Tech Village. “We are a community of innovators that becomes greater with ever increasing diversity. We understand that startups are hard, and having a community of positive, supportive people around you can be inspiring.”
“The Village offers an abundance of resources from work space to meet-ups and networking events, to mentors and advisors for advice. We look forward to growing our community and supporting entrepreneurs on their startup journey.”
Atlanta Tech Village is an incredible place for new startups to land. It’s so much more than an office space,” says Aliceson Y. King, whose company Center for Excellence in Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance (CEDSPV) is based at the Village. “It is a community that provides amazingly talented colleagues in a diverse array of areas and super knowledgeable mentors who can assist in guiding you and your business to success from the start. Being at ATV for the last year has made all the difference in moving my startup to the next level.”
Since its inception in 2013, the Village has been home to some of the most successful startups in Atlanta, such as Yik Yak, BitPay, and Insightpool. Three years in, it is one of the top 10 tech hubs in the U.S. The technology hub also boasts a competitive accelerator, Atlanta Ventures, where startups receive mentor support and up to $120,000 in investment capital.
Applicants must…
– Submit a video (up to 60 seconds) introducing themselves and their startup.
– Be over 18 years old.
– Be a woman (any demographic) or male/female underrepresented minority.
We will consider entrepreneurs from any field but our focus is on tech startups and technology related companies. The application deadline is March 13th at 11:59 pm EST.
I have to admit, I wasn’t planning on watching it, mainly because these days I don’t have the opportunity to view much television outside of what my 9 and 6 year-olds are viewing. If you want to ask me what’s happening on the Disney Channel or PBS Kids – I’m your woman. BET and Centric, not so much. But when I got an email from former colleague and uber-producer Debra Martin Chase announcing the premiere of her new sitcom “Zoe Ever After”, I made a point of setting my DVR to record it so I could carve out a moment to watch and support.
That moment came this morning, and I am so glad it did. “Zoe Ever After,” created and executive produced by Chase, Erica Montolfo-Bura and former “Moesha” lead Brandy Norwood (who stars in the titular role), is a delightful, smartly-written, acted and executed half-hour comedy about Zoe Moon, a woman restarting her life with a new cosmetics business, new love interests and a new parenting arrangement after filing for divorce from her famous boxer husband Gemini Moon (Dorian Missick).
Set in Manhattan,”Zoe Ever After” is actually filmed in Atlanta, but unlike some other half-hours shot there, its look and feel don’t come off as claustrophobic or cheap. The sets and visuals, though limited, are beautifully styled and on point. The costume design is equally striking, and if the show keeps it up, Brandy could add “fashion maven” to her actor/singer calling card.
But even more important than the look or basic premise is how well “Zoe” deals with its themes – the difficulty of dating after a break-up, co-parenting with an ex, the struggles of running a new business (the air conditioning breaks down in Zoe’s office and she is stubbornly against taking her ex’s help to fix it, even though the contractor he sends (Ignacio Serricchio) generates more heat than the system he’s repairing), and the internal tug-of-war that occurs when you still have feelings for the person who broke your heart.
All of the actors, including intended comic relief characters, on-a-mission-to-get-married best friend and publicist Pearl (Haneefah Wood), fashionable, openly gay assistant Valence (Tory Devon Smith) and bright, adorable son Xavier (Jaylon Gordon), make strong impressions, but Brandy in particular shines as she charmingly and believably navigates dramatic moments like where she tells her ex how he always made her feel invisible, or sillier ones where she gets pooped on by a dove (which is a clever metaphor tied to a story point, believe it or not).
The preliminary ratings and social media on “Zoe’s” debut are also strong, so BET looks to have a good compliment/counterpoint to “Real Husbands of Hollywood” on its slate, and I am personally looking forward to finding more time away from “Lab Rats” and “Arthur” to see if Zoe does indeed get her “ever after.”
“Zoe Ever After” airs Tuesdays on BET. To view the premiere episode, check your local listings or access clips via BET.com.
The U.S. Navy will honor civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis in a big way — by naming a replenishment oiler ship after the leader.
The announcement — delivered by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus — was made Wednesday afternoon in Washington D.C. Lewis, who tweeted he was “grateful” for the honor, reportedly cried when he was informed of the idea months ago.
According to NBC:
“As the first of its class, the future USNS John Lewis will play a vital role in the mission of our Navy and Marine Corps while also forging a new path in fleet replenishment,” said Mabus. “Naming this ship after John Lewis is a fitting tribute to a man who has, from his youth, been at the forefront of progressive social and human rights movements in the U.S., directly shaping both the past and future of our nation.”
Lewis cried when Mabus stopped by his office a few months ago to share what was then an idea, he told NBCBLK. “He said, ‘I have been so moved and inspired by your work and others during the civil rights movement. My idea is to name a ship in your honor,’” Lewis said. When the surprised congressman asked him, “How can you do this,” Mabus responded, “I am the Secretary of the Navy; I have the power.”
https://twitter.com/repjohnlewis/status/684841235807354881/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Naming the ship after the civil rights leader is a first in many ways — the USNS John Lewis is said to be the “first of the next generation” of fleet replenishment oilers (T-AO-205), measuring more than 677 feet long and 97.5 feet wide. They are responsible for providing fuel and fleet cargo to ships at sea, NBC reports. The new generation of ships will all be named after Civil Rights heroes, a first also announced by Lewis’ office.
The irony of a ship donning his name is not lost on Lewis, 75, who told NBC he never actually learned to swim.
“In Troy, we couldn’t use the swimming pool, so I never learned to swim,” he said. “All these years later, to hear the Secretary of the Navy say he wanted to name a ship after me — we cried a little together and we hugged.”
I believe in freedom. I believe so much that people should be free. I was prepared to give it everything I had,” he said. “I didn’t do anything special. I just got in trouble. It was good trouble. It was necessary trouble. My parents would tell us, ‘Don’t get in the way.’ I just tried to help out.”
It is that focus on freedom that Mabus says will live within USNS John Lewis.
“T-AO 205 will, for decades to come, serve as a visible symbol of the freedoms Representative Lewis holds dear, and his example will live on in the steel of that ship and in all those who will serve aboard her, ” said Mabus.
Lewis, who is widely known for his role in the Freedom Rides of the 1960s and for serving as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was elected to Congress in 1986. The leader, who often demonstrated alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was also a keynote speaker at 1963’s March on Washington.
It is Lewis who, bloodied and beaten, can be seen in historic and disturbing photographs from Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. State troopers beat Black activists attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965 into Montgomery. Lewis, only 24 at the time, led the march with activist Hosea Williams.
SOURCE: NBC
article by Christina Coleman via newsone.com