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Posts tagged as “North Carolina”

Marie Holmes, 26 Year-Old Mother of Four, Wins $188 Million of Powerball Jackpot

By goodblacknews on February 13, 2015
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Marie Holmes (pictured) is one very lucky lady. The mother of four just happened to be one of Wednesday’s huge Powerball winners, and will share the $564 million jackpot. Holmes’ reported cut from the mega winnings will be a not-too-shabby $188 million before taxes, according to WGN-TV.

The 26-year-old Wilmington, North Carolina woman, who has a special needs child with cerebral palsy, is still reeling from the news. “I don’t think it’s really hit me,” she said. “I guess when it hits my account is when it’s really going to hit me, but I’m thankful that I can bless my kids with something that I didn’t have.”

Holmes, who does not regularly purchase lottery tickets, said she was struggling before her win.  Upon seeing that her numbers matched the winning Powerball drawing ones, Holmes thought she was going to have a heart attack and screamed so loudly, she scared her children, one boy and three girls.
So what will the young mom do with all of the money?  “First I ‘m going to pay my tithes because I wouldn’t have none of it if it wasn’t for God.  After that I’m going to set up accounts for my kids,” she told WGN-TV.   “And when we figure out where we’re going to live, I’m going to buy a house for me and my kids, then make sure my family is all good.”
Holmes, whose uncle actually sold her the winning ticket, was unemployed and looking for a job.  She is only too glad that now she no longer has to depend on anyone financially. “I don’t have to worry about the word struggle no more and neither do they (her children).”
Does Holmes have any trepidation with regards to how her entire life will now drastically change?
“I am ready for it, ready to embrace the change!  I am very grateful for what is about to happen to my family,” she told WGN-TV.  “Everything is all for them.  My kids can go to college, all on me, and they don’t have to worry about nothing.  My granddaddy, my daddy, my sisters, they don’t have to worry about nothing, we made it.”
article by Ruth-Manuel Logan via newsone.com

Former Star Center Jason Brown Trades NFL Career for Tractor to Help Feed Needy

By goodblacknews on November 23, 2014

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Former NFL Player Jason Brown tends to his fields in Louisburg, N.C. (CBS NEWS)

LOUISBURG, N.C. – At one point number 60, Jason Brown, was one of the best centers in the NFL. At one point he had a five-year, $37 million contract with the St. Louis Rams.  And at one point he decided it was all meaningless – and just walked away from football.
“My agent told me, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life,'” said Brown. “And I looked right back at him and I said, ‘No I’m not. No I’m not.'”
So what could possibly trump the NFL?

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Jason Brown gets ready for a play against the New England Patriots in 2010. (ELSA, GETTY IMAGES)You wouldn’t believe. 

Jason Brown quit football to be a plain, old farmer — even though he’d never farmed a day a in his life.
Asked how he learned to even know what to do, Brown said:
“Get on the Internet. Watch YouTube videos.”
He learned how to farm from YouTube.  Thanks to YouTube and some good advice from other farmers here in Louisburg, N.C., this week Jason finished harvesting his first, a five-acre plot of sweet potatoes.
“When you see them pop up out of the ground, man, it’s the most beautiful thing you could ever see,” said Brown. He said he has never felt more successful.
“Not in man’s standards,” said Brown. “But in God’s eyes.”
But God cares about the NFL, right? There are people praying to him on the field all the time. “Yeah, there’s a lot of people praying out there,” said Brown. “But, when I think about a life of greatness, I think about a life of service.”
See, his plan for this farm, which he calls “First Fruits Farm,” is to donate the first fruits of every harvest to food pantries. Today it’s all five acres–100,000 pounds–of sweet potatoes.  “It’s unusual for a grower to grow a crop just to give away,” said Rebecca Page, who organizes food collection for the needy. “And that’s what Jason has done. And he’s planning to do more next year.”
Brown has 1,000 acres here, which could go a long way toward eliminating hunger in this neck of North Carolina.  “Love is the most wonderful currency that you can give anyone,” said Brown.
To see video of this story, click here.
article by Steve Hartman via cbsnews.com

Brooklyn Prosecutor Loretta Lynch to be Nominated U.S. Attorney General

By goodblacknews on November 7, 2014
President Obama on Saturday will name Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, to replace Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., according to a source familiar with the process. Lynch would be the first African-American woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.  She would follow Holder, the first African-American attorney general. Holder has said he will stay on until his successor is confirmed.
Lynch, 55, is a longtime federal prosecutor who has the unusual distinction of serving in her current job twice: She was U.S. attorney for two years under President Clinton, and was disappointed that she was not reappointed by President George W. Bush. Obama reappointed her in 2010.
In contrast to other U.S. attorneys in New York, Lynch has shunned the limelight, rarely giving news conferences or interviews.
For that reason she is a relative unknown outside her district. But she came to prominence in New York in the late 1990s as the supervisor of the team that successfully prosecuted two police officers for the sexual assault with a broomstick of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. Three other officers were acquitted.
Lynch grew up in Greensboro, N.C., the daughter of a Baptist minister and a school librarian. She graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.  Lynch has solid liberal credentials, having been associated with the Legal Aid Society in New York and the Brennan Center for Justice, named for former Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., a liberal lion.
But she has establishment credentials as well, including serving on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Her low profile should make her potential confirmation easier than for some other candidates for the job, such as Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who drew repeated criticism from Republicans when he ran the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
article by Timothy M. Phelps and Michael A. Memoli via latimes.com

After 30 Years in Prison, Brothers Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown are Exonerated after Fresh DNA Evidence Emerges

By goodblacknews on September 3, 2014
New DNA evidence exonerated death row inmate Henry Lee McCollum, 50, and his half-brother Leon Brown, 46, of a 1983 murder

Two half-brothers wrongly incarcerated for 30 years have been released and have had their convictions overturned after fresh DNA evidence vindicated them.  Henry Lee McCollum, 50, who was on death row, and Leon Brown, 46, serving life, were arrested as teenagers in 1983 for the rape and murder of 11-year-old girl Sabrina Buie.

The innocent North Caroliners, who are diagnosed with mental disabilities, were released after new evidence linked the killing to another man who lived just feet from the soybean field that the girl’s body was found in and who was around the same time imprisoned himself for raping and killing an 18-year-old woman.
As the decision was announced by Superior Court Judge Douglas B Sasser yesterday, the men’s family erupted into applause and tears.
According to the New York Times, the brothers, who were 19 [McCollum] and 15 [Brown] at the time, had no physical evidence linking them to the crime.
Geraldine Brown, sister of Leon Brown, celebrates outside a Robeson County courtroom yesterdayGeraldine Brown, sister of Leon Brown, celebrates outside a Robeson County courtroom yesterday.  However, Mr McCollum was considered suspicious by some in the town after recently moving there from New Jersey, and after five hours of questioning without a lawyer present he gave a story of how he and three others had killed the girl.
“I had never been under this much pressure, with a person hollering at me and threatening me,” Mr McCollum told The News & Observer in an interview.
“I just made up a story and gave it to them so they would let me go home.”
He wasn’t allowed home, however, and was allegedly coerced into signing a confession – there is no recording of the interrogation.
During his incarceration, Mr. McCollum was held up as an example of someone who ‘deserved to die’.
In 1994, a Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was arguing for the death penalty in an unrelated case when he referred to that of Mr McCollum’s, and said that a quiet lethal injection would be “enviable” than that inflicted on the murdered young girl, reports Huffington Post.
“Today, truth has prevailed, but it comes 30 years too late for Sabrina Buie and her family, and for Leon, Henry, and their families.
“Their sadness, grief, and loss will remain with them forever.”
Mr McCollum was North Carolina’s longest-serving death row inmate and in later years, changes were made to the justice system to prevent minors and those with mental disabilities from being given the death sentence.
According to the Guardian, the police force in Red Springs is also accused of hiding crucial bits of crime scene evidence from 1984 until last month, that had not even been revealed to the defence teams or prosecutors.
article by Natasha Culzac via independent.co.uk

Rapper Common Writes Moving Tribute to Dr. Maya Angelou

By goodblacknews on June 3, 2014

Common and Maya Angelou
The rapper remembers the poet who inspired him to write—and later became his friend. 
Since I was 5 years old I have loved reading good writing. I would read anything that my mother or the teachers I loved gave me. In the 2nd grade I came across an author named Maya Angelou and her poem Still I Rise, this incredible piece of art that I somehow knew came from her soul and touched my soul. A piece of art that I somehow knew would change and improve my life. It was through this writer that I gained the inspiration to be somebody in life and to be heard.
I didn’t know that it would be through hip hop and the gift of rap that I would open myself up and become a writer and MC. Through writing I would get the opportunity to travel and see the world—London, Sydney, Johannesburg, Osaka—and it was writing that brought me one October evening to a charity event in New York where we were blessed to have as our luminary for the night, Dr. Maya Angelou. Having her as our guest was a fluke of Divine Order and a true example of Ask and You shall receive.
What had happened was the poet we booked to perform dropped out last minute so my mother said, “I’m gonna try to get in touch with Dr. Maya Angelou.” I said, “Ma, are you crazy? Maya Angelou? How do you think we’re gonna get one of the greatest beings that ever graced this earth last minute? She doesn’t know who Common is.”
Well, to this day I don’t know if she had ever heard of Common before the call was made but somehow through God’s thread she said she would like to meet with me before she decided if she would do the event. So here I am headed to Harlem to meet her at her apartment, just got my hair cut, heart beating, I walk into her beautiful space that smelled like integrity, art, generosity, love, hope, inspiration, honesty, and home. We would sit for two and a half hours talking about writing, my daughter, San Francisco, and Tupac. And oh yeah, Paul Robeson.
The next night she did her thing at the event and embraced me as a young writer-artist, an important voice in hip hop and even flirted with me. Now that really made me feel special. She and I would go on to build a bond that not only would have us spreading love at events in Harlem, Chicago, and D.C., but I would be blessed to go visit her at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C., and celebrate several birthdays with her where we had great times and I got to know her lovely family. It was always an honor to be in her presence and though she did feel like my mother, my grandma, and my friend. I would always Thank God for being there with her.
Every experience was unique, but every time I saw her I learned something about myself and about life, about humanity, about progress. And I was always reminded how we are true reflections of God, how much Light we do have, how great and dynamic Black Women are and how far Integrity, Self Love and Self Respect can take you. I don’t know if my words—or any words—can truly describe the experience of being in the atmosphere of Dr. Maya Angelou, someone you know is sent from the Creator to Give the World A Voice it has never heard, a brightness it has never witnessed, an energy that is Greatness, Divinity and Awakening all wrapped into one.

We would sit for two and a half hours talking about writing, my daughter, San Francisco, and Tupac. And oh yeah, Paul Robeson.

I awoke on May 28, 2014, ready for a powerful day of filming and to do some great work. I was stepping out of a van when I received the news that Dr. Angelou had made her transition and as I moved I felt like my soul was standing still. I hadn’t digested or processed it as I continued to go about the day. Of course I stopped and said a prayer but it wasn’t until the director of our film, Ava DuVernay, said, “We all know what has happened this morning and This Queen is one of the reasons why we can do this film and we will honor her and carry her with us as we proceed forward.” Right then I was able to let loose and cry and release some of the natural pain of losing someone you love and someone so great. And though I’m still in the process I also recognize that she will never be lost and how much we all have gained by having her touch this earth.
God gave us an Angel and we got to witness that Angel for a beautiful time of life. And though that Angel has returned to her maker, Her Work, Her Spirit, Her Words—aw man, Her Words—Her passion, Her heart, Her Love, Her Greatness, Her Royalty, Her Strength, Her Wisdom, Her Divinity, Her Angel will always be here with us. For my daughter’s daughters, your daughter’s daughters, and forever more. Love you, Dr. Maya Angelou.
Love, Common
article via thedailybeast.com

5 Year-Old Jaylee Monteith Calls 911, Helps Save 90 Year-Old Caregiver

By goodblacknews on May 18, 2014
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90-year old Mildred Morris has been a life long caregiver of children and now she’s thanking one 5-year-old for caring for her. Morris, of Asheville, N.C., fell down a flight of stairs while transporting laundry in her home, but 5-year-old Jaylee Monteith, whom Morris has watched since Jaylee was 1, called 911 as soon as she saw Morris fall.
“Jaylee called 911 and said I needed help because I had fallen down the steps,” Morris told ABC News. “Then she went next door and said, ‘Wake up, wake up’ and my neighbor came over and helped.”
Thankfully Morris only ended up needing stitches.  “I think if I had stayed much longer, the blood was coming so quickly from my head, if they had not heard Jaylee, I probably would have been weakened or unconscious,” Morris said. “She’s a miraculous little girl.”
Morris says she watches Jaylee almost daily while her mother, Jazmyn Williams, studies to be a nurse.  “She’s never been to kindergarten so everything she learned is from me and her mother and father,” Morris said. “I knew she was capable but I didn’t know she’d be able to think that quickly.”
Morris has some notoriety under her belt. In the 1980s she was honored by Nancy Reagan for her commitment to children.  “It’s great to know that they remember something I have done for them,” Morris said of the kids she’s touched in her lifetime, which include both Jaylee and her mom. “It’s from my heart for all of them.
“You have to be sincere with kids and let them know that you love them.”
To see video of this story, click here.
article via clutchmagonline.com

University of North Carolina Study Shows Housing The Homeless Saves Lives – And is Actually Cheaper Than Doing Nothing

By goodblacknews on March 25, 2014

n-SKID-ROW-LOS-ANGELES-HOMELESS-large570It’s cheaper to give homeless men and women a permanent place to live than to leave them on the streets.
That’s according to a study of an apartment complex for formerly homeless people in Charlotte, N.C., that found drastic savings on health care costs and incarceration.
Moore Place houses 85 chronically homeless adults, and was the subject of a study by the University of North Carolina Charlotte released on Monday. The study found that, in its first year, Moore Place tenants saved $1.8 million in health care costs, with 447 fewer emergency room visits (a 78 percent reduction) and 372 fewer days in the hospital (a 79 percent reduction).
The tenants also spent 84 percent fewer days in jail, with a 78 percent drop in arrests. The reduction is largely due to a decrease in crimes related to homelessness, such as trespassing, loitering, public urination, begging and public consumption of alcohol, according to Caroline Chambre, director the Urban Ministry Center’s HousingWorks, the main force behind Moore Place.
One tenant, Carl Caldwell, 62, said he used to go to the emergency room five to seven times a week, late at night, so he could spend the night there. “You wouldn’t believe my hospital bills,” Caldwell, who hasn’t had health insurance for years, told The Huffington Post. Caldwell was a teacher for 30 years and became homeless five years ago, when he lost his job and his roommate moved out.
While living on the street, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The disease was particularly challenging for Caldwell, who said he spent his days “trying not to get robbed or killed” and trying to find bathrooms and shelter from freezing weather. Since he moved into Moore Place when it opened in March 2012, Caldwell has gained a regular doctor and has undergone radiation. Now his cancer is in remission. Without having to worry about where he will sleep, he can take his medicine regularly and keep it in his mini fridge.
“Moore Place saved my life,” Caldwell said. “When you’re homeless, you are dependent on everybody. Now I am independent and can give back.” Caldwell said he regularly helps feed homeless people now and has reconnected with family members he hadn’t spoken to in years.
Chambre said she expects Moore Place tenants’ mental and physical health to continue to improve with consistent access to health care. “The idea of having a primary care doctor was just a fantasy when they were living on the street,” said Chambre. “Now they all have a regular doctor.”

High School Crowns Transgender Student Blake Brockington Homecoming King

By goodblacknews on February 11, 2014

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Blake Brockington, who was born a girl but identifies as a male, made history at his high school in North Carolina when he became the first transgender teen to be crowned homecoming king.  According to WCNC, Brockington was nominated by students at East Meck High School and there were 13 other students in the running.  In order to win the honor, Brockington had to participate in a fundraiser for Mothering Across Continents, an international non-profit working to build schools in South Sudan. Brockington raised $2,335.55 with the help from Time Out Youth, a local LGBT youth services agency.
From WCNC:

Brockington is no stranger to adversity.  He says he is living with foster parents because his father is unable to accept his gender identity.
His foster parent, Donald Smith, told NBC Charlotte Brockington has the perseverance to overcome the challenges he faces.  “He really is hoping that it helps those behind him going through the same challenges and struggles,” he said.
Teacher Bill Allen is the student advisor for the Gay-Straight Alliance on campus.  He says East Meck is known as a school of diversity. He says Brockington’s achievement is the first step in representing what many of the students believe.
“Our young people understand we are all different. We have all races, genders and religious backgrounds. We have kids representing 30-40 languages in this school and people learn to accept each other as they are, and I think this is an example of what is going to be happening in North Carolina,” he said.

Brockington plans to attend University of North Carolina-Charlotte in the fall.
article by Yesha Callahan via clutchmagonline.com

Maya Angelou Accepts Mailer Center Lifetime Achievement Award

By goodblacknews on October 18, 2013
Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Maya Angelou poses for photographs during the fifth annual Norman Mailer Center benefit gala at the New York Public Library on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Maya Angelou poses for photographs during the fifth annual Norman Mailer Center benefit gala at the New York Public Library on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Her body weak, her voice rich and strong, Maya Angelou sang, lectured and reminisced as she accepted a lifetime achievement award Thursday night from the Norman Mailer Center.  The 85-year-old author, poet, dancer and actress was honored during a benefit gala at the New York Public Library, the annual gathering organized by the Mailer Center and writers colony . Seated in a wheelchair, she was a vivid presence in dark glasses and a sparkling black dress as she marveled that a girl from a segregated Arkansas village could grow up to become a literary star.

“Imagine it,” she said, “a town so prejudiced black people couldn’t even eat vanilla ice cream.” Angelou was introduced by her former editor at Random House, Robert Loomis, and she praised him for talking her into writing her breakthrough memoir, the million-selling I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The key was suggesting to her that the book might be too hard to write.

The people who knew her best, she explained, understood that “if you want to get Maya Angelou to do so something, tell her she can’t.”  Angelou, a longtime resident of North Carolina, will be back in Manhattan next month to collect an honorary National Book Award medal.

'Invisible Man' Ban Rescinded by North Carolina School Board After Community Backlash

By goodblacknews on September 26, 2013

"Invisible Man" author Ralph Ellison and his wife, Fanny, at their home in New York in 1972, 20 years after the novel's publication. (Nancy Crampton / Knopf)
“Invisible Man” author Ralph Ellison and his wife, Fanny, at their home in New York in 1972, 20 years after the novel’s publication. (Nancy Crampton / Knopf)

ASHEBORO, N.C. — High school students in Randolph County once again can get “Invisible Man,” Ralph Ellison’s classic 1952 novel of alienation and racial discrimination, at school libraries.  Nine days after the county school board banned the book, it reversed itself at a hastily called special meeting Wednesday night, voting 6 to 1 to return the novel to school bookshelves. Several board members apologized for the ban and said they had been chastened by an outpouring of angry objections from county residents.

The backlash caught board members by surprise. Several said they had been inundated with emails begging them to reconsider. Others conceded that they had acted rashly and should have consulted with the superintendent and rank-and-file teachers in the 16,000-student district, about 85 miles northeast of Charlotte.  Several said the public reaction had opened their eyes to viewpoints they had not considered and broadened their outlook on the importance of all types of literature.
“We may have been hammered on this and we may have made a mistake, but at least we’re big enough to admit it,’’ said board member Gary Cook, who had voted for the ban but reversed himself Wednesday.  The meeting, in a packed boardroom, lasted only 45 minutes. The vote to rescind the ban took a few seconds, with only board member Gary Mason dissenting. He called the book “not appropriate for young teenagers.”
The board’s abrupt reversal came in the middle of the annual Banned Books Week sponsored nationally by the American Library Assn., which celebrates the freedom to read. The association and the Kids’ Right to Read Project wrote the school board condemning the ban and asking that it be reversed.