“He came to the call out of control,” Conley said, adding: “I had 12 officers on the scene, and 11 of them performed according to their training.”
A bystander’s video, which garnered millions of views on YouTube, showed Casebolt shouting and cursing at teenagers who did not appear to be acting violently or aggressively, with Casebolt wrestling some black teenagers to the ground.
Officials said residents had called the police to complain about an out-of-control party and fighting. Some teenagers said they had permission to be at the pool and said residents had harassed them. The incident prompted a protest Monday as police promised to investigate Casebolt’s actions.
John Legend at Atlanta’s Chastain Park Amphitheatre in 2014. (Photo by Robb D. Cohen/Invision/AP)
Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer John Legend has launched a campaign to end mass incarceration by announcing today the multiyear initiative, FREE AMERICA. He will visit and perform at a correctional facility on Thursday in Austin, Texas, where he also will be part of a press conference with state legislators to discuss Texas’ criminal justice system.
“We have a serious problem with incarceration in this country,” Legend said in an interview. “It’s destroying families, it’s destroying communities and we’re the most incarcerated country in the world, and when you look deeper and look at the reasons we got to this place, we as a society made some choices politically and legislatively, culturally to deal with poverty, deal with mental illness in a certain way and that way usually involves using incarceration.”
Legend, 36, will also visit a California state prison and co-host a criminal justice event with Politico in Washington, D.C., later this month. The campaign will include help from other artists — to be announced — and organizations committed to ending mass incarceration.
“I’m just trying to create some more awareness to this issue and trying to make some real change legislatively,” he said. “And we’re not the only ones. There are senators that are looking at this, like Rand Paul and Cory Booker, there are other nonprofits that are looking at this, and I just wanted to add my voice to that.”
If you’re a fan of the show Shark Tank, then you know convincing the “sharks” to invest in your business is not an easy challenge.
One little girl, however, managed to impress the sharks with her southern sweetened lemonade. 10-year-old Austin, Texas native Mikaila Ulmer is the founder of BeeSweet Lemonade. When she was only four years old, Ulmer was brainstorming what she would contribute to the Action Children’s Business Fair and Austin Lemonade Day.
After two bee stings, her parents encouraged her to research why honeybees were critical to our ecosystem. The young mind grew fascinated. Not long after, Great Granny Helen mailed Mikaila a 1940s cookbook containing Granny’s flaxseed lemonade recipe. The light bulb went off and little Miss Ulmer was inspired to make something that would help honeybees and use Great Granny Helen’s delicous recipe. BeeSweet Lemonade was born.
Mikaila’s recipe is unique from other lemonade recipes because instead of using lots of sugars, she sweetens each batch with honey from local bees. Today, she travels selling BeeSweet Lemonade at youth entrepreneurial events, and a portion of the profits is donated to organizations fighting to preserve honeybees.
Shark Tank investor and FUBU CEO Daymond John was sold on the BeeSweet story, and the mogul invested $60,000 for a 25% stake in the beverage company. John is working closely with Ulmer as her mentor and helping to push her brand through his professional network. “Partnering with Mikaila made perfect sense,” he said in a statement. “She’s a great kid with a head for business and branding. She’s got a great idea and I’m happy to help take BeeSweet to the next level.”
The investment will allow the company to make larger batches of the lemonade and meet customer demands. “I’m so excited to have someone with as much experience as Daymond on my team,” the young business girl said. “This is a great opportunity to have more people try my lemonade and save even more bees.” Order Mikaila’s BeeSweet Lemonade and try all of the flavors here. BeeSweet Lemonade is also available at multiple Whole Foods and other grocers. article by Essence Gant via blackenterprise.com
After showing herself to be in the elite class of female runners at the Austin Marathon, Kenyan Hyvon Ngetich hit the wall — hard. She didn’t win, despite leading for most of the day. But the way Ngetich finished the race is being celebrated, because she did it by crawling, refusing to quit.
Her fortitude paid off: Even though she crept to the finish line, Ngetich finished third, with a time of 3:04:02.68.
As the crowd realized what was happening in front of them — that the race’s former leader was refusing to be put in a wheelchair that organizers brought out onto the course, and she was insisting on finishing under her own power — they cheered her on.
“Running, always, you have to keep going, going,” Ngetich told local TV station KEYE after the race. She said that she doesn’t recall the final 2 kilometers of the marathon or crossing the finish line.
http://youtu.be/T6UG9PaABc8
Ngetich accomplished her feat Saturday. But her story is still making headlines today and being cited as an inspiration, as more and more people discuss the elite runner who finished a marathon on all fours.
“I’ve seen athletes wobble and fall; I’ve seen athletes crawl across the finish line,” Austin Marathon Race Director Jon Conley told CBS News Monday. “But that story of her going 26 miles, and then crawling the last 450 feet or so — never seen anything like it.”
The women’s winner was Cynthia Jerop, who finished in 2:54:21.78. Ngetich finished some 10 minutes later — and just three seconds shy of second place. But after her display of will, Conley and the Austin Marathon adjusted Ngetich’s prize money to equal that of the second-place finisher. article by Bill Chappell via npr.org
Isis Brantley (Photo Courtesy Institute for Justice)
Over the past year, Natural Hair Stylist Isis Brantley has been fighting to teach hair braiding in the state of Texas. Now, A federal judge has finally ruled in her favor.
Brantley, who runs a hair braiding business sued the state in 2013 stating that the laws related to her hair braiding school were ‘unreasonable’ and ‘unconstitutional.’
Texas law would have required Brantley to set up a 2,000-square-foot barber college, with 10 sinks and reclining barber chairs. As well as require her to take and pay for hundreds of hours of courses and acquire licenses she wouldn’t need or use in order to be certified to provide students the necessary classroom hours for a hair-braiding license.
“This means that Isis must spend 2,250 hours in barber school, pass four exams, and spend thousands of dollars on tuition and a fully-equipped barber college she doesn’t need, all to teach a 35-hour hairbraiding curriculum.” — Isis Brantley’s 2013 Institute for Justice Statement
According to Dallas News, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled that the state of Texas violated Brantley’s 14th Amendment right to due process by setting unreasonable and irrational requirements for her to teach braiding. Sparks also said that the regulations excluded Brantley from the market “absent ‘a rational connection with … fitness or capacity to engage in’ hair braiding instruction.”
Sparks found the various rules requiring Texas hair braiding schools to become fully equipped barber colleges “irrational,” citing licensed braiding salons don’t need sinks because washing hair is not involved in the braiding process.
“I fought for my economic liberty because I believe there is a lot of hope for young people who seek to earn an honest living,” said Brantley. “This decision means that I will now be able to teach the next generation of African hair braiders at my own school.”
“It is the first time that hair-braiding schools have been addressed by the federal courts and the third time that African hair braiding has been handled in the federal court system,” said Brantley’s attorney, Arif Panju. It has broad implications. These are economic regulations, and it’s unconstitutional to require entrepreneurs to do useless things. … Texas was not only preventing African hair-braiding schools from even opening, but it was also violating the 14th Amendment. This ruling is a resounding victory for Isis Brantley and entrepreneurs like her across Texas,” Panju said. “It is unconstitutional to require people to do useless things.”
Gymnast Simone Biles became only the sixth woman, and first in 11 years, to win consecutive all-around titles at the World Gymnastics Championships in China today. This is only her fourth season at the elite level and, with the Rio Olympics two years away, the 17-year-old from Spring, Texas, still has room to grow.
“It actually blows my mind,” Biles said of winning back-to-back world titles. “If I think about it right now, I’m just like, `Whaaaat?’ It’s just like, I don’t know. It’s just really weird, but it’s really cool.”
After Svetlana Khorkina repeated as the all-around champion at the 2003 worlds, 10 different women would win the world or Olympic title from 2004-13. Injuries played a part in that volatility — Russia’s Aliya Mustafina looked set for a long run after winning in 2010, only to blow out her knee six months later — as has the sport’s relatively short window for success.
It’s really tough to stay healthy and at the top of your game for an entire quadrennium, especially when every year brings a new crop of phenoms.
But if anyone was going to break that streak of, well, no streak, it was Biles.
No one can match her for power or explosiveness. She is already doing one of the world’s toughest vaults, the Amanar, and she gets so high off the table it’s not inconceivable to think she could add another half-twist to her somersault. Her tumbling passes on floor exercise are so massive she really ought to get FAA clearance.
There’s more to Biles than circus tricks, however. All of her skills are done with precision and polish, making them look deceptively easy. Ordinary folks have more trouble walking on flat ground than Biles does doing an aerial somersault on a balance beam that’s 4 inches wide and 4 feet off the floor.
Most appealing is her personality. While other gymnasts are so intense or stoic they look angry during meets, Biles is constantly smiling and giggling. Her enthusiasm is infectious, and it’s no surprise she’s a favorite with her competitors.
“I know there is competition between pretty much everyone, but we’re such good friends,” said fellow American Kyla Ross, who won the bronze medal after being runner-up to Biles last year. “I think we’re really there to push each other.” article by Nancy Armour via usatoday.com
It took just one photo for a stranger to reach out to a dying man, donate one of his kidneys and save the man’s life. Raleigh Callaway had stage 5 kidney failure, and his health was getting worse. His family was thinking of ways to call attention to their need for a kidney donor, so the family decided to have a photo taken together.
Unknowingly, it was a family photo where his children held on to a poster saying, “Our Daddy Needs A Kidney” that got them all the help they needed.
The photo was flashed on 11Alive shows and posted on similar websites, and among the thousands of 11Alive viewers who have expressed their support for the local policemen, one brave and generous man stood out from the rest and decided to donate his kidney. Kidney recipient Raleigh Callaway and his donor Chris Carrol
The donor, Chris Carrol, lived in Texas, which was hundreds of miles away from the Callaways. He never knew Callaway and was a complete stranger to the family, but he felt that he really needed to help the family.
After a series of tests, it was determined that Carrol was a perfect match with Callaway, and he has since pushed to speed up the process so that Callaway can have the transplant right away. Prior to the transplant, the families had time to get to know each other and have already built a special bond among themselves.
After weeks of preparations, the transplant finally went through last Thursday, and Callaway’s wife Kirsti disclosed that doctors were thrilled with how the surgery went. She also issued another statement later on Thursday, mentioning the success of the surgery.
The response to help Callaway has been overwhelming for the family, prompting Kristi Callaway and photographer Brandy Angel to start a non-profit. Known as Callaway’s Angels, they hope that their organization can encourage people to donate and eventually link up people who need kidneys to those who want to donate. article via thegrio.com
Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Madame CJ Walker—the list of women typically mentioned during Black History Month is incredibly short. But this year, CLUTCH will celebrate the achievements of black women you may not have ever heard about.
First up: Bridget “Biddy” Mason
Bridget “Biddy” Mason was born on August 15, 1818 in Georgia. Mason was born into slavery and before her death in 1891 she become one of Los Angeles’ wealthiest Black residents and philanthropists.
After working on a plantation in Mississippi owned by Robert Marion Smith, Mason migrated to Utah with the Smiths, who had converted to Mormonism. During the grueling two-thousand-mile journey, Mason herded cattle, prepared meals, and worked as a nurse and midwife. In 1851, Smith moved his brood, including his enslaved servants, to San Bernardino, California.
Art from the Keir Collection: “Three Doctors in Discussion,” a 13th-century miniature from a translation of Dioscorides’s “De Materia Medica.” The Keir Collection of Islamic Art via Dallas Museum of Art
While Texas may have the fifth largest Muslim population in the United States by some estimates, its public art collections have only recently begun to reflect the 14-century sweep of Islamic history. But on Friday, with the stroke of a pen — sealing a complex agreement hashed out over months — the Dallas Museum of Art will become the long-term custodian of one of the most important collections of Islamic art in private hands.
The Keir Collection, amassed over decades in Britain by Edmund de Unger, a Hungarian real-estate magnate who died in 2011, will go to Dallas for at least 15 years beginning in May, under an unusual long-term renewable loan that will give the museum the right to lend pieces to other institutions and to make objects widely available to scholars. The agreement will instantly give Dallas, which now has only a few dozen Islamic pieces, perhaps the third most important Islamic collection in the country, after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington.
A 10th-century rock crystal ewer from Egypt. The Keir Collection of Islamic Art via Dallas Museum of Art
With the 2011 expansion of the Islamic galleries at the Met and long-term loans and acquisitions of significant works by institutions like the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, the profile of Islamic art in the United States is rising, as threats to major collections and historic sites in parts of the Middle East come with ever greater frequency. On Jan. 24, the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, one of the most important in the world, was badly damaged by a truck bomb, which destroyed more than 70 artifacts.
The Keir Collection — named for a house near London where the collector once lived — had been assumed for several years to be headed to the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, where Mr. de Unger had lent some works before his death. But Sabiha Al Khemir, a highly regarded scholar of Islamic art who was recruited to advise the Dallas museum in 2012, helped persuade the de Unger estate, controlled by the collector’s two sons, that the collection would be better served in Texas, where the museum would be able to make room to keep a few hundred works on view at a time. “They were looking for really a larger commitment for the whole collection and we could give them that,” said Maxwell L. Anderson, director of the Dallas Museum of Art.
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was an American civil aviator. She was the first female pilot of African American descent and the first person of African-American descent to hold an international pilot license. Coleman was born in Atlanta,Texas, the tenth of thirteen children to sharecroppers George, who was part Cherokee, and Susan Coleman.
In 1915, at the age of 23, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she lived with her brothers and she worked at the White Sox Barber Shop as a manicurist, where she heard stories from pilots returning home from World War I about flying during the war. She could not gain admission to American flight schools because she was black and a woman. No black U.S. aviator would train her either. Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckEiKzCBqc&w=560&h=315]
Coleman raised money, studied French, and then traveled to Paris on November 20, 1920. She learned to fly in a Nieuport Type 82 biplane, with “a steering system that consisted of a vertical stick the thickness of a baseball bat in front of the pilot and a rudder bar under the pilot’s feet.” On June 15, 1921, Coleman became not only the first African-American woman to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and the first American of any gender or ethnicity to do so, but the first African-American woman to earn an aviation pilot’s license. Determined to polish her skills, Coleman spent the next two months taking lessons from a French ace pilot near Paris, and in September 1921 sailed for New York. She became a media sensation when she returned to the United States.
To learn more about Coleman’s life and career, click here or watch the Smithsonian Channel video above. article via wikipedia.com
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