It has been an underwhelming season for the Houston Texans, but eleven straight losses have not gotten in the way of wide receiver Andre Johnson’s yearly effort to bring some smiles to the faces of kids who could use them. Johnson has made an annual tradition out of giving twelve kids chosen by Child Protective Services in Houston on a shopping spree at Toys R Us. The kids have 80 seconds, in honor Johnson’s No. 80, to fill up carts with everything they can grab off the shelves. Every kid teamed up with a Texans cheerleader to race through the store and was guaranteed an entertainment system of their choice and two games in addition to anything else they grabbed.
“I remember times where I wasn’t able to get things that I wanted,” Johnson said, via the Texans website. “It just gives them a chance to go through the store and get whatever they want. They don’t have to ask anybody for it. Whatever they have on their Christmas list they can pick up.”
The Texans website has some great video from the event (seen below), which Johnson has hosted for seven years. The final tab for this year’s event was $17,352, which is a pretty impressive total given the short period of time the kids had to work even if it is a bit less than last year’s total.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A68znmdOaeI&w=560&h=315]
article by Josh Alper via profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
Posts tagged as “Texas”
With nominees from over 90 countries, the Black Weblog Awards is one of the largest international Internet award events for Black bloggers. Founded in 2005, the award aimed to give recognition to Black bloggers, many whom were overlooked by other Internet award events. The Black Weblog Awards has recognized over 180 blogs in more than 30 categories.
The event has also been featured in several mainstream and online media outlets, including NPR, CNN, and others. Winners of the Black Weblog Awards have gone on to appear in other media outlets, like MSNBC, the Huffington Post, BET, and more. The award ceremony will be held on November 2, 2013, at The Ensemble Theatre in Houston, Texas. The blogger of the year will be revealed in addition to the winners of each of the categories. See the finalists below:
Best Political or News Blog
Polite on Society
Good Black News
WaterCooler Convos Blog
Inform and Engage
Take Another Look
Independent Underground News & Talk
Best Parenting Blog
We Got Kids
Diary of a First-Time Mom
Sailing Autistic Seas
MommyBrown
[v]To Be a Better You
Simply Senia
Spelhouse Love
Best Faith-Based Blog
The Journey Suite
[v]My Faith and Fitness
Maurice Lindsay
Empower Moments
To Be a Better You
Jubilee Mag
Brother Preacher. Faith. Law. Life.
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced on Thursday that the Justice Department would ask a court to require Texas to get permission from the federal government before making voting changes in that state. The move opens a new chapter in the political struggle over election rules after the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act last month. His statements come as states across the South, from Texas to North Carolina, have been rushing to enforce or enact new restrictions on voting eligibility after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder.
“This is the department’s first action to protect voting rights following the Shelby County decision, but it will not be our last,” Mr. Holder said. “Even as Congress considers updates to the Voting Rights Act in light of the court’s ruling, we plan, in the meantime, to fully utilize the law’s remaining sections to subject states to preclearance as necessary. My colleagues and I are determined to use every tool at our disposal to stand against such discrimination wherever it is found.”
The move relies on a part of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court left untouched in the Shelby County case. The court struck down the coverage formula in Section 4 of the law, which had subjected Texas and eight other mostly Southern states to federal oversight based on 40-year-old data. The court suggested that Congress remained free to enact a new coverage formula based on contemporary data, but most analysts say that is unlikely.
Striking down the law’s coverage formula effectively guts Section 5 of the law, which requires permission from federal authorities before covered jurisdictions may change voting procedures. The move by the Justice Department on Thursday relies on a different part of the law, Section 3, which allows the federal government to get to largely the same place by a different route, called “bail-in.” If the department can show that given jurisdictions have committed constitutional violations, federal courts may impose federal oversight on those places in piecemeal fashion.
State officials have celebrated the Shelby County ruling as lifting an obsolete relic of the civil rights era that unfairly treated their states differently from other parts of the country, while civil rights advocates have lamented it as removing a safeguard that is still necessary. Lawyers for minority groups have already asked a court in Texas to return the state to federal oversight. The Justice Department’s action — filing a “statement of interest” in that case — will bring the weight of the federal government behind those efforts.
Former Pro Bowler and Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams has landed a college coaching job at the University of the Incarnate Word. He will work with the running backs at UIW, which is located in San Antonio. UIW Football is a Division I program that will compete in the Southland Conference this year. Williams retired from the Baltimore Ravens last year, after an 11-year career that was marked by extreme highs and lows.
In 2002, Williams was the league’s leading rusher and was named Pro Bowl MVP, and many considered him the best running back in the game. This success was quickly derailed, however, after a suspension and an early retirement in 2004, a retirement that Williams later admitted in a 60 Minutes interview came about as a result of several violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy.
Williams will continue to live in Austin but will commute to UIW to work with the running backs in the fall.
article by Nate Scott via usatoday.com
CAMBRIDGE — On a recent Wednesday afternoon, 22-year-old Cortlan Wickliff walks into a pizzeria looking every bit the college student, with headphones, braces, and slightly overgrown hair. Finals are over, and there’s not much to do but have dinner with friends and watch movies, lots of movies, until graduation.
Oh, and start studying for the bar exam. When Wickliff dons his cap and gown, regalia his mother had to remind him to order, the Texas native will be one of the youngest African-Americans ever to graduate from Harvard Law School. Wickliff was 19 when he graduated from Houston’s Rice University with a degree in bioengineering in 2010. That fall he started law school, but said the age gap with his classmates, about five to six years, was not the biggest issue.
“Being at a school where there aren’t any right answers when you have been in engineering or sciences classes, that’s a bit of a change,” he said with a shrug. “School was different because of my engineering background, being from the South, being from Texas, rather than different because of my age.”
There is no age requirement for admission to Harvard Law; school administrators said the average age in the graduating Class of 2013 is 27. Students need strong test scores and grades. But more than anything, they must show an aptitude for advocating a point of view, something proven through work experience, extracurricular activities, volunteering, leadership positions.
article via newsone.com
When Whitney Mitchell (pictured) lost her arms and legs to an illness two and a half years ago, she was pursuing a career in dance. Her life has taken a different path since then, but she continues to dream big. Mitchell just took her first steps a few weeks ago with her new prosthetic legs. Her movements were small and paced, but the young woman plans on taking giant strides in the future, reports CBS Dallas.
“I really want to inspire people,” said Mitchell. “I want to tell them no matter what (their) circumstances (are) you can pull through and keep going.” The 21-year-old was celebrated at a fundraiser to cover her medical costs at the Chocolate Secrets and Wine Gardens in Dallas on Sunday night.
Her positive spirit has kept her forging ahead with new aspirations of becoming a fashion designer. Mitchell developed flu-like symptoms back in 2010, that ended up being diagnosed as sepsis, a bacterial infection of the blood. The then-aspiring dancer and performing arts university student was given a twelve percent, one week survival rate. The bacteria in her body was causing alarming levels of inflammation. In order to survive, doctors would have to amputate her arms and legs.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKc50N-K178&w=560&h=315]
The third time’s the charm for Candice Glover on “American Idol.” The 23-year-old vocalist from St. Helena Island, S.C., won the Fox TV singing competition after auditioning a trio of times and making it to the finals this year. Glover looked stunned when “Idol” host Ryan Seacrest announced she bested soulful 22-year-old country singer Kree Harrison from Woodville, Texas.
Glover said backstage after winning she learned to “Have fun, live in the moment and be confident.” “Because in previous years I wasn’t, so that’s definitely the key if you want to audition for the show or have a career,” she said. After her crowning, an emotional Glover sobbed her way through her new single “I Am Beautiful.”
Grammy- and Oscar-winning former “Idol” finalist Jennifer Hudson returned for Thursday’s finale for a show-stopping duet with Glover on Natalie Cole’s “Inseparable” (see above).
Glover’s win marks the first time a female and a nonwhite singer has won the competition since Jordin Sparks dominated the sixth season in 2007. The previous five winners — Phillip Phillips, Scotty McCreery, Lee DeWyze, Kris Allen and David Cook — were all Caucasian guitar players, known to “Idol” fans as WGWGs, or white guys with guitars.
The lack of a female champion for the past five years was mocked in a finale bit featuring the female finalists, in cahoots with Sparks, jokingly sabotaging this season’s five male contestants. “The good news is ‘Idol’ leftovers have been doing really well on ‘The Voice,'” Sparks teased.
Besides the coronation of Glover, Thursday’s finale also served as a farewell for Randy Jackson, the show’s last remaining original judge who announced last week that he’s leaving “Idol” to focus on his record label and other business opportunities. Jackson served as a judge on all 12 seasons of “Idol.” He first appeared on the panel alongside Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul when the competition debuted in 2002, becoming famous for his easygoing “yo, dawg” rapport with contestants.
http://youtu.be/BIyiEHqt0g4
WACO, Texas (AP) — Brittney Griner certainly knows how to provide a farewell to remember — and an embrace Baylor coach Kim Mulkey will likely never forget. There were three impressive dunks on a night Griner almost could have had more in her final home game.
“Tonight felt like senior night. Tonight was better,” Griner said. ” The three dunks. Just going out the way we did. Not everybody’s lucky, and we were. We gave the crowd a good game.”
Griner had 33 points and a career-high 22 rebounds, becoming the first woman to make three dunks in a game, as the defending national champion Lady Bears rolled past Florida State 85-47 Tuesday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
With former President George W. Bush part of the crowd packed into the Ferrell Center for the final home game of Griner’s impressive career and four other seniors, the 6-foot-8 two-time All-American delivered in spectacular fashion — with one dunk before halftime and two more in a 79-second span right before coming out of the game for good.
“It’s always exciting to see when Brittney dunks. I always get excited. We always get excited,” junior point guard Odyssey Sims said. “Everyone gets pumped. It’s nothing we’ve never seen. She’s just phenomenal.”
Brooklyn Pope had 12 points for Baylor, which has won a nation’s-best 57 games in a row at home. Sims had 11 points and Kimetria Hayden 10. The Lady Bears (34-1) are in the NCAA round of 16 for the fourth year in a row. They play Louisville (26-8) on Sunday night in Oklahoma City.
Griner’s opening slam came on a break after a Florida State basket. Freshman guard Niya Johnson passed ahead to Griner, who took one step without a dribble before slamming it home with 4 minutes left in the first half for a 43-18 lead — sending the partisan crowd of 9,652 into a frenzy as she ran down the court with her mouth open and clearly enjoying the moment.
Griner had 33 points and a career-high 22 rebounds, becoming the first woman to make three dunks in a game, as the defending national champion Lady Bears rolled past Florida State 85-47 Tuesday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
With former President George W. Bush part of the crowd packed into the Ferrell Center for the final home game of Griner’s impressive career and four other seniors, the 6-foot-8 two-time All-American delivered in spectacular fashion — with one dunk before halftime and two more in a 79-second span right before coming out of the game for good.“It’s always exciting to see when Brittney dunks. I always get excited. We always get excited,” junior point guard Odyssey Sims said. “Everyone gets pumped. It’s nothing we’ve never seen. She’s just phenomenal.”
Brooklyn Pope had 12 points for Baylor, which has won a nation’s-best 57 games in a row at home. Sims had 11 points and Kimetria Hayden 10. The Lady Bears (34-1) are in the NCAA round of 16 for the fourth year in a row. They play Louisville (26-8) on Sunday night in Oklahoma City.
Griner’s opening slam came on a break after a Florida State basket. Freshman guard Niya Johnson passed ahead to Griner, who took one step without a dribble before slamming it home with 4 minutes left in the first half for a 43-18 lead — sending the partisan crowd of 9,652 into a frenzy as she ran down the court with her mouth open and clearly enjoying the moment.
One of the earliest writings of Jupiter Hammon, the first African-American poet to be published, has been found. Born into slavery in Long Island, New York, he was allowed to explore his master’s library. Hammon went on to publish his first work, “An Evening Thought,” in 1760.
Julie McCown, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Arlington, was researching several libraries for a particular poem and found success at Manuscripts and Archives at Yale University Library in Connecticut. The poem, published in 1786, is telling of Hammon’s evolved thoughts on slavery in America, according to Cedrick May, a UTA professor.
Julie McCown, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Arlington, was researching several libraries for a particular poem and found success at Manuscripts and Archives at Yale University Library in Connecticut. The poem, published in 1786, is telling of Hammon’s evolved thoughts on slavery in America, according to Cedrick May, a UTA professor.
A flamboyant showman and guitar picker in the style of T-Bone Walker, Johnny “Guitar” Watson was born John Watson, Jr. in Houston, Texas on February 3, 1935. Watson recorded throughout the 1950s and 1960s with some success. His creative reinvention in the 1970s with disco and funk overtones, saw Watson have hits with “Ain’t That a Bitch”, “I Need It” and “Superman Lover.” His successful recording career spanned forty years, with his biggest hit being 1977’s “A Real Mother For Ya”. Watson was known for his virtuosic guitar playing and inspired musicians ranging from Bobby Womack to Frank Zappa.
To learn more about his life and music, click here, and enjoy “A Real Mother For Ya” below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jr0qPqK3vw&w=420&h=315]
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson