Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Washington DC”

From WIC To Whole Grain: One Woman’s Nutritional Journey is Inspiring DC To Eat Healthier

By goodblacknews on December 29, 2015
Juju Harris (photo via bright side.com)
Juju Harris (photo via bright side.com)

When Juju Harris — the current culinary educator and SNAP outreach coordinator for the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture — was a mother providing for six children on her husband’s limited paycheck and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) items, she no doubt had to get creative to make sure her family was eating healthy.

The self-proclaimed nature lover started her own garden, took her WIC products and made it happen. That meant using fresh vegetables and WIC staples like oatmeal to bake a healthier bread option. That meant learning how to grow, cook and eat produce not usually found in her neighborhood stores. And now, Harris is sharing that knowledge with mothers in the same predicament through her cookbook — The Arcadia Mobile Market Seasonal Cookbook — and by visiting some of Washington D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods in a mobile farmer’s market to spread the knowledge and fulfill a larger goal of creating a more equitable and sustainable local food system in the nation’s capitol.
For her efforts in combating both food insecurities and food deserts, Harris is being recognized by Carmax’s The Bright Side as an innovator and savior in her space.
From the BrightSideShorts.com:
Understanding the importance of nutrition, the former Peace Corp member set out to encourage families to work towards healthy options, teaching mothers how to cook with the familiar – apples, lettuce and items provided to them by WIC – and the unfamiliar – Swiss chard, squash and other unprocessed foods.
Her cookbook, The Arcadia Mobile Market Seasonal Cookbook, is available for free to shoppers who frequent the Mobile Market. Before releasing her guide to a healthy lifestyle, the homegrown hero also established a women’s nutrition and financial development program as an Agricultural Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay.
To learn more about Harris’ efforts and the Arcadia Mobile Market, click here.
article via newsone.com

President Obama Shops with Daughters on ‘Small Business Saturday’

By goodblacknews on November 28, 2015

Obama Daughters Shopping
Malia Obama, President Barack Obama and Sasha Obama getting ice cream at Pleasant Pops in Washington DC on Small Business Saturday (photo by Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is keeping tradition to support small businesses.  Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha visited Upshur Street Books in Washington’s Petworth neighborhood Saturday. The three skimmed books in the fiction section of the dimly lit store with bright green walls and miniature Christmas lights hung on the ceiling. The president emerged from the store with a brown shopping bag full of books.
The trio moved to the Adams Morgan neighborhood for a stop at Pleasant Pops cafe and market, where the president treated his daughters to fresh fruit popsicles.
Obama has shopped other Washington bookstores including Kramerbooks and Politics and Prose on “Small Business Saturday.” The Saturday after Thanksgiving is designed to drive business to mom and pop shops between the Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday deals.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
article by Stacy A. Anderson, AP via thegrio.com

Michelle Obama Awards 13 Youth Arts Programs at White House

By goodblacknews on November 18, 2015
WASHINGTON (AP) — Calling a group of artistic youth the “next generation of fabulous,” Michelle Obama presented national arts and humanities awards to 12 after-school programs from across the country and one international program from Honduras.
Honorees included a musical theater program co-created by comedian Rosie O’Donnell that serves low-income students in New York City.
The first lady presented the awards Tuesday to recognize the nation’s best youth programs that use arts and humanities to develop skills and increase academic achievement. She honored programs that teach ceramics, dance, music, writing, science and more. Each of the U.S. programs will receive $10,000.
The annual White House ceremony included a live performance from winning program, A Commitment to Excellence, or ACTE II. The New York group performed a song and dance medley including “I Got Rhythm,” ”Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” and “Empire State of Mind.”
“Wow…that wasn’t singing, that was ‘sanging,’” Mrs. Obama quipped, referring to the group which she predicted is destined for Broadway.
Mrs. Obama urged continued funding and support for arts and humanities programs, which she said also teach students problem-solving, teamwork and discipline.
“There are millions of kids like these with talent all over the place, and it’s hidden and it’s untapped and that’s why these programs are so important,” Mrs. Obama said. “We wouldn’t know that all this existed without any of these programs and that would be a shame.”
The 2015 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards are hosted by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with three national cultural agencies.
The 13 programs recognized with a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award during the White House ceremony are:
— A Commitment to Excellence (ACTE II), New York.
—Action Arts and Science Program, Sioux Falls, S.D.
—Art High, Pasadena, Calif.
—CityDance DREAM Program, Washington.
—Spy Hop Productions, Salt Lake City.
—Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee.
—Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Inc., New Orleans.
—VSA Indiana, Inc. , Indianapolis.
—The Center for Urban Pedagogy, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y.
—Deep Center, Inc., Savannah, Ga.
—The Telling Room, Portland, Maine.
—Caldera, Portland, Oregon.
—Organization for Youth Empowerment (OYE), El Progreso, Honduras.
article by Stacy A. Anderson, AP via blackamericaweb.com

White House Announces In-State Tuition Rates at all Public Colleges for U.S. Veterans, Families

By goodblacknews on November 11, 2015

Obama And Biden Discuss Job Skills Training In Pennsylvania
WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (Reuters) – All recent U.S. military veterans and their families will now be offered in-state tuition rates to public colleges and universities throughout the country, the White House said on Wednesday.
Announced in honor of the U.S. federal holiday Veterans Day, which fell on Wednesday, the change is part of President Barack Obama‘s “steadfast commitment” to military families and aims to make sure veterans can both access and get the most out of higher education, administration officials said.
Officials also announced the launch of a revamped comparison tool to offer veteran-specific admissions statistics, which aims to help applicants better evaluate programs, and a new effort to curb deceptive enrollment tactics used by schools aiming to recruit veterans.
Cecilia Munoz, a top domestic policy adviser to the president, said while Obama is pressing his administration to push these changes forward quickly, he is also calling on Congress to move forward on three pieces of legislation to help improve veterans’ education.
“These pieces of legislation will really ensure that veterans have the opportunities and assistance to … realize the American dream,” Munoz told reporters on a conference call.
One bill would heighten standards for schools receiving G.I. Bill funds, while another would help protect G.I. Bill benefits for veterans whose schools close mid-term. A third, just introduced on Tuesday, would increase regulation of for-profit colleges, many of which target veterans.
“What we think this does is ramp up the accountability” of those schools, Munoz said, adding that it ensures “we are requiring a high-quality education for veterans that have served us well.”
article by Megan Cassella and Sandra Maler via huffingtonpost.com

National Museum of African-American History and Culture To Become Five-Story Screen to Show 3D “Commemorate and Celebrate Freedom” Video Nov. 16-18

By goodblacknews on November 1, 2015
NMAAHC
The completed building of the National Museum of African American History and Culture will be transformed into a lively display one year before it opens. (National Museum of African American History and Culture)

The building of the National Museum of African American History and Culture is now complete, with interior work underway. Now marks the final countdown to the museum’s grand opening next Fall (exact dates have not yet been announced). Though an actual visit to the long-awaited museum is still many weeks away, visitors to the National Mall next month will get a taste of what’s to come when the museum’s façade will be transformed into a lively and spectacular display of video, music and light.

When the sun goes down each evening between November 16 and 18, the museum’s south exterior, facing Madison Drive, and its west exterior, on 15th Street near the Washington Monument, will be illuminated by a seven-minute video, entitled “Commemorate and Celebrate Freedom.” Produced by the renowned filmmakers Stanley J. Nelson and Marcia Smith of Firelight Media, and animated by Quixotic Entertainment, the video projection will transform the museum into a five-story, block-long 3D canvas, according to museum officials.
“What we wanted to do was to metaphorically have the museum speak even before we open next year,” says Kinshasha Holman Conwill, deputy director of the museum.
“And the signal design element for our building is the corona: the three-tiered bronze colored element that has references in African sculpture and African American life and that identifies this building as something unique on the Mall. So to project on to that façade really gave us that opportunity to make the museum speak.”
The display, which the museum’s director Lonnie Bunch has called a “dynamic event,” will be accompanied by a soundtrack of historical music and spoken word, and will pay tribute to three significant moments in history: the culmination of the Civil War with the surrender at Appomattox on April 8, 1865; ratification of the 13th Amendment, which officially ended the institution of slavery on December 5, 1865; and the passage of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965.
“One of the things that [the film connects] to is the notion and the vision that the museum would be a place for those who already revel in African American history and culture,” says Conwill. “But most importantly,” she adds that the museum seeks to also provide a unique “lens into what it means to be an American and that those milestones in American history, as viewed through that lens, really amplifies that notion.”
On its opening night, November 16, the state-of-the-art digital projection imagery will also be accompanied by a live, outdoor program, produced and directed by Ricardo Khan, former artistic director of the Tony Award-winning Crossroads Theatre Co. Actor Erik Todd Dellums will serve as master of the ceremonies, which will include remarks by other dignitaries, including Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser; and U.S. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Obama to Unveil Plan to Bring Overtime Pay To 5 Million More Workers

By goodblacknews on June 30, 2015
uptown_barack_obama_2014

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama this week will propose a plan to extend overtime pay to 5 million American workers who are currently excluded under federal law, according to sources.

The president will recommend updating overtime rules so that salaried workers who earn less than roughly $50,400 per year would be guaranteed time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. Under the current rules implemented by former President George W. Bush, salaried workers must earn less than $23,660 per year in order to be automatically eligible for overtime pay.
The president announced his intention to make overtime reforms last year, but the details of the plan have been kept secret until this week. The president is expected to discuss the proposal later this week during a visit to Wisconsin. Details of the proposal were first reported by Bloomberg.
In a blog post on The Huffington Post Monday night, Obama said that “too many Americans are working long days for less pay than they deserve,” and that his proposal would help assure that “hard work is rewarded.”
“That’s how America should do business,” the president wrote. “In this country, a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. That’s at the heart of what it means to be middle class in America.”

Howard University Establishes Dual Enrollment Program With D.C. Public Schools

By goodblacknews on May 2, 2015

Untitled-2 copy
Howard University has announced a new partnership agreement with the District of Columbia Public School System. Beginning this fall, students at two high schools in the district will be able to enroll in courses at Howard University and earn both high school and college credits. High school students will be able to take two courses per semester at Howard and one course during the summer months.
To be eligible for the program, high school students must have a 3.0 grade point average and obtain a letter of recommendation from their principal or guidance counselor.

Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick
Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick (Photo via flickr.com)

Wayne A.I. Frederick, president of Howard University, stated, “Howard University and DCPS share a rich history of providing students with opportunities to explore their academic interests and advance their knowledge of the world around them. I am proud to deepen our relationship through the dual-enrollment partnership. Through this program, we are aiming to inspire and develop the next generation of leaders and innovators from right here in the District.”
article via jbhe.com

Nosa Akol, Teen Teased for Dark Skin, Wins $10,000 4-H Club Scholarship

By goodblacknews on April 27, 2015

B9316894243Z.1_20150422224327_000_G4SAJ453F.1-0
Nosa Akol (Photo via clutchmagonline.com)

Seventeen-year-old Nosa Akol was born in Sudan and moved to the states when she was 5 years-old. Akol says throughout her childhood and teens she was teased because of her dark skin. The taunts ate away at what little self-esteem her tumultuous life had permitted.
In response, she folded into herself and tried to disappear into the crowds at West Middle School, then Binghamton High in New York.  The sharp barbs shaped her personality.  “It made me really insecure when I passed by large groups,” she said.
But when she discovered the opportunities open to her through the 4-H Club, and Nosa, then a high school freshman, threw herself into one project after another.  As National 4-H Council has named Nosa the 2015 recipient of the 4-H Youth in Action Award, she seems well on her way.
“Through the work that I will do in my life, I want to be known as the person who saw an issue, became the change, and did something about it,” Nosa stated.
Nosa will receive a $10,000 scholarship and was honored on April 23 at National 4-H Council’s sixth annual Legacy Awards in Washington, D.C., but while Nosa look forwards to her bright future, she also remembers where she came from.
Before she graduates from BHS she’ll have partnered with 4-H alumnus and rising food star Lazarus Lynch to spearhead a Hunger Banquet and Poverty Simulation that will aim to encourage the community to help end world hunger.
“I was a shy hermit of a girl,” Nosa said, “and now I’m trying to make a difference.”
article via clutchmagonline.com

Watch President Obama’s White House Correspondents’ Speech (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on April 26, 2015


Last night, President Obama hosted his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner with more comedic relied than ever before.  “Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner…and welcome to the fourth quarter of my presidency,” he said jokingly to start off the evening.
President Barack Obama
Confessing that he feels “more relaxed than ever,” President Obama joked comfortably about everything from CNN’s extensive coverage of the U.S. Ebola scare to recently mending ties with Cuba. “The Castro brothers are here tonight. Welcome to America, amigos!… What? It’s the Castro’s from Texas? Oh. Hi Joaquin. Hi Julian,” he said.
Arguably the best moment of the evening happened when the President invited comedian Keegan-Michael Key to be his “anger translator.”
Watch and enjoy!
article by Whitney Gaspard via essence.com

Loretta Lynch Confirmed by Senate as United States Attorney General

By goodblacknews on April 23, 2015
Loretta Lynch confirmed by Senate as new U.S. Attorney General (Photo via eurweb.com)
Loretta Lynch confirmed by Senate as new U.S. Attorney General (Photo via eurweb.com)

Loretta Lynch was confirmed Thursday as attorney general, the first black woman in American history to hold the country’s top law enforcement post.

The Senate approved Lynch, a federal prosecutor from New York, on a 56-43 vote after an unusually lengthy confirmation delay. President Barack Obama nominated Lynch as the successor to Eric Holder in November.

Lynch’s path to becoming the first African American woman to serve as attorney general was fraught with partisan bickering — fighting that continued on Thursday.  Obama said the Justice Department would benefit from Lynch’s experience as a “a tough, independent, and well-respected prosecutor.”

“Loretta has spent her life fighting for the fair and equal justice that is the foundation of our democracy,” the president said in a statement on Thursday. “As head of the Justice Department, she will oversee a vast portfolio of cases, including counterterrorism and voting rights; public corruption and white-collar crime; judicial recommendations and policy reviews – all of which matter to the lives of every American, and shape the story of our country.”

Holder said he was pleased the Senate recognized “her clear qualifications.”

“I have known and worked closely with Loretta for many years, and I know that she will continue the vital work that this Administration has set in motion and leave her own innovative mark on the Department in which we have both been privileged to serve,” Holder said in a statement. “I am confident that Loretta will be an outstanding Attorney General, a dedicated guardian of the Constitution, and a devoted champion of all those whom the law protects and empowers.”