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Johnson, who will be starring in the upcoming summer blockbuster “G.I. Joe:  Retaliation” told Moviefone.com:

Right now the best way that I can impact the world is through entertainment. One day, and that day will come, I can impact the world through politics. The great news is that I am American, therefore I can become President. But don’t forget, I am G.I. Joe.

If Johnson does decide to throw in his hat for a political bid at some future point, he will join the ranks of former President Ronald Reagan, a Hollywood film star; U.S. Representative Fred Grandy, who played “Gopher” on the TV series “The Love Boat;” and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, a film action hero.

The third-generation former WWE superstar seems to be taking the same career path that Jesse “The Body” Ventura, the former governor of Minnesota, embarked upon.  After a long wrestling career, Ventura switched to acting before venturing in to politics.

Johnson ironically got a small nibble of presidential life, when he played “The Rock Obama” two years ago during a comedy sketch on the NBC-TV long-running show “Saturday Night Live.”  The actor was praised for doing a spot-on (albeit monosyllabic) Obama impression.

Until then, Johnson will be training for a WrestleMania main event, where he says he is looking forward to opponent John Cena “removing my size 15 boot from his lady parts.”

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Students claimed that Tupac and 50 Cent were Black historical figures and one student claimed that he celebrated Black History Month by “eating fried chicken and drinking grape juice.”

Another student claimed he celebrated Black History Month by listening to Jay-Z while another referred to African Americans as “colored people”

Stand up comic, Dave Ackerman created the video and claimed he mad the video to “fight ignorance.”

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Check out some of the exchange below:

“First off, let’s just be very clear,” Steele said sternly. “There are a significant number of African Americans, myself included, who do no appreciate that particular equation. OK? Because when you walk into a room, I don’t know if you are gay or not, but when I walk into a room, you know I’m black. And whatever racial feelings you have about African Americans, about black people, that is something that is visceral, it comes out. I don’t know [you are gay] until later on, maybe you tell me or some other way. So, don’t sit there and make that comparison. Don’t make that analogy.”

Here is the full video of the exchange. Let us know what you think! Do you agree with Michael Steele?

[Songza Playlist=what-it-feels-like-to-be-black-NewsOne]

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Last Friday, Monessan High School basketball students were returning to their locker rooms, when monkey-clad students were surrounded by Pittsburgh fans who reportedly began making monkey noises and yelling racial epithets.

What’s worse, Brentwood players were said to be taking part in the insults, reportedly calling the Monessan players “monkeys and cotton pickers,” and Director of Security Joseph Kozarian reportedly refused to stop the the racist assault.

Yahoo News reports:

As more media attention has swirled around the disgusting incident, Brentwood officials have scrambled to try and alleviate pressure on the school and district as a whole. As of Tuesday the three students involved had been identified and disciplined, though their punishment was not disclosed to the media. Similarly, officials claimed they were ‘reviewing school policy to make sure a similar incident doesn’t happen again.’

Maybe in Pittsburgh both school officials and residents think this type of behavior is OK, but around the rest of the country, it isn’t. To think that students from Monessan were subjected that type of ridicule and treatment with no one at a higher level stepping in to stop it is unconscionable.

With hope, this incident will continue to get the media attention it deserves, prompting an even higher level of investigation and punishment for all involved. NewsOne will stay abreast of this story.

Watch the video here.

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[Songza Playlist=what-it-feels-like-to-be-black-NewsOne]

CNN anchor Don Lemon sounded off recently, saying that being a black, gay male is the worst thing to be in the African-American community.

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The Transparent author says there’s a lack of acceptance of the LGBT community by black Americans. The Root reports that this statement has angered many African-American women as well as those that do not believe that homophobia is more prevalent with the African-American community.

During a media blitz for his book Transparent, gay CNN anchor Don Lemon candidly opened up about the homophobia he has experienced in the black community.

“It’s quite different for an African-American male,” he told the New York Times in May 2011. “It’s about the worst thing you can be in black culture.”

It wasn’t the first time that African Americans had been accused of not supporting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. But his comment inspired a swift deluge of criticism from black women, black LGBT folks and LGBT allies. In The Root, contributor Michael Arceneaux contested Lemon’s allegation. The backlash against Lemon challenged the perception that African Americans are more homophobic than any other group.

For more on this story, go to theGrio.

The study covered 58,000 federal criminal cases and found that there was a significant difference between the sentences given to Black people to those given to white people.

AllGov reports:

According to M. Marit Rehavi of the University of British Columbia and Sonja B. Starr, who teaches criminal law at the University of Michigan Law School, the racial disparities can be explained “in a single prosecutorial decision: whether to file a charge carrying a mandatory minimum sentence….Black men were on average more than twice as likely to face a mandatory minimum charge as white men were, holding arrest offense as well as age and location constant.” Prosecutors are about twice as likely to impose mandatory minimums on black defendants as on white defendants.

Read More At AllGov

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Obama said his upcoming budget proposal, set to be released next week, would include a request for $80 million from Congress for a new Education Department competition to support math and science teacher preparation programs. Obama made a similar request to Congress last year but the measure didn’t pass.

Separately, he announced $22 million in investments from the private sector to support math and science efforts. Among the organizations committing fresh funding are Google and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Obama said a renewed focus on math and science education should be an American imperative.

“The belief that we belong on the cutting edge of innovation, that’s an idea as old as America itself,” Obama said. “We’re a nation of thinkers, dreamers, believers in a better tomorrow.”

Obama has set a goal of preparing more than 100,000 math and science teachers and training a million additional math, technology, engineering and science graduates over the next decade.

Seeking to highlight the benefits of math and science education, Obama hosted the White House science fair earlier Tuesday, featuring projects designed by over 100 students from across the country. The projects included a robot that helps senior citizens connect with their families via Skype and a portable disaster relief shelter that could be used to house people who have been displaced from their homes.

“It’s not every day you have robots running all over your house,” Obama said of the science fair. “I’m trying to figure out how you got through the metal detectors.”

The president said the students participating in the science fair were an inspiration, and made him confident that the nation’s best days were yet to come.

“You’re getting America in shape to win the future,” Obama said.

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After Joseph dismissed Sonja’s birthday, their argument turned ugly fast.  Reportedly, the 47-year-old man wound up shoving his wife against their sofa and then grabbed her neck.  Joseph then allegedly put his fist up to his 39-year-old wife’s face, threatening to hit her.

Police were called to the couple’s Plantation, Fla., home and Joseph was taken into custody.

When Joseph appeared before Judge John “Jay”  Hurley during his hearing, instead of setting up a bond or keeping the suspect behind bars, he ordered conditions that some might consider to be rather frivolous:

“He’s going to stop by somewhere and he’s going to get some flowers,” the Judge Hurley said according to the Sun Sentinel. “And then he’s going to go home, pick up his wife, get dressed, take her to Red Lobster. And then after they have Red Lobster, they’re going to go bowling.”

The judge’s reason for not giving Joseph, who has no prior arrests, a more stricter punishment is that he felt the case was not serious enough to warrant it and he determined that Sonja was never in real danger.

“It was a minor incident, in the court’s opinion,” Judge Hurley said. “The court would not normally do that if the court felt there was some violence but this is very, very minor and the court felt that that was a better resolution than other alternatives.”

Sonja also told the judge that she was not fearful of her husband nor had she been hurt by him.  When the judge asked Sonja if there was someplace she had wanted to go for her birthday, she said that she wanted to go bowling and to Red Lobster.

Judge Hurley then ordered that Joseph give his wife flowers, a birthday card, dinner at Red Lobster, and bowling.  He also mandated that the couple must attend marriage counseling sessions within a week.

Hmmm…and all just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Watch the video here.

The FBI claims Brooks admitted to making videos where he would spank children and fondle their genitals and share them with others online.

The New York Daily News reports:

In a disturbing photo that Brooks posted on his school blog in 2010, he is dressed as the Easter bunny and has his arm around children

The FBI stumbled on Brooks’ twisted pastime Dec. 29 when he told an agent in an Internet chat room that he was “interested in black boys 10 years old and older,” according to the complaint.

Read More At The New York Daily News

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Mrs. Obama and Fallon did pushups and twirled hula hoops. They competed at dodge ball and tug-of-war. And the first lady triumphed over the comedian in a climactic potato sack race.

After a defeated Fallon said, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost,” the first lady replied, “It matters.”

The segment was taped last month and aired early Wednesday on NBC’s “Late Night” program.

Mrs. Obama has been making the talk-show rounds to celebrate the second anniversary of her campaign against childhood obesity. In the past few weeks she has appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Rachael Ray.”

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In what might be his strongest public comments yet, West referred to Harris-Perry as a “fake” and a “fraud” for allowing herself to be used by the liberal establishment to shoot down his critiques over our nation’s decision to overlook racial inequality and poverty.

I was quoted in the article, but only as a supporter of Dr. West.  Anyone who evaluates Cornel West’s track record will see that he has consistently advocated for Black, Brown and poor people long before “hope” and “change” slogans were thrust on to our TV screens.  In fact, Dr. West and Pastor Jeremiah Wright serve as our strongest modern-day embodiments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Similar to King, both of these men must endure the public volatility that comes with not running in lockstep with any flashy political trend.

When I heard what Cornel said about Melissa, my neck snapped like Nene Leakes bumping into a bill collector at a night club.  I was both impressed and shocked that West had been so strong in his position on Harris-Perry, and I was glad to see that even millionaires aren’t afraid to tell the truth.

Sometimes when diplomacy fails and your people are being attacked, it’s time to go to war.  When Cornel West spoke up honestly about the challenges of poor, Black and Brown people, alarm bells went off in liberal elitist America.  As a professor at an elite university, West was supposed to do what the other elites have done:  consider the poor only as an afterthought to planning your next vacation at Martha’s Vineyard.

In the cute and contrived world of academia, poor people are only secondary theoretical constructs that you discuss during research symposiums; they aren’t real human beings that you should actually fight for in public.

West had run off the plantation by speaking freely, not as an enemy of the Obama Administration (he campaigned heavily for the president), but as someone who demanded that we give a voice to the voiceless.  But when you have 96 percent of the Black vote, there is almost no incentive to do anything for Black people, especially those who are poor or in prison.

It’s much easier to convince Black people to be quiet by using political goons to terrorize any voices of dissent.  I can just hear someone at a closed-door meeting making the statement, “The negroes are getting upset, what do we do?  Perhaps we should find one of our personal negroes to fight him.”

Well, in full overseer tradition, the Democrats have created well-paid African-American attack dogs willing to defend their actions at any cost.  Since Harris-Perry and her friends had no legitimate defense to the critiques of Dr. West, they presumed that it would be easier to simply discredit him.  You see, if you kill the messenger, you never have to deal with the message itself.

Harris-Perry allowed herself to be used by the liberal establishment and their media channels to paint Professor West as irrelevant, petty, and ignorant in his critiques.  She never actually addressed the issues that Dr. West brought to the table.  That’s like my doctor saying, “Boyce, you’re gaining weight” and me responding with, “You’re just a quack divorcee who doesn’t know how to raise his kids.”

If I want to honestly confront my doctor’s argument that I’ve gained weight, all I’d need to do is stand on a scale — unless I am afraid to do so. Harris-Perry knows that Cornel West was right about poverty and inequality, but because she is a highly paid scholar who doesn’t have to confront the issues being brought forth by Dr. West. She likely sees poor Black families as an acceptable casualty to her own political ambitions.

Let’s be clear:  Disagreeing with Cornel West is not a crime.  Supporting the Obama Administration is just fine.  But avoiding the issues of racial inequality and poverty by simply discrediting anyone who brings the topics to the table is pathetically harmful to millions of Black families that are affected by economic inequality, poor educational systems, and mass incarceration.   Someone has to speak up for these people, even at the expense of their own career opportunities, and we should all be thankful that Cornel West has the integrity to lose important friends in order to do what is right.

His willingness to do that which is unpopular (as Dr. King did before his death) will put Cornel West in the history books as a visionary activist and scholar; Melissa Harris-Perry will simply be remembered as another talking head.

In the worst African dictatorships, European corporations seeking to drain a country’s resources realized this simple fact:   There is no need to compensate a country’s citizens for their resources if you can simply pay off greedy dictators and figureheads who control what the people think and do.  As a result, there are countries where billions of dollars in oil are extracted every year, yet the majority of the country’s citizens remain in poverty.

In the Black community, leading Democrats have learned the dictator lesson well: If we hijack a few figureheads in the Black community and convince them to always speak in support of our agenda, we don’t actually have to do very much for Black people themselves.

It’s much easier to take care of the Head N*gger In Charge (HNIC) than it is to take care of the people they represent – just give them big media guns and have them aim those guns at any of the field negroes who choose to participate in the rebellion. That’s what makes Melissa Harris-Perry so harmful.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

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Erica Rooks (pictured) left her children, ages 9 months, 2, and 4, in her car with the engine still running while she went to get her nails done at a salon.  When the 23-year-old mother returned to her vehicle, she was met by Memphis police who began questioning her.

When asked about her whereabouts, Rooks reportedly lied to the officers, saying she merely ran into the salon to use the bathroom.  After investigators went to the salon to question its proprietors, though, they were given a sign-in sheet that showed that Rooks had a full-service manicure.

2-Year-Old Points Gun at Cops: MyFoxMEMPHIS.com

When the officers asked Rooks for her identification, she allegedly reached inside the vehicle for her purse. Her purse reportedly had a bag of marijuana in it that she tried to quickly discard by throwing it in to her car’s center console.

An officer who had begun inspecting the vehicle noticed the marijuana, but was caught off guard by one of the toddlers who reportedly had a loaded gun in his hand and was pointing it directly at him.

Rooks was arrested and charged with three counts of abandonment, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of an unlawful firearm.

The three children have been placed in the care of an uncle, while the Department of Children and Families investigates the case.

Rooks was released Tuesday from jail on a $5,000 bond and will appear in court in early April.

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Proceeds from both concerts benefit the United Way of New York City and the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation of which his mother, Gloria Carter, is president and CEO. Ticket prices ranged from approximately $300 – $1000. Jay-Z first announced the concert series in December of last year.

Beginning the evening in a white Tom Ford dinner jacket and diamond Cartier pin sparkling on his lapel, he changed the line of one of his most recited rhymes, “Public Service Announcement,” in honor of the occasion, replacing “hat” with “tux”:

“Check out my tux, yo/Peep the way I wear it,” he rhymed as the well-heeled crowd adorned in tuxedos and strapless gowns nodded along to the music of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra — conducted by Jeri Lynne Johnson — which served as Jay-Z’s house band, along with the Illadelphonics, an ensemble featuring Questlove of the Roots and soul singer Bilal, reports the Times.

Hova went through his greatest commercial hits, such as “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” to the Rick Rubin produced “99 Problems,” laying to rest the speculation that he had given up the “b-word” in honor of his daughter with wife and former Destiny Child front-woman, Beyonce Knowles.

Jay-Z gave his daughter a shout-out during the evening’s festivities, “Put one hand in the air for Blue! If there are any proud parents in the house tonight, make some noise for me,” while performing “Glory,” his emotional tribute to baby girl Blue Ivy Carter:

“I didn’t think I was gonna make it through that one,” he said at the song’s conclusion.

Alicia Keys joined Jay-Z to perform their NYC anthem, “Empire State of Mind,” which came after an interlude during which the orchestra and band played Gil Scott-Heron’s “New York Is Killing Me.”

Former arch-nemesis, Nas, joined him on stage to perform “N.Y. State of Mind.” Jay-Z let his guest shine alone on “If I Ruled the World,” accompanied by Keys.

Even with all of the pomp and circumstance, Hova kept it so BK. After changing into a black T-shirt and gold chain, he paid homage to his fallen friend, Brooklyn rapper Notorious B.I.G. by performing the ’90′s hit, “Gettin’ Money .”  He then segued into a medley of classics from his 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt, making good on the promise he made the crowd early in the evening:

“All those lines that divide us,” he said with confidence, “we gonna step on them.”

Hip-Hop pioneers, Afrika Bambaataa and MC Melly Mel were the first Hip-Hop duo to play Carnegie Hall in 1985. Wyclef Jean performed there in 2004, Mos Def in 2008.

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Santorum was victorious, as well, in a nonbinding Missouri primary that was worth bragging rights but no delegates, and he led in early returns from Colorado’s caucuses.

“Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota,” the jubilant former Pennsylvania senator told cheering supporters in St. Charles, Mo. Challenging his GOP rival and the Democratic president, he declared that on issues ranging from health care to “Wall Street bailouts, Mitt Romney has the same positions as Barack Obama.”

Returns from 58 percent of Minnesota’s precincts showed Santorum with 45 percent support, Texas Rep. Paul with 27 percent and Romney – who won the state in his first try for the nomination four years ago – with 17 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trailed with 11 percent.

Romney prevailed in both Minnesota and Colorado in 2008, the first time he ran for the nomination, but the GOP has become more conservative in both states since then under the influence of tea party activists.

In Colorado, with returns counted from 16 percent of the precincts, Santorum had 48 percent support with Romney at 22 percent, Gingrich at 17 and Paul trailing with 12 percent.

If the night was good for Santorum, it was grim for Gingrich, who made scant effort in either state. He ran far off the pace in both caucus states, forced to watch from the sidelines while Santorum boasted of being the candidate with conservative appeal.

There were 37 Republican National Convention delegates at stake in Minnesota and 33 more in Colorado, and together, they accounted for the largest one-day combined total so far in the race for the GOP nomination.

The victories were the first for Santorum since he eked out a 34-vote win in the lead-off Iowa caucuses a month ago, and he reveled in the moment. “I don’t stand here to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama,” he told his supporters.

He had faded far from the lead in the primaries and caucuses since, and Gingrich seemed to eclipse him as the leading conservative rival to Romney when he won the South Carolina primary late last month.

While Romney throttled back after victories in Florida and Nevada in the past several days, Santorum campaigned aggressively in all three states on the ballot, seeking a breakthrough to revitalize his campaign.

He won Minnesota largely the way he did Iowa, dispatching his organizers from the first state to the second and courting pastors and tea party leaders alike.

Romney’s campaign moved swiftly to take the sting out of the Missouri vote. The state’s Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, a Romney supporter, congratulated the winner but noted the state’s delegates are still up for grabs. He said, “Mitt Romney has the organization and the resources to go the distance in this election, and I believe he’ll ultimately win our party’s nomination.”

And it was not clear where Santorum could exploit his victory. Aides have already said he has little hope in Maine caucuses that end this weekend, the next event on the calendar.

Paul, a Texas lawmaker, has yet to win a primary or caucus. He claimed credit for a strong second-place finish in Minnesota and said he was optimistic about his chances in Maine.

Romney began the day the leader in the delegate chase, with 101 of the 1,144 needed to capture the nomination at the Republican National Convention this summer in Tampa. Gingrich had 32, Santorum 17 and Paul nine.

Though the delegate total on Tuesday was high, the campaigning was a pale comparison to the Iowa caucuses or primaries last month in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.

Television advertising was sparse; neither Colorado nor Minnesota hosted a candidates’ debate, and there was relatively little campaigning by the contenders themselves until the past few days.

The same was true in last weekend’s Nevada caucuses, which Romney won on the heels of a Florida primary victory days earlier. The same pattern holds in Maine.

Not until primaries in Michigan and Arizona on Feb. 28 is the campaign likely to regain the intensity that characterized the first few weeks of the year.

Then it roars back to life with a 10-state Super Tuesday on March 6 with 416 convention delegates at stake. Georgia, where Gingrich launched his career in Congress, is the biggest prize that night with 76 delegates. Next is Ohio, which has 63 delegates at stake and where early voting has already begun.

Santorum, in particular, was eager to seize the relative lull to redeem the promise of his Iowa victory.

He campaigned more aggressively this week than any of the other contenders, and he spent Tuesday hopscotching from Colorado to Minnesota to Missouri in hopes of nailing down at least one victory. Touting himself as a true conservative – a slap at Gingrich – he sought to undermine Romney’s electability claim at the same time by predicting the former Massachusetts governor would lose to Obama.

Romney responded by assailing Santorum as an advocate of congressional earmarks – shifting the criticism he had leveled at Gingrich when the Georgian seemed a more imposing threat.

In the hours before the caucuses convened, the front-runner sought to lower expectations.

“Mitt Romney is not going to win every contest,” Rich Beeson, the campaign’s political director, wrote in a memo for public consumption.

“John McCain lost 19 states in 2008, and we expect our opponents will notch a few wins, too,” Beeson wrote. McCain, the Arizona senator, won the Republican nomination four years ago.

In fact, Colorado and Minnesota were among the states that McCain failed to win, and he lost them to Romney.

In the four years since, the GOP has become more conservative in both. That posed a challenge for Romney, who runs as the Republican most likely to defeat Obama and is still trying to establish his credentials among tea party activists suspicious of a one-time moderate who backed abortion rights.

Two years ago in Minnesota, establishment candidates for governor were swept aside in the primary, and tea party-backed insurgents for governor and the Senate in Colorado won the party nominations.

In all three cases, Democrats won in the general election that fall.

Gingrich spent the day campaigning in Ohio, one of the primary states on March 6.

His campaign went into a downward spiral after he won the South Carolina primary in an upset. The former speaker was routed in the Florida primary to Romney, then finished a distant second in Nevada over the weekend.

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According to authorities, the television was more than 45 inches wide, over one hundred pounds and perched atop of a much smaller, narrow “fish tank stand.” Baby Shaun was running through the room and accidentally bumped into the television, causing it to topple on top of him. His mother quickly ran to lift the large TV, immediately realizing that her son did not seem to be breathing:

“The baby is dead!” she screamed as she ran downstairs, according to cousin Michael Jennings.

Refusing to wait on an ambulance, Shaun’s parents rushed him to a local hospital; after his initial treatment he was transferred to University of Chicago Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3:21 p.m, according to the Tribune.

Relatives said the child suffered from a fractured skull and extensive eye injuries.

Shaun’s great-grandmother, Mozelle Kyles, 78, said that she was in the apartment beneath her family’s when she heard the television crash to the floor:

“Everybody downstairs heard a big loud thump and then everybody started screaming,’’ she said.

Chicago’s Department of Children and Family Services are investigating Shaun’s death. Agency spokesperson, Kendall Marlowe, said they have no prior history with the Brown family:

“We have not had any previous investigation with this family,’’ he said. “No other children lived at the home.”

Unfortunately, this tragedy is not an unusual occurrence in Chicago. According to the Tribune, four children have been killed by falling televisions in the past three months:

– Gianna Hadjis, 4, died of “crushing” head injuries after a television set fell onto her Jan. 15 at her University Park home, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

– On Nov. 8, 3-year-old Shaniya Singleton died after a television fell in her Englewood home as she played with her 5-year-old brother and 1-year-old sister.

– Ten days earlier, on Oct. 30, Karl Clermont, 6, was killed when a 36-inch television fell on him in his family’s Arlington Heights home.

Kyle says that she is still in disbelief at the loss of her great-grandson:

“He’s gone. They told us he was going to make it, but he took a turn and now he’s gone,” she said quietly. “There’s not much to say. He was just a baby. He was a beautiful child.”

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The White House made a point of declaring it wanted to ease the concerns of church-affiliated employers – many would be required to provide birth control coverage to their workers under the new rules – but there was no word on how those concerns might be addressed.

The two-track drama pumped new furor into longstanding disputes that sometimes take a backseat in political campaigns because the lines are so familiar and firmly drawn. Last week’s Komen-Planned Parenthood dispute stirred many women’s groups that support legal abortion. And the Obama ruling touched a nerve with moderate Roman Catholics who support contraceptives but also defend their church’s right to run its hospitals and other institutions according to religious convictions.

Republican presidential candidates pounced on what they considered a blunder by President Barack Obama. They believe his administration’s ruling will alienate moderate Catholic voters who could prove crucial in November in Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

There also could be political repercussions from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure controversy. The breast-cancer charity, facing fierce criticism, mostly from women’s groups, quickly overturned its decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a major provider of abortions, but it also screens women for breast cancer and other health problems.

In Atlanta, Karen Handel, a Komen vice president who played a role in the fund cutoff decision, resigned Tuesday. A Republican who ran for governor in Georgia, Handel was seen by some as an example of what they felt was an increasing tendency by Komen to bring partisan politics into the charity’s decisions.

“I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale and my involvement in it,” Handel said in her resignation letter.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, for his part, said he supported Komen’s original decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood.

The arguments came as the GOP presidential hopefuls campaigned in several states and Republicans voted in Colorado and Minnesota. Each candidate tried to take advantage of the unusually intense focus on reproductive issues.

Romney, a Mormon, decried Obama’s “assault on religion,” telling Colorado voters the new contraception ruling was “a real blow … to our friends in the Catholic faith.”

Newt Gingrich, a Catholic, told Ohio Republicans, “There has been a lot of talk about the Obama administration’s attack on the Catholic Church.”

But Gingrich, who is struggling to narrow Romney’s lead in the GOP nomination race, also turned his fire on the former Massachusetts governor. “Governor Romney insisted that Catholic hospitals give out abortion pills, against their religious belief, when he was governor,” Gingrich said.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum, also a strong anti-abortion advocate and a Catholic, made similar remarks about Romney in a written article Tuesday.

As governor, Romney enforced a law that required all Massachusetts hospitals, including Catholic ones, to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. Some Catholics say the so-called morning-after pill is a form of abortion. Romney said he did not support the law, which passed despite his veto. But he also said at the time, “My personal view, in my heart of hearts, is that people who are subject to rape should have the option of having emergency contraception or emergency contraception information.”

Romney may have given Gingrich and Santorum a new opening Tuesday when he likened “morning-after pills” to “abortive pills.” Romney supported legalized abortion when he ran for Senate and governor in Massachusetts, but he now opposes it.

The White House and Obama’s re-election campaign endured another day of sharp debate over the contraception ruling, which falls under preventive-health measures attached to the 2010 health care overhaul. Church-affiliated employers’ health insurance plans will have to cover birth control, regardless of the institutions’ religious principles. Churches are not covered by the rule, but affiliated employers such as colleges and hospitals are.

The ruling follows the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation to treat birth control as preventive health because it promotes maternal and child health by allowing women to space their pregnancies. For religious-affiliated employers, the requirement will take effect in mid-2013.

Workplace health plans will have to cover all forms of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including the birth control pill, implantable devices, sterilization and the morning-after pill. There is no mandate to cover abortions.

Last Sunday, Catholic bishops in more than 140 dioceses issued denunciations of the decision that were read at weekend Masses.

Sister Carol Keehan, head of the Catholic Health Association – which supported Obama’s 2010 health care law – summed up the feeling of some moderate Catholics who say political analysts are missing the point.

“It’s not the issue of contraception but religious freedom,” she said. “It’s not about preventing women from buying anything themselves, but telling the church what it has to buy, and the potential for that to go further.”

Wall Street Journal editorial writer Peggy Noonan said the contraception ruling might cost Obama the election.

But Jen Psaki, a former Obama aide, said millions of American women, including Catholics, see it differently.

“This is about one issue, and that is making sure all women, especially those who can’t afford it, have access to health care,” said Psaki, who is Catholic. “And if Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich continue to make a political issue out of such an important human right, they risk jumping the shark with women voters of all political stripes.”

Groups on the left and right raced into the debate.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he hopes the Obama administration “backs down on this rule that violates conscience. If not, we’ll do everything in our power to repeal it.”

NARAL Pro-Choice America defended the new ruling.

“This is one of the biggest victories for women’s health in a generation,” said Nancy Keenan, its president. “Nurses, janitorial staff and professors who work at colleges and universities that do not currently cover birth control will get access to contraception.”

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney didn’t say how employers’ concerns might be addressed, though he said there were a lot of ideas for doing it.

He said Obama’s focus is making sure that women employed by Catholic-affiliated employers like hospitals, colleges or charities are able to get contraception. At the same time, Carney said Obama wants to respect religious beliefs and convictions.

David Axelrod, a top political aide to Obama, hinted at possible adjustments to the rule or its application. He told MSNBC the administration didn’t intend to “abridge anyone’s religious freedom.”

“This is an important issue,” Axelrod said. “It’s important for millions of women around the country. We want to resolve it in an appropriate way, and we’re going to do that.”

Santorum suggested this week that efforts to reach an accord won’t be easy.

“The Catholic Church has been arguing and negotiating this for a year, and the administration is saying `it’s just a misunderstanding,’” Santorum said while campaigning in Colorado. “It’s just a bunch of bull. They are folks who are trying to use their power to force people to do things that they believe they should do and are right. They don’t care about their religion.”

Speaking at a 2006 Call to Renewal conference, organized by the religious anti-poverty group Sojourners, Obama said secular Americans were wrong to ask churchgoers to “leave their religion at the door before entering the public square.”

But Obama also said religious groups must be recognize “ground rules for collaboration” and the importance of the separation of church and state.

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It appears the shooting took place over a cell phone.

The Free Press has more:

Brown was charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder and felony firearm. Magistrate Steve Lockhart ordered him to stay in jail without bail during a video arraignment in 36th District Court in Detroit on Sunday.

Prosecutors said Heather Brown, 35, drove her son to the home and away from the scene after the shooting. She was charged with being an accessory after the fact.

“She is grossly undercharged to this court’s mind,” Lockhart said today.

Heather Brown is accused of helping her son flee and not assisting authorities apprehend her son, he said.

“It would appear not a reach to feel she knowingly drove an armed individual to shoot up a house,” he said.

Go to the Free Press for more on this story.

Here is a video version of this story reported by WXYZ Detroit

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U.S. Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich) released an attack ad against U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) during the Super Bowl that showed a Chinese woman speaking broken English and thanking Stabenow for helping China’s economy at Michigan’s expense.

But do you think that the ad hurts America’s image in China? We may have our issues with the Chinese, but does airing ads like this help? View it below and us know if you think it is racist. What if it had been targeted towards Africa?

Pete Hoekstra Attack Ad

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Born in Andrews, Sc.,  in 1965 to parents Julius and Rosalie, Rock and his siblings moved to New York, where Rock struggled to fit in between the predominately white schools he was bussed to and the meager means his family could afford in their tough neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Never finishing high school, Rock went on to complete his GED, working odd jobs in the meantime. Comedy soon became Rock’s outlet, and it was Eddie Murphy who jump started his career. According to a 2002 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Rock became aware of an open mic comedy showcase while waiting in line at the Radio City Music Hall to see Murphy perform. Doing well in his debut, he was invited to work the club before Murphy discovered him and cast him in the “Beverly Hills” sequel.

Rock made a scene-stealing turn in the Keenan Ivory Wayans blaxploitation parody “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” leading to more comedy jobs and an appearance on the popular late night “The Arsenio Hall Show.” Executive producer of “Saturday Night Live,” Lorne Michaels saw Rock during an appearance and asked him to audition in 1990; Rock worked the show for three seasons.

In 1996, HBO comedy special “Bring the Pain” was the precise moment Rock became one of the hottest comics around. To this day, the Emmy Award-winning special stands as one of the greatest stand-up events of all time, cementing Rock’s name firmly into the annals of comic history. HBO graciously awarded Rock with his own late-night program, “The Chris Rock Show,” which ran from 1997 until 2000.

In his career, Rock has starred in a variety of films, such as the cult classic “New Jack City,” rap comedy “CB4,” “Boomerang,” and later fare like “Death at a Funeral.” Rock voiced a cartoon character in the family film “Madagascar” and also sat in the director’s chair for his feature films “Head of State” and “I Think I Love My Wife.” Rock also managed to spin his real life into television success with the semi-autobiographical sitcom “Everybody Hates Chris.”

Never afraid to tackle tough subjects in his comedy, Rock released the controversial documentary “Good Hair,” which focused on African-American women, their hair, and the styling industry.  A true conversation starter, Rock’s film was both serious and humorous. Rock ran into some legal snafus in getting “Good Hair” released, after filmmaker Regina Kimbell alleged Rock stole the idea from her documentary that shared a similar theme.

Rock married Malaak Compton-Rock in 1996, and the couple now has two daughters, Lola and Zahra. Despite false rumors in the press about their divorce, their marriage has held strong. Rock is set to ruffle feathers again with the release of the documentary “Credit Is The Devil” some time this year.

In the film, Rock will focus on credit cards and overspending in America. Rock’s career ascent is one for the ages and his razor-sharp wit continues to remain his strongest suit. Whether inducing bellyaching laughs or providing thought-provoking conversations, Rock is without a doubt a legend in the realm of comedy.

Happy 47^th birthday, Chris Rock!

From Bay Area: Lelia Boroughs, 84, wasn’t known to many.

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At least not outside her apartment building in San Francisco’s lower Pacific Heights.

Her neighbors knew her well as an eclectic, kind soul who would offer to pick up their groceries and feed the homeless who squatted on the ledges outside her apartment.

“She understands how hard it is by herself,” said neighbor Irinia Khokhlova. “It’s not easy to handle in the city… so she was that kind of person.”

Before Boroughs died last September, she told her attorney she had no family to whom to leave her estate. She crafted her will to leave her 525 square foot condo to the city to turn into a homeless shelter.

Go to theGrio for the rest of the story.

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Miller was reportedly hired in August of last year by Flo Rida, whose real name is Tramar Dillard.  Miller claims that when she confronted Flo Rida, who was arrested last year for drunk driving and a suspended license, about the 65-hour work week she worked and the $3.08 cents she was being paid, the rapper fired her on the spot.

Now Miller is looking for compensation for the “slave labor” that she experienced and is suing for unspecified damages.

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Check out the trailer below to get a sneak peek.

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That surprising finding comes in a government report released Tuesday that includes a list of the top 10 sources of sodium. Salty snacks actually came in at the bottom of the list compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Potato chips, pretzels, and popcorn – which we think of as the saltiest foods in our diet – are only No. 10,” said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden.

Breads and rolls aren’t really saltier than many of the other foods, but people tend to eat a lot of them, said Mary Cogswell, a CDC senior scientist who co-authored the report.

Salt is the main source of sodium for most people, and sodium increases the risk of high blood pressure, a major cause of heart disease and stroke. Health officials say most Americans get too much salt, mostly from processed and restaurant foods – not added from the salt shaker.

Experts have known that the sodium in breads and certain other foods can add up, but even CDC officials were amazed that just 10 foods are responsible for 44 percent of the sodium consumed.

“It’s possible to eat a whole bunch of sodium without it seeming salty,” noted John Hayes, an assistant professor of food science at Penn State, who was not involved in the report.

According to the CDC, breads and rolls account for about 7 percent of the salt that the average American eats in a day. Next on the list: cold cuts and cured meats; pizza; fresh and processed poultry; soups; fast-food hamburgers and sandwiches and cheese.

Rounding out the list – and accounting for about 3 percent each – are spaghetti and other pasta dishes; meatloaf and other meat dishes and snacks like potato chips and pretzels.

Dietary guidelines recommend no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, equal to about a teaspoon of salt. Certain people, such as those with high blood pressure, should eat even less. But average sodium consumption in the U.S. is around 3,300 milligrams, the CDC study found. Only 1 in 10 Americans meet the teaspoon guideline.

The amount of sodium in food types can vary. For example, a slice of white bread can have between 80 and 230 milligrams of sodium. A cup of canned chicken noodle soup has between 100 and 940 milligrams and 3 ounces of luncheon meat has between 450 and 1,050 milligrams. A small 1 ounce bag of potato chips ranges from 50 to 200 milligrams.

The new CDC report is based on surveys of more than 7,200 people in 2007 and 2008, including nearly 3,000 children. Participants were surveyed twice, each time answering detailed questions about what they had eaten over the previous day. Researchers then broke down what they ate into categories, and assigned sodium amounts.

Salt reduction has become a recent focus of public health campaigns, and some major food makers have taken steps or announced plans to gradually reduce sodium in their products.

CDC officials – who have long encouraged people to eat more fruits and vegetables – stopped short of advising people to lay off the bread. But they are encouraging consumers to read labels and, for example, buy brands of bread that have lower sodium.

“People can choose how much salt to add to their food at the table. They can’t take it out once it’s there,” Frieden said.

There’s another way to consume less sodium. “Eat smaller portions,” Hayes said.

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[Songza Playlist=what-it-feels-like-to-be-black-NewsOne]

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 Tuesday that a lower court judge interpreted the U.S. Constitution correctly in 2010 when he declared the ban, known as Proposition 8, to be a violation of the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

The measure, which passed with 52 percent of the vote in 2008, outlawed same-sex unions just five months after they became legal in the state.

Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors and for two couples who sued to overturn the ban have said they would appeal to the Supreme Court if they did not receive a favorable ruling from the 9th Circuit.

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HIV/AIDS remains one of the most-harrowing global crises of present times, with entire nations doing their best to combat the spread of the disease.

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According to UNAIDS, the highest number of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean was captured on the island of Hispaniola, with 120,000 known cases in Haiti and 62,000 reported in the Dominican Republic.

UNAIDS asserts that much of the spread of disease in the region has been transmitted as a result of unprotected prostitution between men and women, although men having sex with men has also contributed to the numbers.

American anthropologist and Harvard Medical School professor Paul Farmer has written several works associated with HIV/AIDS, including the popular “AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame.” As one of the first doctors to discover the earliest cases of AIDS in Haiti, Farmer was privy to a perspective that the outside world wasn’t.

While Haiti was blamed for the AIDS epidemic, Farmer would learn firsthand that much of Haiti’s infamy was overstated. Due to Farmer’s hands-on exposure and academic expertise, he was able to conclude that Haiti’s pandemic flourished as a result of poverty, globalization, illness, and the country’s dependency on industry outside its reach. Farmer further expounds on this theory in another book, entitled “Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues.”

With females living with HIV/AIDS making up 59 percent of the cases in Belize, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, HIV numbers continue to be the highest between men who have sex with men. The spike in female numbers point to sex workers and unprotected sex, which is added to the number of new infections.

Drug use in Jamaica and a spike of numbers of infected prisoners, especially in St. Lucia and Guyana, also play their part in bumping up the number of cases. The UNAIDS report supports Farmer’s theories about poverty being linked to citizens receiving the necessary care in the prevention of spreading HIV/AIDS. In poorer regions in Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, AIDS numbers tended to trend higher.

In order to assist in the prevention and care of persons living with HIV/AIDS, $1.3 billion has been donated to the cause. Global donors, such as the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the U.S.-sponsored President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has provided support to the region and its countries. While funds and donations have poured in, UNAIDS still states that not enough is being spent on prevention, although numbers have shown nominal improvement.

The 2010 Haiti earthquake disaster has also compounded HIV/AIDS problem, as workers have had to contend with the country’s 1.3-million misplaced citizens and the social ills that residents who lived in temporary camps faced. Rape, sexual assault, and unprotected sex were issues that plagued the campsites, and a lack of law enforcement and other lacking safeguards left many vulnerable.

Organizations and countries looking to eliminate the pandemic are focusing their efforts on prevention, obtaining adequate funding, at-risk populations, bridging gaps of spread between populations, and reaching out via sound political leadership. Smaller organizations are formulating their own response to the epidemic, with group Code Red, taking a feminist stand by focusing on sex work, sexual education, and health.

While the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the fight against the disease seemingly has a primary focus on Africa and the United States, those who are concerned with the plight of the Caribbean nations dealing with this crisis need to get more involved. It is apparent that the island paradises that are enjoyed by foreign visitors the world over should get more than what they’ve been presented with thus far.

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James Dewitt Yancey was born today, February 7th, in 1974 in the working class city of Detroit. Born into a musical family, his mother was an opera singer, while his father was a jazz bassist. Young James was always drawn to music, which is something Dilla’s mother, Maureen Yancey (affectionately known as “Ma Dukes”) shared in an MTV interview.

“His older brother, Earl, was a regular boy — the toys, the trucks — but with James, if it wasn’t music or someone playing music or talking about music, then he didn’t associate much with it,” said Jay’s mom. “We did everything together, but the crux of what we did as a family always involved music. Everybody was in choirs and the children learned to play instruments.”

According to the interview, Dilla learned how to play 20 instruments, including the drums and cello. A reclusive young man, Dilla was drawn to vinyl and began collecting records that numbered in to the thousands. Yancey listened to music with such laser focus, that his mother remarked that he knew every record he owned down to the date and artist.

Dilla graduated into beat making and rapping, meeting with fellow rappers T3 and the late Baatin, and after an impromptu freestyle high school cipher, the trio would shortly join forces as Slum Village in 1991. In past interviews of rappers and friends that have collaborated with Dilla, a common thread was that he moved comfortably in the group setting. In 1994, Dilla formed a duo with longtime friend Phat Kat and signed a deal that went afoul in 1995.

Taking the rap game seriously, Slum Village continued to hone their art while Dilla went on to join the production collective The Ummah with A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ) members Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, after being introduced to the crew by local music hero Amp Fiddler.

Featured heavily on ATCQ’s fourth LP, “Beats Rhymes & Life,” and Busta Rhymes’ solo debut, “The Coming,” Dilla was just starting to see the fruits of his work spread.

Dilla went on to work with Janet Jackson, the late Heavy D, Brand New Heavies, Erykah Badu, Common, and countless others before his Slum Village crew released their classic “Fantastic Vol. 2” in 2000. By then, hip-hop fans were accustomed to the Motor City funk and groove Dilla commanded at will.

Mos Def, De La Soul, Talib Kweli, and even his earlier mentor Amp Fiddler would all benefit from J Dilla production later on.

J Dilla and L.A.-based producer Madlib would form a union that eventually led Yancey to relocate out west to work on the new JayLib project with his new partner in 2004. Shortly after, rumors arose that Dilla had an undisclosed illness. The news finally came to light during a performance in November 2005, when Dilla rhymed seated in a wheelchair. Dilla suffered from a rare blood disease and other symptoms related to lupus.

Tragedy struck the hip-hop world on February 10, 2006,  just three days after his 32nd birthday and the release of his critically acclaimed instrumental album “Donuts.” Dilla, according to friends and family, recorded 29 of the album’s 31 tracks while in a hospital on extended rest. Using just a sampler and a portable record player, Dilla created what many considered his most-moving work.

Dilla’s legacy lives on in a series of tribute songs and mixtapes. There are also several concerts happening in Detroit and nationwide that will celebrate the life of J Dilla, such as the sixth annual Donuts Are Forever fundraising event in New York.

Ma Dukes Yancey has also started the J Dilla Foundation in honor of her son. The foundation’s aims are to provide a platform for impoverished youth to gain exposure and access to music and various related programs.

Happy Birthday, J Dilla. Your music and legacy shall certainly carry on.

The website, KSL.com came under scrutiny after Buzzfeed revealed that it was owned by Deseret Media Companies, the for-profit arm of the Mormon Church

The New York Daily News reports:

The mayor’s report said the site — where 1,327 handguns and 1,003 rifles were listed for sale Monday — allows buyers and sellers to complete a gun sale without identifying themselves.

Undercover agents performed “integrity checks” on the site, trying to buy guns while declaring openly that they could not pass a legit background check.

In eight of 12 attempts, the seller happily sold the gun to the shady buyer .

Read More At The New York Daily News

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The vending machine at Shippensburg University’s Etter Health Center provides the Plan B emergency contraceptive along with condoms, decongestants and pregnancy tests.

Vice President for Student Affairs Roger Serr says the machine was installed after a request from the student association and a survey found 85 percent of student respondents supported it.

Plan B is available without a prescription to anyone 17 or older.

The drug isn’t covered or subsidized by the school. Instead it is supplied for $25, the school’s cost to the pharmaceutical company and less than at off-campus pharmacies.

Shippensburg is a public school of about 8,300 students about halfway between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

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Tuesday afternoon, the majority of the Detroit City Council did not show up for a critical 1 p.m. meeting. What does that say about the council’s sense of responsibility to the city?

And when a city begins to weigh whether to close all recreation centers where our children find recreation, that city has really hit rock bottom.

MORE FROM THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE: Snyder: ‘We’re Not Running Detroit’

You begin to wonder about those leaders who say they believe in the future of our children, yet want to close centers that provide an environment for children to find a sense of belonging in their city.

Maybe such a decision once decided upon will be a warning signal for parents to move out of the city because Detroit will be tagged as “the city with no recreation outlets for children.”

And that is where Detroit is in its present state, where the city council — the legislative body that is supposed to be the conscience of local government — is considering closing all recreation centers in the name of saving millions of dollars in helping address a ballooning budget deficit.

The council signaled last week that it could close… READ MORE AT THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE!

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But what you may not know about Africa is that the number of people newly infected with HIV in 2009 fell from 2.2 million to 1.8 million, according to recent statistics published by United Nations AIDS. Moreover, the continent has many activists from all walks of life who are helping their countries fight stereotypes and taboos about the disease.

One of the most-prominent activists is soccer star Samual Eto’o (pictured) of Cameroon. He heads the 2012 African World Cup campaign “CAN Without AIDS,” which uses soccer (or football for those outside of the United States) as a platform to raise AIDS and HIV awareness among Africans across the continent. Check out one of his ads below.

Samual Eto’o Campaign Ad

Recently, Eto’o held a press conference in Libreville, capital of Gabon, where he challenged his fellow Africans to take control of themselves so that they and the continent could better take on HIV/AIDS, according to goal.com.

Eto’o called on African youths to shun ‘destructive pleasures of the moment’ and focus on their future, as he did by modelling himself on compatriot Roger Milla during his early days.

We are using football to convey this message because Africans love football and it has become a gathering point. We want to bring this as an alert that HIV-Aids is not only a threat to the sport in Africa but a danger for the youths and development on the continent, Eto’o said.

That soccer is being used to promote this message shouldn’t be surprising. South Africa hosted a very successful 2010 World Cup, which showed the rest of the world that Africa is much more than its HIV and AIDS issues. Moreover, Africa’s GDP is expected to rise some 6 percent in 2012, so governments across the continent realize that they need healthy citizens to take advantage of this economic upsurge.

Another influential African taking the lead on HIV/AIDS is South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, who has three wives. After sparking controversy with his suggestion that one can reduce the risk of of HIV/AIDS by showering after sex, he released test results showing he was HIV negative.

Whether Eto’o's efforts can influence the sexual behavior of  young Africans remains to be seen, but one thing is clear, he is one of many Africans who is making themselves seen and heard in Africa’s HIV/AIDS fight.

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Penn, who is home-schooled has already been featured on Forbes.com and donates 10% of her profits to worldwide and Atlanta charities.

The Grio reports:

The home-schooled seventh-grader from Canton, Georgia, says when she’s not studying she spends much of her time working on designs in her studio. “It kind of depends on what my schedule is, but I like to be in here because I like to create new items and it’s really fun for me,” said Penn in an interview with FOX 5 Atlanta.

“I always loved to find fabrics around the house and say well, this might make a good headband or a good hat or something and then I thought one day I thought I could probably make a shop.”

Read More At The Grio

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Ranier’s off-color remarks were captured on video at the Pompano Beach Blanche Ely High School.  According to the school’s superintendent, Robert Runcie, the 46-year-old educator has been put on warning before about her behavior toward Haitian students.

An administrator’s complaint detailed Ranier’s conduct as “inappropriate,” saying and that her actions constitute “immorality which is conduct inconsistent with the standards of public conscience and good morals.”   According to the administrator, Ranier once told a student that, “I wish they would put you in a boat and send you back [to] where you came from.”… [She also] told a student to stand in the corner near a garbage can because “that’s where he belongs,” the complaint reads.

Runcie also wrote in his petition that Rainer’s actions “constitute repeated failure on the part of Respondent to communicate with and relate to children in the classroom, to such an extent that pupils are deprived of minimum educational experience.”

The superintendent recommended in the complaint that Ranier be suspended for three days without pay and attend diversity training.  The decision will be voted upon on February 7.

Ranier, a 22-year teaching veteran, adamantly defends her actions, calling the criticisms “made up” and denying that the word “chocolate” was used derogatorily.  To her, “chocolate” is used as an endearing term in the Black community, and she says that her very own minister-husband calls her “sweet chocolate.”

Ranier also states that she was actually referring to some chocolates on her desk and feels she is being unfairly targeted. Ranier suspects that the previous holy water incident has a few educators still miffed, because she beat the charges at the time.

Jean-Robert Lafortune, president of the Haitian-American Grassroots Organization, is afraid that Ranier serves as a prime example of  the dangerous rift that exists between African Americans and Haitian Americans. Unfortunately, Lafortune says he’s seen this sort of discrimination before and told Local 10 News that he has requested a meeting with a school board member and the superintendent’s office “to discuss the matter.”

Meanwhile, Ranier plans on fighting the accusations.

See more Black History from 1968 below!

And see our Black History GAME CHANGERS for 2012 HERE!

See our Black History GAME CHANGERS for 2012 HERE!

A transvestite rape suspect named Jeron Winston is accused of tricking a 14-year-old into believing he was a woman.

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The two initially met online and the teenager claimed to be fooled by Winson’s feminine appearance. Because sex between Winston and the teen was consensual, he has been charged with a 60-day sentence on rape charges which he will be allowed to serve on the weekends while maintaining a job and attending college. Defense attorney Leslie Ballin believes that Winston may have been the one tricked into believing that the 14-year-old was 19.

Check out theGrio to see the video version of this story.

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The Obama campaign said Monday it had decided to return the donations arranged by Chicago brothers Carlos Cardona and Alberto Rojas Cardona, who had begun raising money for the campaign and the Democratic National Committee last year.

The New York Times reported late Monday that the fundraisers are the brothers of casino owner Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, who skipped bail in Iowa in 1994 and has since been linked to violence and corruption in Mexico.

The campaign said it refunded the money raised by family members after the newspaper asked about the brothers’ fundraising role. Obama campaign officials said they were identifying donations bundled by other people connected to Cardona, expected to be about $100,000, and would return those funds as well.

“On the basis of the questions that have been raised, we will return the contributions from these individuals and from any other donors they brought to the campaign,” said Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt.

The newspaper reported that Gordon Fischer, a lawyer and the former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, had sought a pardon for Juan Jose Rojas Cardona from Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, but none was granted.

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Duane Jackson said his brush with terrorism and celebrity taught him that it made sense to get involved.

“It was kind of an epiphany for me,” he said. “I had a call from President (Barack) Obama. I had people from all over the world come and thank me for, you know, seeing something and saying something. I can tell people, especially young people and people in the minority communities, it’s OK to get involved in the running of this country.”

The 59-year-old Jackson is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Nan Hayworth in his home district north of New York City.

A Navy veteran, Jackson said he has 15 years of experience in city planning and housing, including posts with New York City’s education and housing departments. He sees his years as a vendor as “small-business experience.”

On May 1, 2010, Jackson was hawking handbags when he and another vendor spotted an SUV, idling and abandoned, in a no-parking zone near the Broadway theater showing “The Lion King.” They notified police as the vehicle started to smoke, and inside was a potentially powerful propane-and-gasoline bomb that authorities said might have begun to detonate but did not explode.

Obama called Jackson to thank him.

Self-proclaimed terrorist Faisal Shahzad admitted plotting to set off the bomb and was sent to prison for life.

Jackson’s campaign for Congress was first reported in The Journal News.

Jackson, married with two children, lives in Buchanan, home of the Indian Point nuclear plants. He said he favors new 20-year licenses for the plants so that the region will have time to transition to new power sources.

He said Republicans, and Hayworth in particular, “are out of touch with the voters in the Hudson Valley.”

A call to Hayworth’s office was not immediately returned.

Jackson said he will probably make a formal announcement of his candidacy this week in Buchanan. His campaign has a website and a phone number for donors to call. At least three other Democrats are in the race.

“I’m not going to have $200,000 for the primary,” Jackson said. “But I’m an ordinary guy, and I think I can get out the Democratic base.”

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SEE ALSO: HIV/AIDS In The Caribbean

According to data compiled by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the numbers are staggering:

African Americans face the most severe burden of HIV of all racial/ethnic groups in the United States (US). Despite representing only 14 percent of the U.S. population in 2009, African Americans accounted for 44 percent of all new HIV infections in that year. Compared with members of other races and ethnicities, African Americans account for a higher proportion of HIV infections at all stages of disease — from new infections to deaths.

In 2009, Black men accounted for 70 percent of the estimated new HIV infections among all Blacks. The estimated rate of new HIV infection for Black men was more than six and a half times as high as that of White men, and two and a half times as high as that of Latino men or Black women.

In 2009, Black men who have sex with men (MSM) represented an estimated 73 percent of new infections among all Black men and 37 percent among all MSM. More new HIV infections occurred among young Black MSM (aged 13–29) than any other age and racial group of MSM. In addition, new HIV infections among young Black MSM increased by 48 percent from 2006–2009.

In 2009, Black women accounted for 30 percent of the estimated new HIV infections among all Blacks. Most (85%) Black women with HIV acquired HIV through heterosexual sex. The estimated rate of new HIV infections for Black women.

Long considered a “dirty little secret,” when the disease imploded in Black America, many people began to frantically gaze around in hopes of finding a reason why it could never happen to them; however, as HIV/AIDS began to affect our friends, families, and loved ones, the conversation began to shift from one of blame and hopelessness to one of compassion and purpose.

Though the numbers remain extremely troubling, with life saving treatments, community outreach, and education, African-Americans are living longer, healthier lives, and this pivotal breakthrough is due in large part to the tireless efforts of such organizations as the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles.

The Institute, founded in 1999 by Phill Wilson, lives by the motto: “Our People, Our Problem, Our Solution.” It is a training and mobilization center focused exclusively – and unapologetically – on the preservation of the African-American community through the eradication of HIV/AIDS, offering technical assistance, conducting training, and interpreting public and private sector HIV policies.

Phill Wilson (pictured below) has lived with HIV for more than 30 years and considers access to health care and the support of loved ones to be integral to his continued good health. His own story is a testament to what we can — and have — accomplished in our communities when we arm ourselves with the educational and technological tools needed to aggressively face this illness without fear.

Motivated by his own life and the many friends he has lost to HIV/AIDS, Wilson has served as an advocate and educator in the Black community both domestically and abroad. He served as the AIDS Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles from 1990 to 1993 and the Director of Policy and Planning at AIDS Project Los Angeles from 1993 to 1996. He was co-chair of the Los Angeles County HIV Health Commission from 1990 to 1995 and has served as coordinator of the International Community Treatment and Science Workshop at the International AIDS Conferences in Geneva, Switzerland; Durban, South Africa; Barcelona, Spain; Bangkok, Thailand; and Toronto, Canada.

In an exclusive interview with NewsOne, Wilson shares his perspective on the stigma that cloaks HIV/AIDS and the shifting roles of the Black church and civic organizations as the fight to eradicate the disease continues:

NewsOne: HIV/AIDS has lived with an uninformed stigma attached to it — largely due to homophobia and religion. From your work on the ground, have you seen a shift in tone with the illness in the Black community?

Phill Wilson: The Institute’s primary mission is to engage Black leaders in efforts to confront HIV/AIDS. Certainly stigma undermines our ability to aggressively target this illness, but there are two things that can be said: We’re not where we need to be, but we’re not where we used to be.

We are slowly reducing the stigma and changing the conversation, and Black organizations and leaders have stepped up to the plate and embraced this cause, including the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Action Network, and the National Council of Negro Women. We have engaged HBCUs from Savannah State, Howard University, and the Atlanta University Center. Each of these universities have national AIDS programs, which raise awareness in college students. We have a new energy and several politicians, such as Maxine Waters (D-California) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California), have been instrumental in laying the groundwork to bring the International AIDS Conference to the United States for the first time in 22 years.

NO: Unfortunately, the Black church has the reputation of being absent in the fight against HIV/AIDS. How have religious leaders responded to the work of the Black AIDS Institute?

PW: The conversation surrounding HIV/AIDS in the Black church is shifting. Religious leaders, such of Bishop T.D. Jakes (Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas) and Bishop Charles E. Blake (West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles), have really done tremendous outreach in their congregations.

NO: Have congregations been equally as responsive?

PW: Actually, I believe that the congregations’ movement to embrace this issue has influenced the shift in the leadership’s position. Sixty percent of Black Americans now know someone living with HIV/AIDS or someone who has died from the disease. Fifty percent of us have family members who are living with — or have died — from the disease. This has happened to Mothers, Fathers, sons, daughters; it’s now personal and urgent in the Black community and religious leadership is a reflection the congregation. That’s what great leadership is — responding to the needs and demands of your constituency.

NO:  In 10 years, what role do you envision the Black AIDS Institute playing in the Black community and how far will we have come in our fight against HIV/AIDS?

PW: In 10 years, I hope that there won’t be a Black AIDS Institute, because we won’t need a Black AIDS Institute.

We stand in a deciding moment. We have recent scientific technology and educational tools to end the AIDS epidemic. Treatment is cheaper and more effective than it’s ever been before. We have prevention tools that are capable of preventing the transmission of the disease, and when individuals remain in treatment, the probability of transmitting the disease is reduced by 96 percent. We are at a point in time where all hands are needed on deck. We have the opportunity, but we will only get there if we all play our parts.

Our 8th Annual State of AIDS Report will be released today at 10:00 a.m. ET, and it details where we are and where we need to focus our energy.  There are three extremely important steps that we all must take:

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The Black AIDS Institute is one of several organizations who have made tremendous strides in escalating HIV/AIDS awareness in the Black community, but they cannot do it alone. It is important that African Americans continue to be pro-active in our fight to ensure that the rampant proliferation of this disease becomes a distant memory. As Wilson so eloquently stated when speaking of our insurmountable strength as a people:

“We are greater than slavery; we are greater than Reconstruction; we are greater than Jim Crow, and we are greater than AIDS.”

To learn about the Black AIDS Institute, click here.

An eye-popping 257,000 private-sector jobs were added in January. The unemployment rate went down to 8.3 percent, down from 8.5 percent in December. The unemployment rate for African-Americans dropped to 13.6 percent, a drop of over 2 percent from December. The big drop may have more to do with a new computation on total Black population than an actually large reduction.