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R&B Singer Vesta WilliamsFound Dead in L.A. Hotel Room

R&B singer Vesta Williams was found dead in a Los Angeles, California hotel room on Thursday. She was 48. 

Best known for her 1989 hit “Congratulations,” word of the singer’s death has been making the rounds on Twitter as fellow celebrities have been sending out their condolences since last night.

The cause of death is still unknown pending the completion of a full investigation.

Born in Coshocton, Ohio, and the daughter of a disc jockey, Williams was known for her sultry soulful singing style.  She was a back-up singer for such notable artists as Stephanie Mills, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan.

Williams was also known for her significant weight loss as recounted in a 1996 Ebony Magazine article where she shares she went from a size 26 on her 5'3" frame to a size six.

"When I lost my record deal and my phone wasn't ringing, I realized that I had to reassess who Vesta was and figure out what was going wrong. I knew it wasn't my singing ability. So it had to be that I was expendable because I didn't have the right look."

Vest was known not only for her beautiful voice, but her beautiful spirit.  She will be missed.

~YBW Staff

31% of Black Men Over 18 More Likely to Still Live with Parents

According to the latest Census figures, the unemployment rate for young adults 18 and over is the highest since World War II, and they risk living in poverty more than others — nearly one in five.

"We have a monster jobs problem, and young people are the biggest losers," said Andrew Sum, an economist and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. He noted that for recent college graduates getting by on waitressing, bartending and odd jobs, they will have to compete with new graduates for entry-level career positions when the job market does improve.

Among young adults 25-34, marriage was at 44.2 percent, also a new low.

Broken down by race and ethnicity, 31 percent of young black men lived in their parents' homes, compared with 21 percent of young Latino men and 15 percent of young white men.

Younger women across all race and ethnic groups had fewer children compared with 2008. Births declined 6 percent among 20-34 year-olds over the two-year period even though the number of women in this group increased by more than 1 million.

"Are people just delaying births, or does this represent a real loss of babies that won't be replaced? During the Great Depression, there was a permanent loss of births — they were never made up," said  Kenneth Johnson, sociology professor and senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire.

~YBW Staff

Chris Brown Rewards Fan for Returning Bling Lost at VMAs

R&B Sensation Chris Brown was delighted to get his $22,000 Rolex diamond watch back he lost last month during a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). Brown accidentally threw one of his most prized possessions into the crowd.

In keeping his promise as sent in a Tweet, to show appreciation to the person who returned it, Brown rewarded the honest fan, Alisha Borton, with a visit to her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio and gave her two tickets to his concert at the local venue, Riverbend Music Center.

His tweet read:  S/O to Alisha Borton @lish2487 for returning my watch at the VMAs!! I want to invite you to my show in Cincinnati. Can’t wait to meet you!!!

Brown's bodyguard went into the audience immediately after the VMA performance to retrieve the expensive timepiece. Much to Brown's delight, Borton came forward to return it.

While in Cincinnati, Brown also met with Borton before the show. Website TMZ reports that Brown 'invited her to hang with him and his entourage before the show to eat some cake'.

And what visit with Chris Brown would be complete without a autograph photo of himself:?  ....Which he graciously gave.

Beyonce`s Mama Selling 8,800 Square Foot Houston Mansion

Fashion designer Tina Knowles and mother of world renown entertainer, Beyonce has put her sprawling Houston, Texas mansion on the market.
The beautiful home has a carved stone fireplace, multilevel formal living and dining room, and a 50 foot wall of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the backyard pool.

With the asking price being $3.5 million, reports suggest the "palace" was a gift from Beyonce back in 2004.  She paid only $1.6 million for the estate.
With at least two other properties in the Houston area,  Knowles also has a modest ranch residence and lakefront house in a gated community, according to public records.

Oprah: The Only African American on this Year's Forbes 400 List

According to the 2011 Forbes Billionaire List, Nigeria's Aliko Dangote with a net worth of $13.8 billion is the richest Black person in the world.

The other Black billionaires on the 2011 list are South African gold magnate Patrice Motsepe with $3.3 billion, American Oprah Winfrey at $2.7 billion and Nigeria's Mike Adenuga with $2 billion.

From 2001 to 2003, Forbes listed BET (Black Entertainment Television) founder Bob Johnson, an American, as a billionaire, but dropped him after his fortune was split in his divorce.

Johnson returned to Forbes Billionaire list in 2007 with a net worth of $1.1 billion. In 2008 Johnson's wealth dropped further to approximately $1.0 billion and in 2009 he dropped off the list again after some questionalbe investments.

Nigerian petroleum executive Femi Otedola briefly emerged as a billionaire in 2009, but was not listed as one in 2010 or 2011.

With a net worth of $500 Million, Diddy (aka Sean "Puffy" Combs) was listed as "one to watch" to be on a future Fortune 400 Richest person list.

Facebook: A Change Gone Continue to Come

Many Facebook subscribers are growing increasingly frustrated with the plethora of changes being implemented by Facebook in its effort to remain "fresh".

With about 750 million active monthly subscribers using Facebook , there is widespread anger over changes to the ‘news feed’ — the stream of information collated on the front page of every Facebook profile — and the overall profile changes.

Facebook is changing because it needs parity with Google+, the new social network on the scene. Facebook needs to be seen as progressive; otherwise it could be demonised or fall into the trap of ‘being the next MySpace’.

Subscribers are complaining about the changes introduced Tuesday night that include a new Twitter-style, scrolling news "ticker" and a news feed redesigned to display posts that Facebook algorithms deem as the most important.

At today's Facebook's annual conference/meeting, F8, company founder and president, Mark Zuckerberg is expected turn the spotlight back on Facebook by introducing features - including a social music-entertainment dashboard and a long-awaited iPad app - designed to enhance how members spend their time within the social network.

As one of the main announcements at this year's meeting, a Facebook app for the iPad is expected to be a game changer. The company has long had apps for mobile phones, but nothing that took advantage of Apple's best-selling tablet computer.

~YBW Staff

Convicted Killer of Jasper Dragging Crime Executed

A convicted white supremacist gang member of the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas, was executed Wednesday evening

Lawrence Russell Brewer was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., just 10 minutes after the final injection of the lethal drugs into both his black tattooed covered arms.
In 1998, Byrd, 49, was chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged to his death along a bumpy asphalt road in Jasper, Texas.  The crime has been deemed as one of the most grisly hate crime murders in recent Texas history.

When asked if he had any final words, Brewer, 44, replied: "No. I have no final statement."

Two of Byrd's sisters and Brewer's parents were in attendance.

Appeals to the courts for Brewer had been exhausted and no last-day attempts to save his life were filed.

Besides Brewer, John William King, now 36, also was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row for Byrd's death.   King's conviction and death sentence remain under appeal. A third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison term.

~YBW Staff

Janet Jackson's Ex-Husband, James DeBarge, Credits Michael with Saving His Life

Appearing on "Dr. Drew's Life Changers" James DeBarge, Janet Jackson's first husband and former member of the hit making 80's group, DeBarge, credited Michael Jackson with saving his life in a suicide attempt.

"I was going to jump and everyone was losing it...He was the only one not freaking out," DeBarge said.  "He seemed to be familiar with my pain...He knew I needed someone to talk to, so he was that ear.  We just talked all night and I forgot that I was even on the roof and that I was going to jump."

James appeared alongside his siblings, Bunny and Randy.  They are also the siblings of one of the hottest R&B comebacks in music, El DeBarge.

El - who has been open and honest about his own troubles with drug abuse - re-entered rehab in February 2011 putting a long awaited tour scheduled with singer KEM threatening his 16-year comeback.

~YBW Staff

T.I.'s Time in Jail Shows That Crime Does Pay

T.I.'s recent incarceration has been great for business.  His business.

Sales for the rapper's clothing line, A.K.O.O. (A King Of One's Self) have skyrocketed while he's been behind bars, according to a rep for the brand.

The company's sales soared by 25 percent in the last year while the rapper served time for violating probation on a drug charge (later dismissed).

A.K.O.O. hadn't seen such a surge since T.I.'s MTV reality show Road to Redemption premiered in 2009.

A.K.O.O. is a clothing line started in late 2008 and founded by T.I. and Jason Geter, both co-founders of Atlanta-based recording label Grand Hustle Records.

After the launch of the clothing line, A.K.O.O faced a lawsuit from Akoo International, a social Music TV Network established years before the clothing line, for copyright infringement. The world’s largest online social music television site had been using the trademarked name since 2004 and thought the infringement would mislead, confuse and deceive potential customers and clients.

The rep says they're preparing for another spike in sales when T.I. is set free from his halfway house next week after completing his drug sentence.

He is scheduled for release on September 26.

Matchmaker Sues Gayle King for Not Coming through with Oprah

Orly Hadida -- aka Orly the Matchmaker - is suing the world's most favorite best friend, Gayle King for not getting her on Oprah. 

After allegedly spending hundreds of hours hooking Gayle up with 5 men, Orly claims that she waived her normal $500,000 matchmaking fee in exchange for an arrangment she made with Gayle two years ago to get her on Oprah's show before it ended.

Orly claims she hooked Gayle up with a bunch of “attractive, fit, and wealthy men,” but Gayle reneged on her promise to put her on “Oprah.”

According to the lawsuit, Orly sent Gayle an email in May, saying she wanted to get paid since it was obvious she would not be appearing on Oprah's show before its finale.

Gayle King has yet to comment.

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit by LeBron James' Wannabe 'Dad'

Leicester Stovall & LeBron James

The claim of Leicester Bryce Stovall who said he was the father of LeBron James has been dismissed by

a Washington, D.C. judge.

TMZ reports that Stovall had all eight of his claims rejected because he could not prove them and had "not identified any damages."  Stovall has accused James' mother Gloria with tampering with a paternity test.

Stovall, a Princeton graduate and former legal advisor to the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission, said he wants to re-take a DNA test and could appeal the dismissal.

Stovall sued for $4,000,000 in damages and requested a jury trial. He claims he had a one night stand with Gloria James when she was 15 and he 29.  Can you say, statutory rape?

~YBW Staff

Holt Named New Host of 'Dateline NBC'

In an arena where African American national news anchors are few, long-time veteran news anchor and reporter, Lester Holt, will serve as the new host of "Dateline NBC".

Holt will replace Ann Curry who currently serves as co-anchor with Matt Lauer of the Today Show.

Embarking on 30 years as a career journalist, Holt became a regular with the NBC family since 2000 when he began his career with MSNBC.

Holt will keep his job as co-anchor of the "Weekend Today" show.

Cornell West Part of Group Seeking Obama Challenger

Dr. Cornell West has joined forces with former Presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader to promote a "progressive agenda" with an intent of attracting a liberal challenger to President Barack Obama.

As part of the steering committee of the New Progressive Alliance (NPA), West, who has reportedly joined with Nader, is leading a group of liberals and academics, seeking candidates to debate Obama on key issues.

The NPA expects a nominee to fully support the organization's comprehensive progressive platform ratified in August. Platform tenets include full employment at a living wage, environmental sustainability, social welfare and fair trade.

The NPA's website sites the following:

The NPA opposes both of America's sold-out, anti-Progressive major parties. We not only support a primary election challenge to Barack Obama in 2012, but will endorse an Independent or third-party candidate to oppose both corporatist marionettes in the general election, provided they publicly pledge to run on the Unified Progressive Platform and to govern based upon it when elected.

The New Progressive Alliance (NPA) is a grassroots organization founded in 2010, entirely online, in response to the Democratic Party’s complete and final forsaking of its role as the leading voice for Progressive ideals and reform in America.

By YBW Staff Writer

Bowie State Stabbing Overshadows Homecoming Weekend

Alexis Simpson, murder suspect

Dispute over the volume of iPod music led to the stabbing death of Bowie State University sophmore Dominique Frazier - who would have turned 19 on Sunday.

Frazier was alleged stabbed with a pair of scissors about 8 p.m. last Thursday repeatedly by Alexis Simpson, a second year freshmen who reported transferred from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta.  Simpson has been charged with first and second-degree murder

A suitemate to Frazier, reportedly, Simpson often argued with Frazier.  The recent incident led to Frazier's murder in front of witnesses when an altercation escalated to physical violence.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” Simpson yelled at students who were present after the stabbing, according to charging documents. “You all don’t know what I’ve been through ... You all jumped me,” said Simpson.

On the condition of anonymity, one investigator shared that Frazier was stabbed in the throat.

Frazier, Simpson and two other students shared the suite, which has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a common area, Maryland State Police said. They said others were in the suite at the time of the fight, but no one else was injured.

In an interview, Frazier's mother indicated that she just recently lost her husband, Frazier's father, to cancer only a year ago.

Bowie State University, established in Prince George’s County in 1865, is the oldest historically black college or university in Maryland. About 4,000 students are enrolled full-time, with about 1,500 part-time students.

Federal Minority-Owned Small Business Programs in Jeopardy

Efforts by the federal government to ensure equity in contracting may be jeopardy.

As a formality, the Obama administration has proposed eliminating a federal contracting program benefiting ethnic minority-owned businesses after courts ruled that the program was unconstitutional.

Before 2008 and 2009 court rulings, the Defense Department and other agencies added 10 percent to low bids from non-minority firms and awarded contracts to the best minority-owned company bids that came in below the new bid amount. The practice was used to help the agencies meet their goal of giving 5 percent of contracts to companies owned by minorities.

The programs were originally designed under the Nixon Administration to help reversed years of systemic discrimination against minorities and women who sought to do business with the federal government, yet were often left out due to gender or race.

Around 35 percent of the U.S. population is made up of ethnic minorities, and 5.8 million businesses are minority-owned. The American Small Business League (ASBL) estimates that if the policy is implemented, minority-owned small businesses could lose close to $50 billion in federal contracts annually, which could lead to the loss of millions of jobs.

“It is unbelievable that at a time when unemployment among minorities is at record levels, the President is going to eliminate the largest federal programs to help minority-owned businesses,” said ASBL President Lloyd Chapman. “It will no doubt destroy millions of jobs and minority businesses from coast to coast.”

Violent Crimes By Fell By 12%

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of violent crimes fell by a surprisingly large 12 percent in the United States last year, a far bigger drop than the nation has been averaging since 2001, the Justice Department said.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported there were 3.8 million violent crimes last year, down from 4.3 million in 2009.

Experts aren't sure why. The expectation had been that crime would increase in a weak economy with high unemployment like that seen in 2010.

The reality is that "we're surprised to find how much it declines," Professor Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School said Friday.

More than 80 percent of the decline in violent crime was attributed to a plunge in simple assaults, by 15 percent. Those assaults accounted for nearly two-thirds of all violent crimes in 2010.

The combined total of property crimes and violent crimes was down 6.6 percent last year, from 20 million to 18.7 million.

The numbers come from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which gathers information on nonfatal crimes against people aged 12 or older by questioning a nationally representative sample of U.S. households.

Turning to rates of crime per thousand residents, which takes into account population growth over time, it's clear that the decline in violent crime is part of a long-term trend that began in 1993.

From 1993 through 2010, the rate of violent crime has declined by a whopping 70 percent: from 49.9 violent crimes per 1,000 persons age 12 or older to only 14.9 per 1,000 in 2010.

Half of this decline came between 1993 and 2001. Between 2001 and 2009, violent crime declined at a more modest annual average of 4 percent, but that rate decline jumped to 13 percent in 2010.

From 2001 through 2010, the rate of property crime fell by 28 percent.

The rate for violent crime is based on the number per thousand population. The rate for property crime is based on the number per thousand households.

Blumstein added that "the victimization survey is basically confirming" the FBI's preliminary figures from last May on crimes reported to police during 2010. That early, incomplete FBI data showed reported crime fell across the board last year, extending a multi-year downward trend with a 5.5 percent drop in the number of violent crimes in 2010 and a 2.8 percent decline in the number of property crimes. The FBI's final figures for last year will be released Monday.

The victimization survey figures are considered the government's most reliable crime statistics, because they count crimes that are reported to the police as well as those which go unreported. Over the last decade, the government has found that only about half of all violent crimes and only 40 percent of property crimes are reported to police.

Because the survey is based on interviews with victims, it gathers no data on murder. But the FBI's crime figures, based solely on what is reported to police, do provide murder figures, and they are considered quite reliable because murder has always been the least likely crime to go unreported. Murder is by far the least frequent major crime, only 15,241 in 2009.
___

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

With Post Offices Closing, Does It Mean More Unemployment for Black Postal Workers

It's painful to watch the U.S. Postal Service announce almost 3,700 proposed post office closures nationwide, including 34 in New York City. This pain is intensified knowing that Congress is currently considering cutbacks in delivery to five days.

After the Civil War, African-Americans were first allowed entry into the postal workforce. By 1970, blacks, making up one-fifth of the postal workforce, were twice as likely to work at the post office as whites. Today, thanks in large part to union activism in the post office, in which African-Americans played a prominent part, the doors have been further opened for women and for other minority-group members.

But how long will those jobs be there? When the post office doors shut, where will military veterans (a majority of postal workers as recently as the 1980s) find work?

Recently, the Pew Research Center reported that decades of gains in wealth in the African-American and Hispanic communities have been lost. Wealth is what your family has when you divide your assets by your debts; it's what you pass along to your children. If we're already moving in the wrong direction, mass USPS job losses would only accelerate the trend.

What Does SAT Score Decline Mean for Blacks

Newly released SAT scores show that scores in reading, writing and even math are down over last year and have been declining for years. And critical reading scores are the lowest in 40 years.

The stubborn and disturbing achievement gaps among Asians, white and Blacks remain large.  The average composite SAT scores for Asians, for example, have increased 40 points since 2006, while black students have seen a 19-point decline. Mexican or Mexican-Americans have had a 9-point drop; Puerto Ricans, a 17-point decline, and other Hispanics or Latinos, a 14-point decline, according to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, known as FairTest, a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating the misuse of tests.

More minorities are taking the SAT, but test scores for black students remain lowest among racial and ethnic groups, according to data released this week by the College Board.

"No one is disputing the fact that black and Hispanic students score much lower than white students do," said Andy Jacob, spokesman for the New York City Department of Education. "In the past, a lot of black and Hispanic kids were not taking [the SAT] at all and I don't think anyone wants to go back to those days."

The overall test results reveal students from higher income families score higher than all test takers, females score higher than males, and Asians score higher than whites

U.S. Supreme Court Halts the Execution of Duane Buck

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Late Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the execution of Duane Buck,48, halted.  Buck was convicted of killing of his girlfriend and a man in 1995.

After 16 years of having been convicted, Buck's lawyers appealed his sentence saying it was not fair due to a psychologist's testimony that black people were more likely to commit violence.

Buck was spared from lethal injection when the justices said they would review an appeal in his case.

"Praise the Lord!" Buck told Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark. "God is worthy to be praised. God's mercy triumphs over judgment. I feel good."

When his lawyers called to tell Buck of the reprieve, the inmate was praying in his cell.

Simmons to Retire as President of Brown University

Known as the "Jackie Robinson of college presidents," Ruth Simmons, President of Brown University is retiring.  As the first African American appointed as president of an Ivy League school, Simmons became president of Brown in 2000.

Under her leadership, Brown increased its faculty by 20 percent, improved financial aid and built a new home for its medical school.

In 2002, Newsweek selected Simmons as a Ms. Woman of the Year, while in 2001, Time named her as America's best college president. Simmons has announced that she plans to step down from the Brown presidency at the end of the current academic year.

Simmons, the 18th president of Brown, is a Dillard University and Harvard graduate.

Former Friend & Ex-Aide Rolls on Kwame Kilpatrick Pleads Guilty in Federal Public Corruption Case

Former friend & ex-aide to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Derrick Miller, recently plead guilty in the federal public-corruption case being leveled against the already convicted ex-mayor.

According to Miller, Kilpatrick had Miller and others part of the ex-mayor's inner circle shake down contractors in the form of bribes in exchange for city contracts.  Miller admitted to not only delivering cash bribes to Kilpatrick, but also taking bribes himself.

Miller's plea bolsters the government's claims that Kilpatrick and his co-conspirators used the mayor's office to enrich themselves.

Miller faces up to 10 years in prison, but is likely to get a lower sentence because of his cooperation.

For more, visit the Detroit Free Press.

$50K Available to Help Save Your Home NOW! Deadline: 9/15/2011

A $50,000 loan to help you save your house is available now!  However the last time to apply ends TOMORROW!

In a recent radio interview, Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) announced the availability of the Emergency Homeowner's Loan Program (EHLP).  It's a billion dollar funded loan program that provides up to a $50,000 loan for 24 months to those who qualify by having lost a job through no fault of their own.

The special caveat is that if a loan recipient stays in their home for 5 years after receiving the loan, they don't have to pay it back.  With each passing year, the loan repayment amount is decreased by 20%.

That's good stuff.

For more information contact EHLP at 855-346-3345.  You may also visit http://www.findehlp.com/ for an online application.  Hurry, the application deadline is tomorrow 9/15/2011.

Michael Jackson's Mother and His Children to Receive $30M from Estate

Michael's children with Katherine Jackson and Aunt LaToya

There are those who argue that world renowned entertainer Michael Jackson is worth more in death than while he was living. This could be the case due to the $310 million in revenues that executors of MJ's estate have managed to generate as of December 31, 2010.

As a result, the executors have filed court documents requesting to fund a trust set-up for Michael's mother Katherine and his three children to the tune of $30 million.

I addition to the trust, the executors are looking to sell Michael's longtime family home in Encino, California.  While an asking price has yet been made available, at the time of Jackson's death, the home was valued at $4.15 million.  Court documents indicate Katherine has interest in selling the home to buy another one.  However, it's said the real home she wants to purchase is the one she and the children live in now.

This is definitely one way to be starting something!

U.S. Poverty Rate at 27-Year High; Blacks Have 27.4% Poverty Rate

With Black unemployment being at 16.7% percent, the highest among any group in the United States, African Americans don't fair much better amid recently unveiled record poverty rates. While the number of Americans in poverty jumped to 15.1% for 2010, the number of African Americans in poverty jumped to 27.4% from 25.8% in 2009.

The southern United States - where most African Americans are concentrated – accounted for a poverty rate of 16.9% up from 15.7% in 2009.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, overall 2010 U.S. median household income declined to $49,445 down from an income of $50,599 in 2009. While whites currently have a poverty rate of 13% with a median income of $51,846, Blacks have a median income of $32,068, nearly $20,000 less than their white counterparts.

Interestingly enough, Asians saw the deepest dip in median income than any other group by 3.4% with a median income of $64,308 for 2010 down from $66,550 in 2009.  However, they were the only group to show an decrease in the number of those in poverty among their group by .4%.   Note the median income of Asians is double that of African Americans.

While the current national unemployment rate is at a stagnant 9.1%, there is quickly becoming a drastic correlation between the working poor and decreased median income levels in this country. The announcement of this most recent poverty rate represents the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. The number of people in poverty is 46.2 million people, the largest number in 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.

The number of African Americans in poverty is 10.7 million.

Obama Appoints Mostly Women, Minorities to Federal Bench

According to Sheldon Goldman, author of the authoritative book "Picking Federal Judges,"  President Obama has picked more female and minority judges for the federal bench than any other President in United States history.  With over 70% of President Obama's appointments being non-white as compared to Presidents Clinton and Bush (43), such a feat was part of the administration's commmitment to diversify the federal bench.

With the confirmation of Justice Elena Kagan, President Obama has put three women on the high court for the first time. The Obama administration also nominated and won confirmation of the first openly gay man to a federal judgeship: former Clinton administration official J. Paul Oetken, to an opening in New York City.

Of the 98 Obama nominees confirmed to date, the administration says 21 percent are African-American, 11 percent are Hispanic, 7 percent are Asian-American and almost half — 47 percent — are women. By comparison, of the 322 judges confirmed during George W. Bush's presidency, 18 percent were minorities and 22 percent were female. Of the 372 judges confirmed during Clinton's terms, 25 percent were minorities and 29 percent were women. In these figures, some judges fit into more than one category.

Recently, the Senate confirmed the first African-American woman to sit on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Bernice Donald. Earlier, she was the first African-American woman elected as a judge in Tennessee, the first appointed as federal bankruptcy judge in the nation and first confirmed as a U.S. district judge in Tennessee.

Obama's Jobs Speech & NFL Season Opener Gets High Ratings

After all the hoopla about President Obama wanting to lay out his plan for job creation before a joint session of Congress and the American people, the numbers seem to speak for themselves.

President Obama's job speech drew 31 million viewers indicating that Americans are extremely engaged concerning Washington's efforts to solve our nation's job crisis.  When the President first requested to address Congress, Republicans did not like that President Obama proposed to speak on the same day as a previously scheduled Republican Presidential debate.

House Speaker John Boehner even made several references that the American people didn't want to hear "another speech" by this President even if it was about jobs.  The high ratings of President Obama's speech seems to indicated that Speaker Boehner may have misread the interests of the American people.

While the President's speech attracted 31 million viewers, the Republican Presidential debate the night before only drew 5.4 million viewers.  Even the NFL season opener that followed the president speech drew less viewers than the President's address with 27.2 million viewers.  It was said to have been the second highest rated NFL regular season game watched on any one network in 15 years.

Now all the American people want to know is if their time was well spent which can be evidenced by the actual creation of jobs resulting from the President's proposal and the passage of an actual jobs bill.

October 16th Set for Dedication of MLK Memorial

A new date for the dedication of the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington D.C. has been set for Sunday, October 16th.

The dedication was originally set for August 28th, the 48th Anniversary of King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, but had to be postponed due severe whether conditions caused by Hurricane Irene.

The October 16th date marks the 16th anniversary of the 1995 Million Man March which took place on the National Mall.

President Obama is scheduled to speak on the October 16th date.

Don’t Try This at Home: Man Allegedly Asks Neighbor to Dump a Dead Body in His Trash

click to read

Oprah Does Live Chat with Facebook

Oprah engaged in an hour-long chat with Facebook Chief Operating Officier Sheryl Sandberg yesterday in front of and audience of Facebook employees.

Oprah covered a variety of topics including life after The Oprah Winfrey Show, Rosie O'Donnell's show which will take place at her old set at Harpo Studios in Chicago and the fear she has about running her OWN network.

She also discussed how everyone thought she was going to retire just because she stopped doing her show. Oprah shared she had never really intended to retire, but rather the ending of the Oprah Winfrey Show just merely represented one of many chapters in her life.

She brought some of her staff with her to the Palo Altos headquarters of Facebook where the interview was conducted.

"Facebook's goal is to connect everybody in the world, my goal is to connect with people so they see for themselves the greater possibilities of their lives," said Winfrey.

Other well know figures who have previously participated in Facebook's online chats include President Obama and Microsoft's Bill Gates.

Is "The Man" Out to Keep T.I. Behind Bars

Rapper T.I. and his camp are up in arms because the popo saw it fit to come and take T.I back to jail claiming a violation of the rules of being transported from prison to a half-way house after his release on August 31st.

Prison officicals say the reason they picked up T.I. was because in the arrangements for his transport, it was agreed that the only person on the tour bus would be his wife, Tameka "Tiny" Cottle.  However, officials say that instead, he had his manager and two VH1 producers on the bus.  As a result, T.I. is reported to have a reality show deal with VH1.

According to prison officials, during that transport, T.I. was not allowed to conduct business, but rather go straight to the half-house - do not pass go, and sure as hell do not collect $200!

Although VH1 and T.I.'s manager sent letters stating business had not been conducted, prison officials have made it clear that they don't believe any of them.

It sure it hard out here for a pimp - and a rapper too!

Chris Brown Gets 95 Parking Tickets Dismissed

After racking up nearly $15,000 in parking tickets, Chris Brown gets 95 of 115 parking tickets dismissed.

According to TMZ, the City of West Hollywood says the Brown was able to get off for most of the tickets because the handicapped spaces were assigned to Brown's apartment complex from the beginning and that as a result he didn't do anything wrong.

Huh? Doesn't it still make it illegal to park there because they were HANDICAPPED SPACES!

Brown is not totally off the hook though. He still has 22 parking citations he must contend with.

Note to self; when I get in trouble hire attorney Mark Geragos. He's like the re-incarnated white Johnny Cochran!

~Your Black Gossip Staff

Woman From Iconic 9/11 Photo Discusses Overcoming Decade of Hardship

Marcy Borders is just beginning to get her life back on track since that infamous day known as 9/11.

After only a month in her bank job with Bank of America on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center south tower, Borders found herself ignoring the order of her boss to stay at her desk after one of the planes had hit her building. As soon as she made it out, the building began to collapse covered in ash and soot.  She describes how everything went silent and she couldn't see her hands in front of her.

 Borders was pulled to safety into the lobby of a nearby building.

Since that day, Borders hasn't worked and found herself hooked on crack because she had decided that she no longer wanted to live.  She would have nightmares about Osama bin Ladin bombing her house.

She hasn't done a day's work in ten years.

Finally, after realizing there was a strong chance she would die continuing down the road she was on, she checked herself into rehab.  About a week after having done so, bin Ladin had been captured and killed by the United States.

Borders shared that, that news combined with her being in rehab gave her a peace of mind she had not had since September 11, 2001.

The good news is now she is back with her long time partner as well as her two children ages 18 and 3.  She is finally well on her way to full recovery.

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