Tony Brown Donates $100,000 to Hampton University Scholarship Fund

Tony Brown Donates $100,000 to Hampton University Scholarship Fund
Community Activism
Friday, 02 May 2008 18:57

Hampton, VA – Tony Brown has donated $100,000 to the Hampton University scholarship fund. Brown, dean of the HU Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications and commentator of the PBS series Tony Brown’s Journal, made the donation in the form of an annuity trust.

“I am continuously inspired by Dean Brown’s professionalism, meticulous work ethic, talent, energy and commitment to higher education,” said HU President Dr. William R. Harvey. “Here at Hampton we believe that education and hard work continue to be the means by which individuals may enhance their future career and contribute more effectively to our society. Dean Brown’s donation will certainly assist our efforts to produce future leaders in the field of journalism.”

The scholarships will go to students enrolled in the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications.

“I want to use my wealth to help support Hampton University,” said Brown. “I also want to help future journalists and communications students graduate so they may have successful careers.”

Brown is the commentator of the PBS series, Tony Brown’s Journal, the longest-running of all PBS series. He was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ prestigious Silver Circle. With this honor, he joins such television icons as Walter Cronkite who “have made enduring contributions to the vitality of the television industry and set the highest standards of achievement for all to emulate.” He is also the former Chief Executive Officer of Urban America Television Network (UATV). Recently, Brown also became the first recipient of the National Director’s Legacy Award for Journalism from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency. An accomplished educator, Brown has been the dean of the HU Scripps Howard School since 2004 and has implemented programs that emphasize writing including the Dean’s 6 O’clock Club and the Academy of Writing Excellence. He was also the first and founding dean, as well as professor, of the School of Communications at Howard University, where he established a highly distinguished academic and professional record.

Brown is the bestselling author of three books and many publications including his latest, “What Mama Told Me,” which describes seven core values given to him by his “Mama” that have sustained him through life. He is also the author of “Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown,” which sold 100,000 copies.

Tony Brown Donates $100,000 to Hampton University Scholarship Fund.

Memorial Day

Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois; and Columbus, Mississippi, among others. These observances eventually coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Union dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days.

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who had died while captive. A parade with thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers was followed by patriotic singing and a picnic.

Memorial Day – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Andrea & James Rohlehr aka äj (Ahhsh) Live!

 

photo by David Wagner
Andrea & James Rohlehr aka äj (Ahhsh)  Live!
Featuring music from the new CD, Evolution and more!

Date:  Saturday, June 7, 2008
Time:  8:00 p.m.
Place:  Billie’s Black
          271 W. 119th St. (Btwn Frederick Douglass & St. Nicholas)
          NYC
Cover $10.00
RSVP @  (212)  280–2248
www.andjam.com

The Telectroscope

Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York
and vice versa.

 

The Telectroscope is situated at Fulton Ferry Landing near Brooklyn Bridge.

Fulton Ferry Landing

Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn NY – 11201

Subway: Lines A and C to High Street or F to York Street

A Life Sentence Rips at Heart of the Black and Brown Dilemna – NAM

A Life Sentence Rips at Heart of the Black and Brown Dilemna

Los Angeles Sentinel, News Feature, Kenneth Miller, Posted: May 23, 2008

Hispanic girlfriend clings to hope for imprisoned African American boyfriend.

It was a wonderful time for a night out for 19-year old Hispanic Lilia Flores and her 22-year old African American boyfriend Leonar Russell on Sept. 15 2007 when they decided to go out for a pizza at the Pizza Hut on Redondo Ave. in Long Beach.

Eight months pregnant with her first child by Russell, Flores did not particularly care for pizza and as far as she knew, Russell seldom displayed an appetite for it either.

Nonetheless they found themselves at the eatery on this fateful evening that would ultimately change their lives forever.

At approximately 9 p.m, Flores remembers Russell ordering the pizza and joking with one of the counter clerks. As he turned around, a male Hispanic was walking outside the location and happened to be glancing in.

The two men exchanged non-verbal gestures, but apparently the passerby took offense to the joking gesture from Russell and returned to the eatery with a half dozen of his associates.

A half hour later, Flores was shoved into a moving vehicle and Russell was beaten and kicked in his face by the assailants. Subsequently Flores says that she called 911 and while no aid arrived was taken to the hospital by another relative where she remained until awakened at 2:30 am by Long Beach police detectives.

“The detectives were asking me what happen and telling me that Lenoar came back with some of his friends and some of the men who jumped him and pushed me were shot,” Flores told the Sentinel this week.

Flores alleges that the men only jumped Leonar because he was Black and says that it wasn’t the first time that Hispanics had approached her because of the color of the man she was dating.

Her story is one that is unique to the ongoing feud between Hispanics and African Americans that has divided communities from Los Angeles to Long Beach and has also divided the opinions of citizens in these communities and the law enforcement that is paid to serve them.

Flores has been dating Russell for five years and had plans of marriage and a happy life together, but now those plans are on hold for the time being and perhaps well beyond.

After the alleged altercation between Russell and his assailants, police believe that Russell called on a friend for help and it is alleged that the friend is the individual who came to his aid wielding a gun.

Two men were shot according to the evidence that was presented in court and although the injuries to the victims was not life threatening—one suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and one sustained a gunshot wound to the ankle.

Russell was the only one arrested. He was charged with multiple counts of attempted murder and was recently sentenced to life in prison in Long Beach Superior Courtroom last week. He has refused to identify his associate who actually shot the gun.

Russell’s mother, 44-year old Stacey Wheeler and 64-year old grandmother Annginette Wheeler are pleading with the public for support that the verdict could somehow be overturned.

“He did not shoot the gun and said that when he heard the shots he ran,” pleaded his grandmother.

His mother and young teenage girlfriend are equally stunned by the verdict and the ineptness of the public defender that represented Russell.

When reached on May 19, attorney Theodore J. Batskis confirmed that there was no weapon recovered, but said that he could not talk about the trial that lasted just three days because he would need his client permission.

Russell had been previously arrested for armed robbery and served 16 months in prison, but his family also disputed that conviction to no avail.

However they suggest that this time it’s different and Russell should not be spending the rest of his life in prison because he did not shoot anyone.

Asked whom she was angry at and his mother Stacey replied, “I’m mad at the situation and how it went down.”

The grandmother added, “I’m not mad at anyone and I am praying for everyone, but I am mad that Batsakis and the prosecutor who called him names such as a idiot during the trial.”

Asked what she would do if she had a chance to do it over again and Flores snapped: “I didn’t want pizza that night and our intentions were so good. We were going to eat and watch movies.”

Friends wrote letters to the judge with hopes that the mandatory sentence would not be Russell’s fate.

Elizabeth Haywood who is ill and suffering from lupus wrote of how Russell was there for her and her family and walking her daughter Shawndra to and from school.

Relatives say that Russell had acquired a job with Pepsi and purchased a car for he and his fiancé to get around in.

The child has since been born and now six month Janelle is left with a young mother and no father.

An appeal of Russell’s conviction has been planned, but the family feels that their lack of financial resources will prevent them from having a just reversal of the verdict.

In the meantime the African American grandmother and great grandmother are supporting Flores and her infant daughter.

They don’t see any color and they don’t aspire to any feud of Black and Brown-all they know is love and it’s blind.

A Life Sentence Rips at Heart of the Black and Brown Dilemna – NAM.

FDA warns of harmful nipple cream

FDA warns of harmful nipple cream

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday warned women not to use or purchase Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream, marketed by MOM Enterprises Inc. of San Rafael, California.

The cream, promoted to nursing mothers to help soothe dry or cracked nipples, contains ingredients that may cause respiratory distress, vomiting and diarrhea in infants, the agency said.

The potentially harmful ingredients in the cream are chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol.

“FDA is particularly concerned that nursing infants are being unwittingly exposed by their mothers to this product with dangerous side effects,” said Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Additionally, these two ingredients may interact with one another to further compound and increase the risk of respiratory depression in nursing infants.”

FDA warns of harmful nipple cream – CNN.com.