Michelle Obama's Goal To Eliminating Food Deserts!

First Lady Michelle Obama

The First Lady of The United States has concerns with urban areas being targeted with food that makes people obese. First Lady Michelle Obama has made a goal to help curb obesity in the United States.

An ongoing battle this Thanksgiving week.

The White House details it through her 60 Let's Move GO! Movement.

Hurricane, New Jersey

Politics aside. Governor Chris Christie (R-New Jersey) and President Barack Obama. The president will visit the New Jersey area in regards to the major damage in the state and neighboring New York.

The Garden State has been hit badly by Hurricane Sandy. The Category 2 storm impacted a Nor'easter snow/rain storm becoming a superstorm. This gave the state of New Jersey a beating. Over 50 people and likely more have parished in this tragedy. President Barack Obama, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-New York), Governor Chris Christie (R-New Jersey), New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mitt Romney issued statements about the situation.

The Jersey Shore, Atlantic City, Seaside Heights, were damaged. In the state of New York, the island of Manhattan (the heart of New York City), Long Island, Breezy Point, Rockaway and even the LaGuardia Airport (one of the three major airports in New York/New Jersey) were hit.

Crane collapsed in New York City.

Governor Chris Christie issued mandatory evacuations for all barrier islands from Sandy Hook to Cape May, along with the closure of all Atlantic City casinos. Tolls were suspended on the northbound Garden State Parkway and the westbound Atlantic City Expressway starting at 6:00 a.m. on October 28th.

President Obama signed an emergency declaration for New Jersey. The declaration allows the state to request federal funding and other assistance for actions taken prior to Sandy's landfall. On October 28th, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer ordered an evacuation of all basement and street level residential units, due to possible flooding. On October 29th, a mandatory evacuation was put in effect for residents in some parts of Logan Township. On October 29th, Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City.

Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for every county in the state. He also asked for a pre-disaster declaration to better access federal assistance. Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano ordered voluntary evacuations of the South Shore storm surge area, which includes the area south of Sunrise Highway and north of Route 25A and in elevations 15 feet above sea level or less on the North Shore

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters on October 26th that the city has begun taking precautions but said at this time there is no call for mandatory evacuations and no plans to suspend the city's mass transit or cancel school. But on October 28th Governor Cuomo ordered the MTA including the subway closed, and in a press conference immediately after Cuomo's announcement, Mayor Bloomberg ordered public schools closed on October 29th and mandatory evacuations for Zone A on Manhattan, which is the southern tip of the island as well as the Rockaways, a low-lying area of Queens.

Photo of the president talking with state governors hit by the hurricane.

The states of West Virginia and Maryland had damaging snow storms. Pennsylvania has severe flooding from major cities such as Harrisburg and Philadelphia. The state of Ohio got a heavy snow storm as well. Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Washington, DC, the New England states and even portions of Canada were hit with damaging winds, heavy rain and erosion of land.

The storm started in the Gulf of Mexico, barreled through Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas before landing in the United States and then Canada.

Over 8.3 million without power and millions of residents homeless. The Atlantic coast, the Midwest and portions of the Southeast were destroyed by the impact of Hurricane Sandy.

Politics never took a break.

Governor Christie give a tongue lashing to the mayor of Atlantic City.

The Drudge Report post a Politico story that states the president's determination to help the victims of the hurricane. But under a misleading title, the story about going to Ready.gov and FEMA.gov if you need assistance relief was flooded with conservative word salad attacking him, Governor Christie, and the federal government. Regardless of what the president does, he's going to get vicious criticism from his political foes. And despite there arm ringing and keystroking by their conservative allies, Republicans are actually quiet on the response by the president.

The Mitt Romney presidential campaign couldn't do really much other than giving donations. But it hasn't stop the perennial candidate for president from campaigning. Campaigning in swing states of Florida, Iowa and Ohio has attracted strong criticism of him racing into the limelight (once again)!

In Dayton, Ohio, Mitt Romney tells his supporters to help the victims. Some criticized the move as political!

The Republicans was blasted by the Democrats over Mitt Romney's stance of FEMA. The Republicans took a strong stance against FEMA during the 2011 Hurricane Irene and during 2005 Hurricane Katrina.

Mitt Romney wants to privatize the government agency and let state governors determine who gets the disaster relief. When asked about it, Romney ducked and dodged it.

The president halted all presidential events. Mitt Romney will continue politics as usual (assured with donations) in each swing state. He also campaigning and putting money in Minnesota (over gay marriage legalization), Pennsylvania (for one more try) and Florida (leaning in his column).

The political campaign will start again on November 1st.

Images of the Hurricane Sandy and its damages.

Students Warn That Wilberforce University Is Doomed!

The nation's oldest Black university Wilberforce is facing tough times. The students are frustrated with conditions at the university and they demand things change! The warn that Wilberforce University could be doomed if things don't get back together.

The nation's oldest Black university is 20 miles from Dayton, Ohio and 50 miles from Columbus, Ohio in the remote area of Wilberforce, Ohio.

Students are protesting that Wilberforce and nearby Central State University are going to fold if the administration officials don't get their acts together. Many students are upset that college tuition is on the rise and the conditions of the campus are still poorer than most advance colleges in urban cities.

The students are threatening to leave the school and its gotten locals attention. For many years the two predominantly Black colleges were struggling in fiscal matters. Each college was at the brink of being permanently shut down. The state has helped the colleges through the fiscal emergencies but its still a long way to go.

The Dayton Daily News reports that the nation’s oldest private historically black university faced a protest by more than half its population on Wednesday as students threatened to withdraw over what they claim is mismanagement of the school.

These were happier times at Wilberforce University. Things are so bad some students threaten to leave the school.

Students at Wilberforce University met outside the administration building to deliver a message to university President Patricia Lofton Hardaway and demand change of “diminishing conditions.” The students said without action, they believe the 156-year-old university will close by 2015.

“We need some immediate change now,” said senior Brandon Harvey, president of the student government and protest organizer. “Academic life, spiritual life and social life are at an all-time low. I’m afraid when I come back three to five years from now, Wilberforce University will not be alive.”

Harvey said 337 students requested withdraw forms on Wednesday, and they will leave the school by fall 2013 if conditions do not improve. According to Wilberforce, 510 students are presently enrolled at the university. In response to the rally, university trustees met on Wednesday, but the board declined to comment until today, said university spokeswoman Marcia Copeland Hudson.

Hardaway immediately after receiving the students’ letter said she had not heard “a clear, consistent message in terms of what (the students’) issues are.” She said, however, that she and other administrators have always had an open door policy with students.

“We will continue to be open to speak with students and address their concerns,” she said. “The university continues to work in the best interest of the students. We don’t take this as a gauntlet; as a line in the sand. Students are our reason for existing and we have long been a place of access and success and we know that we will continue.”

The students’ complaints over dwindling enrollment, rising tuition and living costs, the pay of administrators versus the compensation of faculty, mold in a dorm and declining quality of student services echo some of the issues raised by faculty last year.

In September 2011, faculty and a group called Concerned Citizens of Green County filed a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General alleging the Board of Trustees and Hardaway were “violating the fiduciary duties to the university through malfeasance and gross negligence,” the Dayton Daily News reported at the time.

The complaint also charged that the university is spending down its endowment too low and was more than $24 million in debt. The university’s endowment in 2010 was nearly $11 million, according to their most recent federal filing as a nonprofit.

The attorney general’s office said they cannot comment on any possible investigation.

Hardaway, whose compensation for 2010 was reported as $143,792, in the past has confirmed to the Daily News that in order to balance the budget, Wilberforce has been forced to furlough employees, stop payments to retirement accounts and withhold paychecks.

Wilberforce is now less than half of 2005’s enrollment of 1,170, according to historical data kept by the Ohio Board of Regents. Greene County and the state recently approved up to $282,000 to demolish five buildings on campus, including the married student apartments on Wilberforce Switch Road, a single-family home on U.S. 42 and dormitories on North Bickett Road.


Harvey said Wilberforce is not preparing students to compete in a global environment. He added that the event “was a total disrespect to the student body by the president” because she did not come down from her office to address the group.

During their event, the students walked to Central State University, the public historically black college just across the street, to request transfer forms and request a meeting with President Cynthia Jackson Hammond.

“She explained to them that while she appreciated them coming over, that protocol is very important,” said CSU spokeswoman Gayle Barge. “And that they should have open dialog and should be talking to President Hardaway.”

Lauryn Hill Will Be Visiting The Iron College!

                         

The Grammy award winning singer/rapper is facing serious charges of tax evasion. She will be going to federal prison in November 2012.

The 37-year old entertainer is under the radar for not paying her 2005, 2006, and 2007 tax earnings. Her estimated value of taxes owed is nearly $1 million.

Again this is federal charges. If you're charged with a federal crime, you are required to serve the complete term. There's no exceptions.

According to The Rolling Stone Magazine and CNN, Hill pleaded guilty in a New Jersey courtroom on Friday to evading federal taxes on $1.8 million earned between 2005 and 2007, the Associated Press reports. The singer faces a maximum one-year sentence for each of the three counts.

Hill declined to speak after the hearing, but her attorney, Nathan Hochman, indicated that she plans on paying back the taxes owed. U.S. Magistrate Michael Shipp agreed to delay the sentencing from early

October to late November in order to give Hill time to make payment.

When Shipp asked Hill if anyone had directly or indirectly influenced her decision to plead guilty, Hill gave an enigmatic response that seemed to promise a future statement: "Indirectly, I've been advised my ability to speak out directly is for another time, at sentencing."

The income on which Hill did not pay taxes -- $818,000 collected in 2005, $222,000 in 2006 and $761,000 in 2007 -- was earned by four corporations that she owns.

Charges were brought against Hill earlier this month , after which the singer took to Tumblr to address her side of the situation  but focused on her time outside of the spotlight: "During this period of crisis, much was said about me both slanted and inaccurate, by those who had become dependent on my creative force, yet unwilling to fully acknowledge the importance of my contribution, nor compensate me equitably for it."

Hill added in the post that she felt her "potential to work" was in danger and thus said, "I did whatever needed to be done in order to insulate my family from the climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism that I was surrounded by.

"There were no exotic trips," she continued, "no fleet of cars, just an all out war for safety, integrity, wholeness and health, without mistreatment, denial, and/or exploitation."

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was the debut album that sold over 19 million copies. Hill hasn't released an album since 1998.

Lauryn Hill co-produced the commercially successful Supernatural for Carlos Santana, in 1999, for which she won another grammy for album of the year. This made her the only female artist to win two album of the year grammys consecutively, which set a record for most album of the year wins by a female artist (tied with Norah Jones). Shortly after this she mainly dropped out of public view, in part due to her displeasure with fame and the music industry. After a four-year hiatus, she released MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, a live recording of "deeply personal songs" performed mostly solo with an acoustic guitar.

Black Pastor Denounces Obama Over LGBT Rights!

Black pastor warns President Barack Obama about supporting gay marriage. He vows to dismantle the president if he stands in favor of the rights of LGBT.

As the conservative movement rally in defense of fast food restaurant Chick-Fil-A, another round of agitators comes out in defense of traditional marriage. This time it's a Black pastor who comes out of nowhere and makes the case to claim the president's recent endorsement of equal marriage rights for LGBT Americans is considerably a "Judas" move. This Black pastor demands that President Barack Obama retract his stance or face the wrath of the Black church sitting it out or endorsing Republican Mitt Romney.

It's getting play in the right wing radio, this pastor William Owens, of the Coalition of African American Pastors has come out of the woodwork to slam the president and vow to dismantle the president's core supporters. The Black support is overwhelmingly high. Over 85% of the registered African American voters support the president. This is crucial in an election where a candidate could benefit from a high turnout of first/second time voters.

Owens, a Black conservative pastor who is wrapped around The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) wants the president to stand with the religious Black leaders and remove himself from the notion of same sex marriage. He claims that he marched for the civil rights movement and declared that this movement doesn't include the rights of LGBT.


 “The President is in the White House because of the civil rights movement, and I was a leader in that movement, and I didn’t march one inch, one foot, one yard for a man to marry a man or a woman to marry a woman.”

“So the President has forgotten the price that was paid. People died or they suffered or they gave their blood to have equal rights in the United States. And for the homosexual community and for [Obama] to bow to the money, as Judas did with Jesus Christ, is a disgrace and we are ashamed. We will not take it back. We will not back down. We are going to take action across this country to change the course that this President has us in.” says Owens.

The National Organization for Marriage tries to bring forth a wedge between Blacks and the gay community.

When President Barack Obama endorsed the notion of gay marriage, conservatives felt the time is now to get his movement dispirited. They worked hard to get things done. In North Carolina, a constitutional amendment was passed forbidding any notion of endorsing legalized gay marriage.

National Outrage: Trayvon Martin Killing.

The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI are looking into the matter. Sanford, Florida is the center of the controversy. A young teenager was gunned down by a neighborhood watch captain. The public outcry has now stirred the debate once again about racial profiling and gun laws. The White House express regret. The person, George Zimmerman 28, who fired upon teenager Trayvon Martin, 17 is for now a free man. Zimmerman is fearing for his life after incident.

The conservative media is trying to ignore the story and white supremacists are cheering for more incidents like this to happen.



That was the 911 tape in which the shooter was warned not to apprehend Martin. Below is the picture of the teenager, and George Zimmerman, the shooter. Zimmerman is White (Hispanic).

 From the New York Magazine, the detailing of the controversy.

In what is becoming an increasingly well-known sequence of events, on February 26, during halftime of the NBA All-Star Game, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin walked to buy Skittles and iced tea from 7-Eleven in Sanford, Florida. On his way back to his father's house in a gated community, Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain who had just called 911 to report Martin as "a real suspicious guy." Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Latino man, claimed self-defense and has not been arrested or charged, but now finds himself at the center of a prickly national conversation about race, guns, and more. What started as a local news story has, thanks in large part to Internet outrage, become an unavoidable, albeit unresolved, story covered everywhere from leftist blogs to CNN and the New York Times.

Over the weekend, police released eight 911 calls related to the case, sparking a new round of press attention. In the recordings, Zimmerman, who called the police nearly 50 times in the last year, can be heard saying, "This guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something." Martin, he said, had "his hand in his waistband. And he's a black male ... Something's wrong with him. Yup, he's coming to check me out. He's got something in his hands. I don't know what his deal is." He added, "These assholes, they always get away."



The dispatcher tells Zimmerman not to follow Martin, but in subsequent calls from neighbors, a struggle can be heard, followed by a gunshot. Mother Jones has a very detailed rundown of the case, and the tangential issues it raises, including, but not limited to, Florida's self-defense laws, the checkered past of the Sanford police, gun control, and potential federal government involvement.

A petition from Martin's family to the local D.A. has been signed online more than 400,000 times, and received a huge boost this weekend as the media homed in on the disturbing details. The New York Times reported on the story for two straight days in its national news section, in addition to a Saturday column by Charles Blow. "This case has reignited a furor about vigilante justice, racial-profiling and equitable treatment under the law," Blow wrote, "and it has stirred the pot of racial strife."

USA Today and the Washington Post also featured detailed reports over the last few days, as did both New York City tabloids. Local Florida publications have been on the story since the beginning, although they lack the reach of the nation's biggest newspapers. But before it was in the hands of influential columnists, the story had already become unavoidable online. As early as March 8, Huffington Post reporter Trymaine Lee was spreading the story, following up seven times since. The site now has a dedicated section and banner for "The Trayvon Martin Tragedy."

The details behind Martin's death have spread socially too. "Trayvon Martin didn't die so we can create a race war, he died so we can promote better understanding," Russell Simmons tweeted, pointing to a Facebook page with thousands of followers. Following suit, Google traffic has skyrocketed in the last few days:

 

And Martin has become a fixture on cable news, as well — with one exception: The progressive blog Think Progress reports that through this afternoon, CNN had dedicated 41 segments to the killing, compared to MSNBC's thirteen, and just one on Fox News. Political implications aside, this story is now officially too big to ignore.

Update: Asked about the shooting this afternoon, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "We here in the White House are aware of the incident, and we understand that the local FBI office has been in contact with the local authorities and is monitoring the situation." He added, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Trayvon Martin's family, but obviously we're not going to wade into a local law enforcement matter."

The conservative media isn't covering the story and white supremacists online praised the shooter. This is what we're living in as American citizens. Florida has passed a controversial law called "Stand Your Ground". A firearm owner can use deadly force if the person felt threatened by an alleged attacker. Also did the shooter utter a "racial slur" while on the phone with the police dispatcher? The controversial phrase "fucking coons" was played and they can't confirm or deny it but it's clearly a slur in the video posted below.




There were more 911 tapes. The witness.



As of October 1, 2005, Florida became a "Stand-your-ground" state. The Florida law is a self-defense, self-protection law. It has four key components:

1. It establishes that law-abiding residents and visitors may legally presume the threat of bodily harm or death from anyone who breaks into a residence or occupied vehicle and may use defensive force, including deadly force, against the intruder.
2. In any other place where a person “has a right to be,” that person has “no duty to retreat” if attacked and may “meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”
3. In either case, a person using any force permitted by the law is immune from criminal prosecution or civil action and cannot be arrested unless a law enforcement agency determines there is probable cause that the force used was unlawful.
4. If a civil action is brought and the court finds the defendant to be immune based on the parameters of the law, the defendant will be awarded all costs of defense.

Once again, Republicans caters to the extremes. They're busy wrapping their asses and eventually their necks in preparedness/defense of these culture wars. This firearm law is a prime example of the Republicans and its allies in the conservative movement catering the gun lobbyist groups such as Gun Owners of America and the National Rifle Association. These laws abashedly give a gun owner authority to shoot and kill an apparent threat without even posing an imminent threat. Picture this if this was a white person being killed by a Black watch captain and the "stand your ground" defense was used. It's a shame though, a young life cut and another fearing that his future is uncertain. If the law doesn't get him, he'll forever be ridiculed by the media or the family of this young teenager.

Oklahoma GOPer: It's A Fact That 'Blacks' Don't Work As Hard

Jillian Rayfield

Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R) says that she's seen "a lot of people of color who didn't study hard because they said the government would take care of them."

The remarks came during a debate on an amendment to the state's constitution that would eliminate Affirmative Action in the state government. It was proposed by State Rep. Leslie Osborn (R), who said: "This proposed constitutional amendment makes clear that all men are created equal and should be treated as such by their government. If voters approve this constitutional amendment, state government will not be allowed to discriminate against Oklahoma citizens based on race or gender - period."

Kern voted for the amendment, arguing that minorities earn less because they don't work as hard. "We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that's tragic," Kern said, "but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don't want to study as hard in school?

"I've taught school," she added, "and I saw a lot of people of color who didn't study hard because they said the government would take care of them."

Kern also noted, as the Tulsa World reports, that women don't earn as much money as men because "they tend to spend more time at home with their families."

The proposed amendment passed by a vote of 59-14 Wednesday, after having passed the state Senate. It will get on the ballot in November of 2012.

Kern has a long history of bringing controversy to the Oklahoma House. She has introduced a bill to ban Sharia law in the state, and another that would allow teachers to question evolution. Kern also claimed that "gays are infiltrating city councils" and gay people are "the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat."

Kern did not immediately return TPM's request for comment.

OBAMA'S LIMO SEX & DRUG PARTY??

Larry Sinclair, Barack Obama's alleged former gay sex partner, was paid $10,000 by WhiteHouse.com to take a polygraph test, which he failed. Turns out the weird ugly rambling toothless gentleman from YouTube might not be telling the whole truth when he claims he gave Obama a blowjob in 1999! We've been getting odd emails from internet crazy types with AOL email addresses touting Sinclair's claims since we first ran his video last month. The crazies were very excited for his polygraph test, and if he'd passed it, WhiteHouse.com promised him $100k. Related: Dear WhiteHouse.com, we had a kinky three-way with Hillary Clinton and Ron Paul at the Limelight in 1985. (Ron was gentle, Hillary selfish.) Bonus nutty email attached.

State of Black America 08 focuses on Women

The State of Black America, "In the Black woman's Voice."

The 2008 edition of the State of Black America report is subtitled "In the Black Woman's Voice." As the subtitle suggests, the report provides the black female perspective of the challenges that currently confront women of color in America. To read a summary of the report that focuses on issues facing black women such as education, employment , housing, and more please click the link below:

http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.html