Quadruplet brothers in Ohio have all been accepted at some of the nation's top universities, including each of them to both Yale and Harvard.
The Wade brothers of the northern Cincinnati suburb of Liberty Township say they have been notified in recent days of acceptances from a number of notable schools. Lakota East High School principal Suzanna Davis tells the Hamilton-Middletown Journal-News that the four seniors epitomize academic focus but are well-rounded, "great young men" with individual personalities.
Aaron, Nick, Nigel and Zachary haven't made their decisions, though Aaron likes Stanford University and his three brothers are leaning toward Yale. Financial aid offers likely will play an important role.
The youths said they are grateful to their parents and to the Lakota schools and their teachers.
"It's really something we couldn't have done on our own without all the support we have had through our lives," Nick said. "It has been awesome."
Their mother, Kim Wade, is a junior high school principal in the Lakota district, and their father, Darrin Wade, works at General Electric Co.
"We feel like getting into these schools show who the people around us are," Nigel said.
Zachary added that they have always gotten encouragement that "the sky's the limit" with their hard work.
"We were never told that we couldn't get somewhere," Zachary said.
The Washington Post reports that Harvard doesn't comment on admission statuses and that Yale said by policy, it doesn't discuss admitted students.
FLORIDA-Several current and former state lawmakers, as well as members of the nation's oldest Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha gathered at the state capitol today, calling on the legislature to honor the late educator and civil-rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.
Bethune would replace a confederate general as one of Florida's representatives in a set of statues at the U.S. Capitol, under one proposal filed in the Senate.
The legislature voted last year to replace General Edmund Kirby Smith's statue amid a backlash against confederate symbols, following the 2015 shooting deaths of nine African-American worshippers.
State Senator Perry Thurston says the reasons to choose Bethune are many, adding it would be a good symbolic gesture.
Last June, Bethune, who founded what is now known as Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach appeared to be the favorite to replace Smith, getting the votes of all of the members of the "Great Floridians Committee".
Washington, DC – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) issued the following statement after the Department of Justice announced a review of federal consent decrees with law enforcement agencies across the country:
“As mayor of Newark, I began as a skeptic of federal law enforcement consent decrees as we worked proactively to address long-standing issues with the Newark Police Department, working with the ACLU and residents to increase transparency and seek reforms. But I learned through my experience that these agreements can provoke meaningful changes in policing practices that improve public safety and fight crime while building trust between communities and police departments, ensuring fair enforcement of laws, and protecting civil rights. State and local police departments play a critical role in protecting our citizens and the vast majority of police officers do an incredible job in tough circumstances. Consent decrees, where necessary and properly constructed and implemented, can help keep officers and citizens safe, and improve life in the communities they serve.
“I’m deeply concerned that Attorney General Sessions’ announcement for a Department of Justice review of federal civil rights agreements with law enforcement would undermine the principle of equal justice for all Americans. I fear that this announcement paves the way for a retreat from accountability and oversight of allegations of systemic civil rights abuses. This would be a tremendous setback to both the efforts of our communities’ to fight crime and America’s ongoing commitment to fulfilling the promises of our Constitution. We need a Justice Department that takes seriously its charge to faithfully and vigorously enforce the nation’s civil rights laws and ensure that no one is above the law.”
Last night in Washington, Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York 8th Congressional District, Brooklyn, Queens) took to the House floor demanding that President Trump release his tax returns.
Jeffries, a member of the House Judiciary and House Budget Committees, presented a privileged resolution which would delay any tax-reform legislation until the House Ways and Means Committee has had the opportunity to review Trump’s tax returns and determine how and if the president could benefit from tax-code changes.
The “privileged” resolution means that the House would have to act within two legislative days.
Jeffries argued that the House of Representatives shall:
-Immediately request tax return information of Donald J. Trump for tax years 2007 through 2016 for review in closed executive session by the Committee on Ways and Means, as provided under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, and vote to report the information therein to the full House of Representatives.
-Postpone consideration of comprehensive tax reform legislation until after the elected representatives of the American people in this House have been able to review Trump’s tax returns and ascertain how any changes to the Tax Code might financially benefit the President of the United States.
Jeffries stated that the American people deserve transparency concerning the President’s financial conflicts of interest and possible involvement with Russia.
Dawn Staley didn't win an NCAA title as a player, although she went with Virginia to the Women's Final Four three times. She has finally won her college championship, as the coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks! She becomes the second black woman to coach a team to a women's championship. Carolyn Peck coached Purdue to a championship in 1999.
For the first time in four years, women’s college basketball has a new top team and it wears garnet and black. The South Carolina women’s basketball team is the new national champion, winning a national title for the first time in program history.
The Gamecocks beat Mississippi State 67-55 in Dallas on Sunday afternoon, completing the run through the postseason all the way to the crown in Dawn Staley’s ninth season.
USC made the whole run without senior center Alaina Coates, who missed the NCAA Tournament with an ankle injury. But what the Gamecocks had was more than enough — and all of it is expected back next season.
Junior forward A’ja Wilson led the Gamecocks with 23 points, while Allisha Gray — the star against Stanford on Friday in the Final Four — again came up huge for South Carolina with 18 points.
An old photo album containing a rare portrait of the legendary underground railroad conductor Harriet Tubman has been jointly acquired by the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the institutions said Friday.
The new image depicts Tubman as a much younger woman than she appears in other known pictures. It is among 44 rare images in the album, including the only known photograph of John Willis Menard, the first African American man elected to the U.S. Congress.
“We are so thrilled,” Gayle Osterberg, a Library of Congress spokeswoman, said Friday in an email.
“The institutions have agreed to joint ownership and will digitize the photographs as soon as possible,” she wrote. “The intention is to make them as widely available as possible through online images everyone can use.”
The life story of Coretta Scott King―wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), and singular twentieth-century American civil and human rights activist―as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds.
Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose. While enrolled as one of the first black scholarship students recruited to Antioch College, she became politically and socially active and committed to the peace movement. As a graduate student at the New England Conservatory of Music, determined to pursue her own career as a concert singer, she met Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister insistent that his wife stay home with the children. But in love and devoted to shared Christian beliefs as well as shared racial and economic justice goals, she married Dr. King, and events promptly thrust her into a maelstrom of history throughout which she was a strategic partner, a standard bearer, and so much more.
As a widow and single mother of four, she worked tirelessly to found and develop The King Center as a citadel for world peace, lobbied for fifteen years for the US national holiday in honor of her husband, championed for women's, workers’ and gay rights and was a powerful international voice for nonviolence, freedom and human dignity.
Coretta’s is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an extraordinary black woman in twentieth-century America, a brave leader who, in the face of terrorism and violent hatred, stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent, and hopeful every day of her life.
With the release of a new book Rachel Dolezal has gotten another 15 minutes of infamy. With the many issues in the black community I don't believe that we should be paying a fraud like Rachel Dolezal any attention, but if you must here's what you should say.
In Omarosa Manigault’s brief tenure as assistant to the president, as she has worked to bridge a divide between black America and the man she has long supported. Many including black republicans would say that she has been ineffective in that role.
Manigault, 43, is fiercely loyal to Donald Trump, whose decision to cast her as an alpha-female villain in the first season of “The Apprentice” more than a decade ago made her a reality television celebrity. Manigault also appears to have Trump’s ear, and some black political observers see her as an important ally in a White House that is overwhelmingly white and male.
But if her devotion explains how Manigault wound up in Trump’s White House as the highest-ranking African American in the West Wing, it is far less easy to explain exactly what she’s doing there. Some African American political insiders already have concluded that she is ineffective, and she is routinely derided on social media as simply providing cover for a president deeply unpopular with African Americans. Some black Republicans were particularly critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the HBCU initiative, which included a White House meeting with the school officials that some viewed as little more than a photo op for the president.
The CW has had great success with its superhero shows which include Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. the network is now adding a new African American hero to its lineup and he's called Black Lighting!
The CW has released the first photo of Cress Williams in costume as the titular hero in “Black Lightning,” the DC comic book drama pilot.
Based on the comics of the same name, the series will follow Jefferson Pierce (Williams), who hung up the suit and his secret identity years ago. But with a daughter hell-bent on justice and a star student being recruited by a local gang, he’ll be pulled back into the fight as the wanted vigilante and DC legend — Black Lightning.
The superhero’s suit is designed by Laura Jean Shannon.
The husband-and-wife team of Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil wrote the pilot, which comes from Warner Bros. TV and will be executive produced by the Akils along with Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter.
“I knew way too much about the world as a young boy growing up in Richmond, California,” Salim Akil said in a statement. “I was no stranger to violence, death, hopelessness or the feeling that no one cared about what was happening in my life. Comics were a great way for me to escape. I was about 13 when ‘Black Lightning’ was created, and finally there was a Black Super Hero that gave a damn about our neighborhood and our lives. Resurrecting him at a time in our society when a sense of hope is lacking… ‘Black Lightning’ will be that hope. And in updating the suit, it will signal to a new generation that it’s time to harness and release our power, and become our own Super Heroes.”
Created by writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor Von Eeden, Jefferson Pierce is one of the first major African American superheroes to appear in DC Comics. The character debuted in 1977 in a self-titled series that ran for 11 issues.
Four other DC comic book adaptation series already exist on The CW, “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Legends of Tomorrow” and “Supergirl,” all executive produced by Berlanti as well, though it’s unclear at this point if “Black Lightning” would join the so-called “Arrowverse” or exist in its own world.
Rep. Maxine Waters (California) took to the floor of the House of Representatives to call out Trump and his administration and to also question the patriotism of his supporters. Watch her speech below:
Chicago police officer already facing first-degree murder charges for the controversial shooting of a black teen will face an additional 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, a special prosecutor announced Thursday.
The new grand jury indictment brings to 23 the number of felony charges against officer Jason Van Dyke, previously charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of official misconduct for the 2014 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. The special prosecutor, Joseph McMahon, announced the additional charges during a status hearing for Van Dyke on Thursday.
Please share, this is sad that so many children are missing in one city.
There are several missing black youth in the Washington D.C. Area. Here is a listing of 13 of them. Any info please call Washington Metropolitan Police Department@ 202-727-9099.
The feds have revived the grand jury probe into the NYPD chokehold death of Eric Garner — and a police witness who was questioned in front of the panel believes an indictment is looming, sources told The New York Post on Thursday.
A high-ranking NYPD official and a sergeant testified behind closed doors in the Brooklyn federal courthouse on Wednesday after being slapped with subpoenas, sources said.
Revelation of their appearances before the grand jury marks the first sign that the US Justice Department hasn’t abandoned the racially charged case since the inauguration of President Trump and the confirmation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Google is trying something new to boost diversity.
The tech giant is partnering with Howard University to launch "Howard West," a three-month summer program open to rising juniors and seniors studying computer science.
The 25 to 30 students selected for this summer's program will be taught by senior Google engineers and Howard faculty on Google's Mountain View campus and will receive a stipend for housing and other expenses in Silicon Valley.
Alanna Walton, a junior majoring in computer science at Howard, said students are excited about the program.
"There are no HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) on the West Coast. To bring a whole bunch of black students to the West Coast to learn is a great experience," she told CNNTech. "Pretty much the whole campus understands how big this is."
Google (GOOG) plans to expand the program to other historically black colleges and universities in the "near future." Howard called the move a "major step forward" for Google's efforts to recruit and keep diverse talent.
On March 8, 18-year-old Breana Talbott of Denison, Texas, said that she had been kidnapped by three black men wearing ski masks, who drove her into the woods and raped her. She first brought attention to the alleged crime when she walked into a local church half-naked, covered in cuts and scratches — though her then-fiancé, Sam Hollingsworth, had called police earlier to report her missing after arriving at her apartment and finding “her back door wide open,” and her belongings, including her phone and her keys, scattered about. On Tuesday, Talbott admitted to police that she had made the whole thing up, and that her injuries were all self-inflicted.
The Denison Police Department released the following statement:
PRESS RELEASE Denison Police Department Chief Jay Burch Date of release: March 22, 2017
Subject: Abduction/Sexual Assault Case Unfounded
The Denison Police Department has determined that the alleged abduction and sexual assault case reported on March 8, 2017 was a hoax. The so-called victim in the case confessed to the hoax last evening (March 21) to a member of the investigative team working the case.
On March 8, 2017 about 5:30 p.m., the Denison Police Department (DPD) received a call from a man describing himself as the fiancé of Breana Harmon Talbott, 18, claiming she was missing. The man told police Talbott’s vehicle had been found in the parking lot of the Creekmore Apartments at 3800 Texoma Parkway with the driver door open, her phone, keys and a shoe nearby.
The Denison Police Department mobilized all available resources to begin looking for Ms. Talbott. Later the same evening, Ms. Talbott walked into a church located at 3400 S. Eisenhower Parkway wearing only a shirt, bra and underwear. She told witnesses at the church she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted in the woods behind the church. There were also visible cuts and/or scratches on her body.
DPD officers and detectives spoke with the victim who stated she was kidnapped near her vehicle at the Creekmore Apartments by “3 black males” as she described the alleged suspects, and were wearing ski masks, she said. She claimed the suspects took her in a black SUV to a wooded area nearby where 2 suspects raped her while the 3rd suspect held her down.
After getting the victim’s information, she was taken to Texoma Medical Center for examination. In the meantime, DPD patrol officers, detectives, and the K-9 team scoured the area where Talbott says she was taken and assaulted. Several pieces of evidence were gathered and more of Talbott’s clothing and other personal effects were recovered.
The case quickly gathered regional attention due to the severity of the alleged crime and rumors quickly begin to spin out of control through social media. Almost immediately, Talbott’s story and allegations began to unravel. Within only a day or two, detectives had doubts as to most of Talbott’s allegations.
According to Talbott’s confession, we believe the crime scene – from the initial “kidnapping” scene at the apartment complex to the point of Talbott’s condition when she walked into the church - were staged. Talbott also admitted the injuries to her body were self-inflicted.
Although I do not have the official report, it is our understanding that medical personnel who examined Talbott were unable to corroborate that Talbott had been sexually assaulted.
This release is to notify the media and public that the Denison Police Department is closing the investigation of this case as reported and it is officially UNFOUNDED. Due to Breana Harmon Talbott’s confession she lied to police when making this report, the department will file a criminal case against her for False Report to a Peace Officer, a Class B Misdemeanor. The department will also seek restitution for the significant costs for conducting such a major investigation.
Our team of detectives, led by John Watt, did an outstanding job in the case. Almost from the beginning, we had doubts in Breana Harmon Talbott’s story as the puzzle pieces just weren’t coming together. We were unable to corroborate any of Talbott’s allegations that she had been abducted or sexually assaulted.
This alleged crime as reported by Breana Harmon Talbott made many in the community fearful there were individuals abducting women. Even though we know the story to be a hoax, there is still potential damage to the reputation of the City of Denison and the Texoma region as many may remember the reported crime but not the outcome. That is unfortunate.
Breana Harmon Talbott’s hoax was also insulting to our community and especially offensive to the African-American community due to her description of the so-called suspects in her hoax. The anger and hurts caused from such a hoax are difficult and all so unnecessary.
Many persons fell victim to Breana Harmon Talbott’s hoax. The police were quickly disparaged by Talbott’s family and friends. Social media comments and opinions were out of control making it difficult to focus on solving this case. Even though we originally assumed this case to be legitimate, the great work of Denison Police Department investigators and officers quickly led to major questions as to the validity of the alleged crime. Even though we strongly felt this was a hoax soon into the investigation, it was my decision to delay notifying the public until we had 100% confirmation it didn’t happen. Plus, we wanted to insure we did everything we could on the remote chance there was any truth to the alleged crime.
It’s unfortunate a person can falsely report such a major incident in our community that wastes the time of law enforcement and needlessly puts some people in fear. I apologize to those who have current investigations with the department as we delayed those to focus on this case. As I said in a recent Facebook post, Denison has been and will remain a safe community with a great quality of life.
So, Breana Talbot lied about being raped by three black men
President Trump and members of the Congressional Black Caucus met to discuss his proposed budget. The group came prepared and gave Trump a 130 page policy document titled "We Have a Lot to Lose: Solutions to Advance Black Families in the 21st Century". Not only that but they avoided the dreaded useless photo-op that only serves Trump. CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond made a few comments to the media afterward. Watch those comments below:
Police said the man who surrendered Tuesday in connection with the fatal stabbing of a man in Midtown Manhattan traveled to New York City with the intent to attack and kill black men. Watch more below:
Jordan Peele, the breakthrough writer/director of Universal Pictures’ smash “Get Out,” will receive the “CinemaCon® Director of the Year,” it was announced today by CinemaCon Managing Director, Mitch Neuhauser. CinemaCon, the official convention of The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), will be held March 27-30, 2017 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Peele will be presented with this special honor at the “CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Awards” ceremony, which takes place on the evening of Thursday, March 30, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, hosted by the Coca-Cola Company, the official presenting sponsor of CinemaCon.
“With the phenomenon known as ‘Get Out,” Jordan Peele has instantaneously become a force to reckon with as a gifted and enormously talented director and filmmaker,” noted Neuhauser. “He has audiences and critics around the globe enamored and spellbound, dare I say hypnotized, with his wildly inventive directorial debut, and we are ecstatic to be honoring him as this year’s ‘Director of the Year.’”
In Universal Pictures’ “Get Out,” a speculative thriller from Blumhouse and the mind of Jordan Peele, when a young African-American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation.
Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy (Catherine Keener) and Dean (Bradley Whitford).
At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.
Equal parts gripping thriller and provocative commentary, “Get Out” is produced by Blumhouse’s Jason Blum, as well as Sean McKittrick, Edward H. Hamm Jr., and Peele. The film also stars Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, Milton “Lil Rel” Howery, Betty Gabriel, Marcus Henderson and Lakeith Stanfield.
Among its many accolades, the film has earned a 99% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Previously, Emmy Award winner Peele was the co-star and co-creator of Comedy Central's “Key & Peele”. The hit series garnered more than 1 billion online hits, and in addition won a Peabody Award, an American Comedy Award, and earned 12 Emmy Award nominations during its five-season run. Peele also recurred on the Emmy Award-winning FX series “Fargo”, was a series regular on FOX's “MADtv” and received an Emmy Award nomination for his music video “Sad Fitty Cent.” Peele starred in the New Line feature “Keanu,” alongside Keegan-Michael Key, which Peele also produced and co-wrote with Alex Rubens. Upcoming in TV, Peele is executive producing the new Tracy Morgan comedy show for TBS."
