Nearly $900k Raised for HBCUs at 2018 UNCF National Gala

Close to $900,000 was raised at the recent UNCF “A Mind Is…” Gala honoring game-changing HBCU alumnus and White House correspondent April Ryan, Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon and UNCF campaign contributor Oracle Corporation. More than 900 business, civic and education leaders attending the March 8 event. UNCF member-institution presidents, along with UNCF president and CEO Dr. Michael L. Lomax also attended. HBCU alum (Howard University) and “Entertainment Tonight” correspondent, A.J. Calloway served as master of ceremonies.

“HBCUs continue to produce leaders across all professions, including honorees April     Ryan, graduate of Morgan State; and Kenny Leon, graduate of Clark Atlanta,” said Lomax. “These honorees and our students attending HBCUs across the nation help change the narrative about HBCUs and address misperceptions and myths about them.”

The 2018 UNCF “A Mind Is…” Gala continued its tradition of honoring trailblazers for their game-changing education advocacy through partnerships with UNCF and through their own work. This year’s honorees, who through their sacrifices and determination, have led the charge in championing for a quality education for all, include White House correspondent April Ryan, who received the Shirley Chisholm Award for community service. Both Kenny Leon and the Oracle Corporation accepted the UNCF President’s Award.

“We could not be prouder of our partnership with UNCF, which spans more than 20 years,” said Hamidou Dia, senior vice president, Oracle. “During that period of time, we’ve donated over $13 million, sponsored countless interns, hired many students and have supported UNCF’s HBCU Innovation Summit. The foundation that you’ve laid since 1944 is remarkable. I’m sure that I speak for my colleagues at Oracle and beyond in saying that we’ve been the proud recipients of your graduates. They come to the table with new ideas, the courage to speak up, the skills to deliver, the fire to make a difference, and the commitment to reach back and help others. Simply put, you make our organizations and our country better.”

With the support of platinum sponsors Wells Fargo and Delta Air Lines, funds from the event help support UNCF programs and our 37 member institutions— 
colleges and universities that contribute to the regions and communities HBCUS have served for more than 100 years. And in the recent landmark study, HBCUs Make America Strong: The Positive Economic Impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities--commissioned by UNCF’s Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute--UNCF shows the nation’s HBCUs generate $1.8 billion in economic impact annually; equivalent to a ranking in the top 200 on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations.

These institutions generate more than134,000 jobs for their local and regional economies—equal to the number of jobs provided by president’s awardee Oracle, one of the nation’s largest private employers.

To view images from the 2018 UNCF “A Mind Is…” Gala, visit: https://www.uncf.org/NewYork 

To stay connected to UNCF throughout the year, please visit: UNCF.org

Follow us on social media @UNCF #UNCF

About UNCF 
UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students’ education and development through scholarships and other programs, strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding nearly 20 percent of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF awards more than $100 million in scholarships annually and administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at more than 1,100 colleges and universities across the country. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized motto, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”® Learn more at UNCF.org, or for continuous updates and news, follow UNCF on Twitter at @UNCF. #AMIGala

Hampton votes to name neighborhood center after NASA trailblazer, Mary Jackson

Dozens packed the Hampton City Council chambers Wednesday for the renaming of a $3.5 million Olde Hampton neighborhood center in honor of Mary Jackson, a city native, and among the first African-American women to serve as a human computer at what is now NASA Langley.

Many of those in attendance included members of Jackson’s sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha to pay tribute to the pioneering engineer, whose story was featured in the book by Hampton native Margot Lee Shetterly and movie “Hidden Figures.”

Last July, members of Local 8888 of the United Steelworkers lobbied the City Council to have a public place named for Jackson. Jackson, who died in 2005, grew up in Olde Hampton and was a science education advocate.

The city is working with local neighborhood citizen groups to finalize the types of programs that will be featured at the center, City Manager Mary Bunting said. The city is also seeking to hire a firm for the building design.

Vice Mayor Linda Curtis said there is not a set location for the new Mary Jackson Neighborhood Center.

[SOURCE: DAILY PRESS]

Package bombings targeting African Americans in Austin Texas

Package bombs that killed a teenager and wounded two women Monday in Austin are probably linked to a similar bombing that killed a man in the city earlier this month, authorities said, and investigators are considering whether race was a factor because all of the victims were minorities.

The first of Monday’s attacks killed a 17-year-old boy and wounded a 40-year-old woman, both whom were black. As police Chief Brian Manley held a news conference to discuss that blast, officers were called to the scene of another explosion that badly injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman. She was taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries.

Authorities suspect that both of Monday’s blasts are linked to a March 2 attack that killed a 39-year-old black man, and they urged the public to call police if they receive any unexpected packages.

The three explosions occurred in different parts of Austin. Monday’s first explosion happened at a home near the city’s Windsor Park neighborhood and about 12 miles from the home where the March 2 package bomb killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House. His death was initially investigated as suspicious, but is now viewed as a homicide.

Monday’s second explosion happened in the Montopolis neighborhood, near the airport and about five miles south of the day’s first blast.

In at least the first two blasts, the packages were left overnight on the victims’ doorsteps and were not mailed or sent by a delivery service. He said neither the U.S. Postal Service nor private carriers such as UPS or FedEx have any record of delivering the package to the home, where Monday’s explosion occurred.

“There are similarities that we cannot rule out that these two items are, in fact, related,” Manley said.

Investigators have not determined a motive for the attacks, but it is possible that the victims could have been targeted because of their race, he said.

“We don’t know what the motive behind these may be,” Manley said. “We do know that both of the homes that were the recipients of these packages belong to African-Americans, so we cannot rule out that hate crime is at the core of this.”

Special Agent Michelle Lee, a San Antonio-based spokesman for the FBI, said the agency responded to both events and was assisting Austin police, who were leading the local investigation. She said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was leading the federal investigation.

[SOURCE: KOCO NEWS]

Baltimore park space where Confederate statue once stood rededicated to Harriet Tubman

More than 200 local residents and elected leaders gathered in a tree-lined corner of a Baltimore park Saturday to rededicate the space, which had long venerated two Confederate generals, to the famed abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman.

“We stand on the shoulders of this great woman,” said Ernestine Jones-Williams, 71, a Baltimore County resident and a Tubman family descendant who spoke on behalf of the family. “We are overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. Thank you, and God bless you.”

The ceremony in Wyman Park Dell, on the 105th anniversary of Tubman’s death, took place feet from the now-empty pedestal of a large, bronze, double-equestrian statue of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and officially renamed the space Harriet Tubman Grove.

At the event Saturday, city officials and local residents cited the events in Charleston and Charlottesville, but largely focused on more local efforts to have Baltimore’s statues removed, including a grass-roots petition drive.

They said the removal of the statues has imbued the spaces where they once stood, such as the Harriet Tubman Grove, with their own symbolic power.

“Since the removal of the Lee-Jackson statue, this park has become a gathering place for city residents of all backgrounds to meet, talk and enjoy the location as a space that symbolizes hope and positive change,” said Ciara Harris, chief of staff to Baltimore Recreation and Parks Director Reginald Moore. “Harriet Tubman Grove will provide the city an opportunity to correct historic injustice to a Maryland native. Our city is properly recognizing an African-American hero.”

Read more: Baltimore park space where Confederate statue once stood is rededicated to Harriet Tubman

Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirms 'Black Panther 2,' considering spinoffs

Wakanda forever! The blockbuster, record-breaking "Black Panther" will be getting a sequel, surprising nobody and delighting us all.

Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirmed the studio has already begun planning a follow-up film. As he told Entertainment Weekly, "We absolutely will do that."

He added, "One of the favorite pastimes at Marvel Studios is sitting around on a Part One and talking and dreaming about what we would do in a Part Two. There have been plenty of those conversations as we were putting together the first 'Black Panther.' We have ideas and a pretty solid direction on where we want to head with the second one.'

Feige didn't allude to possible storylines, though the end of the first movie left things wide open — literally, since T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) was starting to open the doors of Wakanda to the rest of the world.

And what about the very loud demands for spinoffs featuring the badass female characters of "Black Panther," like tech wizard Shuri (Letitia Wright), warrior Okoye (Danai Gurira), and spy Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o)?

"I think there's lots of potential. It's a balance between leaving people wanting more and then giving them too much, but I would watch a movie about any of those characters you just named," Feige said.

"I think Shuri's astounding, and you'll see much more of her in our universe. Okoye, I think I'd watch three action films just Okoye. I'm not saying we're doing that, but I'm saying that we're intrigued by them. Frankly, as I've said before, finishing these first 22 movies is really all we're thinking about at this point."

[SOURCE: YAHOO NEWS]

Compton Mayor Aja Brown Announces Run For Congress

Aja Brown, the mayor of Compton Mayor since 2013 has announced she is running for Congress. Brown said she decided to jump in the race after actress and conservative commentator Stacey Dash announced she is running for the 44th District seat (California).

NAACP CRITICAL OF BEN CARSON’S ATTEMPT TO CHANGE HUD’S MISSION STATEMENT

BALTIMORE (March 8, 2018) – The NAACP is deeply concerned by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson’s move to dilute the agency’s long-standing mission.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development Act which established HUD as a cabinet-level agency declared a purpose: “[T]o provide for full and appropriate consideration, at the national level, of the needs and interests of the Nation’s communities and of the people who live and work in them.” This purpose is sustained through the agency’s mission to “build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.” Secretary Carson’s action not only threatens HUD’s founding purpose but also reveals plans of regression.

“Dr. Carson’s attempt to diminish HUD’s mission comes on the heels of the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission’s report which affirmed that discrimination and segregation had long permeated much of American Life and continues to threaten the future of every American; and at a time when the Trump administration seeks to cut billions of dollars in housing aid for low-income families,” said NAACP’s Sr. Director of Economic Programs, Marvin J. Owens, Jr.

Despite these attempts, the promise of discrimination-free practices lives on in the Fair Housing Act which has the central objective of prohibiting race discrimination in sales and rentals of housing. The hope of continued progress in America rests in the hands of communities across the country that continue to push their elected leaders to preserve programs designed to help disadvantaged communities and promote policies that make economic inclusion a reality.

The NAACP recognizes the importance of an inclusive economy and economic policies that address the challenging realities facing our country including poverty, lack of jobs and disproportionate high unemployment, lack of affordable housing, and foreclosures. The NAACP Economic Department’s work enhances the capacity of African Americans and other under-served groups through financial economic education; individual and community asset building initiatives; diversity and inclusion in business hiring, career advancement and procurement; and monitoring financial banking practices.

Stoneman Douglas students get surprise visit from Dwyane Wade

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade met with students Wednesday for the first full day back at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Wade's visit was a surprise to the students, and a Heat spokesman said the shooting guard arranged the visit on his own.

[SOURCE: WPLG]

"I just wanted to come and say that I'

Michelle Obama meets 2-year-old who was mesmerized by her new portrait

Parker Curry, 2, went from standing in awe before a painting of Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery to having a Taylor Swift dance party with the former first lady in her living room.

Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)! Keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you! pic.twitter.com/faUVTsYWun

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) March 6, 2018

At the portrait's unveiling last month, Obama said she was thinking of girls who "will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution." When Curry went to the gallery last week, another visitor took a photo of her staring intently at the modernist painting of Obama, and it went viral. Her mother, Jessica, took Parker and her infant sister, Ava, specifically to see the portraits of the Obamas, and told BuzzFeed News she "was trying to get her to turn around so I could take a picture, but she wouldn't cooperate. She just wanted to stare at it. She was fascinated."

On Tuesday, Obama tweeted that she just had just met Curry at her house for one incredible play date, and shared a video of the pair dancing. "Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)!" Obama said. "Keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you!"

[SOURCE]

Black churches host screenings of ‘Black Panther’

(RNS) — Xavier Cooper went straight from his shift as a cook at a fast-food restaurant to an early showing of the “Black Panther” movie — sponsored by his church.

As his elders at Jonahville African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Huntersville, N.C., had hoped, the film had a profound effect on the young man, a leader in the church’s youth group.

Cooper exited the theater with a buoyed confidence about his dreams after spending two hours watching the futuristic kingdom of powerful black people in Wakanda.

“Being an African-American, it shows you that you can do anything you want to,” said Cooper, 17, who wants to own his own record label and production studio.

Across the country — from California to Chicago to Virginia — members of black churches have bought out theaters for screenings and dressed in their favorite African attire to see a superhero who looks like them. And others, from a New York multicultural congregation to a Detroit Muslim professor, are also tapping into the movie’s messages they hope will be particularly affirming to young people of a range of races and religions.

The Rev. Latasha Gary, Cooper’s youth minister, said 67 people attended the Feb. 16 showing organized by their church near Charlotte, and dozens had to be turned away when they ran out of seats.

Black youth get tired of seeing negative depictions of people of their own race in movies, said Gary, who wore a yellow and brown African dress to the movie showing. “When we found out that this was going to be an epic tale that actually was written by black writers, costumes designed by black costume designers, we were just, like, ‘We have to go see it.'”

While the movie tells a fictional story, some religious leaders said its lessons about generosity and brotherhood and sisterhood promote their values. Some also saw specific ties to their faith.

“It’s not a perfect movie but it has so many affirming messages,” said the Rev. Warren H. Stewart Sr., pastor of Phoenix’s First Institutional Baptist Church, which organized an outing to see the movie. Among them, he said, were “mutual respect and affection toward one another, being made in God’s image and likeness. Even with the death of the star … I saw immediately the concept of death and resurrection, the fact that he came back to life.”

Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago hosted screenings of the movie and created a “Black Panther Study Guide” that calls the historical Ethiopian Empire the home of the biblical Garden of Eden and “the real Wakanda.” It reminds that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church “has her own pope.” The movie’s lead character T’Challa is “a king, a leader, a mentor, and a reflective spiritual individual,” the guide says.

The Rev. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of the church, told Auburn Seminary’s Voices: “T’Challa, if you take away his suit, he gets his real power from the spirit, the spirit of the panther. In other words, he gets his power from the Holy Ghost.”

The Rev. Hodari Williams, pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church in College Park, Ga., planned a sermon series related to the movie after attending a Feb. 15 screening organized by his predominantly black church. Among his themes is not keeping your gifts to yourself. As Wakandans learned in the movie, he hopes his church will “make our resources the resources of the community.”

Williams, who wore a blue and white dashiki from Ghana when he saw the movie, said he also wanted young people to gain a sense of the beauty of the African continent.

“In our history books, it’s been taught that it’s a land of savages and people who have no regard for humanity or God,” said the pastor, whose church is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). “This movie conveyed a deep connection to spirituality and the ancestors and how one cannot lead without that kind of spirituality and a superhero himself is very in tune with the ancestors and the creator of the universe.”

Leaders of predominantly black churches were not the only people of faith who wanted to get young people into the theaters for the popular movie.

The Rev. Jacqui Lewis, the African-American pastor of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, said her congregation’s white youth director took a multicultural group of teens to see “Black Panther” on Feb. 15 and they have since used Trinity United Church of Christ’s study guide.

“You know how teenagers are all about the superheroes, the kind of projection of the good we hope is in ourselves out on the screen,” said Lewis. “For that to be larger-than-life black folk was moving to our white children as well as our black children.”

Khaled Beydoun, an associate law professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, treated a group of 17 Muslim students to the movie on Friday (Feb. 23). The Muslim educator said “they were totally enthralled by the film.”

Given the significant percentage of Muslims in this country who are black, his goal was to help young nonblack Muslims bridge divides in a diverse city where schools are often segregated.

“If these young Arab, Muslim kids begin to see black people as members of their own, I think that can do a lot to erode racism in places like Detroit, but also nationally,” said Beydoun, author of the forthcoming “American Islamophobia.”

Cooper, of the AME Zion church in North Carolina, also noticed the movie’s universal themes of common humanity, which he said reminded him of the bond he has between “my brother in Christ, my sister in Christ” in his youth group.

“In my youth group, we loved the movie,” said Cooper, who planned to see it again. “It was the best movie I’ve seen.”

[SOURCE:RNS]

Get Out wins the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

Jordan Peele’s horror film “Get Out” has won the Academy Award for best original screenplay, making Peele the first African-American to win the award.

“Get Out” topped Greta Gerwig for “Lady Bird,” Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor for “The Shape of Water,” Emily Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani for “The Big Sick,” and Martin McDonagh for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

“I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible,” Peele said in his acceptance speech. “But I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, people would hear it and people would see it.”

Peele thanked Universal, Jason Blum, the cast and crew, and his wife and mother.

“To everybody who went and saw this movie, everybody who bought a ticket, who told somebody to buy a ticket — thank you!” Peele said.

Backstage, Peele was jubilant as he shared his journey to his first Oscar. “I almost never became a director,” he said. “There was such a shortage of role models.”

He added, “I’m so proud to be a part of a time at the beginning of a movement where I feel like the best films in every genre are being brought to me by my fellow black directors.”

[SOURCE: VARIETY]

Candice Lewis-Carter Wins Figure International Class at 2018 Arnold Classic

In a repeat of 2017, Candice Lewis-Carter of Katy, Texas won the Figure International by besting second-place Cydney Gillon of Douglasville, Ga. Lewis-Carter received the champion’s trophy from Arnold Schwarzenegger and $16,000, a Tony Nowak Official Champions Jackets and congratulations from Catherine Colle of Midway Labs USA and Eric Hillman of Europa Sports.

The remainder of the Figure International top six:

2nd place: Cydney Gillon of Douglasville, Ga.

3rd place:., Heather Dees of Lehi, Utah.

4th place: Michele Silva of Brasil.

5th place: Bojana Vasiljevic of Palm Desert, California.

6th place: Maria Luisa Baeza Diaz of Melrose, Mass.

[SOURCE: Arnold Sports Festival]

William Bonac Wins 30th Arnold Classic

William “The Conqueror” Bonac, a Ghana native now living in the Netherlands, dominated all three rounds of judging in cruising to his first major professional victory. It was the fourth career win for Bonac, who was third at the 2017 Mr. Olympia.

Bonac won the 30th Anniversary Arnold Classic in his first professional appearance on the famed Arnold Classic stage.

Five-time Arnold Classic champion Dexter Jackson of Jacksonville, Fla., the winningest bodybuilder in history with 28 career wins, finished second and defending champion Cedric McMillan of Heath Springs, South Carolina was third.

Bonac received congratulations from Arnold Schwarzenegger, a check for $130,000, a Tony Nowak Official Champions Jacket and the champion’s trophy from Catherine Colle of Midway Labs USA and Eric Hillman of Optimum Nutrition.

Third Place: Cedric McMillan Fourth Place: Roelly Winklaar Fifth Place: Steve Kuclo

[SOURCE: BODYBUILDING.COM]

Philando Castile Charity Covers Entire School District's Lunch Debt

Two years after he was fatally shot by a police officer in Minnesota, Philando Castile is still helping students afford lunch.

A charity created in Castile’s honor has paid off the lunch debt for every student in the 56 schools in the St. Paul Public School District, including the school where Castile worked as a cafeteria supervisor.

“That means no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt,” a charity organizer wrote on the “Philando Feeds the Children” fundraising page.

Castile had worked as a cafeteria supervisor at the J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in St. Paul for two years at the time he was killed.

Pam Fergus, an educator who launched the charity, told CNN she delivered a $35,000 check to the St. Paul Public School District this week. The charity, which had an original goal of raising $5,000, now has more than $117,000 in donations, according to the YouCaring page. The funds will continue to pay for student lunches “for years to come,” Fergus wrote in a fundraising update.

Read more: Philando Castile Charity Covers Entire School District's Lunch Debt

Kamala Harris & Yvette Clarke Call For Statue of Shirley Chisholm In U.S. Capitol

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) are sponsoring legislation to put a statue of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, in the U.S. Capitol.

Multiple Democratic senators are already co-sponsoring the measure, including Cory Booker (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Tim Kaine (Va.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is also on board. The bill would direct the Joint Committee on the Library to enter into an agreement to obtain a statue within five years of the bill’s passage.

On the heels of Black History Month and at the beginning of Women’s History Month, Chisholm is perhaps the perfect candidate for the honor. Over her groundbreaking political career, she became the first black candidate for a major party’s presidential nomination and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s nomination. She served seven terms in the House from 1969 to 1983.

Now the question is whether a Republican-controlled Congress will honor this “unbought and unbossed” black woman.

[SOURCE: HUFFPOST]

New Black Panther Novel: Who is the Black Panther by Jesse J. Holland

Many of you have seen the blockbuster movie The Black Panther, now check out the first novel to feature T'Challa and his home Wakanda by author Jesse J. Holland.

He's known as the Black Panther. His home is Wakanda. Welcome to T'Challa's world. During the last ten centuries, as European colonial powers spread their guns and armies throughout the continent, the African nation of Wakanda stood alone as an unconquerable land inhabited by undefeatable warriors and filled with incredible technological advancements. T'Challa - the latest in a lineage of warrior-kings - is Wakanda's Black Panther, a hero endowed with enhanced speed, strength and agility - along with a suit made of the metal that secured his country's future: the indestructible Vibranium. Now, outsiders have returned to plunder Wakanda's riches, including its store of the rare metal. Leading this brutal assault is Klaw, an assassin with the blood of T'Challa's father on his hands. Klaw brings with him a powerful army of super-powered mercenaries, all hell-bent on raining death and destruction on this pristine land. Even with Wakanda's might and his own superhuman skills, can the Black Panther prevail against such a massive invading force?

CHECK OUT THE BOOK

Kindle ----- Paperback

Stacey Dash is running for Congress in California

"Clueless" star and former Fox commentator Stacey Dash is running for Congress in California.

The actress and outspoken Republican filed paperwork Monday to run in California's 44th district, which is currently represented by Democrat Nanette Barragán.

The district, which includes Compton, Watts, San Pedro and North Long Beach, has long been represented by a Democrat. It overwhelmingly voted for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, 83%-12%.

Representatives for Dash did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment. Dash has not publicly issued a statement. However, she did tease a potential run earlier this month.

[SOURCE: CNN]

Nike releasing LeBron sneaker to benefit the National Museum of African American History & Culture

The LeBron 15 ‘Equality’ PE is getting a release. James took to Instagram Monday morning to announce that the ‘Equality’ PE is getting a wide release with Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture receiving all of the proceeds:

Great morning to all! Basketball is our vehicle but equality is our mission – stand for something positive and do what you can to make a difference!! Proud to announce we’re dropping the “Equality” PE. There’s always a personal connection with a drop - this one goes beyond basketball. Proceeds go to the Smithsonian Natl Museum of African American History & Culture. #Equality✊ #StriveForGreatness #IWillNotShutUpAndDribble,”

🗣🗣Great morning to all! Basketball is our vehicle but equality is our mission – stand for something positive and do what you can to make a difference!! Proud to announce we’re dropping the “Equality” PE. There’s always a personal connection with a drop - this one goes beyond basketball. Proceeds go to the Smithsonian Natl Museum of African American History & Culture. #Equality✊🏾💪🏾 #StriveForGreatness🚀 #IWillNotShutUpAndDribble

A post shared by LeBron James (@kingjames) on Feb 26, 2018 at 7:01am PST

Maxine Waters: Time ‘to get ready for impeachment’

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who has been a leading opponent of President Trump on Capitol Hill, told thousands of Democratic activists and officials to "get ready for impeachment.”

Speaking at the California Democratic Party’s annual convention in San Diego, Waters said that she believes special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s been at the helm of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is “getter closer” to figuring out who colluded with Russia.

"I say it is time to get ready for impeachment," Waters said to roaring applause. “I cannot wait and I’m counting on special counsel Mueller to connect the dots.”

“I believe he’s getting closer to discovering what Americans were and are involved in collusion with the Russians.”

Mueller’s probe has had several recent developments that rocked the political world. He brought charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups for U.S. election interference. And former Trump campaign adviser Richard Gates pleaded guilty on Friday as part of a deal with the special counsel.

“It’s absolutely appalling to learn ... your many allies are all connected to the oligarchs of Russia, the Kremlin and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Waters said.

Waters ended her nearly 20-minute speech to several standing ovations, loud cheers and an “Impeach 45” chant.

[SOURCE: THE HILL]

NBA champions Golden State Warriors to visit with D.C. students instead of Trump

The NBA champion Golden State Warriors will spend next week's trip to Washington, D.C., visiting local children after the team was disinvited (although the team had said they weren't going???) from the White House by President Trump.

The team told ESPN that the players plan to attend a small event closed to media with local D.C. children during their visit to the nation's capital, though details of the event were not readily available.

"It's their championship. They got disinvited to the White House, so it's up to them what they wanted to do. So they made their plans," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told ESPN. "I want the players to have a good day and to do something positive and to enjoy what they're doing."

The event was decided on after the team received invitations from Democrats such as Mayor Muriel Bowser and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) to visit the U.S. Capitol. But the Warriors decided not to politicize their visit to Washington.

"At the end of the day, it's about us celebrating a championship, so there's no point in getting into the political stuff and all that," forward Draymond Green told ESPN. "It's about something we did great. Why make it about [politics]?"

[SOURCE: THE HILL]